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Home Sweet Home – Back in Switzerland

Posted on 21. August 2019 by obst

Hello everyone,

My Fulbright fellowship at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio has reached its end and I am now back at ZHAW in Winterthur. It is time to look back to this fantastic adventure and to think about what this experience brought me both on a professional and personal side.

Professionally, it was a big success: two disclosures including one who was turned into a patent as well as a publication in preparation to be submitted to a high impact journal.

I learnt a lot in contact with Prof. Jason Heikenfeld. He is a great scientist and in addition Vice President for Innovation and Commercialization at UC Cincinnati. He definitely knows how to turn out research results in successful businesses and also how to collaborate with the industry. I am looking forward to putting in practice all what I learnt. I work hard to become an inspiring leader. I am convinced that we can perform great research at ZHAW but we need to better “sell” our results and focus on the impact.

I am also happy to have initiate discussion between ZHAW and UC concerning a potential cooperation between our institutions. Some ZHAW students are currently performing an internship in the lab of Prof. Jason Heikenfeld and it would be fantastic if we could trigger a long-term relationship with regular incomings/outgoings.

Finally, thanks to the Fulbright program, I could travel across the US to deliver several lectures and participate to conferences. At the end (including some holidays) I had the opportunity to visit: San Diego, Houston, Cleveland, Chicago, New-York City and Boston!
I meet so many great people and great researchers (not only talking about NDL members who were extremely welcoming).

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Personally, this adventure was a life changing experience. Moving to the US with my wife and our son was not an easy task and the preparation phase as well as the first weeks in Cincinnati were very stressful. We were extremely busy: my wife was studying fulltime to get an LLM degree and I was working full time. As the day care did not work (more than 18 months waiting list), we had a nanny who was great fortunately. Being one year abroad put things in perspective. On the one hand we better appreciate now many things in Switzerland we were not aware of before leaving (like public transportation for example). On the other hand, we notice that few things could be improved, and we miss this entrepreneurial spirit of Americans. In addition, the Midwest is particularly family friendly.

We will definitely miss the US but I am happy to be back at ZHAW and I am looking forward to new challenges! And who knows what will come next…

Mathias

Cincinnati Calling – Beantown: Swissnex Boston

Posted on 28. June 2019 by obst

Hi folks!

I was recently in Boston (called the “Beantown”) in the framework of a ZHAW-Swissnex cooperation. Practical, Boston is only one-and-a-half-hour flight from Cincinnati. 🙂

There I visited some labs at the University of Boston, and also at Northeastern University (NU) which, as you might know, has an exchange agreement in place with the School of Engineering. Northeastern University has a wonderful urban campus near the Boston river. Actually, NU is very similar to ZHAW for many aspects and it is definitely a “good match”.

I was at the Bioengineering Department located in a beautiful brand-new building with state-of-the-art infrastructure and labs.
The aim of the visit was to strengthen the cooperation between our institutions fostering the student exchange program. So, if interested just drop me an email and I will be happy to tell you more about NU Bioengineering!

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Back to Cincy for the last weeks before heading north to Chicago and flying back to Switzerland just in time for unmissable “Nacht der Technik”!

See you soon!

Mathias*

*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting Professor.

Cincinnati Calling – Outreach Lecture Fund in Houston, Texas

Posted on 7. June 2019 by obst

Hello everyone,

Few weeks ago, in the framework of a second Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Fund (OLF), I had the opportunity to visit the Biomedical Department at the University of Houston UH in Texas. UH is a renown large university (more than 46’000 students) located in the city of Houston few miles away from downtown. The campus is beautiful, really green, with tropical plants and trees (there is almost no winter in Houston!). It was already really warm for spring and I was told that the university football team, the cougars, have to train inside in air-conditioned buildings during summer time 🙂

I could discuss a potential partnership with the ZHAW School of Engineering and visit several labs at the Biomedical Department. It was really impressive! Can you imagine: 21 professors and 5 adjuncts. The research span from biomedical optics to microfluidics with many potential collaborations with the ZHAW.

A big thank to Prof. Metin Akay, Prof. Yasmin Akay and Dr. Ting Chen for their hospitality. And thanks to Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Fund for financial support. I hope to be able to come back soon.

Next time I will be on the east coast visiting several universities in the Boston area, in particular Northeastern with whom the School of Engineering has a student exchange agreement.

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See you next time!
Mathias*

*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting Professor.

Cincinnati Calling – Outreach Lecturing Fund in Cleveland

Posted on 12. April 2019 by obst

Hello folks,

I hope you are doing fine! Spring time finally reached the queen city… Winter was long this year! 🙂

I was in Cleveland last week-end. I was invited by Prof. Regan Silvestri from the Lorain County Community College in the framework of the Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Fund (OLF). Basically, The OLF provides funding for campuses to host Fulbright Visiting Scholars, already in the United States, for short-term speaking engagements. It was a fantastic experience!

Lorain County Community College (LCCC) is a large community college with more than 14’000 students. Founded in 1963, it offers bachelor’s degrees, associate degrees, short-term certificates and workforce training.

A big THANK to Regan who was such a great host! We could visit the beautiful campus and the MEMS department. I learnt that LCCC emphasis practical education in close link with local industry needs. Somehow similar to ZHAW! In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to give a lecture about my research in the field of thermal imaging. Prof. Silvestri is also very involved in research: he developed a new method to accelerate the aging of whiskey! I am sure he would get lots of excitement from students in Winterthur too! 😉 We need to invite him for a talk (and a testing of his research outcomes)!

On Saturday, we still had time with the family to visit Cleveland which is the largest city in Ohio located on the shore of lake Erie. It is a very scenic place. The lake is so big with sand beaches so that you have the impression you are sitting in front of the ocean. We quickly walked through the city and enjoyed the Case Western Reserve University area with lots of parks and museums.

In the evening, it was unfortunately already time to drive back to Cincy! It is a 4 hours drive. For US standards just around the corner! 😉

This is not the sea. This is the Lake Erie shoreline of Cleveland.

An unusual role for me: Being the guest in a laboratory.

This is me holding a guest lecture at the Lorain County Community College in Cleveland.

A big thank to Prof. Regan Silvestri who was such a great host.

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See you next time!

Mathias*

*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting Professor.

Cincinnati calling – Winter time! Snow men, icy roads and government shutdown…

Posted on 25. January 2019 by obst

Hello folks,

Happy new year! I hope you had a good relaxing time over Christmas. Semester has started here at UC last week and everything is back to normal… well almost everything!

As you probably know the country is experiencing the longest “shutdown” of its history. To be honest, we have not noticed anything special here in Cincinnati except that this is the major news on television. Apparently, even the FBI is running short on budget and this might affect the national security… Let’s hope that a solution will be found soon and that everything will go back to normal.

Winter has also arrived here with the first “real” snow falls. 20 to 25 cm of fresh snow. This makes the city more beautiful and also way more dangerous because nobody has winter tires here! Incredible!

The snow makes the city even more beautiful.

I was even told you could ski in Ohio (but more north east from Cleveland which is a bit far away – Ohio alone is almost 3 times Switzerland!).

We had to relocate to another area closer to campus. It is called “Clifton Gaslight” and the street lights actually still run on gas! Let’s hope that there will be enough gas and that the new house furnace will not break down: temperature will drop up to -22 °C in the coming nights…

What else? UC officially turned 200 years last week. There was a small ceremony with a huge cake and UC president Pinto gave a small talk about the university history. Was nice but to be honest I was more impressed by the 10 years of ZHAW! 🙂

Research is doing fine (I realized this is the first time I talk about my research here in the US). Two papers were recently accepted (but more related to my activities back in Switzerland) and several others are in the pipeline including joined publications Switzerland – USA.

New: I am also co-supervising a visiting student from China on a very interesting topic, but I cannot tell anything: top secret! My host lab has over 100 patents granted, published, or submitted, and has generated the most invention disclosures (more than 150) and patent licenses in UC’s history! IP is a serious business here.

In my opinion, we should take more care about IP at ZHAW and develop a “transfer office” to help ZHAW researchers commercializing their research findings wherever it is in the form of a startup, license, or partnership.

A more personal note: I can’t believe I already reached the middle of my stay in the US. It went so fast! I wish I could stay more. A very unique experience.

See you next time!

Mathias*

*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting Professor.

Cincinnati calling – California dreaming…

Posted on 7. December 2018 by obst

Hi everyone,

I hope you recognized the song from “The Mamas & The Papas”?

Yes indeed, this time I am bringing you to sunny California!

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Last week I had the honor and pleasure to participate the “Fulbright Enrichment Seminar” in San Diego. The 4 days conference was about “Leveraging Strategic Innovation & Entrepreneurship for Long Term Success” and gathered more than 90 Fulbrightees from 47 different countries. In addition to the fantastic South California weather (around 78° F all year long) it was a unique opportunity to meet exceptional people with different background and culture: from an anticorruption judge in central Europe, to a journalist in Africa or a nephrologist specialized in kidney transplantation.

Various events and workshops were held on the University of San Diego campus (UCSD) and all participants were staying at a beautiful hotel resort in front of the beach (I attached a pic from the view from my room to make you jealous).

The meetings and workshops were very interesting. We could meet successful local entrepreneurs, business angels and UCSD professors, and discussed how entrepreneurship could be supported at the university level. One possibility is the organization of so-called “challenges” where teams of students compete for an award (non-dilutive money + coaching and eventually incubation). Actually, the ZHAW does have something very similar: the Startup Challenge! This is an exciting event where you might have the opportunity to go the US! So, if you are a student: be bold and apply!

If you want to know more about entrepreneurship at ZHAW (and in Winterthur), here are few links:

www.zhaw.ch/en/research/entrepreneurship-at-the-zhaw/entrepreneurshipzhaw/

www.startup-night.ch

tpw.ch/en/

I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas time and see you next year!

Mathias*
*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting Professor.

Cincinnati calling – Fall, pumpkins, and politics

Posted on 6. November 2018 by obst

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing fine and could enjoy some nice weather in the last months. Fall definitely arrived in Cincinnati. At some point I thought it would never come: temperature still reached 90°F (= 32°C) in October! I am looking forward to winter time where it is supposed to drop below zero Fahrenheit…

Fall time is beautiful in Ohio, especially the landscape with fantastic reddish colors. Summer was so warm and humid that we are now enjoying long walks in the parks (Cincinnati has many beautiful urban parks).

We discovered Halloween. Of course, we somehow do celebrate Halloween in Switzerland, especially in the suburbs area where you might see kids walking around on that evening. But here it is definitely different: It is a big party! The kids dressed up – and usually accompanied by their parents as it is not so safe – are basically going from door to door with the famous “treat or trick” to get sweets. The neighbors are most of the time on their porch where they arranged a “cosy” place with lots of skeleton, graves, and of course pumpkins, and do offer the parents some beer or punch, sometime even something to eat like cakes or cookie. I was even told that some parents do not hesitate to drive their child to wealthy neighborhoods like Hyde Park or Mason to get nice food! 🙂 If your child is still small, this is also the opportunity to dress him or her up with the most ridiculous gear you can find – they do not complain at this age. Pumpkins rank number one according to my friends from the lab.

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This is also a very political fall with the mid-term election happening on November the 6th (always a Tuesday) where it seems that many people are elected (governors, judges, prosecutors, etc.). Our mailbox is basically full every single day, and it is hard to find anything else in television. Everywhere on the road you will find signboards for one candidate or the other. Interestingly, it is not forbidden to denigrate the opposite candidate here in the US so that you will see many ads recapitulating all the failures, mistakes, or questionable connections. Very vivid but on the other hand, difficult to get the program of the candidate!

That’s it for today folks. Write to you soon – I do have a small surprise for you for next post.

Mathias*
*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting professor.

Cincinnati calling – New York: The city that never sleeps

Posted on 18. October 2018 by obst

Hi folks! You are not mistaken: this does not look like Cincinnati. 🙂

Last week I was in New York city for a short stay to support the ZHAW spin-off opus néoi GmbH.

The startup had been selected to participate to the SHIELD pitch event. SHIELD is an acronym for Skin Health Investigation, Education, Longevity Development and has been established by Nestlé Skin Health to bring bold disruptive ideas and maintain skin health in the digital era.

The event was really great and inspiring with startups coming from everywhere around the world presenting different ideas around skin health. Though opus néoi unfortunately did not win the 25’000 $ cash prize, we ended up on the podium and will keep in touch with SHIELD for further support once back home in Switzerland.

On Friday, we had a quick stay at the NYC offices of Swissnex Boston. Big thanks to Estelle and Oliver who put us in contact with US investors! Their office is located in the south of Manhattan in the WeWork working space: best view of New York and startup atmosphere guaranteed.

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See you next time!
Mathias*
*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting professor.

Cincinnati calling – UC Bearcats vs. A&M Alabama Bulldogs

Posted on 28. September 2018 by obst

Hi folks!

Last Saturday, UC was playing against A&M Alabama at the Nippert stadium on campus. What a day!

The match was planned at 7 pm but already at 2, people started gathering on the campus lawn, listening to music and preparing BBQs. The UC marching band together with the cheerleaders took care of the mood! Everybody was wearing the full Bearcats gear from head-to-toe. And it was not only students but people from all age and even families having a good time all together and supporting the university team.
Even the President of UC was there and took a picture with us! 🙂 Representing ZHAW @ UC!

Mathias and his family met Neville G. Pinto, President of the University of Cincinnati.

Very nice unique experience. This is something that is really missing in Switzerland, this vibrant community feeling around their university. I remember being at the ZHAW tenth years anniversary party in Zurich in 2017. It was definitely a great party, but I realized that the integration of the different schools is still not fully completed. And I believe, but that is my opinion, we can do better. Let’s remember UC’s motto “Juncta Juvant”! And who knows, we can maybe organize some ZHAW cheerleaders who looks as great as UCs? 🙂

By the way, UC blasted A&M Alabama 63 to 7 (and yes, we are talking about American football)!

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Enjoy the pictures and have a look on my YouTube-channel.

See you next time!
Mathias*
*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting professor.

Cincinnati calling – “We engineer better”

Posted on 14. September 2018 by obst

I am currently hosted by the Novel Device Laboratory headed by Prof. Jason Heikenfeld who is not only a talented scientist but also a successful entrepreneur founder of Eccrine Systems. His lab is located on the 9th floor the Rhodes building and is part of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences or short CEAS.

The NDL has been very welcoming. The team is extremely nice, and you can feel a real “lab culture” here – and I am not only talking about the numerous beer-related events! 🙂 The laboratory benefits from state-of-the-art infrastructure but I realized that regarding many points, like office space and infrastructure for example, we do have luxury problems at ZHAW! And the students (PhDs included) are cleaning the labs and offices regularly! Hummm… I might finally bring few things back home 🙂

The CEAS is well known at UC and engineering is highly valuated. They have an appealing motto “We engineer better (TM)” that is reminding me the “Es braucht fähige Ingenieure. Wir bilden sie aus” from another famous institution!

One of my aims during this sabbatical year is to foster exchanges between our institutions and put in place a partnership agreement for students and staff exchange. I have been meeting lots of people at the international offices from the different colleges here, with SoE representatives. In addition, I am in contact with potential UC students who would love to come to ZHAW! I am convinced that UC could be an optimal partner for whole ZHAW (and not only the SoE). If you are a ZHAW student or a faculty interested in an exchange or if you would like to learn more about UC, do not hesitate to contact me!

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I wish you all a good fall semester start!
Mathias*
*) Mathias Bonmarin is a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, he was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore he’s at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting professor.