School of Engineering – International Blog | Tag Archive

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).

[Show thumbnails]

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

IT geek? Go to California State University!

Posted on 21. June 2019 by obst

My name is Stefan, I live in Winterthur, Switzerland and study Computer Science at the ZHAW. I’m no CS student by accident – I like technology a lot and like to play around with gadgets of all sorts. To balance out my mostly urban life I like to hike in our beautiful countryside.

I always wanted to gain first hand experience of the North American lifestyle which influences our culture and daily life so much. I applied for different universities in the US and ended up going to the California State University in Long Beach. Can’t go wrong with that as an IT geek, right?

Well California really is as you know it from all the movies! Palm trees, surfer and sunshine almost everyday. The size of everything, including the campus, is just gigantic! I really enjoyed exploring the beautiful nature of the USA. Hiking and camping with new-found friends in the national parks of California was a life-changing experience.

Hiking can be a life-changing experience.

I really enjoyed the close relationship to all the professors and experiencing the really diverse campus lifestyle of an American university. There are so many cultures and heritages meeting each other and the people really to care about each other! Daily life is that much more personal that at home. The only real downside of living in SoCal is that you really do need a car if you want to do pretty much anything.

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.

[Show thumbnails]

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.

Double Degree-Abkommen mit der Grand Valley State University

Posted on 4. March 2019 by obst

Die ZHAW School of Engineering hat ein Double Degree-Abkommen mit der Grand Valley State University im US-Bundesstaat Michigan unterzeichnet. Masterstudierende können dadurch ein gekoppeltes Studium in der Schweiz und in den USA absolvieren. Für die School of Engineering ist es das zweite Abkommen dieser Art mit einer US-Partnerhochschule.

Das Double Degree-Programm bietet den Studierenden beider Hochschulen die Möglichkeit, zeitgleich den Masterabschluss der ZHAW und der Grand Valley State University (GVSU) zu erlangen. Die vorgesehene Studiendauer beträgt dafür vier Semester. Die Studierenden verbringen das erste Jahr an der School of Engineering der ZHAW und das zweite Jahr am Padnos College of Engineering & Computing der GVSU in Grand Rapids. Die Studierenden starten ihr Double Degree-Programm jeweils im Herbstsemester. «Zunächst werden die Studierenden aus den USA zu uns nach Winterthur kommen und zusammen mit unseren Studierenden die Vorlesungen, Übungen und Praktika im Master of Science in Engineering belegen», erklärt Wolfgang Kickmaier, Leiter International Relations an der School of Engineering. «Im zweiten Jahr reisen dann unsere Studierenden in die USA und schliessen dort mit weiteren Modulen und der Masterthesis innerhalb von zwei Semestern ihr Studium ab.»

Internationalisierung als Strategie
Die renommierte GVSU wurde 1960 gegründet und zählt derzeit rund 25’000 Studierende. Die GVSU ist mit insgesamt 94 Partnerverträgen in 35 Ländern international ausgerichtet und fördert die Internationalisierung aktiv. Die School of Engineering pflegt mit der GVSU bereits seit 2012 eine intensive und erfolgreiche Kooperation. Neben dem Studierendenaustausch auf Bachelorebene ist die gemeinsame Summer School seit 2013 ein Erfolgsmodell. «Ein weiterer Ausbau der Zusammenarbeit durch das Double Degree-Programm ist eine sinnvolle, logische Weiterentwicklung der bestehenden und erfolgreichen Beziehungen», so Wolfgang Kickmaier. Internationalisierung gehört zu den wichtigen strategischen Stossrichtungen der School of Engineering und der ZHAW. Die School of Engineering wird ihre strategischen Partnerschaften mit internationalen Hochschulen auch weiterhin ausbauen.

Weitere Informationen zur GVSU: www.gvsu.edu/pcec

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!

[Show thumbnails]

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.

[Show thumbnails]

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.

Summer Schools mit der Grand Valley State University

Posted on 19. October 2018 by obst

Auch in diesem Sommer fanden die Summer Schools mit unserer Partneruniversität Grand Valley State University (GVSU) statt. An der Summer School „Data Science“ beteiligten sich Studierende der ZHAW School of Engineering und der GVSU. Fokus der insgesamt vier Wochen – davon zwei Wochen in den USA – war das weite Feld „Data Science“, wobei pro Woche ein spezifischer Aspekt behandelt wurde. Die so erworbenen Credits konnten die Teilnehmer ihrem Studium anrechnen. Neben dem Unterricht sind natürlich auch Exkursionen Teil jeder Summer School. Die GVSU hat Eindrücke der Wochen in der Schweiz und den USA in einem Video zusammengefasst.

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.

[Show thumbnails]

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 – The Queen City

Posted on 31. August 2018 by obst

After a few weeks in Cincinnati I can tell you a little bit more about the city. Cincinnati has many nicknames the probably most deserved being “The Queen City”. It is definitely a beautiful city with a long history (for the US of course).

The origins: The city was created in 1788 with the name “Losantiville”. In 1790, Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name of the settlement to “Cincinnati” in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, made up of revolutionary war veterans, of which he was a member. The named “Cincinnati” itself comes from “Cincinnatus” – if like me you were sleeping during your Latin lectures in high school, check: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus. The name is actually not the only Latin reference, the city being built on seven hills – if you do not know what I am talking about then you probably missed all your Latin lecture and I can’t help you 🙂
Cincinnati expanded quickly and was the door to the west. Due to it’s location at the border between the north and the south – cross the Ohio river and you are in Kentucky, it also plaid an important role during the American civil war.

The German heritage: In Cincinnati, it is not uncommon after a hot summer day – and believe me it is very hot and humid – to enjoy a good local beer in a Biergarten with a Bretzel (they call it Pretzel) and eventually a Bratwurst. The German heritage is all around the city and not only in the family names of its inhabitants. Walk through the renovated “Over-the-Rhine” neighborhood and enjoy the fantastic architecture (see pics). For a good local beer stop at: http://www.rhinegeist.com/

View from mount Adam (one of the seven hills)

Pedestrian bridge over the Ohio river between Cincinnati and Newport Kentucky

[Show thumbnails]

If you are planning to come to the mid-west or visit Chicago. Make a short stop in Cincinnati. It is definitely worth it!

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.