School of Engineering – International Blog | Tag Archive

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.

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.

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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 – 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

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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.

Cincinnati Calling – Day 0 – Leaving Switzerland

Posted on 9. August 2018 by obst

My name is Mathias Bonmarin, I am a senior lecturer at the ZHAW School of Engineering. Recently, I was honoured to get a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and therefore I am moving to the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for one year as a visiting professor. The goal of this blog is to share with you – potential outgoing students and faculties – my experience of the mid-west.

Leaving the SoE on a sunny afternoon. I will for sure miss it during the year to come…

I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and that it will motivate you to seek adventure in this beautiful country! 🙂

One luggage is more important than the others. Guess which one!

The big day has arrived faster than we planned and we are flying today to the U.S. As the only direct flight to Cincinnati is from Paris, which was not very convenient travelling with an infant, we decided to stop by Boston and sleep one night there before taking the first flight in the morning to the Queen City (apparently, this is one of the numerous names used to called Cincinnati).

Very early (jet-lag induced) morning in Boston… A beautiful city too. And I heard that the SoE has some partner universities there too!

This stay in the US required lots of organisation as the whole family is moving! My wife, a Swiss attorney-at-law will study to get a L.L.M degree and our child will go the university daycare. He will be an official baby bearcats! If you do not know yet what a bearcat is, you can check: https://gobearcats.com

We are of course very excited and looking forward to this great adventure. On the other hand leaving our home country, our family, friends and colleagues is difficult and the last days have very emotional for the whole family. We had to give up our flat and moved into a provisory Airbnb in Wallisellen.

There is a nice song from Joe Dassin, called “L’amérique” that summarises this feeling (I guess the only french singer who owned a PhD from an American university):

We are soon landing in Boston. That’s it for this first chapter!

See you soon!
Mathias

«A wonderful first week in Winterthur»

Posted on 30. May 2017 by bhen

A group of students from the University of Minnesota is currently staying at the ZHAW School of Engineering. The Global Mechatronics Seminar they attend is a specialized, concise course in mechatronics − complex systems, composed of mechanical components, computers, and sensors. In addition to that, their stay in Winterthur also offers them a chance to get to know Switzerland, its people and geography, as well as some unique ZHAW traditions like the Frackwoche – also known as Tail Coat Week.

Read about their experience on their blog.

Lectures & presentations

Posted on 21. July 2016 by bhen

With eating a first burrito for breakfast we braced ourselves for the first presentation of the teams to representatives of Bühler. Tom Chase started today with a lecture about concept selection. After this lecture everyone seemed to be ready to present the Product Design Specifications to our customer Bühler before lunch. All the teams had really put a lot of effort into the presentations. Bob, the extruder technologist of Bühler, was impressed with our concepts. He could see high potential for many of our products we would like to design. If only there would be more time for us to realize all our ideas.
Right after lunch, we listened again to Toms lecture about modelling and estimation. This gave us some good inputs for the afternoon. We could finally start to work out various possible solutions for our given assignments.

Swimming in Lake Calhoun

Posted on 20. July 2016 by bhen

While it’s raining in Zurich, we are glad to have very nice, warm weather here in Minneapolis. During the day we were working hard on the concept selection for the Bühler project. After the work was done, we had a chance to explore Minneapolis in the evening. A group of us students decided to go to Lake Calhoun in the center of Minneapolis and enjoy the warm weather by cooling down with a swim in the lake. After a nice dinner at a rooftop bar/restaurant in Downtown Minneapols, we went back to the Yudof Hall, our student housing, where we had some beers to conclude the evening.

Visiting the Bühler Company

Posted on 19. July 2016 by bhen

On our second day we visited the branch of the Swiss Bühler company here in Plymouth, Minnesota, which is our industry partner for the project design seminar.The visit to see one of the twin-screw extruders for food production, like pasta, snacks, biscuits etc. at the site was very helpful to understand the structure and functions for the product design. After the visit the coach brought us back to the University of Minnesota, where we had the first lectures in Product Development by Prof. Tom Chase. After the lectures a whole group of us went to Chipotle, a Mexican restaurant, which Adam Pagel, the coordinator here in Minnesota, had suggested to us for dinner. On the way to Chipotle, we passed our ZHAW coordinators Dejan and Armin eating in another restaurant, which resulted in a fun group photo. We are enjoying the campus and the atmosphere very much, here at the University of Minnesota.

Group photo with Dejan and Armin