Meet your Program Directors
Meet the experts you will be working with.
Full Professor Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization and Vice-President for Innovation
Marc Gruber is full professor and vice president for innovation at EPFL where he holds the chair of entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. His research focus is on innovation, strategy, entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. In an independent research study on the most impactful entrepreneurship scholars (Gupta et al., 2016), Marc was ranked as the worldwide #1 researcher in entrepreneurship for the 2005-2015 period. He was also the triple thought leader award winner at the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management and shared #1 research position worldwide. Beyond his research work, he is currently authoring a textbook on technology commercialization and was the co-editor of a textbook on entrepreneurship as well as a regular contributor to a weekly column on entrepreneurship in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.
Professor of Electric Engineering and Vice-President for Education
Pierre Vandergheynst leads the institute of electrical engineering at EPFL focusing on data analytics and artificial intelligence. His research addresses the modern challenges businesses face in big data processing and exploring ways to organize this information to gain new insights on consumer preferences. He works with networks of all kinds, from social media to the human brain. His expertise also encompasses: computational harmonic analysis, inverse problems, compressive sensing and computer vision.
Learn more about IMD business transformation experts & EPFL* technology experts.
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Head of Embedded Systems Laboratory
David Atienza leads the embedded systems laboratory at EPFL. He is an expert on the next-generation embedded systems for the Internet of Things, working for last 10 years on smart wearables both for humans and a wider range of other objects including cars. He focuses on how these objects can interact with each other to create new business opportunities – helping businesses be ready for these opportunities. His expertise also covers 2D/3D thermal modeling and management for multiprocessor system-on-chip, electronic design automation, wireless body sensor networks, memory optimizations, low-power hardware and software co-design.
Full Professor at EPFL and Head of Biorobotics Laboratory
Auke Ijspeert is a full professor at EPFL and head of the Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob). He has a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (1999) and has been at EPFL since 2002. His research interests are at the intersection between robotics, computational neuroscience, nonlinear dynamical systems and applied machine learning. He is interested in using numerical simulations and robots to gain a better understanding of animal locomotion, and in using inspiration from biology to design novel types of mobile, walking robots and locomotion controllers. He is also investigating how to assist persons with limited mobility using exoskeletons and assistive furniture.
Product Lead, Informal Systems (blockchain technologies), Switzerland
Dr Adi Seredinschi has a PhD in Distributed Systems from the EPFL. He is Product Lead at a cooperative-startup in blockchain technologies, called Informal Systems, which is building the infrastructure for next-generation digital systems with a focus on correctness, reliability, and sustainability.
Lawyer and doctor in law (Telecommunication law)
Leila is the founder and Chairwoman of the Empowerment, a swiss based foundation advocating for a human centered technology. She is also a committed entrepreneur, she has created several companies, including Be Curious TV, a citizen cable TV channel (sold in 2019), and Amplify, a digital platform which democratizes access to the advertising market. Convinced that individual responsibility is crucial in the digital age, she is interested in tools that enable citizens to make enlightened decisions, to adapt and to benefit from the changes brought by technological evolution.
Professor at the University of Lausanne
Dr. Yves Pigneur is a professor at the University of Lausanne since 1984, and has held visiting professorships at Georgia State University, University of British Columbia, National University of Singapore, and HEC Montreal. He earned his doctoral degree at the University of Namur, Belgium. He was the former editor-in-chief of the academic journal Systèmes d’Information & Management. Together with Alexander Osterwalder, they invented the Business Model Canvas and authored in 2010 the international bestseller “Business Model Generation” (million+ copies in 40 languages); and more recently “Value Proposition Design”.
*École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Ranked #1 for universities less than 50 years old by the Times Higher Education, EPFL is one of the two Swiss federal institutes of technology and one of the Europe’s most innovative and dynamic institutes, offering exceptional resources and facilities for research. Working with top EPFL faculty and doctoral students, you will discover its innovation hub, home to more than 300 laboratories and research groups, and focus on driving innovation and technology transfer for your business.
