Working experiences
Here below are listed my working experiences from the most recent one to the oldest one.
Each working experience entry contains a short description, the duration of the employment, a brief organizational chart as well as reference people. I can provide you with their contact information if required.
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2006Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Short description
In a first step I worked in characterizing and improving the HDR (High Digital Range) imaging capturing technique using a digital camera for applications in the building technology field. This technique is especially useful for lighting applications as it gives us a tool to sense "true" or "photometric" lighting values and gauge the effectiveness of lighting controls in buildings. This technique was developed at the LNBL by the "Daylighting and windows" group in collaboration with Greg Ward (independent consultant and author of the Radiance program) for the daylighting project at the New York Times (online newspaper here) new head quarters building in NYC (see project page here).
In a second step I worked on the development of a novel lighting control algorithm that makes use of the above-mentioned HDR imaging technique. This new lighting control system adjusts the electric lightings in real time according to a change in the daylight distribution in order to achieve user's comfort as well as energy savings.
Advantages of such an "imaging sensor based" lighting control system compared to a conventional one, based so far on integrating-type light sensors, are:
- Ability to define multiple patches in the captured images where the patch luminance can be quickly measured
- Ability to use image patch analysis to compute useful statistics about the luminance distribution in the lit space
- Ability to differentiate "spurious inputs" (local change in surface reflectivity caused by introduction of an object of significantly different reflectance) from "natural" / global changes in luminance distribution (daylight varying over time)
- Ability to develop and test advanced control algorithms that satisfy luminance-based performance metrics for lighting and fenestration control
- Possibility for true auto-commissioning of the lighting and fenestration control systems
Activities for this project ranged from construction and utilization of an experimental test facility, to coding of the algorithm (Matlab, Python).
Duration
One year, starting Jan-06
(working remotely until Apr-07)
Organization
LBNL stands for "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory"
EETD stands for "Environmental Energy Technologies Division"
BTD stands for "Building Technologies Departments"
LSG stands for "Lighting System Group"
People / references
Steve Selkowitz — Building Technologies Division head
Francis Rubinstein — Lighting Systems group leader
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2005École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Short description
After my year in Japan, and before organizing my visit to the LBNL (previous section) I joined the cathodo-luminescence lab of the quantum photonics group. There I assisted for six months a fellow PhD student Samuel Sonderegger in his lab work.
Activities ranged from manipulation of pulsed laser, frequency multiplier (non-linear optical converter that mixes photons together and as a result produces a beam of higher frequency, in our case we were working with a UV beam), electron microscope and also building setups on the optical table or basic electronic components that would be used for the experiment.
The most challenging part was the development of a cryostat termination that had the constraints of fitting within the very limited volume of the electron microscope's chamber as well as ideally cooling the sample to the order of ~≤ 10K (corresponding to -263°C).
Duration
6 months, from Jun-05 to Nov-05
Organization
EPFL ◊ FSB ◊ SPH ◊ IPEQ ◊ LOEQ
EPFL stands for "École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne"
FSB stands for "Faculté des Sciences de Bases"
SPH stands for "Section de Physique"
IPEQ stands for "Institut de Photonique et d'Électronique Quantique"
LOEQ stands for "Laboratoire d'Optoélectronique Quantique"
People / references
Jean-Daniel Ganière — Maître d'enseignement et de recherche
Samuel Sonderegger — PhD student
2004Mitsubishi electronics 三菱電機
Short description
I joined Mitsubishi Electronics in Amagasaki 尼崎 / Osaka 大阪 (Hyogo-Ken 兵庫県) on the 1st of July 2004 after a tree months intensive Japanese language course in Kanazawa 金沢 (Ishikawa-Ken 石川県). The internship has been made possible thanks to the relationship between my university (EPFL) and Mitsubishi Electronics. Initially planned to be a 12 months internship, the length of the stay had to be reduced to 9 months because of a modification to the foreigners' visa policy in the Japanese legislation.
In the Advanced Technology R&D center I joined the MEMS (Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems) process group directed by Takeda 武田 Munehisa 宗久. I collaborated with Shinichi 晋一 Izuo 出尾 on novel MEMS switches for the high frequencies. Such elements are aimed to replace the actual semiconductor-based switches in the telecommunication industry.
My activities ranged from RF-MEMS structures fabrication to the development and utilization of a test facility. The production stage took place in a clean room. The processing steps included: photolithography (photoresist patterning using a stepper), dry etching (reactive ion etching) and/or wet etching (chemical etching) and deposition (electroplating and/or sputtering). The development of the test facility required building the equipment as well as developing a program (in HPVee) to automate the test procedure. In addition I also characterized and improved the Gold electroplating process of a newly installed unit.
Duration
9 months, starting Jul-04
(initially planned for 12 months, read above)
Organization
M ◊ ME ◊ AT R&D Center ◊ STD ◊ MEMS process group ◊ RF-MEMS division
M stands for "Mitsubishi / 三菱"
ME stands for "Mitsubishi Electronics / 三菱電機 "
AT R&D Center stands for "Advanced Technology R&D center (Japan)"
STD stands for "Sensing Technology Department"
MEMS process group stands for "Micro-Electromechanical Systems process group"
RF-MEMS division stands for "Radio-Frequency Micro-Electromechanical Systems division"
People / references
Shinichi 晋一 Izuo 出尾 — supervisor MEMS Process Group
Takeda 武田 Munehisa 宗久 — Sensing Technology Department manager
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2003École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Short description
Two months summer project within the LOEQ (Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics) lab. The idea of this summer work was to assist a PhD student (Reda Idrissi Keitouni) helping him in his work at the laboratory.
I mainly developed the design for the support of an experimental He-cryostat he was going to use in order to achieve angular-dependent optical measurements on planar semiconductor microcavities.
This summer project representing a personal initiative, in the sense that it wasn't required as part of my studies, concluded with the production of the cryostat's support.
Organization
EPFL ◊ FSB ◊ SPH ◊ IPEQ ◊ LOEQ
EPFL stands for "École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne"FSB stands for "Faculté des Sciences de Bases"
SPH stands for "Section de Physique"
IPEQ stands for "Institut de Photonique et d'Électronique Quantique"
LOEQ stands for "Laboratoire d'Optoélectronique Quantique"
People / references
Benoît Deveaud-Plédran — Director of IPEQ
Reda Idrissi Kaitouni — PhD student
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2002Syngenta AG
Short description
I joined the R&D center in Stein-Säckigen (Switzerland) in July 2002. This was my first working experience. It was part of my study program. The condition was to find a traineeship in a real-world engineering environment which was in relation with my studies but not too much (a work in academics or in an institution doing physics wouldn't have been accepted).
My task at Syngenta was to optimize the micro-screen spaying process (on Tecan pipetting robots). As part of this assignment I had to:
- optimize the spraying heads cleaning process
- evaluate risks and benefits of changing dilution way
- studying the feasibility of a new dilution technique in order to reduce active substances usage
Organization
Syngenta ◊ Crop Protection ◊ Research Center in Biology - Switzerland
People / references
Dr. Laurent Nussbaumer — Head of micro screening research biology group