THE Port 2015 Campus Biotech & CERN

2.10.-04.10.2015 – Campus Biotech & CERN, Geneva, Switzerland





Topics 2015

Our topics selected for the 2015 edition are inspired by friends and colleagues working at Red Cross, United Nations and many other NGOs in and around Geneva.



Topics of the last year’s 2014 edition you find here and summarised in our annual report.

Recordings of THE Port 2015 Final Presentations at CERN you find here.



  • Pier63

    Despite the potential of new communication technologies, the digital divide and its gender gap is a significant challenge in developing countries. As humanitarian organisations increasingly adopt solutions that rely on new technologies, it further excludes a substantial number of marginalised people.

    Closing the Technology Gender Gap

  • Pier79

    Navigation of individuals as well as optimization of transportation in the complex 3D structure of hospitals is a challenging task. Existing systems use different kind of infrastructure to allow location and tracking with the disadvantage of high setup costs and times as well as the risks of constantly changing technology. Solving the main tasks with the already existing infrastructure is therefore extremely desirable.

    Infrastructure-less Hospital Navigation & Transportation

  • Pier87

    Many regions around the world are currently supplied by food by means of air drops from many different humanitarian organizations. The current technique is to pack the bags up to 8 times to avoid bursting. This results in high work and material costs exceeding often the value of the food.

    Burst-safe Food Air Drop Bag

  • Pier97

    Understanding humanitarian field data for rapid decision making;
    This project will tackle global problems of field data handling, from collection to visualisation. Augmenting the human eye by making available tools such as Virtual Reality (VR) to visualize living data.

    Humanitarian Field Data, Alive!

  • Pier43

    Processes and procedures in hospitals were optimized more and more in recent years to cope with the needs of higher patient throughput and cost saving. Anyhow an intense patient – care taker, doctor and other service personnel contact is extremely important for a successful therapy and the well being of patients. We are looking for innovative, technology supported measures to improve the impact of human contacts in hospitals in the short available time.

    Improving Human Contacts In Hospitals

  • Pier33

    The genetic disorder Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) makes skin ultra-sensitive to UV light. Any exposure to the sun’s rays or artificial UV sources (e.g. some halogen and neon lights) can cause fatal skin cancer. People suffering from XP (30 thousand worldwide, most of them children) need special protection, covering all body parts. Several attempts were made to facilitate their daily lives. An improved layout of the currently used head mask and making it available for developing countries would be next important steps.

    Ergonomic Protection for People Suffering from UV-ultrasensitivity

Recordings of THE Port 2015 Final Presentations at CERN you find here.

Teams 2015

Six inter-disciplinary teams with about 10 members each had 6 weeks of preparation time with video-conference meetings and a 60 hour final hackathon to build working prototypes and tangable solutions for real-life humanitarian problems.



Global coach mechanics: NN – Global coach electronics: Sylvain Kaufman

Global coach entrepreneurship: Felix Stähli – Knowledge transfer: CERN KT

Team: Bridge it!

Coaches: Agnes Jakab and Gayane Azizjan





Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque

Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque (CA)
Alexandra is the Global Coordinator for Community Engagement at the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Alexandra has worked in the Philippines, Iraq, Sudan and South Sudan. Prior to working for OCHA, Alexandra worked on humanitarian communications for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Alexandra was the Country Director for BBC Media Action in Sudan and later as Radio Producer for the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. In 2002, she co-founded the non-profit organization Journalists for Human Rights (JHR). Throughout her humanitarian career, Alexandra has also been a documentary filmmaker. She has completed two feature films, including The Longest Kiss, which follows six young Sudanese from different backgrounds ahead of the 2011 separation of South Sudan. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Alexandra received her MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics.

Bashir Khoshnevis

Bashir Khoshnevis (IR)
Bashir was born in Tehran, studied Computer Science at ShahidBeheshti University. He worked as researcher, developer and system analyst at many companies. Since mobile devices have always been one of his interests, he made a community for iPhone developers and users right after unlocking the first iPhone in Iran which is now the biggest in the country. A few years ago Bashir co-funded a company to offer advanced repair services for laptops and cell phones also training coerces in hardware repair and electronic.

Corina Zanetti

Corina Zanetti (CH)
Corina is a freelance communications specialist currently editing and designing various communication tools for non-profit and cultural organisations. She has a degree in political science and corporate communications, and brings in substantial professional experience having previously worked as press relations officer for cosmetic brands, corporate communications specialist on renewable energy projects and CSR Manager for a renowned Swiss mountain sports brand. Corina is excited to leave with THE Port for new places.

Gayane Azizjan

Gayane Azizjan (AM)
Gaia was born in Armenia, studied in the USA, and is now residing in Sweden. Inspired to pursue a path outside the corporate environment, she recently become self-employed and is now working on an underwater robotics project. She spends her spare time studying towards her second Master’s degree in Mathematics. Prior to this she worked as a telecom software engineer at Ericsson for over four years. She is fluent in 6 languages and feels passionate about everything related to space exploration.

Ilias Koutsakis

Ilias Koutsakis (GR)
Ilias is a senior student of the Department of Informatics, University of Athens.He has experience in network administration, software development and technical writing, including a half year internship in Atlassian. Ilias is currently a CERN technical student, working on InspireHEP, the largest global digital library for High Energy Physics. He continues to actively search for causes that inspire social change, as he has done before by volunteering as a web developer/admin in AIESEC Greece.

Makoto Asami

Makoto Asami (JP)
Makoto is an intern working on a data science project at the ILO in Geneva. He earned his Bachelor of Economics from Meiji University and started his career as an IT system engineer ten years ago in Tokyo. After five years there, he taught IT at Coast Institute of Technology in Kenya for two years. He got a Master’s degree in Information Management from the University of Maryland, College Park in the USA this May, and is looking to apply his experience and expertise more in the global society.

Maria Petriti

Maria Petriti (GR)
Maria is an undergraduate student of Management Science and Technology at Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. Coming from a mixed educational background she holds a grasp of managerial notions and a passion for software engineering. Currently she is going through her second internship at CERN as a Technical Student. As a Python developer she applies software testing technics on the resources packages of a CERN-made framework called UNICOS.

Michael Moszczynski

Michael Moszczynski (PL)

Nozomi Ohashi

Nozomi Ohashi (JP)
Nozomi is a current senior student in Kyoto University from Japan. Her major is political science, especially comperative politics and democratisation. Her interest of the politics of Arabic countries made her to get an internship in Tunisia and Jordan. She worked as an internship in Japanese NGO focusing on environmentally friendly agriculture.

Team: H-Compass

Coaches: Estel Perez Codina and Jose Luis Fernandez Marquez





Alberto Degiovanni

Alberto Degiovanni (IT)
Alberto is post-doctoral fellow at CERN where he works on the high power testing of RF structures for the CLIC project. He studied at University of Milano and then obtained his PhD in Physics at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) working with TERA Foundation at CERN both on the design and experimental testing of high gradient linear accelerators for hadron therapy. He loves science and its application for society.

Anna Fritsch

Anna Fritsch (CH)
Anna is a Digital Adviser at the University Hospital in Geneva. She has experience building health-based content internet websites. She created and managed websites to promote projects, health care and products. She aims at providing the best possible information to an audience of patients as well as promoting health services or products. Anna holds Masters in International Marketing and Health Marketing. She also led international projects and coordinated the work of multicultural teams to achieve international collaborations. She loves working within a team as well as cross-team.

Cesar Aguilera Padilla

Cesar Aguilera Padilla (ES)
César is a Software Engineer and a free software enthusiast currently working at CERN within the TE/MPE group, he develops software for monitoring and control of the machine protection systems. Before joining CERN he worked as a Junior Research Fellow in the field of real-time systems for the University of Granada (Spain). During his master thesis, he participated in the conception and development of an innovative system which allows medical students to train and evaluate their skills in clinical diagnosis. His Twitter account is @Cs4r from where he tweets about science, software craftsmanship, humor and politics.

Christian Lovis

Christian Lovis (CH)

Gabriele Salomon

Gabriele Salomon (AT)
Gabriele is an Austrian nurse with over 10 years of hands on experience in various areas of nursing including long time nursing, intensive care as well as case management. Gabriele has also accomplished serval additional qualifications. Her qualifications include but are not limited to intensive care nursing from AKH Vienna, and nursing counselling from Danube University Krems. During her time of study she participated in an internship program at Inselspital Bern in Switzerland. Above all she is enthusiastic and passionate about a wide range of social and public health topics.

Gareth Beeston

Gareth Beeston (UK)
Gareth grew up on the Isle of Wight, is a personal trainer and PhD researcher studying at University of Southampton as part of the Web and Internet Science Group. He researches the impact of open data and open innovation practices to tackle social challenges. He runs a local digital marketing and web development agency, and teaches digital marketing at both the University of Southampton and University of West Indies. He is a budding entrepreneur interested in social enterprise.

Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez

Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez (ES)
Dr. Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez is currently working as full time researcher at the University of Geneva, with a research contract funded by Citizen CyberLab EU project. In 2011, he defended his PhD Thesis titled Bio-inspired Mechanisms for Self-Organizing Systems. His expertise is mainly focused on highly distributed, self-organizing and multi-agent systems. He has a wide experience implementing large-scale simulations and engineering self-organizing systems. Additionally, his research interests are also focused on swarm intelligence, high performance computing, and pervasive computing.

Jonathan Moy De Vitry

Jonathan Moy De Vitry (CH)
Jonathan has a management background but you might not guess it if you met him riding on the street. He works part-time as an innovation consultant and part-time as a bicycle courier delivering high-value goods throughout Geneva. Besides that he’s leading a project to use the Oculus Rift VR platform to increase public awareness about mental health issues, especially ADHD. Want to have a lively chat? Ask about his old master’s thesis topic, defensive innovation, which is the study of how firms and industries can leverage technology to prosper despite abrupt changes in their environment.

Leif Terje Fonnes

Leif Terje Fonnes (NO)
Leif Terje is a project manager currently working with several startups in Bergen/Norway , focus is on Internet of Things and all the wonderful opportunities that brings to the world. Among the the thing we are working on are the software part of a solar powered air sensory system.

Mirana Michelle Randriambelonoro

Mirana Michelle Randriambelonoro (MG)
Mirana is from Madagascar. She graduated with a Master degree in Communication Systems at EPFL. She is currently doing a PhD in Information Systems at the University of Geneva, and is working on different development projects in eHealth and Telemedecine lab at Campus Biotech. She is passionate about behaviour change technology that aims to help people adopt healthier habits in the long term. Her research interests include neuroscience, behaviour psychology, Human Computer Interaction. She loves team work and believes sharing ideas is the best source of creativity.

Nefeli Kousi

Nefeli Kousi (GR)
Nefeli studied Informatics and telecommunications at NKUA, and is currently working for CERN as a web developer. As a professional she is interested in human-centric design and passionate about UX. Inspired by positive social impact she frequently volunteers for technical and humanitarian projects. After a term as communication manager for AIESEC NKUA she got heavily involved in the organization of the WBM v5 annual community conference and in the redesign of the Hackademic open source project.

Team: Cargo Cult

Coaches: Cristina Olivotto and Mark Melnykowycz





Alejandro Duque

Alejandro Duque (CO)
Since the late 90’ies, with the advent of the Internet, ALejandro has been confronted with the notion of On/Off-line collaborations. He has worked within the realm of Net.Art, Wireless Community networks and most importantly participated of a wide range of (AFK) meetings at so called labs, hacker-spaces, conferences. Always searching for socially implicated initiatives from across the planet that reflect in Latin America. His dissertation at The EGS orbited on notions of broken technologies and appropriation.

Boris Polania

Boris Polania (VE)
A native of Caracas, Venezuela Boris has lived in Hollywood, Florida in the United States since 2010, As a free-lancer software engineer and entrepreneur he has worked in several startups in Silicon Valley and South Florida, mostly in the Fintech and Healthcare industries. Currently he works with Radiolobe, a young and promising startup aiming to disrupt key areas in the entertainment industry; there he is the CTO in charge of the design and development of the product.

Francesco Guescini

Francesco Guescini (IT)
Francesco is a particle physics enthusiast and a keen programmer. He is currently at the fourth year of his PhD in particle physics at the University of Geneva, working on data analysis and hardware. Before joining the ATLAS experiment at CERN as a young master student, he was involved in the CDF and PAMELA experiments. In his spare time, when he is not mountain biking or drumming, he likes to find creative new ways of applying his physics and programming skills to other fields.

Mark Melnykowycz

Mark Melnykowycz (US)
Mark is an artist-engineer, focused on combining engineering with UX design and technology with storytelling. His science work revolves around 3D printing, materials science and sensors for wearable computing, while his startup projects address 3D scanning and Virtual/Augmented reality experiences. He searches out street art alongside museums and does night tours in Swiss Alps to see the Milky Way before photographing perfect sunrises.

Petter Saeterskog

Petter Saeterskog (SW)
Petter is a theoretical physics PhD student at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has obtained both a M.Sc and a M.Eng at Chalmers University, Sweden. He studied the first year of his M.Sc as exchange student at Hong Kong UST. Petter has a broad interest in both Science and Technology. He participated in the International Biology Olympiad before taking up physics studies. Outside of his studies, he developed the game “Cell Lab” for Android. Petter is passionate about coming up with novel solutions to technical challenges and is looking forward to do this for humanitarian causes.

Stefan Schulze

Stefan Schulze (DE)
Stefan works as a Product Manager Packaging and a Industrial Consultant at vph in Hemmingen, Germany (Member of the IGEPAgroup), a leading group within the paper and packaging industry. He has a general interest in production technologies and he loves finding solutions for complex and unusual challenges in a simple but effective way. Furthermore, he implements staff trainings for Packaging at the company’s academy and imparts his knowledge to new team members. In his leisure time he has a passion for running and studying Mandarin language since a visit to China.

Tatiana Irene Slodkowski

Tatiana Irene Slodkowski (AR)
Tatiana Slodkowski is a Software Engineer from Argentina. She studied in Buenos Aires, and completed a Master in Computer Science at Politecnico Di Milano. She is currently working as an Integrations Software Developer at Avature. She speaks fluently Spanish, English, French and Italian, and likes learning new languages.

Thomas Deillon

Thomas Deillon (CH)
Thomas, Swiss, married, one child, is an Innovation Manager at SITA where he works at the product portfolio level to create and incubate multi-division hairy solutions. He has more than 10 years of experience in the innovation field both professionally and personally where he spends time learning complementary innovation skills (e.g. Psychology courses, PNL, University teaching, MBA studies) and tests ideas (e.g. Humanitarian open-ideation mobile platform named Perhaps). Thomas is eager to learn from and share with every encounter and opportunity and apply this practically in product creation.

Team: Datasaurus

Coaches: Tim Head and Joao Pequenao





Andressa Sivolella

Andressa Sivolella (BR)
Andressa is a 25 years old Electric Engineer masters student from Rio de Janeiro. She owns a startup company back in Rio (TWIST Systems), which integrates data from heterogeneous sources. Andressa is currently working on a ATLAS/TileCal project at CERN as a Software Engineer. The platform integrates the collaborators analysis using web technologies. “My intention on participating on this event is the acquirement of new experiences and networking. Also, new challenges makes me think about other subjects that I’m not used to and it always pushes me to be in contact with innovations.”

Chen Ye

Chen Ye (CN)
Chen is a second-year Biology/Computer Science dual concentrator at Brown University with a passion for communication. While not in classes, he automates aging research using computer vision, directs design + branding at Hack@Brown, goes hacking around the United States, and builds universes in Virtual Reality. Chen is excited to see how The Port will bring the hackathon format to solving global problems, and is eagerly anticipating the results! You can see his portfolio at chen.yeesus.com.

Daniel Foguelman

Daniel Foguelman (AR)
Daniel Foguelman (@quenochetete) is a computer scientist working as a data scientist using simulation and modeling techniques for the ATLAS TDAQ project. With years of software engineering experience in different fields like automation, software development and platform architect he can attack problems with different technologies and approaches. His master thesis was related to data science in public health organizations.

Emlyn Corrin

Emlyn Corrin (UK)
Emlyn works at SwiftKey where he uses big data techniques to analyse data from the company’s apps. Since obtaining his PhD in High Energy Physics he has worked at CERN & the University of Geneva on control and data acquisition systems for CMS and research systems for future linear colliders. After staying in Geneva for 8 years he moved back to London to work at Google before changing to his current post at SwiftKey. Outside of work he enjoys music, photography and playing with his 2 children.

Lautaro Dolberg

Lautaro Dolberg (AR)
Lautaro was born in Argentina, were he did his master in Computer Science and worked as a software engineer for a few years. After doing an internship at INRIA, France he moved to Luxembourg to pursue a PhD in in Informatics at the University of Luxembourg, his thesis was entitled Network Management with Data Analytics. Currently, he works as Data Scientist consultant while doing a Postdoc at the University of Luxembourg and Choice Holdings. When he is not working you might find Lautaro fixing bicycles as a volunteer at the communitarian bike shop. He is also a languages enthusiast trying to speak as many foreign languages as possible.

Michela Paganini

Michela Paganini (IT)
Michela is a Physics PhD student at Yale. Originally from Busto Arsizio (IT), she is a habitual traveler and has made a point of living in as many countries as she can. Things she adores include fine dining, design, sports and her Alma Mater (Go Bears!). When not living life to the fullest, she works for ATLAS at CERN on the di-Higgs hunt & software development for particle id. Astrophysicist by training but data scientist by passion, she supports the adoption of modern machine learning in HEP.

Nawar Halabi

Nawar Halabi (SY)
Nawar was born and grew up in Aleppo, Syria. A Computer Science graduate and also received an MSc in Web Technology from the University of Southampton. Currently enrolled in a PhD research program in the University of Southampton funded by Micorlink UK. Nawar’s PhD is about Arabic phonetics and phonology for Speech Synthesis. He is also a co-founder of a web development and a digital marketing agency.

Negar Fazeli

Negar Fazeli (IR)
Negar is a software engineer and has been working at Ericsson in Sweden since 2010. She is currently also working on her Master’s thesis at Chalmers University of Technology, on the topic of applying machine learning techniques to enhance the quality of the test framework at her workplace. She is a technology enthusiast and enjoys attending hackathons and tech meet-ups. She is very interested in traveling and learning about different cultures and is very open to trying new foods (yummy)!

Sina Khoshfetrat Pakazad

Sina Khoshfetrat Pakazad (IR)
Sina is originally from Tehran, Iran and has been living in Sweden since 2007. He got a MSc from Chalmers University of Technology in Mechatronics in 2009, and just finished his PhD in Automatic control from Linköping University. His research concerns scalable and distributed optimization techniques in estimation, control and machine learning. He is currently a research fellow where he is also involved in a project with OHB systems regarding agile control of spacecrafts. Sina enjoys good food and drinks, hanging out, watching movies, climbing and hiking.

Tim Head

Tim Head (UK)
Tim works at CERN, doing science with data. Also: python, statistics and triathlons. Tim works on the LHCb experiment. Here he works on the design of the future detector, pattern recognition software as well as the software trigger (deciding in real time what data gets recorded). He has experience as a software engineer, leading teams of experts in different fields, statistics and all the things you associate with a “scientific approach” to solving complex problems. He is a big fan of building a minimally viable solution to problem and then iterating on it. In his spare time he likes to train for and compete in triathlons.

Xavier Vollenweider

Xavier Vollenweider (CH)
Xavier is in the final stage of completing his PhD in Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics. Based in Geneva, he also works as consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where he is developing a new data driven model for estimating vulnerability and resilience to weather shocks in Ethiopia. He looks forward to collaborating with others to find innovative solutions to the challenges faced by development and humanitarian organizations.

Team: Medspitality

Coaches: Drasko Draskovic and Leonardo Milano





Aniela Hoitink

Aniela Hoitink (NL)
Aniela wants to change the way we use textiles and is investigating how we can and will use textiles in the future and what the implications are. Using technology and microbiology, she tries to improve or change the properties of textile and make them more dynamic and personal. Her inspiration comes from the way we (humans and nature) live and behave. She loves to work multidisciplinary and meet new people. You can see her portfolio at www.neffa.nl

Antonella Succurro

Antonella Succurro (IT)
Antonella is a researcher applying the analytical skills aquired during her PhD in particle physics to build computational models of biological systems. Jumping from the description of fundamental interactions to modeling complex and yet not-so-understood organisms is a challenge she’s more than happy to take in view of the possible breakthrough applications coming from a better understanding of biological processes like photosynthesis.

Davide Alocci

Davide Alocci (IT)
Trained as a Computer engineer at the University of Siena, Davide is an Italian technology enthusiast. During an internship for the Master’s thesis, he discovered Bioinformatics and it was love at first sight. After taking his Master in Computer Engineering he decided to leave Italy and he ended up in Geneva. Davide is now a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher at Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics within the Proteome Informatics Group, and develops software for glycomics and glycoproteomics analysis.

Drasko Draskovic

Drasko Draskovic (RS)
Dr Drasko Draskovic is currently working on the beam instrumentation for the High Luminosity program of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Drasko received a PhD degree in Electronic Engineering in London in 2009. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in wireless communications at the universities in London and Madrid. Drasko is passionate about technology as a creative force shaping global community and improving the state of the world.

Fabricio Pontes Harsich

Fabricio Pontes Harsich (AR)
Fabricio is a Software Engineer graduated from Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina). He has two Software Engineering Internships in Google. Experienced in software development and project management. Participated in several hackathons, two of the most importants were organized by NYU and CERN, achieved honors in Math and Electronic Olympics and enjoys teaching. Starting a FTE position in Google on September 2015. Reach him at fabriph@gmail.com or visit http://fabricioph.com

Isabelle Radtke

Isabelle Radtke (CH)
Isabelle is a sculptor. Trained in Paris, she worked 8 years in NYC as part of an artist collective. In 2013, while working with Life Cycle Assessment engineers near Lyon, she got a MS in innovation engineering focused on sustainable new product development. Further, to take part in the broad international effort towards frugality, her creative aim has taken a definite shift towards co-creative processes. Thus her participation in open source and citizen science projects and the development of Les Usines louise, an experimental space for collective invention.

Kaoru Ochiai

Kaoru Ochiai (JP)
Kaoru (Kay) gained her masters while working as an associate at Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) and her main research focused on community development mental health in the post-disaster situation under WHO-funded disaster reconstruction program. Previously, she worked as an advocacy officer at Human Rights Now, a political officer at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain and worked with non-profit organization in Japan as an intern. She devoted her work in raising awareness on infectious diseases (such as AIDS/HIV or tuberculosis) and empowering marginalized groups such as non-Japanese nationals, sexual minorities and people with low economic status in Japan.

Robert Rieger

Robert Rieger (DE)
Robert is a professional software engineer with a strong background in software architecture and web technologies. In 2009 he received his diploma in Media and Computer Sciences from TU Dresden Germany. Since then he’s been working for Comarch SA, SAP Research and GfK SE. He loves science and innovation and is always eager to learn new things. Follow him on Twitter: @therobertrieger.

Simon Schneebeli

Simon Schneebeli (CH)
Originally Simon is a Civil Engineer. But eager to discover and learn new things, he added an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Business Development. Today, he continues his work as a civil engineer while in the same time developing interesting ideas and projects with the Snowball Lab (http://snowball-lab.ch). Among other unconventional projects, Simon is founder of TEDxLausanne (http://www.tedxlausanne.com/) and was involved in the creation of the Impact Hub in Geneva (http://geneva.impacthub.net/).

Team: Day Walker

Coaches: Karola Dette and Christian Joram





Andy Butterworth (UK)

Andy Butterworth (UK)
Andy works in the CERN Beams department where he is currently responsible for software and controls of the radio frequency acceleration systems of the accelerators. He holds a PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Birmingham.

Ashley C. Pilipiszyn

Ashley C. Pilipiszyn (US)
A Chicago-native, Ashley is a MA candidate in International Relations at IHEID at the University of Geneva. Her research domain is the intersection of global health, environmental security, energy diplomacy, & sustainable cities. She is a Spark Clean Energy Fellow with the U.S. Department of Energy & MIT. Previously, Ashley was at Harvard University studying biotechnology & public health while with the MGH Health Policy Institute. Her BA is from Indiana University in Human Biology & Psychology.

Eric Siu

Eric Siu (HK)
Eric Siu is a Hong Kong new media artist currently based in Tokyo. He has a broad interest in device art, interactive art, kinetics, installation, video and animation. He was a resident artist at the University of Tokyo. He received his MFA from UCLA in 2010. Eric’s works have been shown in Ars Electronica, MOCA Taipei, ZKM, FILE, Transmediale, EMAF, WRO, SIGGRAPH Asia, ISEA, Microwave, and so fort. His work “Touchy” received the first prize from the WRO 2013, and has been featured in various media such as Discovery Channel, Neural, Washington Post, Huffington Post, the Creators Project, etc.

Kathrin Garschall

Kathrin Garschall (AT)
Kathrin was born and raised in Austria and holds a Master’s degree in Molecular biology. In 2013 she moved to Switzerland and started a PhD at the University of Lausanne on the evolution of lifespan using fruit flies as a model organism. To complement working at laboratory bench and computer, she enjoys improvisation theatre and the combination of science and art in any form. Her latest project was the conceptualization and realisation of costumes for The Catalyst’s SNF funded science theatre play “Blue Butterfly”.

Li Yu

Li Yu (CN)
Li Yu is a speculative designer and interdisciplinary researcher. She earned her Masters degree in Media Design at Haute école d’art et de design(HEAD) in 2013 in Geneva, holds two bachelors degrees in visual communication and interior design in France and China. She is passionate about the intersection between scientific research, technological innovation and design, especially biotech innovation and speculative/interaction design. She works with scientists and engineers, hackers and makers in a variety of international contexts Currently she is trying to build an new structure that will create design and innovation flow between Shenzhen and some European research institutions. Visit her at http://crazypulsar.net/ and http://spaceseeed.com/.

Matteo Macchini

Matteo Macchini (IT)
Matteo Macchini holds a Master’s Degree in Robotic Engineering from the University of Pisa. He worked on his thesis in CERN, designing and developing a control system for an electro-mechanical system used for the beam profile evaluation. After his graduation, he remained at CERN and is now working as an engineering fellow, developing data analysis tools for measures on superconducting magnets. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronical Engineering and is passionate about everything that concerns science and technology, he’s always looking for new and exciting fields to apply his knowledge and learn new things.

Paolo Francavilla

Paolo Francavilla (IT)
Paolo is a post-doctoral researcher at ATLAS for the Institute Lagrange de Paris and the Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies in France. He works on a Higgs boson search at ATLAS, and currently contributing to the development of the analysis strategies for the data coming from the new LHC collisions. He also works on the measurement of the missing transverse momentum in the ATLAS experiment.

Robin Rajamäki

Robin Rajamäki (FI)
Robin is a technical student at CERN currently (supposed to be) doing his master’s thesis. He’s been studying signal processing and acoustics at Aalto University and TU Berlin and right now he’s looking for vacuum arcs in CLIC. His interests cover just about anything related to science or music.

Shirly Chiu

Shirly Chiu (AU)
Shirley is a chemical engineer with six years in the minerals industry. She left that work to pursue something with more of a direct impact on society. She has been travelling in Europe since the end of May to meet social entrepreneurs and find out what is happening in the space, in particular the health industry. Shirley is particularly interested in problem solving and synergy from team brainstorming and mind mapping sessions. She likes to connect the dots and find out why things happen, how systems function. She would like to use this to make an impact in the social and health sectors.

Wafa Chaabi

Wafa Chaabi (FR)
Wafa Chaabi is the President of the french association Enfants de la Lune (Children of the Moon). Xeroderma pigmentosum, which is commonly known as XP, is an inherited condition characterized by an extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) rays from sunlight. Children with XP have a greatly increased risk of developing skin cancer and without sun protection, they develop their first skin cancer by age 2 and die around age 10/15. Wafa’s daughter, Noha, aged 6 has also this desease and Wafa works every day to improve families’ lifes (82 cases in France).

Yann Heurtaux

Yann Heurtaux (FR/BE)
Yann learned everything he knows on communities thanks to MMORPGs. His avatar of choice is a Chaotic Good Dwarf Tank. Since 2014, Yann is co-building hackuarium.ch in Renens, VD near Lausanne, a leading citizen and open lab community and association championing DIY and collaboration values applied to Biology and other fields, a.k.a. “biohackerspace”. Another challenge for Yann: make sure UniverCity, the third-space hosting Hackuarium’s activities and many other projects (such as a coworking space and a fully equipped makerspace), makes a name for itself and have an impact. He is also serving as a Board Member for the opendata.ch and coworking.ch associations. Yann tweets and boards trains way too much. Photo: “Captain Connection”, curtesy of Mike Sommer, in-objective.com

Team: Motivational Health

The PierX3 topic will be organized and run by Jean-Henry Morin and will be supported by THE Port association.





Boris Gojanovic

Boris Gojanovic (CH)
Boris is specialized in Internal Medicine (FMH), Sports Medicine (SSMS) and Manual Medicine (SAMM). He currently works at the Hôpital de La Tour as Health and Performance Medical Director. He develops physical activity for health, and medical support and counsel for performance improvement at all athletic competition levels as well as performs research in the field of sports medicine and physical activity for health.

Dejan Munjin

Dejan Munjin
Dejan is specialised in Service Science and holds a Phd in Social and Economical Sciences of Information Systems. He is active in R&D of innovations supported by information technologies in services industry and passionate about the Internet of Things with 13 years of experience in Software Development.

Jean-Henry Morin

Jean-Henry Morin (CH,FR)
As a concerned citizen, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Idea generator, Scientist, Jean-Henry is passionate about exploring new ideas to co-creatively rethink our digital society. He is an associate professor of Information Systems at the University of Geneva ISS-CUI and his research interests include Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Digital Policy Management (DPM) in the corporate sector (Corporate Governance and Compliance). He is curious about Media DRM, copyright and IP, Technology & Society, Design Thinking, Digital Responsibility and many other topics.

Jody Hausmann

Jody Hausmann (CH)
Jody has a MSc in Services Science & Information System (specialized in eHealth solutions). He is currently main manager of MobileThinking and customer product developer. He is an expert on developing solutions using sensors embedded into smartphone and designing new mobile products. He is a senior Android developer and he is specialist in several Web programming languages. He is also experienced in project management and public relations. From 2008 to 2014 he has been working as researcher at the University of Geneva. He was involved in several projects using smartphones’ sensors, mostly in the E-health domain. From 2001 to 2005 he was working as mechanical designer and team leader in the R&D departement of a micro-mechanical company.

Katarzyna Wac

Katarzyna Wac (PL)
Katarzyna is an Associate Professor of Computer Science (Human Centered-Computing), at the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is affiliated with the University of Geneva, where she leads the Quality of Life technologies lab.

Mattia Gustarini

Mattia Gustarini (CH)
Mattia has a MSc in Computer Science (specialized in distributed dependable systems) and he is currently completing a PhD in mobile context awareness. He is an expert in user’s data collection techniques, data analysis, data visualization, and patterns discovery. He is able to apply living lab study methods and manage and conduct users experiments. He is an extreme Android developer and programmer with more than 5 years of experience. Since March 2011 he is working at University of Geneva as a research assistant of the Quality of Life group. On October 2014 he co-founded the company MobileThinking active on mobile applications and services design, research, and development.

Michael Mesfin

Michael Mesfin (CH)
Michael is Co-founder and CEO of the Siltan Group. He is a Service designer and he Provides, through proficient service related research expertise, innovative empowerment frameworks, applications and methods to European organizations. He currently works on the business development of a Service Science related research project “STICS” (Services Tangibilisation Interactive Compliance System).

Nicolas Ducret

Nicolas Ducret (CH)
As a Designer, Entrepreneur, specialised in Experience Design, graduated from the Geneva University of Art and Design, over 13 years of experience in creative and art direction, Nicholas believes in the power of mutual knowledge sharing to tackle any wicked-problem situation.

Philippe Marchand

Philippe Marchand (CH,FR)
Philippe is a Sport Physiotherapist at Hopital de la Tour, specialized in physical preparation engineering, sports coaching, sports medecine and exercise physiology.

Partners & friends 2015

Our members, partners, sponsors and friends are from international and local non-governmental organisations and companies in and around Geneva, Switzerland.





Our team 2015

Without the enthusiastic voluntary work of our Organizing Team, Advisory Board and Executive Committee we could not work professionally – a big Thank You and it is fantastic to work with you.

Executive committee 2015

  • Ines

    Ines Knäpper

    President

    Project Manager with strong background in Intercultural Management, Sales and Customer Service.

  • Branislav

    Branislav Ristic

    Treasurer
    CERN

    Doctoral student working on silicon sensor technologies for the ATLAS experiment.

  • Karola

    Karola Dette

    Secretary
    CERN

    Doctoral student working on silicon sensor upgrade developments for the ATLAS experiment.

Organizing team 2015

  • Agnes

    Agnes Jakab

    Member
    THE Port

    International HR & recruitment professional. Communication and volunteering enthusiast.

  • Andrey

    Andrey Loginov

    Member
    Yale

    Physicist working on Transition Radiation Tracker and top(-pair) + Higgs data analyses.

  • Bilge

    Bilge Demirköz

    Member
    METU

    Associate Professor at METU working on the AMS-02 experiment.

  • Bruno

    Bruno Silva De Sousa

    Member
    CERN

    IT engineer, service manager at CERN.

  • Cecile

    Cecile Lapoire

    Founding Member
    CERN

    Physicist working on the ATLAS pixel detector, curious about art, human beings, life, universe, etc.

  • Clemens

    Clement Helsens

    Member
    CERN

    Physicist still searching for new physics in the top-quark sector in the ATLAS experiment.

  • Cristina

    Cristina Olivotto

    Member
    sterrenLAB

    Founder of Sterrenlab, working in the field of science communication and education in formal and informal environments.

  • Daniel

    Daniel Dobos

    Founding Member
    CERN

    Physicist working on Silicon & Diamond detectors development, integration and operation.

  • Hansdieter

    Hansdieter Schweiger

    Member
    CERN

    Mechanical Engineer working on Pixel detector and services upgrade for the ATLAS experiment.

  • Iulia

    Iulia Pascu

    Member
    CERN

    Project Manager, event organiser at CERN.

  • Jens

    Jens Dopke

    Founding Member
    RAL

    Physicist working on silicon detector construction, calibration and operation, big fan of electronics.

  • Joao

    Joao Pequenao

    Member
    CERN

    Chief Troublemaker at CERN Media Lab.

  • Juliet

    Juliet Primo

    Member

    Project consultant, communication and outreach.

  • Joona

    Joona Kurikka

    Founding Member
    Aalto University

    Doctoral student, Cooperation Associate at IdeaSquare@CERN.

  • Karolos

    Karolos Potamianos

    Founding Member
    Berkeley Lab

    Physicist and engineer working on silicon detectors, currently on the data acquisition for the ATLAS Pixel Detector, and data analysis.

  • Laura

    Laura Jeanty

    Founding Member
    Berkeley Lab

    Physicist working on data acquisition for the ATLAS Pixel detector with expertise in detector monitoring and data analysis.

  • Leonardo

    Leonardo Milano

    Member
    CERN

    Physicist working in the ALICE experiment.

  • Luisa

    Luisa Meneghetti

    Member
    IDMC

    Community manager and responsible for THE Port newsletter.

  • Marthe

    Marthe Dehli

    Member
    CERN

    Master’s student in entrepreneurship and business development doing a thesis on THE Port and start-ups emerging from the hackathon.

  • Michael

    Michael Kagan

    Founding Member
    SLAC

    Expert in large-scale data analysis, pattern recognition, and ATLAS pixel detector quality assurance.

  • Michael

    Michael Leyton

    Founding Member
    UTD

  • Oliver

    Oliver Keller

    Member

  • Patricia

    Patricia Montalvo

    Member

    I work as administrative manager. I love the idea of improving the life of those less favoured by using technology.

  • Pierre

    Pierre Freyermuth

    Member
    CERN

    Authentic Proton-breeder, Electronic technician and Java developer.

  • Ruben

    Ruben Fernandez Morcillo

    Founding Member
    CERN

    Mechanical technician with knowledge in rapid prototyping machinery. Currently working as safety officer.

  • Sylvain

    Sylvain Kaufmann

    Member
    CERN

    Process engineer in the electronics assembly workshop@CERN.

  • Tomoko

    Tomoko Muranaka

    Technical Project Manager
    CERN

    Physicist working on material characterisations for future accelerator developments.

  • Tuuli

    Tuuli Utriainen

    Founding Member
    Aalto University

    Piloting activities at IdeaSquare@CERN.

  • Vetle

    Vetle Nilsen

    Member
    CERN

    Working in the CERN Knowledge Transfer Group on topics around innovation and entrepreneurship.

Hugo DayJörg StelzerMarylin MarxOliver KellerStephan Petit

Knowledge Transfer

The Knowledge Transfer Group has the mission to optimize the impact of CERN’s science, technology and know-how on society. The Knowledge Transfer Group supports THE Port hackathon through providing informal advice on matters such as intellectual property, technology transfer and the use of CERN technologies.
Participants in THE Port hackathon are encouraged to look into possible uses of CERN technology in their projects and can make use this technology during the hackathon. After the hackathon, if any participants or partners wish to pursue further exploitation of CERN Technologies, they can contact the KT Group.
Learn more about the CERN Knowledge Transfer Group: cern.ch/kt.

Entrepreneurship Coach 2015

Felix Stähli

Felix Stähli (CH)
Passionate about social entrepreneurship and inspired by the idea of leveraging the potential of Geneva-based International Organizations for social innovation, Felix is one of four co-founders of Impact Hub Geneva. He leads internal organization, external space rental and partnerships. Alongside to his work at the IH GVA, Felix supports Just Innovate and the THE Port’s Humanitarian Hackathons as advisory board member. Felix holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute in Geneva. He worked as an assistant correspondent of an international newspaper covering the UN in Geneva and “La Genève internationale”, before joining a leading financial information company.



Impact Hub Geneva is an innovative, shared work- and incubation venue where connections, knowledge and resources drive changemakers to realize a new breed of solutions in service of society and planet.
It is part of a global grassroots network of over 70 connected communities/spaces that enable collaborative ventures. Impact Hubs unite people and organizations from every profession, background and culture with imagination and drive to pursue enterprising ideas for the world. Located at the heart of Geneva (right behind Cornavin train station), Impact Hub Geneva offers various incubation services to its members, as well as an inspiring space to (co-) work, hold meetings, workshops and special events.
Impact Hub Geneva

Advisory board 2015

Barbara Warmbein   •   DESY   •   Linear Collider communication and LHC communication for Germany

Ben Segal   •   Honorary CERN-IT staff member   •   Citizen Web Science projects, seminars and hackfests within and outside CERN

David Galbraith   •   Tech entrepreneur, former architect, now designer of digital things – including RSS, Yelp, ‘pinning’

Erik van der Bij   •   CERN   •   Departmental Knowledge Transfer Coordinator and Open Hardware advocate

Felix Stähli   •   Impact Hub Geneva   •   Internal Organization, External Space Rental and Partnerships

Francois Grey   •   Université de Genève and Citizen Cyberscience Centre   •   Associate Professor at the University of Geneva

Neal Hartman   •   Berkeley Lab   •   Director and President at CinéGlobe Film Festival

Robin M. Coupland   •   former ICRC   •   Field Surgeon and Medical Adviser

Sascha Schmeling   •   CERN   •   Head of Teacher Programmes and Education Research

Sara Sekkenes   •   United Nations Development Programme   •   Adviser, Conflict Prevention and Recovery