Venture Leaders Award

PhD Student Silvia Santini Receives Award for Business Idea

10 April 2007

At the end of March, the federal initiative "venturelab" in collaboration with the Gebert Rüf Foundation awarded the 20 most innovative and talented young Swiss entrepreneurs and researchers a 10-day support program near Boston (USA). The center of attention was placed on the market potential of the presented technologies and business ideas as well as the personal motivation of the participants as opposed to ready-to-use products and services. Among the eight ETH laureates is Silvia Santini, PhD student at the Institute for Pervasive Computing, with her project "Micro-Environmental Monitoring on Demand".

By Katja Abrahams

Silvia Santini Among the 20 Swiss Most Talented Young Researchers

"I am very happy about this award, especially because my project Micro-Environmental Monitoring on Demand is directly connected to my research here at ETH", says Silvia whose PhD is sponsored by the National Center of Competence in Research for Mobile Information and Communication Systems. The Italian-born young woman studied electrical and communication engineering in Rome and started her PhD at ETH at the end of 2004. Friends and an e-mail advertisement from "venturelab" convinced her to apply for the program. In February she was one of 140 young scientists who turned in their applications. As one of the 40 shortlisted, she presented her project in a 10-minute presentation followed by a Q&A session in front of a jury of representatives of the Swiss Start-up scene. One week later she was informed that she was among the 20 winners of the "venture leaders" support program.

Promising Future: Micro-Environmental Monitoring Using Sensor Technology

Silvia’s project deals with wireless sensor networks used for the exploration and control of several environmental parameters, such as air pollution and local noise exposure. The technology in which wireless sensor networks communicate data to a control center for analysis without human interaction allows to observe the environment during a longer time period. "Potential users of this technology are environmental authorities, private customers and real estate agents, who could make quality certificates about certain neighborhoods and buildings based on the measurement results available to their customers", explains 28-year-old Silvia.

The PhD candidate is particularly interested in the application of the sensor technology to fight noise pollution, a problem public opinion and policy makers pay more and more attention to. "People who are constantly exposed to city noise, caused by construction sites, traffic and commerce put their health at risk. Noise has a negative impact on people’s performance and concentration abilities and causes the emission of stress hormones and increases the breathing and heart rates. Therefore, the EU adopted a range of urgent measures to get an idea of the importance of the problem", says Silvia.

Support Program and Networking as Reward

After finishing her PhD, presumably in 2008, Silvia could envision founding a Start-up company together with motivated colleagues, to put to work her ideas and her technical know-how. "The technology is already available and delivers safe results even if it is not very easy to handle for non-experts. However, if you are committed to what you do and catch the right moment, your chances are good", she is convinced. Silvia looks forward to the packed 10-day support program she will attend in Boston starting on 13 June. Apart from entrepreneurial strategies, networking - including the exchange with other young researchers and entrepreneurs - will be an important part of the program. Perhaps Silvia will even be able to find future business partners during the program: she is aware that there are already a couple of successful Start-ups dealing with wireless sensor networks in the US.

Further information at:

http://www.venturelab.ch/dt/NewsDetail.asp?id=270632

http://people.inf.ethz.ch/santinis

http://www.mics.org