WHO WE ARE

It’s all about people.

Flavio Noca, PhD

Flavio Noca, PhD

Professor of Aerodynamics

 

I have spent more than two decades in the United States, as a student, researcher, and lecturer in the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech, Pasadena, USA) as well as a research engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, USA). Since mid-2000, I have been in Switzerland teaching and conducting research in fluid mechanics and aerodynamics at HEPIA (HES-SO University of Applied Sciences). I am also lecturing (Compressible Fluid Mechanics) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

Africa 1965 - 1983
USA 1984 - 2005

Switzerland 2006 - present

Pictorial Research History

Laboratory Scientists and Engineers

 

 

Thierry Bujard

Thierry Bujard

Thierry received his Master’s degree from the University of Southampton (UK) in Naval Architecture. For his MS thesis, he desgined and built a functional jellyfish-like robot. He completed his Bachelor thesis at Caltech, by designing, building, and flying a drone in a wind tunnel under MOCAP control.

Luca Bardazzi

Luca Bardazzi

Thierry received his Master’s degree from HES-SO. He is co-founder of WindShape, and his design skills have led him from underwater drones to fully functional digital wind facilities and space capsules.

Nicolas Bosson

Nicolas Bosson

Thierry received his Master’s degree from the University of Southampton (UK). He is co-founder of WindShape. He applies his rigorous measurement skills to any experimental platform.

Cyprien de Sepibus

Cyprien de Sepibus

Cyprien is working on his MS degreee at EPFL. He is a fixed-wing drone pilot and design prodigy.

Geshanth Visvaratnam

Geshanth Visvaratnam

Gesh received his BS at HES-SO Genève, working at CHACHACHA. He developed a robotic procedure for measuring flows in front of a windshaper..

Theo Mercat

Theo Mercat

Theo received his BS and MS from HES-SO. His expertise is in mechanical design, for space and aeronautical platforms.

Luca di Matteo

Luca di Matteo

Luca received his PhD from Brown University. He has expertise in drone development. He has published in Interface Focus and Science (Robotics) as a fist author, and received the “La Recherche” Prize for Best Technological Development in 2017.

THE People

2019

 

Enrico Ajanic

Enrico Ajanic

Doctoral Candidate

Enrico has designed, built, and tested an Avian-Inspired MAV with Synergistic Morphing Wing and Tail for Multi-Role Flight.

Jean-Baptiste Gilles

Jean-Baptiste Gilles

EPFL

Jean-Baptiste characterized the aerodynamic properties of the senseFly ebeeX.

Marie Dayer

Marie Dayer

Engineer

Marie worked on simulating the aerodynamics of senseFly drones using Lattice-Boltzmann methods.

Jean-Philippe Kuntzer

Jean-Philippe Kuntzer

Engineer

Jean-Philippe developed a methodology to measure and computer boundary layer transition on a human-powered vehicle.

Mehdi Rezzouk

Mehdi Rezzouk

Engineer

Mehdhi implemented a Lattice-Boltzmann solver to bicycle wheel aerodynamics.

Thibault Bratschi

Thibault Bratschi

Engineer

Thibault studied ground effect on drones.

Nathan Pellaux

Nathan Pellaux

Engineer

Nathan investigated the effect of sweeping jets on blades of wind turbines for flow control in gusty environments.

2018

 

Prof. Mir Feroskhan

Prof. Mir Feroskhan

Professor at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

As a postdoctoral fellow, Mir ran aerodynamic tests in a WindShape wind facility on a novel feathered drones built by Enrico Ajanic.

Pierre Barlow

Pierre Barlow

Engineer

Pierre designed and built a snow making system based on the design from the Institute for Snow and Avalanches in Davos for testing drones.

Adrien Fleury

Adrien Fleury

Engineer

Adrien automatized the control of drones in a motion captured camera environment.

2017

 

Cédric Michel-Grosjean

Cédric Michel-Grosjean

Trackside Car Performance Engineer for McLaren F1 Racing

Cédric developed a test bench for the McLaren wind tunnel for his Master’s project.

Raimondo Pictet

Raimondo Pictet

Engineer

Raimondo did his Master’s thesis at Caltech designing and building a propeller instrumented with sweeping jets.

Matteo di Luca

Matteo di Luca

Doctoral student, Brown University

Matteo built and tested a new feathered drone, which won the award for best technological achievement in 2018 by the magazine La Recherche.

Jan Duba

Jan Duba

Engineer at Rolex

Jan did his Bachelor’s thesis at Caltech designing the control system for a propeller instrumented with sweeping jets.

Thierry Bujard

Thierry Bujard

Engineer

Thierry designed a built a quadcopter drone in order to perform flow measurements in a wind tunnel.

Alexandre Kolly

Alexandre Kolly

Engineer

Alexandre designed a second version for a proppeler test-bench instrumented with air injection mechanisms..

Thibault Grillet

Thibault Grillet

Engineer

Thibault developed a setup to investigated bicycle wheel aerodynamics in a water channel.

Alexandre Faimali

Alexandre Faimali

Engineer

Alexandre did research on the possibility of having a permanent flying drone.

2016

 

Chama Bennani

Chama Bennani

Engineer

Chama worked on the evaluation of viscous friction on an oscillatory disk from PIV data.

Nicolas Bosson

Nicolas Bosson

Research Engineer at WindShape

Nicolas designed and integrated sweeping jets on a NACA 0012 airfoil and performed the tests in the Caltech wind tunnel.

Flavio Suva

Flavio Suva

Engineer

Flavio performed 3D PIV for his Bachelor project at Caltech.

Albéric Gros

Albéric Gros

Marketing & Sales at WindShape

Albéric worked on the temperature effects on sweeping jets at Caltech for a Boeing flow control project.

Lionel Wilhelm

Lionel Wilhelm

Engineer

Lionel first worked on Lattice-Boltzmann methods before turning his attention towards supersonic flows for the swiss space shuttle system.

Quentin Corthésy

Quentin Corthésy

Engineer

Quentin investigated the measurement of force using 3D PIV data.

2015

 

Guillaume Catry

Guillaume Catry

WindShape CEO

Guillaume designed and manufactured the first prototype of a drone wind facility. He then founded WindShape.

Mark Vujicic

Mark Vujicic

Pilatus Test Pilot

Mark designed a rocket nozzle cooling jacket for the Swiss Propulsion Laboratory (SPL) during his semester project, and then moved to Caltech for his Bachelor thesis to work on the implementation of sweeping jets on a propeller.

Justin Mercier

Justin Mercier

Engineer

Justin studied the effet of sweeping jets on a Boeing 757 vertical stabilizer.

Luca Bardazzi

Luca Bardazzi

Co-founder and Research Engineer at WindShape

For his Bachelor project, Luca Bardazzi designed and built from scratch a working underwater drone for the Norwegian company Water Linked.

Gustavo Rios

Gustavo Rios

Engineer at Meggitt

Gutavo developed a new instrument for calibrating pressure sensors at high frequencies.

Ricardo Monteiro

Ricardo Monteiro

Engineer

Ricardo setup a 3D PIV system.

2014

 

Gautier Rouaze

Gautier Rouaze

Software Engineer at JJ Cooling Technologies

Gautier worked on a the unsteady flow around a plate using a Kuka robot, PIV, and a high speed camera in a towing tank that he designed.

Damien Fulliquet

Damien Fulliquet

Engineer

Damien studied the effect of sweeping jets on a propeller based on NACA 0012 airfoils in the Caltech large wind tunnel facility.

Yann Glauser

Yann Glauser

Engineer

Yann developed a valve for sweeping jets to be mounted on a Boeing 757 tail.

Antonio Duarte

Antonio Duarte

Engineer

Antonio developed a methodology for visualizing aerodynamic flows with helium-filled soap bubbles.

2013

 

Maxime Petitpierre

Maxime Petitpierre

Swiss A320 Pilot

Maxime has done his Bachelor project on trying to improve the aerodynamics of the senseFly drone.

Mylèna Bouchardy

Mylèna Bouchardy

Instrument Technician

Mylèna worked on setting up a 3D PIV system.

Mohamed Sarikaya

Mohamed Sarikaya

Engineer

Mohamed designed and built the driving system for the towing tank carriage.

2012

 

Benjamin Vial

Benjamin Vial

Engineer

Benjamin has designed and built a mechanical stand to study rotating propellers with flow injection and did his work at Caltech.

Loic Valélian

Loic Valélian

Engineer

Loic designed the power system for a rotating propeller.

2011

 

Aidan Jungo

Aidan Jungo

Research Engineer at CFS Engineering

Aidan worked on the optimization of Mavic bicycle wheel CXR80 with a water model in a towing tank.

Bassem Sudki

Bassem Sudki

Research Engineer

Bassem designed a 3 DOF spherical joint for underwater propulsion.

Fabien Crisinel

Fabien Crisinel

Engineer

Fabien performed experiments on a bio-inspired 3 degree of freedom propeller .

David Craquelin

David Craquelin

Engineer

David designed a mechanical device to probe oxygen content based on paramagnetism.

Sébastien Robatel

Sébastien Robatel

Engineer

Sébastien studied the feasibility of a hydraulic cavitation tunnel.

2010

 

Jérôme Herpich

Jérôme Herpich

R&D Manager at Symbios

Jérôme designed and developed a 6 DOF system for testing flapping wings fro hydrodynamic propulsion.

Cuong N. Duong

Cuong N. Duong

Senior Manager at Accenture

Cuong programmed a 6 DOF robot  and ran PIV on a flapping penguin-like actuator for his EPFL Master’s thesis.

Colas Jacquemet

Colas Jacquemet

Engineer at ONERA - Modane

Colas studied the aerodynamics of dirigibles.

2009

 

Pierre Munier

Pierre Munier

Research Engineer at PLS Fluid Dynamics

Pierre was one of the most brilliant students at hepia. He designed the full data acquisition interface for the wind tunnel, and then moved to DLR Göttingen in the group of Markus Raffel for his Master’s thesis, where he performed the highest resolution PIV on a helicopter blade.

Grégory Sokolowski

Grégory Sokolowski

Engineer

Grégory developed a honeycomb for a vertical wind tunnel in order to straighten the flow for the aerodynamic characterization of volcanic rocks (University of Geneva, Professor Costanza Bonadona).