Michele Magno head of new Centre for Projects in Education and Teaching
This month Dr. Michele Magno, D-ITET lecturer and until now employed at the Microelectronics Design Center, has started his position as Head of the Centre for Projects in Education and Teaching. The aim of the newly created centre is to support and enhance project-based learning activities at a departmental level. It will offer larger and interdisciplinary projects for students on all levels of their studies. An interview with Michele about his goals and tasks in the next months.
As head of the new centre you are responsible to start, run and manage its activities. What will your tasks look like in the coming weeks and months?
I will have a busy time with several activities. The first task of the year is to meet all the professors at D-ITET to share ideas, find projects of interest and propose new activities for project-based learning. In parallel, I will set up the centre, buy equipment, organize the new spaces, offer new P&S (projects and seminars) courses and group projects and organize two flagship projects for Bachelor’s students. One of the goals is to start larger and inter-departmental projects that can also succeed in international competitions. I would also like to organize events to show the various projects to students and other groups. An "open house" day for the industry and the public is also planned. Finally, I will try to involve companies in the centre activities to help us solve challenging problems, but also as sponsors.
“I am very excited about starting the centre to create a novel and different way to train our students and to launch ambitious projects where the students can challenge themselves. ”Dr. Michele Magno
Which are two the flagship projects you have in mind?
The first idea is about smart and energy-autonomous biomedical patches that can continuously monitor the body bio-signal and generate wireless alerts. This project needs expertise from several D-ITET fields, ranging from developing biomedical sensors, designing low power analogue and digital Integrated Circuits, implementing signal processing and machine learning, to investigating energy-efficient communication, employing new materials and new high-density small batteries as well as exploiting algorithms to eventually control the actuators. Other projects will be launched after the first year to ideally include all the different research areas we cover at D-ITET.
Moreover, I will launch an internal competition for students called "ETH-ITET Global Problem Solver Challenge". The students can propose projects and the centre will support them in their activities and find other students with different expertise to complete the team. The main goal is aiming to participate in the "CISCO Global Problem Solver Challenge", where the team can win up to 100.000 dollars. The centre will advertise the internal challenge and the rules to participate already in February 2020.
Will you recruit additional staff?
The plan is to recruit three new excellent persons with a PhD degree and diverse backgrounds to help me build up this very promising centre, deal with teaching activities, and support the students in their projects and hands-on learning.
What are you most looking forward to in your new job?
The centre has several goals to achieve and many diverse activities, such as teaching, industrial collaboration, events and competition, fundraising as well as interdisciplinary projects. I believe the centre has a huge potential to grow at D-ITET!
You are a lecturer. Will you still have time to teach?
I love to teach and supervise students. So I will probably always find the time to do it. Actually next semester, I am launching two new P&S courses complementing the already existing courses.