Applied research at the HES-SO supports local SMEs
The impact of the pandemic on SMEs is unmistakable. Against this background, the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the HES-SO has launched an extraordinary call for projects entitled "Après Covid-19" with a budget of CHF 1.65 million. This will support 33 concrete projects in collaboration with local companies in Western Switzerland.
Numerous Swiss SMEs have been affected by the pandemic in very different ways: Entire sectors of the economy have been paralyzed, global markets have slowed down, suppliers have fallen behind schedule or staff have been absent. Despite these difficulties, however, it is crucial for them to remain competitive and continue to offer innovative products. Applied research at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland HES-SO now wants to support SMEs with concrete projects.
Applied research for the benefit of SMEs
The projects were selected from 100 submissions and come from all the colleges of the Engineering and Architecture Department of the HES-SO: HE-Arc Ingénierie, Fribourg School of Engineering and Architecture - HEIA-FR, Haute école du paysage, d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Genève - HEPIA, HES-SO Valais-Wallis School of Engineering - HEI, Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud - HEIG-VD and Changins School of Viticulture and Enology.
The numerous responses to this call for proposals show that researchers from the HES-SO universities maintain close links with SMEs and have skills that enable them to support these companies in their innovation process, regardless of the economic circumstances. The 33 research projects that emerged from this extraordinary call for projects are short-term projects to be completed by the end of 2021. Some enable new technologies to be tested, while others focus on developing innovations that can be used directly by companies.
Wide range of projects
One of these 33 projects is a collaboration between a team of engineers from HEIA-FR and the Freiburg-based startup Softcar. This company wants to launch an electric city car in the coming months and is developing a gas-powered range extender for this purpose in partnership with HEIA-FR. This would give the city car a range of 400 km, compared with 170 km today.
A team from HE-Arc Ingénierie is again developing a new electropolishing process for beta titanium for the watchmaking industry: a material that has excellent cold forming properties and is therefore of great interest to the industry. For this, the team is working with the PX Group - an SME from La Chaux-de-Fonds specializing in high added-value metals.
In Yverdon-les-Bains, engineers work hand in hand with the company Livetools Technology, which provides high-end broadcasting technology for major sporting and cultural events. After all of these events were canceled as part of the pandemic response, the SME wanted to expand its product range and secure a good position for when the market picks up again. To do this, the company turned to the engineers at HEIG-VD: They support the SME in the integration of new algorithms so that in the future, flawless image quality can be achieved at major events, regardless of constraints such as weather or interference with other transmission systems.
Source: HES-SO
