Founded in 1981 in Apples, Logitech transforms the ball mouse developed by EPFL professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud - itself the result of perfecting a pointing device invented at the Stanford Research Institute - into a commercial product. The first mouse sold by the company, the P4, which came out in 1982, and its descendants helped to popularize graphical user interfaces on computers.
Created in 1983 by Marc-Olivier and Pascal Demaurex, the industrial robotics company Demaurex successfully marketed the Delta robot, developed in the 1980s at EPFL to automate the packaging of chocolates, cookies and other delicate pastry products.
During their studies at EPFL, Patrick Thévoz and Adrien Briod had the idea of building a carbon cage around a drone in order to make it fly safely, indoors and above people. This will lead to the creation of Flyability, which will transform this innovation called GimBall into an Elios drone, capable of avoiding obstacles and absorbing shocks, and intended for inspection and rescue in places such as industrial chimneys, cargo holds, crevasses or collapsed houses.
Founded in 2001, Bluebotics develops and markets the ANT navigation system for industrial robots. Based on a laser analysis of its environment to detect obstacles, this technology does not require infrastructure such as cables, painted lines on the ground and other triangulation reflectors, to allow all kinds of autonomous industrial vehicles to move and adapt their speed.
Sophia, the artificial intelligence developed by Sophia Genetics since 2011, analyses the human genome in order to formulate personalized treatment recommendations for patients suffering from cancer or genetic diseases. Its "big data" approach identifies in particular key mutations that can be used to diagnose cancer or hereditary disorders much more quickly than before. It is already used by about a thousand hospitals in 80 countries and has screened more than 350,000 patients.
The first Nespresso capsules were launched under the guidance of Eric Favre, a Vaud engineer who invented the process in 1986. However, it is a series of successive innovations such as the reorientation towards the high-end consumer market, the creation of the club and orders via the Internet that will ensure its success.
Elite, founded in 1985, is a traditional mattress manufacturer and seems to be rooted in tradition rather than innovation. However, it has taken inspiration from the automotive market to create an innovative business model for renting its mattresses (Smart Lease) to its hotel customers. Integrated sensors measure bed usage and allow billing based on occupancy.
Created in April 2015, Batmaid is a platform that brings together employers and domestic cleaning professionals. It is in charge of managing the entire relationship, which allows an activity that is often practised under the table to return to the classical economy.
Kitro has developed a weighing system for food thrown away in restaurants, but its innovation is above all of an organizational nature. The software system that processes the information establishes a relationship between food waste and costs. Its analyses thus make it possible to reduce what will be thrown away by up to 60%.
Incubated at the Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne, PrivateDeal has developed a particularly clever marketing innovation. Large Internet booking sites prevent hoteliers from selling off nights without a reservation under their own negotiated rates. The PrivateDeal widget, which is added to a hotel's website, allows the customer to offer his own price so that the hotel is free to accept it, in order to avoid a room remaining empty.
Video "Our region has the opportunity to be among the top five innovation hubs of tomorrow"
Innovation, the Key to Vaud's prosperity
International Comparison