Prof. Dr. Véronique Michaud heads the Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites and is Associate Dean of the School of Engineering, in charge of Education, at EPFL. Her research addresses fundamental questions related to the manufacturing of polymer based composite materials, as well as on integration of functions (adaptive composites with shape memory alloys or piezoelectric particles, integration of optical fibers, shear thickening suspensions and/or self-healing mechanisms). Within SCCER Mobility, she is active in Capacity Area A3 that investigates technologies and strategies to minimize non-propulsive energy demand of vehicles for improved efficiency. This includes new processing routes for high volume production of lightweight thermoplastic materials. These could help reduce the energy consumption of vehicles by decreasing their weight. Dr. Michaud stresses that other non-propulsive aspects need to be considered as well, for example “a large fraction of the energy consumption in a bus or tram is related to passenger comfort (heating/cooling), and that this point is not really well tackled yet from a vehicle conception perspective”.

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