Entrepreneurs’ Private Pains Earn 20,000 to Hone Customer Demand
31.12.2018
What started as two labmates discussing a tough research problem during a coffee-break, is now on its way to tests with prospective industrial customers. An entrepreneur’s impatience at slow sound-checks delaying his band practice, now has project founders heading to meet the music product industry’s decision-makers in California. May these inventors' pains, become global innovations!
 Bloch Labs co-founders Ian Rousseau and Pirouz Sohi
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 TYXIT co-founders Gaetan Fuchs and Raphael Buache
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Bloch Labs: Smaller, More-Economical Vacuum Gauges
Vacuum gauges to check the quality of high-tech computer chips use low-tech similar to incandescent lightbulbs. The filaments in such gauges require regular cleaning and replacement, causing costly halts to factory-line production. Researchers Ian Rousseau and Pirouz Sohi from the Ecole polytechnique fédéreal de Lausanne’s Advanced Semiconductors for Photonics and Electronics Lab have developed a smaller way of measuring vacuum pressure that’s more accurate across the full dynamic range and uses less power. Based on gallium nitride technology similar to LED lights, the lifetime of their chips may surpass that of filament gauges several times. This niche in the semiconductor industry is dominated by Inficon Holding AG and MKS Instruments Inc., can Bloch Labs become the third player?
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TYXIT: Wireless, Audio-Monitoring Device for Bands
His own frustration with the long and difficult set-up required for playing in a band led guitarist Raphaël Buache, a graduate of the School of Management and Engineering Vaud, to imagine a plug-and-play alternative suitable for all bands. Working with Gaétan Fuchs, a friend since they apprenticed as industrial mechanics draftsmen at Bobst Group SA, they are developing an all-in-one, wireless personal monitoring device for musicians. Next stop California, as TYXIT looks for potential partners at the biggest trade fair for the music products industry, and targets millions of amateur and semi-pro musicians in the U.S. market.
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