Café des Sciences Series
Café des Sciences is an event series at Swissnex in China initiated in 2019, offering a platform for Swiss spotlight scientists, start-ups, artists and designers to present their projects and connect with the local community. The lectures offer a casual setting in which speakers can present their work and engage with the attendees during a Q&A period. Starting in 2021, the lectures are scheduled to take place on the third Thursday of every other month at Swissnex in China or our partner spaces.
Event
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Café des Sciences: Space Exploration and Sustainability
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Café des Sciences: Design for Social Good
September 15, 2022In the upcoming Café des Sciences lecture, representatives from Zurich University of the Arts and Jiangnan University will join us to discuss the definition of social design today and why designers should take an active role in social change.
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Café des Sciences: Towards a Circular Economy: From Ideas to Practices
July 21, 2022In the upcoming Café des Sciences, Swissnex in China will partner with Impact Hub to present a special edition on Circular Economy and sustainable consumption. Representatives from Impact Hub Shanghai, Geneva and Lausanne will share their insights on how the hubs in various locations empower startups in social innovation.
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Café des Sciences: Sustainability Strategies for Mountains and Forests
May 19, 2022Join us in this special edition of Café des Sciences in Chengdu with researchers and experts from Switzerland and China to explore the topic of the protection of mountains and forests.
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Café des Sciences: L’innovation pour atteindre les Objectifs de Développement Durable
March 24, 2022Rejoignez-nous en ligne pour savoir comment les Objectifs de Développement Durable (ODD) peuvent être atteints au moyen de l’innovation.
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Café des Sciences: Assistive Technology for Individuals with Visual Impairment
January 20, 2022Join us in this edition of Café des Sciences to learn about what researchers are working on to improve the quality of daily life for individuals with visual impairment.
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Café des Sciences: Swiss Innovations Towards Green Mobility
November 18, 2021Join us in this special edition of Café des Sciences to explore the topic of green mobility and gain insights into Swiss companies’ solutions of achieving zero carbon transport.
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Café des Sciences: Wildlife Through the Lens
September 16, 2021Join this special edition of Café des Sciences with researchers from University of Zurich and Shanghai Natural History Museum to learn about fruitful progress of the “Triggered by Motion” project over the past year and to discuss optimized solutions in wildlife management.
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Café des Sciences: Acceptance of New Robot Technologies in Elderly Care
July 15, 2021Join us in the 28th Café des Sciences to explore the topic of robotics and the elderly care industry.
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Café des Sciences: Accelerating Green Finance
May 20, 2021Join us in this special edition of Café des Sciences in Chengdu to explore the topic of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and gain insights into the global and local ecosystem of sustainable finance from perspectives of both national policies and the private sector.
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Café des Sciences: Innover pour un avenir durable
March 18, 2021Des scientifiques et des startups de Belgique, du Canada, de France, du Luxembourg et de Suisse sont invités à présenter leurs recherches et leurs projets, suivi d’une session de questions et réponses.
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Café des Sciences: Sustainable Fabrics
January 21, 2021Fashion designers Jeanne von Segesser and Miranda Chen will share their first-hand experience in designing and producing sustainable fabrics.
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Café des Sciences: Virtual Theatre
December 17, 2020We will invite Gilles Jobin, Natacha Koutchoumov, Erik Kuong, Ophelia Huang, and Yuan Zhang, all experts in performing arts to share their thoughts on Virtual Theatre.
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Café des Sciences: Creative Switzerland
November 19, 2020Learn about the Swiss creative industries from speakers from Creative Hub Switzerland and six Swiss startups in the field.
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Café des Sciences: Rethinking Design
October 15, 2020Mr. Hongchao Wang, Creative Director and Co-founder of Benwu Studio, and Mr. Jean-Philippe Bonzon, Founder of Jpbdesign Studio will share their thoughts on design
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Café des Sciences: Blockchain, unchain the future
September 17, 2020Experts on Blockchain will guide us through their research and practices in the upcoming hybrid Café des Science Lecture.
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Café des Sciences: Shifting Design Paradigms
August 20, 2020Mr. Alex Sadeghi, Design Principal at Studiolite will share his practices in architecture and design as well as his insights and observation on the design trends.
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Café des Sciences: Connected, naturally
July 16, 2020Learn from ecopreneur Hans Galliker and educator Song Shu about ecovillage practice, sustainability research and holistic balance through Eastern philosophy.
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Café des Sciences: MaskTech – Science Revolution for Global Health
June 18, 2020Learn more about mask technology, the latest innovations and the Swiss ReMask project: with speakers from Empa, HEIQ and Helvitek Labs.
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Café des Sciences: The New Carbon Consciousness
May 21, 2020Join us to learn from Karolina Sobecka, artist and researcher at University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, on how the concept of “carbon” is shifting today, coalescing a new carbon-conscious culture.
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Café des Sciences: Qubits and Entanglement
April 16, 2020Join us to learn from Swiss quantum field experts Prof. Dr. Richard J. Warburton and Mr. Franck Franchin on the basics of quantum computing as well as its future global impact and applications. The Q&A session allows interaction between the expert and the audience.
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Café des Sciences: Vis le futur
March 19, 2020Des scientifiques et des startups de Belgique, du Canada, de France, du Luxembourg et de Suisse sont invités à présenter leurs recherches et leurs projets, suivis d’une session de questions et réponses.
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Café des Sciences: Scientific View on COVID-19
February 20, 2020Join us at this webinar to learn from two Swiss epidemiologists, experts on infectious diseases, and gain knowledge on viruses and COVID-19, specifically its transmission, severity, and pandemic risk. The Q&A session allows interaction between the experts and the audience.
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Café des Sciences: Internalizing Home Tech
December 19, 2019The 12th CdS event will have Vytautas Jankauskas, the Head of Research and Creation at the Chronus Art Center Lab, to present his fascination with how willingly people welcome the oddly polished technological infrastructures into our imperfect nests.
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Café des Sciences: Semiotics through New Media Art
November 21, 2019Collaborating with Chronus Art Center and its CAC_LAB, the eleventh CdS event will have Andreas Gysin, a designer from Lugano, Switzerland, to discuss his works on signage systems.
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Café des Sciences: Lives in Our Water
October 17, 2019Collaborating with rqmicro AG and Miss. Xueying Mao, the tenth CdS event will expand on modern analytical methods that help us detect and isolate microbes in drinking water.
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Café des Sciences: The Invisible Growth of Food Tech
September 18, 2019Mr Fabian Graf, the co-founder of the food tech startup Faitron, will dive deep into his entrepreneur experience and the technological progress behind food production.
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Café des Sciences: Technical Spiral that We Inspire
August 15, 2019Creating Symbiosis between Science, Technology & Design. In collaboration with Blockchain Centre Shanghai, Swissnex in China presents the 8th Café des Sciences Lecture in the evening of 15 August.
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Café des Sciences: From Architectural Anthropology to Digital Fabrication
July 18, 2019For the 7th Café des Sciences, you will have the opportunity to connect with two young architects graduated from ETH Zurich and have a glance at two interdisciplinary research fields of architecture studies.
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Café des Sciences: Engineering Microbes as Living Sensors
June 20, 2019Prof. Mario Andrea Marchisio, Post-Doctor from ETH Zurich, will give us a glance at his research on engineering microbes as living sensors.
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Café des Sciences: Exploring Virtual Reality. New Perspectives on Contemporary Dance & Medical Training
May 16, 2019Join our “Café des Sciences” event in May and meet the VR Pioneers – Gilles Jobin & Gauthier Dubruel.
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Café des Sciences: Fashion Design inspired by Architecture, Physics and Mathematics
April 18, 2019Join our “Café des Sciences” event in April and explore the design world of Swiss fashion designer Stefanie Tschirky.
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Café des Sciences: Looking Beyond the Horizon
March 21, 2019Science Talk & Startup Pitch: Francophonie Special Edition. Scientists and startups from Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland are invited to present their research and pitch their projects, followed by a social networking apéro.
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Café des Sciences: Drone Revolution: Impact-resistance for Inaccessible Places
February 21, 2019 — February 12, 2019For the 2nd edition of the “Café des Sciences” event series, we invite Xiaolin Briod-Wang – the General Manager of Big China at Flyability to share her insight of the Swiss safe drones.
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Café des Sciences: Shadow Banking in China
January 23, 2019Prof. Ying Liu, HEC Lausanne alumna and Assistant Professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics provided an overview of the shadow banking system in China.
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New Year Café des Sciences: IoT & Organic Waste
January 9, 2020A formal wrap up for 2019, this CdS will feature past speakers for their project updates, several awards for community members, a keynote presentation from Enwise CEO Stéphane Vernède as well as a live performance from Passepartout Duo.
Event Blogs
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Re-thinking Design and Social Innovation
September 27, 2022With technological and social improvements, the boundary of design is blurring; thus, the role of design needs to be re-defined. Nowadays, designs are more of human relations, environment, and social- and cultural developments rather than objects, information, systems, and services. In the 35th Café des Sciences Lecture, we were glad to have speakers from ZHdK and Jiangnan University share their perspectives on the role of social design.
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Innovation Approaches towards Circular Economy
August 3, 2022In the 34th edition of the Café des Sciences Lecture series, we were pleased to partner with Impact Hub and invited experts from Switzerland and China to explore the innovative approaches towards Circular Economy and Sustainable Consumption.
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Guarding the Healthy Mountains and Forests
May 27, 2022Collaborated with the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chengdu, the 33rd Café des Sciences Lecture with a special focus on the Sustainability Strategies of Mountains and Forests was successfully held at Zhongshuge Bookstore in Chengdu. Guest speakers from both China and Switzerland shared their research and projects on the protection of mountains and forests in Southwestern China.
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L’innovation pour atteindre les Objectifs de Développement Durable (ODD)
April 28, 2022Jeudi 24 mars 2022, un public animé a participé à la résidence de l’Ambassadeur de Suisse et en ligne à notre événement du Mois de la francophonie pour découvrir comment les Objectifs de Développement Durable (ODD) peuvent être atteints grâce à l'innovation. Cette édition spéciale de Café des Sciences, entièrement en français, a été organisée par l’ambassade de Suisse en Chine avec le soutien de Swissnex.
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“See” More with Technology
February 7, 2022On Jan 20, the 31st Café des Sciences event “Assistive Technology for Individuals with Visual Impairment” kicked off our 2022 lecture series focusing on the theme of social innovation. The event highlighted two researchers from Switzerland and one researcher from China working on assistive technology that can help visually impaired persons “see” more, and increase the level of accessibility in their life, study, and work.
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A Greener Way to Travel: Exploring Climate-Neutral and Decarbonized Transportation
December 16, 2021The 30th Cafe des Sciences zoomed in on the topic of green mobility, and we were pleased to have speakers from two Swiss companies devoted to green mobility and sustainable transportation.
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Wildlife Through the Lens: Utilizing Camera Traps in Modern Wildlife Conservation
September 23, 2021On September 16, 2021, Swissnex in China was delighted to present the 29th Café des Sciences: Wildlife Through the Lens, featuring Dilsad Dagtekin and Dr. Bicheng Li. This special edition stems from a relationship that can be traced back to September 2020, when Swissnex in China facilitated the collaboration between the University of Zurich’s “Triggered by Motion” project and the Shanghai Natural History Museum, which now hosts one of the project’s camera trap sites.
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Next Step, A Care Robot
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Green Finance, ESG and Beyond
May 29, 2021Swissnex in China was delighted to collaborate with the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chengdu again. As the birthplace of the world’s first paper currency Jiaozi, Chengdu continues her accelerating role in the financial industry and leads the FinTech and innovation scenes in Western China.
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Réaliser un avenir durable pour tous
March 26, 2021Afin de célébrer le mois de la francophonie, une édition spéciale Café des Sciences a été coorganisée avec d’autres pays et régions francophones le vendredi, 18 mars 2021.
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Contribute to Sustainability by Re-examining Your Clothes
January 26, 2021Discover sustainable fabrics from both the industrial aspect and the consumption perspective.
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Performing Arts of the Future
December 30, 2020Explore new possibilities of future interactions between art and science.
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Swiss Creative Industries in the Spotlight at the Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo
November 30, 2020Discover a hybrid format combining on-site and online exhibitions with Swiss Designers at YRDICIE.
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Unveiling the Backstage of Design
October 30, 2020Themed on Rethinking Design, we have invited two ÉCAL alumni designers to share their experience. Mr. Hongchao Wang is the Creative Director and Co-founder of Benwu Studio. Mr. Jean-Philippe Bonzon is a Swiss product designer and the Founder of Jpbdesign Studio.
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A Glimpse of Interdisciplinary Applications of Blockchain
September 25, 2020Dr. Siyan Xu from Tencent Research Institute, Prof. Claudio Tessone from University of Zurich and Luisa Kinzius from Sinolytics GmbH delivered their different research interests and shared their insights on the topic of blockchain.
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A peek into China’s design scene
August 21, 2020114 participants joined our virtual session on the state of the current architectural/spatial/crossover design scene in China, presented by Alex Sadeghi, Design Principal at SLT - STUDIOLITE & EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) alumnus.
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Connecting the dots between holistic mindset and sustainability practices
July 23, 2020This was our first offline event co-organized with Consulate General of Switzerland in Chengdu and was the first Café des Science Lecture hosted outside of Shanghai.
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Mask Revolution with Swiss Technology
June 23, 2020Face masks are one of the most discussed topics in recent times. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the widespread use of face masks by the general public to prevent the transmission of the novel coronavirus.
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Carbon Circulation & the Current Climate Crisis
May 29, 2020Ms. Karolina Sobecka went in-depth on the concept of “carbon”, carbon circulation in different forms, and what we as ordinary citizens can do to alleviate the current climate issues.
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Café des Sciences: Qubits and Entanglement
April 21, 2020Two renowned Swiss quantum field experts Prof. Dr. Richard J. Warburton, Director of NCCR SPIN Project and Professor of Experimental Physics at University of Basel provided us with a technical introduction to quantum computing, while Mr. Franck Franchin, President of Swiss Quantum Hub, illustrated for us the support for Swiss quantum startups.
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Café des Sciences: 5 pays et une langue (Edition Spéciale Francophonie)
March 25, 2020Cinq scientifiques et startups de Belgique, du Canada, de France, du Luxembourg et de Suisse ont été invités à présenter leurs projets et partager leur expertise sur l’intelligence artificielle dans la santé, l’environnement des animaux de compagnie, la géographie humaine et la technologie de capture de CO2.
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Café des Sciences: Scientific View on COVID-19
February 24, 2020Two renowned Swiss epidemiologists Dr. Christian Althaus, University of Bern, and Prof. Dr. Pietro Vernazza, Cantonal Hospital St.Gallen shared their expertise on infectious diseases as well as data-driven analysis to illustrate for us a comprehensive picture of the disease.
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New Year Café des Sciences: IoT & Organic Waste
January 14, 2020The New Year event featured multiple past speakers for their project updates, a keynote presentation from Enwise CEO Stéphane Vernède, a live performance from Passepartout Duo, and a community award.
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Internalizing Home Tech
January 10, 2020Vytautas Jankauskas, the Head of Research and Creation at the Chronus Art Center Lab, gave a comprehensive presentation on the history of his projects and the motivation behind his interest in smart home accessories.
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Semiotics through New Media Art
November 22, 2019Andreas Gysin, Swiss artist, residency artist at Chronus Art Center and Pro Helvetia, thoroughly went over his creations involving “found geometry” and urban signage systems, showing his interpretations as well as reconfigurations of the “signified” and the “signifier”.
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Lives in Our Water
October 21, 2019Ms. Xueying Mao, the Chief Representative of rqmicro AG China Office, gave an exceptionally educational presentation on water safety and legionella detection technologies.
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The Invisible Growth of Food Tech
September 24, 2019Mr. Fabian Graf, the Co-founder and CEO of the food technology startup Faitron, gave an exceptionally interesting presentation on the new trend Food 2.0 and its connection to his entrepreneurial development.
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Technical Spiral that We Inspire
August 21, 2019In collaboration with Blockchain Centre Shanghai, Swissnex in China presented its 8th edition of Café des Sciences Lecture on the topics of Quarks and design.
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Bring the Past Time Back or Live in the Future? Re-Thinking Architecture
July 25, 2019A very inspiring event with two ETH Zürich Alumni, Dr. Yifan Wang and Prof. Hao Hua from Southeast University, who gave us a glance at two interdisciplinary research fields of architecture studies.
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From Bio-art to Synthetic Biology
July 1, 2019Co-organized with Chronus Art Center, Swissnex in China presented a special Café des Sciences Lecture featuring synthetic biology with a guided tour of Bio-art Exhibition on 20th June.
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VR_I In Shanghai: Dancing In Immersive Virtual Reality
May 29, 2019VR_I: A Contemporary Dance Piece in Immersive Virtual Reality was brought to the Chinese audience for the first time.
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Fashion Design inspired by Architecture, Physics and Mathematics
April 29, 2019Swiss fashion designer Stefanie Tschirky was invited by Swissnex in China and shared her fashion world with the audience.
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Francophonie – A Call to Gather: Café des Sciences Special Edition
March 28, 2019To celebrate the Francophonie month of March, Café des Sciences Lecture series presented a special edition co-organized with other French speaking countries and regions.
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Discover Swiss Collision-resistant Drones for Inaccessible Places
February 22, 2019On 21st February, we organized an networking-event focused on Swiss safe drones in Shanghai. Including scientists, investors and experts from local drone industry, 50 registered guests came and joined the event.
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Successful Launch of the “Café des Sciences” Event Series with Deep Insights into Shadow Banking
January 28, 2019Overview of the shadow banking system in China. The launch of our new “Café des Sciences” event series.
