Group of Energy Materials (GEM)

MER Jan Van herle

GEM Group of Energy Materials (STI-SCI-JVH)

Electrochemical Engineering

Our mission

Conception, design, fabrication, assembly, testing, diagnostics, analysis and modeling of fuel cells and electrolysers from Watts to 100 kW, in both high temperature ceramic (750°C) and ambient temperature polymer (20-70°C) technologies, for both natural and renewable fuels.

	Research topics
1	Understanding of the long-term durability of fuel cells and electrolysers, separating and quantifying the various performance degradation processes with time.
2	Designing, fabrication and buiding of fuel cell/electrolyser components and of dedicated test equipment, in particular for in situ measurements.
3	Multi-physics multi-scale modeling, from micrometric interfaces to complete systems, to support the design (axis 2) and performance understanding (axis 1).

Our key projects

Reversible-CH4

We develop a complete pilot installation to demonstrate real seasonal storage of renewable electricity to methane injected into the gas grid, using a reversible fuel cell/electrolyser system (10/30 kW), with negligible emissions. Full operation expected in 2027.

SolydEra (VD)
HES-SO-Sion Despraz (VD
SP Groups (VS VD GE)
Oiken (VS)
Gaznat (VD)

ANEMEL

Alcaline membrane water electrolysis, using only Earth-abundant materials, is designed and characterised in our lab, which promises game-changing performance for H2/O2 production. We validated a 1 kWe unit in our lab for >1000h with our home built test bench.

Canton VS - GEM start-up DeltaSpark EU partners Gaznat (VD)

HYSPIRE

Steam electrolysis in oxygen ion or proton conducting ceramics is performed at 500-700°C at small scale. In parallel, a powerful 3D CFD coupled multi-physics steam electrolyzer stack dynamic model was set up.

SolydEra (VD; IT)
EU partners NCEPU (China)

	Our results and highlights
1	Three connected papers were published on alkaline membrane water electrolysis, reporting some electrochemical analysis for the 1st time (on a stack); one paper reached the Journal cover.
2	Xinyi Wei (PhD thesis May 2025) received the Best Researcher of the Year Award from the EU Clean Hydrogen Partnership (Nov 2025), among 42 top candidates, a high international distinction for a young researcher (<35 yrs). Suhas Nuggehalli received a PhD Excellence distinction (Aug 2025) for his keen Entrepreneurship in parallel to the PhD thesis.
3	2 new very competitive EU calls were won (1.6 M€), with scores of 14/15 and 15/15. This maintains GEM as the No.1 lab of EPFL in EU grants.
4	1 patent filed, 1 start-up created (December 2025, DeltaSpark)
5	17 Journal articles published in 2025, 1 book.

Team & talents

Lab team size

21 members + 10 master students + 3 guest PhD students
The GEM lab is composed of 1/3rd PhD students, 1/3rd scientists, 1/3rd engineers

Specific Team Member

Samaneh Daviran develops novel protective coatings against steel corrosion, using cheap wet deposition techniques, and obtained a competitive Ignition Grant to pursue this work.
Hangyu Yu ran a fuel cell system on natural gas for 2 yrs, applying optimized control, succesfully defended his PhD thesis in Sep 2025, publishing several papers. His work is highly fertile for follow-up proposals.

Skills developed by the scientific team

Getting hands dirty in buiding and testing devices and specific characterisation equipment.
Training the brain into learning softwares, underlying maths, and programming code. Hangyu Yu released an electrochemical analysis tool to the scientific community.

Other

GEM Team members learn self-responsibility, how to work in a team, to raise funding, to network, to collaborate with other academic and industrial entities, and the necessity of legal frameworks.
Suhas Nuggehalli and Luc Bondaz raised 1.4 MCHF funding from multiple sources for their startup DeltaSpark.

	Regional and social impacts
1	Storing excess electricity into fuels for later reuse helps in making us less dependent on winter electricity import, which will become even more crucial if nuclear power is phased out. Already today we export 2x in summer what we import in winter.
2	Our seasonal storage pilot installation, CH4 to power (winter) and power to CH4 (summer), will be a first-of-a-kind hardware demonstration without simulating any component.
3	Our lab trains engineers for tomorrow’s technologies that define and shape the energy transition. Affordable available energy (clean and efficient) is a backbone of a productive industry and of a stable supportive society.
4	We initiate 15-20 new master students per year into our activities via direct project work.

Perspectives and challenges

Main opportunities

SOFCs on NG (elec. efficiency >60%, no pollution) are in high demand, owing to the exponential rise of AI and its power demand (1 data center = 28 MWe)
Demonstrating full seasonal storage feasibility with reversible power-to-gas-to-power and the gas grid
10/30 kW installation in Energypolis and 50 / 150 kW installation in Aigle with Gaznat and SolydEra
Produce clean liquid fuels from electricity and carbon-sources
Developing compact footprint alcaline membrane water electrolysis

Main challenges

Funding cuts and ferocious funding competition
Lack of test and fabrication infrastructure space
Europe’s harmful self-isolation in its energy transition choices.

Future Partnerships

Reinforce the Gaznat-SolydEra partnership; SolydEra is SOFC technology leading
Partnerships with other fuel cell / electrolyser companies
Alignment with the gas industry for CH4 as vector

Chair of Clinical Neuroengineering (UPHummel Lab)

Prof. Friedhelm C. Hummel

Defitech Chair for Clinical Neuroenginering - Hummel Lab

Clinical Neuroengineering

Laboratory

Our mission

The Hummel Lab aims to advance personalized neurotechnological interventions that enhance recovery of sensorimotor and cognitive functions in individuals affected by neurological disorders such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative diseases. By combining mechanistic insight into brain function and recovery with the development of predictive biomarkers, our goal is to translate personalized innovative neurotechnologies from the laboratory bench to the clinical bedside.

	Research topics
1	Better understanding of motor and cognitive functions and how they are implemented in the brain and their changes with healthy aging leveraging cutting-edge multimodal brain imaging, electrophysiology and behavioral tasks.
2	Better understanding neurological disorders using advanced brain investigation methods such as neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and brain stimulation to reveal how brain networks change in health and disease.
3	Developing neurotechnology-based therapies to improve the quality of life of patients with neurological disorders, translating cutting-edge brain research into effective, personalized clinical interventions.

Our key projects

Modulation of Learning

Having demonstrated striatal non-invasive deep brain stimulation for motor learning enhancement in healthy adults, we now extended findings to Traumatic Brain Injury and Mild Cognitive Impairment patients. Ongoing work targets more intensive protocols and stroke patients.

Academic Partners: Wyss Center, M. Wessel (Uni Oldenburg), E. Neufeld (ETHZ), IT IS foundation (Zürich), TI Solution (Zürich) and Clinical Partners: CRR, HVS, Berner Klinik.

Modulation of memory

Using tTIS with concurrent neuroimaging and immersive virtual reality, we investigate how non-invasive deep brain stimulation of the hippocampus modulates memory processes underlying spatial navigation and face–name associations. We demonstrate that targeted hippocampal stimulation can enhance navigation performance, strengthen associative memory, and increase hippocampal activity, advancing mechanistic understanding of memory modulation and opening new avenues for clinical applications in traumatic brain injury and dementia.

Academic Partners: J. Moon (KIST), I.Rektorová (CEIT Brno), M. Wessel (Uni Oldenburg), M. Bassolino (HES), K.Schaller (HUG) and Clinical Partners: CRR, HES, HUG.

ReverseStroke

A longitudinal multimodal study within the Sion clinical–research ecosystem, characterizing changes in neural mapping of arm and hand movements after subcortical stroke using neuroimaging, electrophysiology, noninvasive brain stimulation and behavioral measures.

Academic Partners: G. Courtine (EPFL), Karolinska Institute and Clinical Partners: CRR, HVS, Berner Klinik, CHUV.

	Our results and highlights
1	Publication in Brain of “Boosting hemianopia recovery: the power of interareal cross-frequency brain stimulation”. Brain 17 November 2025. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaf252
2	Pierre Vassiliadis receives the 2025 NCM young scientist award. Maximilian Wessel becomes Professor (Associate) at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. Estelle Raffin becomes Permanent Research Scientist at CNRS, Grenoble.
3	SNSF Lead Agency Brazil-CH FoG Project HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDEROPEN-01 ReverseStroke Project Akiva Foundation nDBS-TBI Project Wyss Lighthouse Partnership Project ApatTIS Project HORIZON-RIA Social and hUman ceNtered XR (SUN) Project SNSF Lead Agency CH-Cz NiBS-iCog Project
4	Pioneering non-invasive deep brain stimulation

Team & talents

Lab team size

24 (2025)

Skills developed by the scientific team

• Developing advanced skills in: Non-invasive brain stimulation, Systems neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Electrophysiology methods
• Learning to think critically

Other

Our lab is actively involved in outreach and dissemination activities to engage with the broader community.

We host annual visits for young pupils
(Collège de la Planta, Sion), offering them the opportunity to discover our research and explore the lab environment.
We participated at the Scientastic festival on EPFL Valais Wallis campus on May 17-18 2025, and to the TecDays in October 2025 at Lycée de la Planta.

Additionally, we are committed to professional development, taking part in training days such as the Journée de Rééducation at Clinique Romande de Réadaptation and Hopital du Valais where we contribute to advancing knowledge inneurorehabilitation.

In Spring 2025, we have organized a lab retreat in Commeire, a beautiful alpine setting in Valais, which offered a valuable opportunity to step away from our daily routines and reconnect as a team. Surrounded by the mountains, we took time to reflect on what we have achieved together, and discussed the challenges and opportunities ahead. The retreat fostered open exchanges, fresh perspectives, and a renewed sense of collaboration, ending with a shared fondue enjoyed with a view.

	Regional and social impacts
1	Advancing our understanding of neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer, stroke or traumatic brain injury, to develop innovative neuro-technologies based rehabilitation methods to improve patients’ life and provide first proof-of-concept for clinical translation.
2	Strenghtening the eco-systems of clinical translational research with clinical partners (HVS, CRR,…) and universities (HES-SO Valais-Wallis). Addressing core disorders impacting on health economics in Valais and develop novel treatment startegies. Strenghtening the clinical-translational eco-systems with clinical partners (HVS, CRR, Berner Klinik) and research institutions (HES-SO Valais, Sense, Spark).
3	Paving the way to new treatments, if successful strong impact on health economy and health costs.
4	Making Valais more attractive for translational neuroscientists, putting Valais on competitve map for translational neuroscience.

Perspectives and challenges

Main opportunities

Pioneer next-generation neurotechnologies, particularly non-invasive brain stimulation, and translate them from bench to bedside.
Strengthen collaborations with clinical partners to optimize patient recruitment and access.
Contribute to further building the vibrant clinical–scientific–innovation ecosystem in Sion.
Foster excellent working conditions and growth opportunities for all team members.

Main challenges

The distance between the main campus and Campus Biotech limits events, teaching, and collaboration; insufficient critical mass of neuroscientists and neuroengineers; challenges in patient recruitment.

Future Partnerships

Further collaborations within the Sion health, clinical, translational, and innovation ecosystem; the Pôle Santé will serve as an excellent incubator.