Unseen Insights 2025: Reconnecting people, the environment and data to address climate change
In November, the EPFL+ECAL Lab gathered experts and partners for its annual event Unseen Insights, in order to discuss art, design, innovation, and how to generate a lasting impact.
This 2025 edition was dedicated to the theme “Reconnecting people, the environment and data to address climate change”, the occasion to unveil the first prototype on smart water management that our team developed for the European project MountResilience. In this consortium of 47 partners, the EPFL+ECAL Lab together with local experts is building knowledge and concrete impact with a demonstrator in Valais.
The guests discovered the latest research projects led by the EPFL+ECAL Lab in the newly designed exhibition space organised around three main areas of work – Environment & Sustainability, Health & Wellbeing, Digitized Heritage & Social Dynamics. The team also shared updates on its healthcare projects, the new Master in Digital Experience Design led by ECAL in collaboration with the EPFL+ECAL Lab and fresh perspectives for 2026.
During the opening discussion, the following experts as well as the EPFL+ECAL Lab’s team shared meaningful insights on how to connect people with data to enable more sustainable decisions on different scales and in various fields.
Gerhard Andrey
National councillor on the Swiss Parliament and entrepreneur Gerhard Andrey is co-founder of the IT company Liip, also known for its Fairtiq transport app. After training as a carpenter and then a wood engineer, he gradually turned his interest to politics, focusing on the sustainable financial market and digital sovereignty. Recently, he was one of the makers of the e-ID in Switzerland.
Pr Sara Bonetti
Professor Sara Bonetti develops at EPFL holistic models to understand and forecast soil, water, and vegetation dynamics in natural and managed ecosystems, which is paramount for human wellbeing, biodiversity and sustainability. To reach this ambitious and essential objective, she develops, in her Laboratory of Catchment Hydrology and Geomorphology, mathematical models combining methods and data from hydrology, geomorphology, climate, ecology, and soil science, with amazing potential for the stewardship of sustainable ecosystems.
Pr Edouard Bugnion
EPFL’s Vice-President for Innovation and Impact, Edouard Bugnion is known as a researcher, innovator and entrepreneur. He came back in research as EPFL full professor in computer systems, data center and virtualization after 18 years in the US where he created several companies including VMware and Nuova Systems. His engagement in culture and humanitarian institutions fosters an obsession: linking science and innovation with impact to build a better and sustainable world.
EPFL+ECAL Lab team
Romain Collaud, Côme Brocas and Sebastian Baez Lugo will unveil the first design of the digital platform connecting citizens and keyplayers in the water management with the environment in real time: an exclusive preview of the Swiss demonstrator developed in the framework of the Horizon Europe MountResilience project, gathering 47 partners to address climate change.
