Claudio Bruschini

Current Activities:

Independent scientific consultant (CBR Scientific Consulting, currently hosted at the Parc Scientifique on the EPFL site). Current focus: Preparation of (European) R&D project proposals. Scientific consulting. Execution of individual studies.

The Early Years:

Claudio was born in Genoa (Italy) on a - probably - hot summer's morning of 1964, the 24th of June. His brother Stefano followed about 1 1/2 years after, and their parents decided that it was somewhat enough. Anyhow, after refusing to go to kindergarten, he started his learning path with 6 years of Italian school, followed by 2 years at the Swiss School of Genoa - forgot to say, mummy is Swiss and daddy Italian. To be really mitteleuropean the last 5 years before university were spent at the German School, still in Genoa.

University (INFN)/CERN (particle physics):

Time for university, where he chose the simple way and went for physics (http://www.ge.infn.it/)... Claudio managed to finish in 1992, after a diploma work ("tesi di laurea") in particle physics which took two years, a couple of stays at CERN (http://www.cern.ch/) included. A period of great activity, in a small group (for particle physics standards), with great guys. For the specialists, he worked on the study and detailed simulation of a fast trigger within the Genoa group of the WA92 experiment, also known as BEATRICE, which was looking for Beauty particles in a fixed target configuration. Stefano had in the meantime studied Ecomics and left Italy for the Channel Islands, where he got married and happily lives. Claudio then continued the previous activity, partly with an INFN (Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics, http://www.infn.it/) fellowship, till October 1993.

CERN/GP-MIMD2 Project (particle physics, parallel processing):

In October 1993 he moved to CERN, where he stayed for a couple of years as "Fellow" in the CN (Computing and Networking, now Information Technology) division ( http://www.cern.ch/CERN/Computing.html ). He worked within the European Union sponsored GP-MIMD2 (http://www.cern.ch/GPMIMD2/ ) project - it's all about parallel processing and particle physics - attached to the CERN NA48 experiment (http://www.cern.ch/NA48/Welcome.html). The focus was on a (parallel) Montecarlo simulation program and a real-time calibration scheme for NA48's liquid krypton calorimeter (a large and complex detector). A rich experience indeed, especially on the human side. It even seems that his character got a little better over time...

EPFL/DeTeC (sensors for landmine detection/humanitarian demining):

Given that all (nice) things have an end it was time to move on and, looking around on Internet for a job, he found an "original" offer from the LAMI (Laboratoire de Microinformatique) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, which was about to start a project in (robotic) landmine detection for humanitarian demining applications. Claudio started in Lausanne at the end of 1995 to work on sensors for the detection of antipersonnel mines in the Demining Technology Center (DeTeC), the next step after the minerats, initially being supported by the ProVictimis foundation (Geneva). He discovered how real (Swiss) engineers work, new approaches, new ways of getting it done. With a little help from Prof. Nicoud, and from above, he stayed for a second year, concentrating on "technology watch", contacts, some Web efforts and metal detectors. As many before him he discovered that landmine detection is quite a motivating but tough business, given the inherently difficult nature of the problem (especially the one-sided detector configuration) and the formidable precision/security requirements (the infamous 99.6% detection rate, now superseded). He worked with the DeTeC folks, i.e. Bertrand Gros, Frederic Guerne, Pierre-Yves Pièce (part-time), Marc Schreiber, Olivier Carmona (part-time).

By the way, in his spare time (sic) he also followed the CAPA postgrad course on computational science/parallel processing.

EPFL/VUB (sensors for landmine detection/humanitarian demining), post-DeTeC era:

After the end of the DeTeC project (end of 1997), the DeTeC team was dissolved - such is life. The DeTeC activities have been documented as much as possible, and the corresponding website is still fully functional, containing amongst other things an extensive list of links and a large collection of GPR data. The DeTeC website is now definitively frozen.

Claudio also helped in transferring the test system and the sensors - using Prof.'s Nicoud Opel Astra Station Wagon in an epic but very pleasant Lausanne- Brussels trip - to the Free University of Brussels in spring 1998 (VUB, see also http://www.minedet.etro.vub.ac.be/). A number of projects have indeed been ongoing at the VUB concerning humanitarian demining, including in particular the EUDEM survey project (The European Union in Humanitarian Demining, 1998), which has been carried out as a VUB-EPFL collaboration. It was followed by the EUDEM2 three year EC sponsored support measure (2001-2004) - the freeely accessible EUDEM2 database, together with all the project's results, are available from the EUDEM2 main page. Other activities are still being carried out at the VUB in this research field.

During this period Claudio also completed his PhD thesis on "A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Frequency Domain Metal Detectors for Humanitarian Demining" (also available from http://www.dissertation.de/ or from Claudio himself). The thesis details an analysis of metal detectors (low frequency electromagnetic induction devices) with emphasis on Frequency Domain (FD) systems and the operational conditions of interest to humanitarian demining.
From the thesis' "Summary": "After an initial look at humanitarian demining and a review of their basic principles we turn our attention to electromagnetic induction modelling and to analytical solutions to some basic FD direct (forward) problems. The second half of the thesis focuses then on the analysis of an extensive amount of experimental data. The possibility of target classification is first discussed on a qualitative basis, then quantitatively. Finally, we discuss shape and size determination via near field imaging."

During this period Claudio also had the great pleasure of working with Prof. Edoardo Charbon, within the EPFL's AQUA group (Advanced Quantum Architectures), on topics as diverse as ultrasonic sensors for in-air application, optical 3D and high speed 2D sensing, sensor networks, or tracking/motion capture systems, in particular for the preparation of research projects.

Post-EPFL era:

Claudio is active since early 2005 as independent scientific consultant (CBR Scientific Consulting, currently hosted at the Parc Scientifique on the EPFL site). Current focus: Preparation of (European) R&D project proposals. Scientific consulting. Execution of individual studies. Please check the Parc Scientifique's entry (see under "Liste des sociétés") for more details.

You can reach him at :

Tel.: +41 (0)21 69 33911
Email: