Lausanne, Switzerland, 1 July 2016 – Yesterday the members of the Silicon Valley Startup Camp selection panel convened in Lausanne to choose the ten local students who will be given the opportunity to travel to Silicon Valley this September to cultivate their entrepreneurial spirit.

The application and selection process for the fourth edition of the Silicon Valley Startup Camp, which was first launched by BCV in 2013, was announced in the press and promoted on Facebook starting in April. Some fifty students applied in total, and twenty finalists were brought in for interviews. The panel members were very impressed by the quality and diversity of the applications and the candidates’ enthusiasm.

In the end, three women and seven men showing particularly high potential were picked. Six of the successful candidates are from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), two from the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC/UNIL) and two from the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL). Students from the Vaud School of Management and Engineering (HEIG-VD) and the Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) were also among the applicants. This clearly shows that there is a budding entrepreneurial culture throughout the Canton’s higher education institutions.

Here are the names of the successful candidates:

• Yann Dubois, aged 20, EPFL
• Tristan Ducor, aged 22, EHL
• Matthieu Gallet de Saint Aurin, aged 21, EPFL
• Joël Iunius, aged 19, EPFL
• Amin Kasimov, aged 21, UNIL
• Thibaut Paschal, aged 20, EPFL
• Emilie Peres, aged 21, EPFL
• Vanessa Remy, aged 25, EHL
• Axel de Tonnac, aged 23, EPFL
• Cristina Tugui, aged 24, UNIL

In September they will spend a week in Silicon Valley, where they will have a packed schedule of tailor-made workshops, visits to universities and companies, and meetings with venture capitalists. The Camp is organized in cooperation with the Swissnex scientific platform in San Francisco.

The selection committee is made up of representatives from each of the project partners:

• Pierre Vandergheynst, Vice Provost for Education, EPFL
• Philippe Moreillon, Vice Rector, UNIL
• Florent Ledentu, Director of the Institut Interdisciplinaire du Développement de l’Entreprise, HEIG- VD
• Julien Guex, Assistant Director, Vaud Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Foundation for Technological Innovation (FIT)
• Bastien Bovy, Coach, Genilem
• Joao-Antonio Brinca, Head of Strategy & Organization, BCV
• Christian Jacot-Descombes, Press Officer, BCV

Contact

Christian Jacot-Descombes, Press Officer
Tel.: + 41 21 212 28 61
Email: christian.jacot-descombes@bcv.ch