Team SideLight
11 February 2025, Team SideLight enthusiastically embarked on its first day of outreach.We meticulously scheduled meetings with several bike retailers to discover the latest market innovations.At the same time, we connected with specialized rental companies to understand their needs and explore potential collaborations.These exchanges enabled us to identify professionals’ expectations and enrich our strategic vision.Buoyed by these initial interactions, our future efforts will focus on forging sustainable, mutually beneficial partnerships.This first step marks the beginning of a promising journey for SideLight in the dynamic world of cycling.
The sunrise at the Golden Gate
On February the 20th, a small subset of our team wake up early in order to witness the sunrise above the Golden Gate. I had brought with me my camera, which I intended to use to take pictures of the sunrise, however its battery sadly died just before the sun would start to show up. Still, I ended up taking pictures with my phone and I can confidently say this is the best view of the city you can experience there. Truly a must-do activity on San Francisco !
A ride with Waymo
During our innovation trip to the United States , we had the chance to experience something you can only find here – a fully autonomous ride with Waymo. In San Francisco, it’s surprisingly easy to book a Waymo. You just download the app, set your destination, and wait for your car to arrive – with no driver inside. These self-driving vehicles are now a common sight in the city, and locals barely react when they see one pass by. It’s part of their everyday life. What’s most impressive is how safe and smooth the ride feels. The car follows traffic rules perfectly, navigates busy streets, and constantly communicates what it sees through the screen inside. As passengers, we felt completely at ease – Waymo drives better than most humans! This kind of innovation is still unthinkable in most other countries. Seeing it in action in a real urban environment made it clear how far the U.S. has gone in embracing cutting-edge technologies. For us as innovation students, it was a powerful reminder that the future isn’t coming – it’s already here.
A Day at Stanford !
On February 21st, our group of twelve students set out early from the hostel, energized for a full day exploring Stanford University. The morning began with a guided visit to the iconic Stanford Memorial Church—a stunning architectural gem at the heart of the campus. With its vibrant mosaics, peaceful atmosphere, and rich history, the church offered a unique glimpse into Stanford’s cultural and spiritual heritage. In the afternoon, we shifted gears and visited Stanford’s Central Energy Facility, – an impressive example of innovation and sustainability in action. Designed to greatly reduce the campus’s carbon footprint while improving the quality of the service provided, the facility showcases how cutting-edge engineering can support large-scale energy efficiency. After some shopping at the campus stores, we made a quick stop at Apple Park to round off an inspiring day.
Figma
On February 13th, 2025, our group had the chance to visit Figma’s headquarters in San Francisco. Some of us, especially those studying Media Engineering, were particularly excited, Figma is a tool we use almost daily. The visit began with a tour of their vibrant, colorful offices, led by a designer on the team. The space felt like a perfect reflection of Figma’s brand : creative, playful, and thoughtfully designed. After the tour, we sat down for a conversation with three Figma employees : one from the development team, one focused on brand identity, and our tour guide from the design team. They shared insights into their work and the culture at Figma, and answered our many questions. One of the highlights was learning about Figma Slides, their new feature designed for creating presentations. They explained that many users were already building slides in Figma, so they decided to fully embrace that use case. They also shared how much fun the team is having experimenting with the feature, testing new ideas, iterating quickly, and seeing what sticks. It was an inspiring visit, especially for those of us passionate about design and media. Seeing how Figma builds its product and its culture, made us appreciate the tool we love using even more.
Swissnex: Promoting Swiss Excellence
At Pier 17 of the Port of San Francisco, a small yet striking detail catches the eye: a flag of Switzerland atop a building. A prominent CFF clock dispels any doubts that we’ve stumbled upon a piece of Switzerland right here in San Francisco. Adjacent to the Consulate General of Switzerland lies Swissnex, an initiative launched by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. It is part of the country’s global network managed by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Swissnex works closely with a wide range of partners in international research and innovation, connecting its partners to thriving innovation ecosystems around the globe while advising them on emerging trends and opportunities in science, education, and innovation. Additionally, it promotes the visibility of Swiss higher education institutions, research organizations, startups, and other innovative partner companies. Furthermore, it inspires new ideas through the promotion of knowledge exchange between these entities. We were honored to meet their team and take a tour of their office. During our visit, they enthusiastically shared a list of Swiss startups that they have partnered with and supported. You may recognize some familiar names among them.
Farm to Table @ Swissnex
On the Thursday of our first week in San Francisco, our host, Swissnex, offered us the opportunity to participate in an evening conference and networking event. From major innovation players from Nestlé to inspiring speeches from small entrepreneurs, a wide range of speakers gave us a very interesting insight into innovation management in San Francisco, as well as the overall future prospects for Food Tech. This conference also gave us a glimpse of the uses of speaking at this type of event. Speeches of ten minutes maximum, which simply give an outline of the subject being discussed, without putting the audience to sleep. A Q&A session is then proposed, before moving on to the networking part, which allows everyone to go and discuss with the speakers in order to go deeper into each subject. Finally, Swissnex provided us with the space and materials to present the three start-ups we worked on during the week. This led us to challenge the launch of our products on the American market, by discussing with the many people present. Thanks to the direct and honest feedback they gave us, we were able to make our work even more precise and clear the next day, during the final presentations of our work.
Kiwi Campus
Who are they ? Kiwi Campus, commonly referred to as Kiwi, is a Colombian-owned startup company that originated in Colombia, and later moved to California to expand its business. Felipe Chavez, the CEO of the company, decided to substitute human couriers with robots to lower delivery costs and increase efficiency. KiwiBots were first launched in UC Berkeley in 2017. What is it ? The Kiwi campus is located near the University of Berkley and offers food delivery with robots (called KiwiBots) for campus colleges. The company also delivers to parts of the city of Berkeley and on the Stanford Universitycampus in Palo Alto. Since the company started in 2017, it has made more than 90,000 deliveries. How does it work ? At first they tried using a single robot for the entire distance between restaurant and delivery, but found that inefficient. Kiwi uses now three kinds of robots: one to collect prepared orders from the restaurant, one with semi-autonomous tricycle in which orders are sorted, and a small four-wheeled “Kiwibot”, which can carry up to five orders. The delivey robots have six cameras and binocular vision for navigation and are largely autonomous but human operators at the company’s center in Bogotá take control when needed, such as when crossing streets. What do we think about it ? They may be quick, the company claims an average delivery time of 22 minutes, but they are not always efficient. Sometimes they miss a step, and stumble, sometimes they land at the wrong door. We may not be sure about their efficiency but they are a hit with students of the university of Berkley and with their digitally animated eyes, they surely are cute and laughable.
Adobe
Everybody heard about Adobe, and at least about their software “Adobe Acrobate” which you maybe use every day and allows you to manipulate your electronic documents in pdf format. Well, during a sunny Tuesday in February we had the opportunity to explore Adobe’s headquarter which is located in San José, California. Firstly, we were welcomed by Trung Bui that works there as a Senior Research Scientist. We could exchange with him over a coffee and learn more about how it’s working at Adobe and he shared his experience in the company. During this conversation we learnt that Adobe develops various software in Desing, Photoshop, technical communication, etc. We had the opportunity to visit all the Headquarter and to see from the building the beautiful landscapes over the city, San José’s airport and the hills.