BERNINA Design Challenge: Sewing machine is a marvel of engineering

© 2022 EPFL Alain Herzog, introductory course on the BERNINA sewing machine Summer series - Bachelor's project (6). A group of around 15 EPFL students spent a semester working on projects using BERNINA sewing machines, dispelling common misconceptions and stereotypes in the process. In February of this year, some peculiar contraptions were installed in the main space at EPFL's Student Prototyping and Outreach Tank (SPOT), as five student groups set about learning how to operate Bernina sewing machines and run the versatile software developed by the famous Swiss manufacturer. Their aim was to examine how the machines could be improved or put to unconventional use. Gonzalo Rodriguez, an exchange student, was instantly drawn to the challenge: "I signed up for the project because I wanted to gain experience working directly with a company and better understand how the business world operates and carries out joint R&D with universities." The approximately 200 Bachelor's students (BA6) can chose from a number of concurrent engineering classes. The one given by Prof. Pedro Reis, who heads EPFL's Flexible Structures Laboratory (fleXLab), provided a ready-made setting for this first collaborative initiative between Bernina and EPFL. Prof. Reis is studying the properties of unconventional materials and their potential in a range of engineering applications, and every year gives the students in his class an opportunity to try their hand at something new.