Educational activities

At Bachelor level:

Mechatronics course (two terms, second year of study): introduction to electro-mechanics, sensors, signals and systems, feedback control.
Electronics course (one term, third year of study): PLL, oscillators, noise, ADC and DAC, sampled systems, digital filters and controllers.

At Master level:

Micro-positioning course (one term): components and system design aspects of mechanisms carrying out small displacements.
Advanced Electronics Design course (10 weeks): operational amplifier architecture, interface circuits, ADC and DAC, in particular sigma-delta conversion technique.
Hi-Rel Electronics course (10 weeks): tools for the reliability analysis of electronic systems, i.e. failure modes, parts stress, worst case, reliability prediction, test planning.
Mechatronics course (one term): analysis, simulation and design of cinematics and dynamics of articulated mechanisms

Directed 30 Bachelor and 10 Master theses, co-reporter of 3 PhD theses at EPFL.

Current research

Engineering for metrology and instrumentation, where high resolution, good dynamic behavior and precision are key issues:

Robust electronics for harsh environments, e.g. space flight, under-ground and environmental investigations.
Active and passive noise reduction in electronic circuits. Auto-zeroing and double correlated sampling, application to sensing acquisition circuits.
Measurement and digitization of slow signals (periods from seconds to days) and of small electrical quantities, in particular using lock-in techniques.
Measurement and interpretation of the frequency response of impedances and transfer functions. Separation of different contributions to the impedance of a circuit.
Signal processing and automatic control oriented towards hardware implementation, analog and digital. Adaptation of algorithms to hardware implementation.

Recent projects

CPPS – Educational center for earthquake prevention (2013-2016)
5m x 6m 3D earthquake simulator for public demonstrations and non-structural component tests, small 1D and 2D shake tables and experiments.
SCCER-SoE (phase 1, 2013-2016)
"Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Electricity" is a national competence center to develop fundamental research and innovative solutions in the domains of GeoEnergies and HydroPower granted by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI).
> Harsh environment sensors for seismic borehole monitoring and water reservoir detection, first installation of deep borehole seismometer at Lavey-les-Bains end of 2016.
IS-FEE and GRS-FEE (2005-2016)
Design and test of position sensing front end circuits for inertial sensor of gravitational wave detector, flight electronics (12 A4 size electronic PCBs) successfully launched in 2015 within LISA technology package on LISA Pathfinder mission, currently operating at L1 point
Several on-going instrument developments for environmental monitoring (2017-2020): 6d rock fall extensometer, electronic limnimeter for mountain rivers, bedload sensing in mountain rivers, autonomous lidar for 3d terrain monitoring, electric impedance soil tomography, sky camera for short term PV production prediction
FlècheBike (2019-2020) : Fast charging technology for e-bike batteries

Publications during the last eight years

Conference contributions (not reviewed)

Monitoring of Geothermal Energy Reservoirs, Ch. Cachelin, Ch. Praplan, S. Gallay, D. Berthousoz, E. Mabillard, J. Moerschell, SCCER-SoE Conf. 2019
Mesures géophysiques autonomes et permanentes, Ch. Cachelin, Ch. Praplan, J. Moerschell,Journées de la recherche HES-SO 2018, Fribourg
Développement d’un extensomètre 3D innovant pour la surveillance d’instabilités rocheuses, G. Emery, F. Baillifard, R. Mayoraz, J. Moerschell, Journées biennales de géosciences et de sciences de l’environnement, Lausanne, 2018
Surveillance du manteau neigeux et de l'humidité du sol par mesures électriques
Carrupt A., Ganchinho A., Moerschell J.
Journée Biennales des Géosciences et de l'Environnement, UNIL, Lausanne, Suisse
LiDAR autonome pour la surveillance de terrains
Stephan M., Laros J., da Rocha J., Luginbühl F., Romanowicz K., Steiner A., Moerschell J., Draeyer B.
Journée Biennales des Géosciences et de l'Environnement, UNIL, Lausanne, Suisse
Limnimeter for Mountain Streams
Bardou E., Cachelin Ch., Emery G., Moerschell J., Travaglini E.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
SismoRiv: an innovative system for bedload monitoring based on the measurement of seismic noise through river banks
Mayencourt L., Moerschell J., Travaglini E., Ornstein P., Schneider T.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
PiezoEel: an Energy Harvester for Mountain Stream Monitoring
Emery G., Keppner H., Moerschell J., Münch-Alligné C., Rapillard L., Richard S.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
Extending Geophone Sensitivity for Induced Seismicity Recording
Praplan Ch., Moerschell J.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
Deep Borehole Seismometer Demonstrator
Praplan Ch., Cachelin Ch., Moerschell J.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
Detecting Water through Electric Impedance Measurements
Emery G., Ganchinho A., Moerschell J.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2016, Sion, Switzerland, September 12-13, 2016
Deep Borehole Seismometer
Praplan Ch., Cachelin Ch., Ravedoni Y., Moerschell J.
SCCER-SoE Annual Conference 2015, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, September 10-11, 2015
Mesures FRA en ligne
Moerschell J.
FKH Fachtagung, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, December 5, 2012
Monitoring by on-line Impedance Spectroscopy
Friedli D., Cuenin Y., Praplan B., J. Moerschell J.
Powertage, Zürich, Switzerland, Juni 12-14, 2012

Research reports (not reviewed)

Essais des vibrations générées par un simulateur de séismes
Moerschell J., Vaccari A., Rapillard L., HES-SO Valais-Wallis, 2014
LISA Gravitational Reference Sensor Front End Electronics Breadboard Design Report
Moerschell J., Praplan Ch., ESA, 2013
On-line Generator Monitoring
Moerschell J., Ganchinho A., Cuenin Y., Rapport final, HES-SO, 2013
Micro Electro-biological System
Moerschell J., Ganchinho A., Rapport final, HES-SO, 2012
Picoamperemeter
Moerschell J., Castellaro Ch., Rapport scientifique, HES-SO, 2012