2021 Best PhD Thesis Award, Prize #1 Zhelu HU (LPEM, ESPCI Paris)

Investigations Towards More Performing and More Stable Solution-Processed Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells (hu.zhelu@espci.fr)
Up to now, the certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of state-of-the-art single-junction perovskite solar cells has exceeded 25%, suggesting their great potential to compete with silicon solar cells. Despite the excellent efficiency achieved and the advantages in solution-processed fabrication, important steps are still needed for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to reach industrialization and large-scale application. Fundamental research in perovskite solar cells is thus necessary in order to fully understand their photovoltaic properties, and the impact of transport layer, the active layer, and the interfaces on device properties and stability.

2021 Best PhD Thesis Award, Prize #2 Giulia LOMBARDI

Unified nonlinear electrical interfaces for hybrid piezoelectric-electromagnetic small-scale harvesting systems (giulia.lombardi@insa-lyon.fr)
Recent advances in wireless communication techniques, the miniaturization of microprocessors and the improvement of measurement
techniques have led to the spread of autonomous sensor networks that communicate wirelessly.
One of the main constraints when designing a system able to power small sensor nodes is its compactness: in most of the cases, a miniaturization of the transducing system involved in the process of energy conversion leads to lower mechanical couplings and, therefore, lower output power.