Atik Santellan
Atik Santellan is a research assistant at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and a dual-degree student in Computer Science and Mathematics at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). His work bridges distributed systems, energy-aware computing, and educational technology with a strong focus on sustainability and global accessibility.
As an Ecuadorian Indigenous student, Atik brings a grounded and ethical lens to his research. His work is guided by the belief that technology should empower the community. He is particularly invested in designing systems that are not only efficient and innovative, but also replicable in low-resource environments around the world.
Beyond his work in CPILS, Atik has contributed to projects in public procurement transparency, crisis response systems, and formal computational systems, always working at the intersection of real-world impact and rigorous technical foundations.
Session
CPILS (Cyber-Physical Immersive Learning Spaces) is a learning environment with lots of purely digital (software) and cyber-physical (devices) interactions. CPILS is designed to be operated under the full souvereignty of students, without reliance on Internet services or electrical power supply. It is a fully packaged environment with locally operated Kubernetes and AI services that adapts to the current and predicted supply of electricity. Thus, it offers value to students on field trips, but also in regions affected by power outages, and conveys the topic of digital souvereignty and sustainability to students in a hands-on manner. This session first explains the CPILS concepts, and then offers an onsite demonstration.