ETH News

Marco Hutter, a pioneer in mobile robotics, has been awarded this year¡¯s R?ssler Prize, the most highly endowed research award at ETH Zurich.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have shown that quantum states of single electron spins can be controlled by currents of electrons whose spins are evenly aligned. In the future, this method could be used in electronic circuit elements.

Eighteen start-ups were awarded prizes at this year¡¯s Venture Awards, including five ETH Zurich spin-offs. CLIMADA won first prize in the Finance & Insurance category.

Since 1991, 14 June has in Switzerland traditionally stood under the banner of feminist campaigns and causes. Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, explains in an interview why commitment to equal opportunities and gender equality is still needed three decades later ¨C including at ETH Zurich.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a cell-based bone model to help investigate the cause of this genetic condition.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences have developed a novel solution for heat pumps. Using this new approach, companies can generate carbon-free process heat at temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius while also drastically reducing the number of different heat pumps required.

The Gloria Cube is ETH Zurich¡¯s newest building in the Zurich City university district. Teaching, research and translation are all carried out in the service of health and medicine here. At the end of last week, ETH Zurich celebrated the laboratory and research building¡¯s inauguration.

The federal government has plans to tax electric vehicles to secure funding for road infrastructure. However, a new levy could delay the switch to electromobility. Alessio Levis explains how this dilemma could be resolved.

Using machine-learning methods, researchers at ETH Zurich have shown that more than half of all killer T cells exhibit nuclear invaginations, or folds in the cell¡¯s nuclear envelope. Thanks to this particular cellular architecture, such cells are able to mount a faster and stronger response to pathogens.

Cathodic corrosion protection is a widely used technique for protecting steel-based infrastructure from corrosion. ETH researchers have now clarified the detailed mechanisms involved, thereby resolving a controversial issue that had preoccupied the engineering community for decades.

ETH Zurich maintains its excellent ranking from the previous year in the QS rankings just published. Alongside top scores for its academic reputation and international outlook, the university¡¯s efforts in the area of sustainability have also helped it to retain seventh place. The faculty-student ratio remains the indicator in which the university scores lowest.

The landslide in Brienz (GR) in 2023 kept Switzerland on tenterhooks for weeks. Researchers from ETH Zurich, WSL and SLF used a model to provide a highly accurate blind prediction of where the sliding mass would come to rest. ETH Professor Johan Gaume explains how the model works and where its limitations lie.

Since 2003, when Joachim Buhmann became an ETH professor, he has helped shape the explosive development of machine learning. It is not technical progress that worries him, but how society deals with it. Shortly before his retirement, he looks back on his academic career.

ETH Zurich announces its expedition towards climate neutrality today with pop-up events by students and the first Net Zero Day. The "ETH Net Zero" programme supports the reduction of emissions by 2030 and offers people plenty of ways to get involved.

Paolo Ermanni researched novel composite materials at ETH for over a quarter of a century. His enthusiasm for materials was rivalled only by his passion for teaching. He will also go down in ETH history as the first Vice Rector for Continuing Education. To mark his retirement, we take a look back at his storied career.

At its meeting of 22 and 23 May 2024 and upon application of Jo?l Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed twelve professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor" four times and the title of "Professor of Practice" three times.

Walter Thurnherr was Chancellor and Chief of Staff of the Swiss Federal Council for eight years. With effect from October 2024, he will be a professor at ETH Zurich, where he will support the establishment of a School of Public Policy and contribute to a better understanding between academia and politics.

Racing cars, robots, aircraft: Bachelor¡¯s students in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering spend two semesters working on a project in teams. They will be presenting their results on 28 May 2024.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have teamed up with the food industry to produce a whole-fruit variety of chocolate. This helps increase the value creation of cocoa farming ¨C and is healthier.

Renewable energies are not the main driver of biodiversity loss. It is rather the other way round: renewables can limit climate change in order to preserve biodiversity. Cyril Brunner contextualises the trade-offs from a scientific perspective.

Medical students at ETH Zurich build a gripper hand for elbow exoskeletons in a crash course lasting just one week. This course has now been honoured with the 2024 Kite Award, the ETH prize for particularly innovative teaching.

Instead of burning coal or oil to produce cement or steel, in the future solar energy could be used for this purpose. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a thermal trap that can absorb concentrated sunlight and deliver heat at over thousand degrees Celsius.

Experiments by ETH Zurich computer security researchers showed that smartphones can be manipulated to allow the owner to ride Swiss trains for free. The researchers also highlighted ways of curbing such misuse.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have, for the first time, made visible how electrons form vortices in a material at room temperature. Their experiment used a quantum sensing microscope with an extremely high resolution.

By analysing images made of coloured dots created by quantum simulators, ETH researchers have studied a special kind of magnetism. In the future this method could also be used to solve other physics puzzles, for instance in superconductivity.

This morning at 11.30 a.m. around 100 people from pro-Palestinian, Marxist groups set up a protest in the main hall in the main building of ETH Zurich. After repeated requests to leave the building, which the demonstrators did not comply with, the demonstration was broken up by the police at the request of ETH Zurich.

Dirk Helbing expects future digital technologies to penetrate the human body even more in the future. However, he believes that society is not prepared for the risks involved. He puts forward a new legal framework to protect our most intimate data from misuse.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a safe and inexpensive device for reliable blood measurements. It works using a suction cup and could also be employed to diagnose the tropical disease malaria ¨C even by non-medical personnel.

In order to understand the Earth's resilience, researchers at ETH Zurich are modelling climate changes from times long past. And they show: Plants are not simply victims of circumstances, but have helped to shape climate conditions on Earth.

The electrification of many areas of life is leading to an increased demand for high-performance batteries. Two ETH spin-offs are making waves in this field: while BTRY develops high-performance solid-state batteries, 8inks is working on a new standard for production.

A new computer process developed by chemists at ETH Zurich makes it possible to generate active pharmaceutical ingredients quickly and easily based on a protein¡¯s three-dimensional surface. The new process could revolutionise drug research.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have engineered bacteria in the laboratory to efficiently use methanol. The metabolism of these bacteria can now be tapped into to produce valuable products currently made by the chemical industry from fossil fuels.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have studied topological effects in an artificial solid, making surprising observations. The new insights into topological pumping could be used for quantum technologies in the future.

On behalf of Raiffeisen Switzerland Cooperative, ETH Zurich researchers examined the beginnings of the Raiffeisen movement in Switzerland. Their focus was on antisemitism as well as Raiffeisen during National Socialism.

Monitoring and treating a case of multiple sclerosis requires reliable and long-term data on how the disease is progressing in the person in question. Fitness trackers and smartphones can supply this data, as a research team led by ETH Zurich has now shown.

Plants with multiple sets of chromosomes have advantages over their relatives with a double set. But why they often start out infertile was only partially understood. Biologists at ETH Zurich have now discovered a new reason for the initial difficulties.

Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and restore healthy forests.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way in which art is created and experienced. Are we at the beginning of a new artistic revolution? Or at the end of creativity as we know it? Adrian Christopher Notz puts things in perspective.

As part of the SpaceHopper project, ETH Zurich students are developing a robot that can navigate very low gravity environments using a jumping-like mode of locomotion.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) unveiled its 2024 World University Rankings by Subject. ETH Zurich landed with 3 subjects in the top spot. A further 14 placed within the top ten in the world.

Swiss cities are more likely to accept densification when densification projects provide affordable housing and green spaces compared to densification that is implemented through reduced regulations for housing construction. By prioritizing a socio-ecological densification, extensive planning procedures and delays might be minimized.

Juraj Hromkovic has been Professor of Information Technology at ETH Zurich for the past 20 years. During this time, he has been a leading advocate of teaching computer science in schools. He¡¯s now giving his farewell lecture.

A new molecular test method helps to prove the authenticity of works of art. The new method could also help to make passwords secure against quantum computers.

Have you done any further professional training in the last five years? If not, then one reason is probably the education system and its rigid qualifications, says Lukas Sigrist.

Public cloud services employ special security technologies. Computer scientists at ETH Zurich have now discovered a gap in the latest security mechanisms used by AMD and Intel chips. This affects major cloud providers.

Researchers at ETH Zurich led by Robert Boes are developing specific solutions to optimise electricity production from Swiss hydropower plants. This will ensure that hydropower remains the backbone of Switzerland¡¯s electricity supply in the future.

Helping to shape the digital transformation, empowering brilliant young talent and more research for the health of children and adolescents: the ETH Foundation's annual report shows what the commitment of more than 2700 donors and partners has achieved for a wide range of topics in 2023.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a smartphone app that can be used to check the authenticity of documents and other items. Extracts from the debt enforcement register of the City of Zurich are being made forgery-proof as part of a pilot project.

Environmental scientist Alice Pradel cultivates ice cores in the lab to investigate the transport and accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics. Her aim in doing so is to better understand material flows in the Arctic ice.

Renovating buildings to improve their energy efficiency is a crucial step towards Switzerland achieving its climate targets. ETH Zurich researchers can now reveal the most effective renovation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: replace fossil-fuel heating systems and harness the potential of bio-based building materials like straw and hemp.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in detecting heavy precipitation events directly with GPS data. The results of their study could significantly improve meteorological monitoring and forecasting.

ETH spin-off Scanvio is developing an algorithm that can be used to analyse ultrasound images of the womb on an automated basis. This should enable doctors to diagnose endometriosis more quickly in the future.

We can transition to pesticide-free agriculture without converting to organic farming. Robert Finger outlines the advantages and challenges involved.

The quadrupedal robot ANYmal went back to school and has learned a lot. ETH Zurich researchers used machine learning to teach it new skills: the robot can now climb over obstacles and successfully negotiate pitfalls.

Researchers at ETH have managed to trap ions using static electric and magnetic fields and to perform quantum operations on them. In the future such traps could be used to realize quantum computers with far more quantum bits than have been possible up to now.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and KUNO Klinik St. Hedwig in Regensburg have developed an algorithm that provides an automatic and reliable method of detecting a certain heart defect in newborns.

Studying at ETH Zurich is demanding, and all students have their own personal hurdles to overcome. This video series portrays ETH students.

Recycling is an accepted formula for sustainable resource use, but in the case of plastic it can have serious side effects, says Helene Wiesinger ¨C and uses the example of plastic flooring in Switzerland to illustrate the dilemma.

At its meeting of 6 and 7 March 2024 and upon application of Jo?l Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed nine professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor" three times and the title of "Professor of Practice" once.

Christoph Sch?r is one of the Swiss climate scientists who have shaped high-resolution climate modelling. He is now retiring after more than 35 years at ETH Zurich. In this portrait, he explains why he himself never tires of researching climate change.

ETH Zurich and UBS held an initial joint deeptech investor summit for start-ups at the start of March. This enabled the university¡¯s spin-offs to talk to potential investors and present their business ideas and technologies.

Students at ETH Zurich are working together with engineers from the technology firm B¨¹hler to accelerate innovation and minimise the attendant risks. It's a fruitful collaboration that other companies are also poised to benefit from.

The cost of removing large quantities of CO₂ from the air will fall in the medium term, but not as much as previously hoped. This is the conclusion reached by ETH researchers on the basis of new calculations. Efforts to reduce carbon emissions should therefore continue at pace, says the research team.

ETH Zurich researchers have recovered the precious metal from electronic waste. Their highly sustainable new method is based on a protein fibril sponge, which the scientists derive from whey, a food industry byproduct.

Vacant land, community gardens and public parks are key resources for liveable cities. Fritz Kleinschroth calls on urban planners to focus on giving nature more space and on granting equitable access to green spaces.

It might be that what set prebiotic chemistry in motion and kept it going in the early days of the Earth was dust from outer space accumulating in holes melted into ice sheets. Researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge have used a computer model to test this scenario.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals often became hubs of infection. Researchers from ETH Zurich, EPFL and the ISI Foundation are developing a wearable tracking system for healthcare facilities that can identify the risks of infections. Initial tests in Switzerland and Africa show its potential.

Physicists at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich wanted to know whether the planned LIFE space mission could really detect traces of life on other planets. Yes, it can. The researchers reached this conclusion with the help of observations of our own planet.

Studying at ETH Zurich is demanding, and all students have their own personal hurdles to overcome. This video series portrays ETH students.

Heinrich Ursprung was President of ETH Zurich from 1973 to 1987. He led the bilateral negotiations between Switzerland and the EU in the field of research in his capacity as State Secretary in the 1990s. This influential figure in the Swiss higher education landscape passed away shortly before his 92nd birthday.

Prostheses that connect to the nervous system have been available for several years. Now, researchers at ETH Zurich have found evidence that neuroprosthetics work better when they use signals that are inspired by nature.

Artificial intelligence and automated laboratory infrastructure are massively accelerating the development of new chemical catalysts. With these tools, researchers at ETH Zurich are developing catalysts for efficiently and cost-effectively synthesising the energy source methanol from CO₂.

Studying at ETH Zurich is demanding, and all students have their own personal hurdles to overcome. This video series portrays ETH students.

Switzerland offers tremendous opportunities for technological and entrepreneurial innovation. Thomas Zurbuchen asks, ¡°How can we generate the momentum needed to maintain an edge in the face of international competition ¨C especially when times get tough?¡±

Researchers have found genes in the reproductive organs of bulls that influence fertility. The findings can be transferred to humans, as these genes are also present in men.

Newly elected members of the Swiss National Council are often confronted with a bewildering array of complex issues. ETH Zurich organised a special two-day seminar to equip them with scientific expertise in key policy areas.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) provides medical supplies to people in need. A planning tool developed by researchers at ETH Zurich will make this complex task more efficient in future and save the ICRC millions.

The new ¡°Mobility and Inclusion¡± exhibition at ETH Zurich lets people find out first-hand the obstacles faced by people with impairments along with the technical aids available. From 2025, it will be on display as a permanent exhibition at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne.

Roughly one in two wearers of ventricular assist devices are diagnosed with an infection. The reason for this is the thick cable for the power supply. ETH Zurich researchers have now developed a solution to mitigate this problem.

What began as a venture quickly proved its worth: The ETH Bachelor in Human Medicine is well received by graduates and has helped to establish ETH Zurich in the Swiss medical education landscape. In a video, five graduates talk about what makes studying medicine at ETH so special.

Wherever hot water flows, limescale is never far away. In households, this is a nuisance; in thermal power stations, it¡¯s an expensive problem. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have found an answer.

Hardly any gemstone is more difficult to find than diamonds. Geologists from ETH Zurich and the University of Melbourne have now established a link between their occurrence and the mineral olivine. This could make the search for diamonds easier in the future.

A new Master¡¯s degree programme in Space Systems will be launched at ETH Zurich in autumn 2024. Interested parties can start applying in April.

Hans Gersbach and Martin W?rter explain why Switzerland should not join the emerging international subsidy race. Sticking with the proven ¡°Swiss way¡± is much more promising.

The loss of myelin sheaths in the brain is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now developed an MRI method that maps the condition of this nerve insulation layer more accurately than before.

Achim Walter believes increased cultivation of legumes would bring major benefits. But how to persuade farmers in Switzerland to make the switch?

Researchers at ETH Zurich recently developed highly realistic simulations of the proteins on sperm and egg cells coupling together before they fuse. These findings enabled the research team to solve several mysteries of fertilisation at once, which could help to accelerate development of more targeted infertility treatments.

At ETH Zurich, there is a room where the sun shines at the touch of a button; one hour it¡¯s noon in the Sahara, the next it¡¯s January in Berlin. Researchers use it to test newly developed building systems, components and materials.

Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich have developed methods for making perovskite quantum dots faster and more efficient emitters, thereby significantly improving their brightness. This is relevant for applications in displays as well as in quantum technologies.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have recently developed artificial muscles for robot motion. Their solution offers several advantages over previous technologies: it can be used wherever robots need to be soft rather than rigid or where they need more sensitivity when interacting with their environment.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a sensor that utilises energy from sound waves to control electronic devices. This could one day save millions of batteries.

The European Space Agency¡¯s most expensive and complex mission, the LISA space antenna, has reached a major milestone: it has passed the stage of intensive testing by experts in the Mission Adoption Review process - a significant step for the LISA consortium.

A global study shows that the world¡¯s groundwater resources are dwindling: levels are falling sharply worldwide, and the decline has accelerated in the 21st century. Nevertheless, there is still reason for hope.

For Anthony Patt, Europe¡¯s ambitious plans for a hydrogen economy may be too ambitious, tipping the scales towards the interests of the fossil fuel industry, rather than energy consumers and the climate. Switzerland should be careful before jumping fully on board, he argues.

If the body¡¯s natural stress response gets knocked off balance, it can result in physical and mental health disorders. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an agent capable of selectively inhibiting this response.

Guillain-Barr¨¦ Syndrome is a rare condition in which a person¡¯s immune system attacks the peripheral nerves. People affected suffer from muscle weakness and paralysis. A research team led by ETH Zurich has now clarified the mechanism of this autoimmune disease.

ETH Zurich researchers have found a virus that kills dormant bacteria. This rare discovery could help to combat germs that can¡¯t be treated with antibiotics alone.

A new model designed by ETH Zurich researchers measures how flexible medication distribution systems are in real time. It shows that supply shortages can be eased if pharmaceutical wholesalers coordinate their inventories and reroute scarce products as flexibly as possible along existing supply chains.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and ETH Zurich, in collaboration with their international partners, are launching the International Computation and AI Network (ICAIN) at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 in Davos. Its mission is to develop AI technologies that benefit society as a whole, as well as being accessible to all and sustainable, thereby helping to reduce global inequality.

In 2019, the tailings dam at a Brazilian iron ore mine failed. The mudslide caused a catastrophe for people and the environment. A team of researchers at ETH Zurich has now uncovered the physical mechanism that may have triggered the accident.