Meet up @ETH

Problem statement:

Many students at ETH feel isolated within their age group, discipline and building. It is difficult to meet people outside our comfort zone, despite sharing several interests and passions with them. Interdisciplinarity becomes hard to realize in this context. Let’s take as an example PhD groups. Each group has its own group room, and rarely has the occasion to meet informally members of other groups. Even though there are student societies at ETH, the process to join them is cumbersome and very formal, this represents a deterrent for many students who would simply like to make like-minded friends aside from their usual colleagues.

Proposed solution:

Imagine a university where anyone could look up a schedule of activities, ranging from programming, to gardening, to knitting, to playing music, and could just join in spontaneously and share their passions. This would allow them to develop their personality, to discover new interests, to learn skills which they may not learn from a purely curricular university experience, but which are yet very valued in the workplace. They would meet people who share their passions, and this will strengthen their network, foster friendships, and naturally as a result encourage interdisciplinary collaborations.
We propose a platform which will allow students and staff at ETH to easily announce any activity they might like to carry out, with the possibility for any other interested person to join in. The online platform will have then a list of all events happening. A space to carry out events and activities would also be needed, as a first stage this could be the Student Project House.
Our survey showed that the majority of students and staff at ETH would appreciate a space which would allow them to meet people outside their comfort circles and to carry out interdisciplinary collaborations.

Next steps:

We will discuss with the Student Project House leads, who are already working on the idea of “clubs” at SPH.
We will possibly team up with VSETH to try to make the platform a reality.

PDF presentation file: Download Meet_Up (PDF, 2 MB)