In the Media May 2024

Robots play soccer at Geneva AI showcase

external page The football-playing robots were the work of a group of students from the university of ETH Zurich. The team kicked, passed and kept track of the ball based on input from sensors. "The project allows our undergraduate and graduate students to collect experience on a full robotic platform," Jan-Nico Zaech, the project's scientific supervisor, said. "It's a platform to test algorithms that can run in the real world afterwards."

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As well as numerous regional publications in the US.

We really are alone in the galaxy, an updated formula on alien intelligence suggests

external page Planetary scientists Robert Stern from the University of Texas at Dallas and Taras Gerya from ETH-Zurich, the two co-authors on the study, suggest that the presence of both continents and oceans, along with long-term plate tectonics, is critical for the emergence of advanced civilizations. They consequently propose the addition of two factors into the (Drake) equation...

EthonAI secures €15.3M Series A for AI-Driven manufacturing analytics

external page EthonAI was co-founded by Julian Senoner (CEO) and Bernhard Kratzwald (CTO) in 2021. Both completed their PhDs at ETH Zurich, where they studied manufacturing applications of AI at industry leaders such as Siemens and Aker Solutions. Together with Torbjørn Netland, a renowned ETH professor of production management, they realised the value of their research and decided to make their technology available to the broader industry.

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Mammoth Undertaking

external page As Climeworks (an ETH Spinoff) starts up the world’s largest direct air capture plant, Adam Duckett looks at the engineering challenges involved.

How AI could change EV charging

external page “There’s a big role for AI to play at the grid edge,” says Siobhan Powell, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich who was not involved in the study. “It didn’t used to be the case, right? There wasn’t a lot interesting going on and now that we have a chance to do control, there’s more opportunity and more value in knowing what’s going on.”

Why Do Trees Drop So Many Seeds One Year, and Then Hardly Any the Next?

external page The idea that disease could play an important role was born, as many ideas are, not in a formal lab but in a casual conversation. Davies was talking to plant community ecologist Janneke Hille Ris Lambers of ETH Zurich about how variable the seed production was on the trees she studied in Washington state.

Sharp rise in fees for foreigners at elite Swiss universities

external page Studying at the elite Swiss universities ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne looks likely to become significantly more expensive for people from abroad in future.The lower chamber of Switzerland's parliament, the National Council, voted in favour of increasing tuition fees on Wednesday. The proposal would mean that those who move to Switzerland to study would in the future pay at least three times as much as those already living in Switzerland.

New paper reveals the broad potential of TNIK as a therapeutic target for some aging-related diseases

external page A new paper in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences from researchers at generative artificial intelligence (AI)- and robotics-powered clinical stage drug discovery company Insilico Medicine ("Insilico") and ETH Zurich reveals the broad potential of TNIK as a therapeutic target for some of the most pervasive aging-related diseases, including fibrosis, cancer, obesity, and Alzheimer's.

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Scientists develop gel that can intercept alcohol and prevent hangovers

external page “The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolised in the liver, no harmful acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product,” said study co-author Raffaele Mezzenga from ETH Zurich...

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How solar thermal trapping paves way for sustainable metal smelting

external page “To tackle climate change, we need to decarbonize energy in general,” said corresponding author Emiliano Casati, of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as reported by Science Daily. “People tend to only think about electricity as energy, but in fact, about half of the energy is used in the form of heat.”

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Galaxies in the Early Universe Preferred their Food Cold

external page Using JWST data, a team that included ETH Zurich led by researchers in Denmark pinpointed three galaxies that appear to have been actively forming just 400 to 600 million years after the Big Bang. This places them within the Era of Reionization, when the Universe was permeated by opaque clouds of neutral hydrogen that were slowly heated and ionized by the first stars and galaxies.

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Ukrainian strike on Russian nuclear radar system causes alarm in West

external page Mauro Gilli, a senior researcher at the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, said the drone strike had been a tactical success because it will force Russia to redeploy air defence systems and it also put down a marker that no Russian military site was untouchable. “We can debate the effectiveness and merit but strategically there is logic,” he said.

Cosmic rays help archaeologists determine the age of prehistoric settlements

external page This precise dating was made possible by the detection of a Miyake event in 5259 BC by researchers at ETH Zurich. By reproducing this peak in the annual growth ring chronology from Dispilio and connecting it to the anchor point 5259 BC, the team was able to establish the “Dispilio Chronology.”

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Study suggests less conformity leads to more innovation

external page "When different people come together, given they have no bad intentions, new ideas emerge, which can foster innovation and contribute to economic prosperity," explains Dirk Helbing, who is an external faculty member at the Complexity Science Hub and a professor at ETH Zurich. Therefore, maintaining or even promoting sociodiversity plays a significant role. But how can this be achieved?

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Foot Orthotic Insole Market Size is Expected to Reach US$ 9.44 Billion by 2034 | Fact.MR Report

external page Researchers and scientists at ETH Zurich Empa and EPFL are innovating a 3D-printed insole equipped with integrated sensors that detect the pressure of the sole in a shoe and during any activity, aiding to determine performance and therapy progress.

Our groundwater resources are getting depleted, but there’s still time to act

external page According to Hansjörg Seybold, a scientists from ETH Zurich, the entire world is using groundwater “like there’s no tomorrow.” Together with researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, he painstakingly combed through four decades of data to see how the world is pumping groundwater.

Researchers join forces with chocolate industry to maximise use of cocoa fruit

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich have joined forces with the chocolate industry to investigate the potential for making maximum use of the cocoa fruit, which would increase the profitability of cocoa cultivation while making chocolate a healthier indulgence...As part of an Innosuisse (Swiss Innovation Agency) project, a research team led by emeritus ETH professor Erich Windhab worked together with start-​up Koa, which is dedicated to sustainable cocoa fruit cultivation, and Swiss chocolate manufacturer Felchlin to develop a recipe for cocoa-​fruit chocolate.

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Drilling starts for Haute-Sorne geothermal project, Switzerland

external page The project is subject to environmental monitoring to ensure the protection of water, air and biodiversity. In addition, the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich has expanded its local measurement network and is thus providing independent, basic seismic monitoring.

Citizen Scientists Will Capture DNA From 800 Lakes In One Day

external page A new project, lead by ETH Zurich professor Kristy Deiner, aims to harness the growing field of environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect species that might escape even the most intrepid ecologists. In the project, volunteers plan to take samples from some 800 lakes around the world on or around May 22, the International Day for Biological Diversity. Those samples will then be sent back to a lab in Zurich, Switzerland, where they’ll be analyzed for the tiny traces of DNA that organisms leave behind in the environment.

Five ways criminals are using AI

external page The biggest use case for generative AI among criminals right now is phishing, which involves trying to trick people into revealing sensitive information that can be used for malicious purposes, says Mislav Balunović, an AI security researcher at ETH Zurich. Researchers have found that the rise of ChatGPT has been accompanied by a huge spike in the number of phishing emails.  

20 Top Universities for Quantum Computing Research

external page ETH Zurich is renowned in general for its contributions to quantum research, but quantum information theory, quantum optics and superconducting quantum circuits are among the university’s main contributions to the field. The Quantum Center is the main hub for the scientific and structural activities in quantum science and technology across departments at the uni. ETH Zurich’s research infrastructure includes advanced laboratories for the study of quantum phenomena and the development of quantum technologies. Speaking of superposition, the university’s collaborations stretch across the globe and feature many prestigious international institutions, many which are on this list. The university has been – and continues to be – instrumental in pioneering new quantum computing techniques and applications.

A Quartz Thermal Trap Harnessed the Sun—and Is About to Change Smelting Forever

external page But reaching those intense temperatures is only part of the battle—you also have to achieve high-levels of efficiency as well. According to the ETH Zurich researchers, this new solar receiver, encased in quartz, has a much higher efficiency that an unshielded solar receiver. That means it can achieve higher temperatures with less radiation input and maintain a certain temperature with better results.

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Mysterious Blobs And Plate Tectonics — What’s Really Going On Beneath Our Feet?

external page Geologists not involved in this latest research told the Washington Post the model was intriguing but raised a host of questions. Taras Gerya, a geoscientist at ETH Zurich, said the idea of an initial subduction event triggered by vigorous mantle plumes shortly after the moon-forming impact is credible and supported by models and some geo-chemical data. But he added that he is unsure whether this would have led to modern plate tectonics or would have resulted in rapid global recycling of the entire crust, similar to what may have happened on our planetary neighbor, Venus.

Comment also appeared in...

external page The Washington Post (access may require a subscription)

Edible Gel Promises Hangover-Free Mornings

external page Researchers in Switzerland have developed an oral gel meant to prevent booze from breaking down into the toxic compounds most responsible for a hangover...The gel was created by scientists from ETH Zurich. It’s primarily made from whey protein and is further infused with individual iron atoms and gold nanoparticles...“The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolized in the liver, no harmful acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product,” said Raffaele Mezzenga, a professor from the Laboratory of Food & Soft Materials at ETH Zurich, in a statement from the university.

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Did Earth’s Multicellular Life Depend on Plate Tectonics?

external page Universe Today discusses plate tectonics with Dr. Taras Gerya, who is a Professor of Earth Sciences at ETH Zurich and co-author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study its results and what this means for the Drake Equation, and the study’s implications for finding life beyond Earth. So, what was the motivation behind this study?

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Video Friday: Robots With Knives > Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos, ICRA edition

external page “Sensorized Soft Skin for Dexterous Robotic Hands,” by Jana Egli, Benedek Forrai, Thomas Buchner, Jiangtao Su, Xiaodong Chen, and Robert K. Katzschmann from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore...While the control of humanoid hands evolved greatly, hardware platforms still lack capabilities, particularly in tactile sensing and providing soft contact surfaces. In this work, we present a method that equips the skeleton of a tendon-driven humanoid hand with a soft and sensorized tactile skin.

Robot Talk Episode 85 – Margarita Chli

external page Margarita Chli is a professor of Robotic Vision and the director of the Vision for Robotics Lab, at the University of Cyprus and ETH Zurich. Her work has contributed to the first vision-based autonomous flight of a small drone and the first demonstration of collaborative monocular SLAM for a small swarm of drones. Margarita has given invited keynotes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, TEDx, and ICRA, and she was featured in Robohub’s 2016 list of “25 women in Robotics you need to know about”. In 2023, she won the ERC Consolidator Grant to research advanced robotic perception.

EU performs well in Water Circular Economy Index

external page Researchers from the university ETH Zurich have examined the status of water management across 132 countries, including the 27 EU Member States. The research was published in April in the Chemical Society Reviews Journal. The findings not only pinpoint criticalities and bottlenecks but also offer actionable insights for policymakers, environmentalists and stakeholders.

Breakthrough solar power technology could replace fossil fuels in heavy manufacturing

external page A potentially groundbreaking solar-powered device has achieved temperatures over 1,000C, raising hopes for using green energy to run some of the most fossil fuel-intensive manufacturing processes on Earth...Our research showed that solar thermal trapping works not just at low temperatures, but well above 1,000C,” Emiliano Casati of ETH Zurich who co-authored the study said.

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Discovery Alert: An Earth-sized World and Its Ultra-cool Star

external page An international team (including researchers from ETH Zurich) using robotic telescopes around the world recently spotted an Earth-sized planet orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf, the dimmest and longest-lived of stars. (Uni Liège, Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Birmingham Uni, Uni Bern, and MIT)

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Mosaic Grassland Landscapes Are the Most Beneficial

external page Like forests, grassland provides numerous ecological, economic and social benefits. Researchers have investigated ways to maintain and improve these benefits in the Swiss canton of Solothurn.

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Strangely Curved Shapes Break 50-Year-Old Geometry Conjecture

external page Mathematicians (including researchers at ETH Zurich) have disproved a major conjecture about the relationship between curvature and shape.

High-Resolution Microscope Reveals Electron Behavior in Graphene

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich have successfully detected electron vortices in graphene for the first time using a high-resolution magnetic field sensor. The study was published in the scientific journal Science.

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New gel could make drinking alcohol less harmful

external page Researchers have developed a protein-based gel that breaks down alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract without harming the body.

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES - Are we too lazy? Why America's work ethic threatens Europe – and what Switzerland does better than Germany

external page ...Are Americans, with their rigid work ethic, really a good role model? Michael Siegenthaler from the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich expresses his doubts. «In the U.S., work is distributed more unequally. If you have a job, you often work a lot. But fewer people are actively integrated into working life,» he says. On the other hand, Switzerland and Germany have achieved one of the highest employment rates in the world.

How an audacious sonic survey could help revive damaged rainforests

external page Giacomo Delgado, a doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, and two other teams from Costa Rican universities have bounded across the country recording the soundscapes of its forests. The survey involves positioning microphones at more than 600 sites in every type of forest ecosystem in Costa Rica, making it, by some measures, the largest such “ecoacoustic” survey ever.

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Quantum Fiber Optics in The Brain Enhance Processing, May Protect Against Degenerative Diseases

external page “These new results will be of interest to the large community of researchers in open quantum systems and quantum computation, because the theoretical methods used in this study are widely employed in those fields to understand complex quantum networks in noisy environments,” said Professor Nicolò Defenu of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland, a quantum researcher who was not associated with the work. “It’s really intriguing to see a vital connection between quantum computing and living systems.”

Ecolab and HeiQ introduce synbiotic cleaning products at Interclean

external page Ecolab, a global sustainability leader offering water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services, and (ETH Zurich Spinoff) HeiQ Chrisal, a leading biotech innovator, are proudly collaborating to introduce advanced synbiotic cleaning products to the European cleaning industry.  

Herzog & de Meuron and vision behind their designs

external page ...Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron both started studying architecture, first at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and later at the (ETH) Zurich campus, where they both graduated in 1975. In 1978, Herzog & de Meuron founded their firm in Basel, Switzerland. Together with their architectural practice...From 1999 to 2018, both Herzog and de Meuron held professorships at ETH Zürich...

mimic joins race to develop the first AI-driven cobot

external page ETH Zurich start-up, mimic develops breakthrough collaborative robots with humanoid hands powered by generative AI to ease severe global labor shortages across industries involving complex, manual tasks.
 

SpaceHopper robot wants to hop along small celestial bodies

external page ETH Zurich students are developing a robot that can navigate low-gravity environments using a jumping-like mode of locomotion. The team recently tested the SpaceHopper robot in zero gravity scenarios on a European Space Agency parabolic flight.

Circular Solutions Vital To Curb Enviro Harm From Cement and Concrete

“A lot of focus is on how to mitigate [cement’s] climate change impacts,” says Christopher Oberschelp, senior researcher and lecturer at ETH Zurich. “But we’re forgetting that we’re also having other very big problems in terms of human health” connected to its production.

When the water runs dry: Why France is freaking out over a tiny Swiss dam

external page Thanks to its glaciers, Switzerland acts as the water reservoir of Western Europe, holding 6 percent of the entire Continent’s freshwater reserves. But Alpine ice is melting at an alarming pace...Switzerland’s glaciers have lost 10 percent of their volume in the last two years alone. And there are signs that the country has already passed “peak water,” meaning glacial meltwater may soon decline, said Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich...By the century’s end, Farinotti expects to lose 60 to 80 percent of Switzerland’s glaciers. And the Rhône Glacier, which feeds the river, is likely to fare even worse, effectively disappearing entirely by then, according to an ETH study.  

Biomass pellet cooking in Africa gathers momentum

external page A recent joint study on the cost of electrifying all households in 40 Sub-Saharan African countries, conducted by ETH Zürich, Princeton University, MIT, and Rwandan researchers, estimated that the total investment costs for electricity supply compatible for cooking (min 800W and 3.4 kWh/day per household) would be US$408 billion (US$428 per person on average)...The average cost for a Western standard wood pellet mill producing 30,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) is around US$6 million, assuming wet raw material.

Mammoth undertaking: Climeworks starts up world’s largest direct air capture plant

external page Climeworks has come a long way since it was established in the labs of ETH Zurich in 2009. There, company founders Wurzbacher and Christoph Gebald were capturing just milligrams of CO2. A kilogram-scale prototype followed in 2012. By 2014 the company’s first modular CO2 collector began capturing tonnes of CO2. The first commercial facility – Capricorn – opened in Switzerland in 2017 capturing hundreds of tonnes. The technology was then stepped up to the thousands of tonnes scale in 2021 when the Orca plant started operation in Iceland. Just a year later, Climeworks broke ground on Mammoth.  

Analysis-Ukraine peace summit pushes neutral Swiss toward Western embrace

external page A study published in March by the Center for Security Studies at the ETH Zurich showed 91% of Swiss felt the country should stay neutral, though 26% also backed taking "a clear stand" in favour of one side in foreign military conflicts, up 8 percentage points from 2021.

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Study shows that astrocytes integrate information about past events in their soma

external page Researchers at University of Zurich and ETH Zurich recently gathered evidence suggesting that this widespread description of astrocytes might be false or at least incomplete, as they do in fact integrate information about past events.

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external page Medical Xpress

Germany and Switzerland plan to implement large scale capture and storage of CO2

external page In Switzerland, more and more attention is being paid to CO2 disposal technologies: Take the ETH Zurich project called DemoUpCARMA (Demonstration and upscaling of carbon dioxide management solutions for a net-zero Switzerland), funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the Federal Office for the Environment, for example. This project is testing the transport of CO2 in containers by train to Rotterdam and then by ship to Iceland, where the gas would become harmless when it comes into contact with rock (NZZ of February 16, 2024).

Quantum simulators solve physics puzzles with colored dots

external page By analyzing images made of colored 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. Up close it looks like lots of colored dots, but from a distance one sees a complex picture rich in detail: Using the technique of pointillism, in 1886 George Seurat created the masterpiece “A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte.” In a similar way, Eugene Demler and his coworkers at ETH Zurich study complex quantum systems made of many interacting particles. In their case, the dots are not created by dabbing a paintbrush, but rather by making individual atoms visible in the laboratory.

Cloud Server Vulnerability Found in AMD and Intel Chips, Computer Scientists Warn

external page Computer scientists at ETH Zurich have uncovered critical vulnerabilities in the security mechanisms of AMD and Intel chips, potentially exposing sensitive data processed in public cloud environments to exploitation by hackers. The discovery illuminates gaps in the confidential computing technologies employed by leading chip manufacturers, raising concerns about the efficacy of current security measures.

ETH spinout Mimic raises $2.5m for AI-powered robotic hands

external page The latest robotics company to enter the fray is ETH Zurich spinout Mimic, which has just raised $2.5m for its AI-powered robotic hands which are designed to ‘mimic’ real human movements...One of Mimic’s strengths is that it is part of a supportive ecosystem in Zurich, largely shaped by ETH, which is the most successful university in Europe in terms of spinning out companies. The university, which has its own centre for robotics, currently has 26 companies working on robotics, though only a few are working on aspects of humanoid technology, according to its data.

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Using a hopping robot for asteroid exploration

external page One day the SpaceHopper (ETH Zurich) will be deployed on space missions to explore relatively small celestial bodies such as asteroids and moons. These are thought to contain valuable mineral resources that could be of use to humankind in the future. The exploration of these bodies could also give us insights into our universe's formation.

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Police Clear Protest From Swiss University as Gaza Demonstrations Spread

external page "ETH Zurich sees itself as a place where different opinions and perspectives can and should be expressed openly. However, unauthorised actions are not accepted at ETH Zurich," ETH university said, adding that protesters had been repeatedly asked to leave the building before police arrived.

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Smartphone app can unmask forged documents

external page 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.

Researcher explains why we should care more about converging technologies

external page Professor Dirk Helbing of ETH Zurich and Austria's Complexity Science Hub 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. In a new article, he puts forward a new legal framework to protect our most intimate data from misuse.

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Future research on bladder cancer should focus on mechanical changes in tissue, suggest study

external page In collaboration with University Hospital Basel, researchers from ETH Zurich are investigating the early stages of bladder cancer. Their findings show that future research should also focus on mechanical changes in tumor tissue.

Women in Stem with Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual

external page Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual, Chief Executive Officer, is one of TOLREMO’s scientific founders and an expert in drug resistance in cancer therapy. She is a biomedical scientist and biochemist by training (University of Fribourg and ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and holds a PhD in Molecular and Translational Biomedicine from ETH Zurich. She led the team of scientists who discovered novel molecular mechanisms that can be exploited to prevent the development of non-genetic resistance to cancer therapies.  

New device draws blood samples like a leech

external page “For this earlier project, we had already studied leeches, which attach to their host with a sucker. We realized that we could develop a similar system to collect blood,” says David Klein, a doctoral student in the group led by Jean-Christophe Leroux, professor of drug formulation and delivery at ETH Zurich.

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ETH Zurich spin-offs develop high performance batteries

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.

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How plants actively shaped Earth's climate cycle throughout history

external page Julian Rogger, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, is fascinated by the interplay of plant life and climate...Earth is the only known planet in the universe capable of supporting living organisms, thanks to its climatic conditions that allow for the presence of liquid water. Rogger explains, “We’re trying to understand processes relevant to the present using the geological past.”

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Northern Italy's 'problem bears' show the challenges of rewilding carnivores

external page Paula Mayer, a research assistant at ETH Zurich University, specialises in human-bear conflict. She explains that attitudes towards large carnivores can often differ from one postcode to the next. “In mountain regions in Italy, there can be a marked difference in community attitudes towards bears between those places where organisations have been in and spoken to the locals, and the places where they haven’t,” she says. “It’s pretty remarkable.”  

Meteorites in Antarctica Are Getting Harder to Find because of Climate Change

external page As climate change warms the poles, precious Antarctic meteorites will melt their way down out of scientists’ reach...“Typically, once [a meteorite] is brought to the surface, it needs to kind of fight to stay at the surface,” says study co-author Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije University of Brussels (VLB) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). “What we see is that there’s kind of a magical threshold somewhere around minus 10 degrees Celsius [14 degrees Fahrenheit].” When temperatures are colder than that, the ice survives; any warmer and meteorites begin to disappear—even today. “Every year we find about 1,000 meteorites, but we lose five times as many,” Zekollari says.

European summers will be hotter than predicted because of cleaner air

external page “If models don’t take air pollution changes into account, they will underestimate the intensity of future heatwaves even more than they underestimate mean summer warming,” says Dominik Schumacher at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. “It’s problematic because a lot of European countries strongly rely on these simulations to plan for the future.”

Study finds mechanical changes in tumour tissue offer new insights for cancer research

external page Researchers from ETH Zurich and University Hospital Basel have revealed new insights for cancer research when focusing on mechanical changes in tumour tissue after investigating the early stages of bladder cancer.

ANYmal can do parkour and walk across rubble

external page 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.

The Ecosystem: inside ETH Zurich’s spin-off factory

external page After a record-breaking year for company formation in 2023, the university is launching new initiatives to maintain this momentum...By the standards of most universities, ETH Zurich produces a lot of spin-off companies. In the past decade the total has ranged from 22 to 34 new ventures each year, with a record-breaking 43 new spin-offs created in 2023...As for how the university does this, Frank Floessel, head of ETH Entrepreneurship, gives the credit to its researchers. “We cannot influence the number of spin-offs that come out of ETH that much,” he said. “It’s very much a grassroots movement. It comes from the PhDs, master’s students and professors who think that one of their technologies might be right for the market.”

Quantum biology's new frontier: Tryptophan networks and brain disease defense

external page "These new results will be of interest to the large community of researchers in open quantum systems and quantum computation, because the theoretical methods used in this study are widely employed in those fields to understand complex quantum networks in noisy environments," said Professor Nicolò Defenu of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland, a quantum researcher who was not associated with the work. "It's really intriguing to see a vital connection between quantum computing and living systems.

Work expected to begin on natural disaster mitigation plans for Seychelles

external page Work is expected to begin this week on the natural disaster mitigation plans for Seychelles around the main island of Mahe following recommendations from experts from Switzerland on how to prevent rockslides, landslides and other such disasters...A group of experts from several companies in Switzerland, including the Gasse Felstechnik, PNP Geologie & Geotechnik and the ETH Zurich University, made the recommendations after a series of site visits were conducted earlier this week. The group looked at the damages in several areas and is working on ways to ensure it does not happen in the future.

Autonomous Excavator Builds Stone Retaining Wall

external page Researchers at RTH Zurich have trained a modified excavator to build a 215-foot-long stone retaining wall in Switzerland...The 12-ton Menzi Muck M545, known as HEAP, or "hydraulic excavator for an autonomous purpose," was equipped with satellite navigation, inertial measurement, joint angle sensors and multiple cabin- and arm-mounted LiDAR sensors and cameras to map the site and scan the building materials.  

An affordable miniature car-like robot to test control and estimation algorithms

external page A team of researchers at ETH Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control recently introduced a new miniature car-like robot and an associated software kit that could simplify the testing of some algorithms for robotics applications.  

Global warming threatens Antarctica’s meteorites

external page “We need to accelerate and intensify efforts to recover Antarctic meteorites,” Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist who led the research while working at ETH Zurich’s department of civil, environmental and geomatic engineering, said in a news release. “The loss of Antarctic meteorites is much like the loss of data that scientists glean from ice cores collected from vanishing glaciers — once they disappear, so do some of the secrets of the universe.”

Large Hadron Collider experiment zeroes in on magnetic monopoles

external page These trapping volumes—which make MoEDAL the only collider experiment in the world that can definitively and directly identify the magnetic charge of magnetic monopoles—are scanned at ETH Zurich using a special type of magnetometer called a SQUID to look for any trapped monopoles they may contain.

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external page Tech and Science Post

New EU nature law will fail without farmers, scientists warn

external page The letter, signed by researchers from the University of Oxford, ETH Zurich and Wageningen University, reads: “At no point in history has there been more pressure on farmers. They are responsible for feeding an ever-growing population. And now we want them to save us all from the global climate and biodiversity crises, at the same time as market forces keep making the financial situation harder.

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external page The Guardian

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98 Amazon Research Awards recipients announced

external page Prof. Florian Tramèr named among the Amazon Science Awardees, from 51 universities in 15 countries, who have access to Amazon public datasets, along with AWS AI/ML services and tools.