May 2020

In the video series "Ask the Expert", experts from ETH Zurich answer questions from the community. In this episode Roland Siegwart talks about robotics.

How will technology-delivered instruction affect learning? It’s still too early to reach a conclusion, but the implications for exams are clear, says Elsbeth Stern.

Difficulties with schoolwork? “Lern mit mir” (Learn with me) is a platform for pupils that gives them access to their own personal tutor. ETH’s Vocational Education and Training division is heading the programme.

A team of researchers led by ETH professor Martin Fussenegger has succeeded in using an electric current to directly control gene expression for the first time. Their work provides the basis for medical implants that can be switched on and off using electronic devices outside the body.

ETH researchers are using a new mathematical model to calculate a possible second wave of the pandemic in Switzerland. Even though such a wave would probably grow more slowly than the first without overloading hospitals, its death toll may turn out to be significantly higher.

Jan Dirk Wegner uses artificial intelligence to research different aspects of the Earth's surface. In doing so, he hopes to help raise people's quality of life and protect the environment. His work has now earned him a place in the World Economic Forum's Young Scientists community.

An international research collaboration led by ETH Zurich and MIT has developed a mathematical method that can speed up search and rescue operations at sea. The new algorithm accurately predicts locations to which objects and people floating in water will drift.

Today sees the start of the pilot phase for the long-awaited tracing app jointly developed by teams at ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne on behalf of the federal government. Switzerland is the first country in the world to use APIs from Google and Apple.

When pollen is in short supply, bumblebees damage plant leaves in a way that accelerates flower production, as an ETH research team headed up by Consuelo De Moraes and Mark Mescher has demonstrated.

Climate change hasn’t been hitting the headlines quite as much in recent months – but that’s not because the situation has improved. ETH Zurich researchers Lynn Kaack and David Dao spoke to the ETH Podcast back in March about how we can use AI to help in the fight against climate change.