March

From bridges and tunnels to railways, Switzerland has always invested heavily in the upkeep of its infrastructure. But how does it keep everything operating safely and smoothly while also instilling confidence that nothing will go wrong?

When it comes to getting along together, trust plays an indispensable role. While we all have an intuitive grasp of what this interpersonal investment involves, even science struggles to express exactly how it works.

ETH Zurich has fabricated the world’s tallest 3D-printed structure. With the construction of the White Tower in Mulegns, researchers hope to bring innovative technologies to commercial maturity.

Trust takes years to build and seconds to break – not least when it comes to international relations. ETH researchers investigate what it takes to build confidence on the global stage.

Trust in AI models is about more than just technical performance – ethical principles and human values are equally important.

New miniature laboratories are ensuring that artificial intelligence (AI) doesn’t make mistakes. They provide a controlled test environment where algorithms and AI models can be checked before being put to work under real-life conditions. The aim is for AI to work reliably.

The ETH spin-off Flink Robotics wants to revolutionize the handling of packages. Its founders Moritz Geilinger and Simon Huber have developed software that allows robots to work together and quickly take on new tasks.

Torsten Hoefler wins the prestigious ACM Prize in Computing for his pioneering work in high-performance computing. The fact that supercomputers have become so powerful that AI models can be trained very quickly with very large volumes of data is partly down to his research.

Life needs sufficient phosphorus. However, the element is scarce, not only today but also at the time of the origin of life. So where was there sufficient phosphorus four billion years ago for life to emerge? A team of origin-of-life researchers has an answer.

Elsbeth Stern will give her farewell lecture on 27 March. Stern, who conducts research on the topics of learning and teaching, has helped shape the discussion around the transition to the baccalaureate school in Switzerland. We talked to her one more time about her insights.