D-ITET News Channel (EN)

In the science programme "Einstein", Benjamin Grewe, Professor of Neuroinformatics and Neural Systems at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), talks about how AI could learn even more about its environment and thus increasingly become a learning algorithm.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) unveiled its 2024 World University Rankings by Subject. In electrical and electronic engineering ETH Zurich achieved an excellent fifth place. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Haocong Luo, doctoral student in the SAFARI Research Group, led by Prof. Onur Mutlu, and co-authors for their ISCA 2023 paper "RowPress: Amplifying Read Disturbance in Modern DRAM Chips", chosen as an IEEE Micro 2024 Top Pick!

Dr. Stefan Köpfli, postdoc at the Institute for Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), headed by of Prof. Jürg Leuthold, was awarded the Hans Eggenberger Prize 2023 for his dissertation "Graphene for Highest Speed Photodetectors". Congratulations!

The ETH Board has appointed Laura Bégon-​Lours, currently Senior Researcher at the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS), as Assistant Professor of Neuromorphic Electronics with Oxides. She will start her new position at IIS on 1 April 2024. Congratulations!

In an experiment carried out at D-ITET's Photonics Laboratory, researchers at the University of Manchester, together with scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Innsbruck, have established a new approach to overcome a common problem in quantum physics. The results were published in the journal Nature Physics.

As of 1 February 2024, Prof. Christian Franck will take over the position of Director of Studies from his predecessor Prof. Sebastian Kozerke. The new incumbent is looking forward to the role and explains: "As a lecturer, I ensure that I plan and deliver individual lectures successfully. In my role as Director of Studies, it is now my job to ensure an optimal learning environment and experience for students on both Bachelor's and Master's levels."

Prof. Luca Benini holds the chair of digital circuits and systems at the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS). In the interview he talks about the trends towards open-source hardware architecture, new technologies, such as 3D integration, and fruitful collaborations within ETH.

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 in Davos, AI pioneer Yann LeCun, VP & Chief AI Scientist at Meta, was awarded the Global Swiss AI Award 2023. Jury member Prof. Benjamin Grewe, representing the ETH AI Center as Head of the Neural Learning and Intelligent Systems Group at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich, gave the laudatory speech and provided background information and rationale for the AI jury's decision.

Members and undergraduate students of the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL) secured a prestigious second place in the Indy autonomous race simulation at the tech event CES in Las Vegas. ETH’s team was only surpassed by the experienced PoliMove team from Politecnico di Milano. An exceptional and very promising achievement for the future. Congratulations!

Filippo Moro, Yigit Demirag, Giacomo Indiveri, and Melika Payvand from the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI) of ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich introduced a new hardware Architecture called the Mosaic. It is inspired by the small-world connectivity of the brain, with significant power reduction for routing information on Neuromorphic systems. Their study was recently published in the journal "Nature Communications".

Prof. Taekwang Jang, head of the Energy-​Efficient Circuits and Intelligent Systems Group, has been honored with the prestigious 2024 IEEE Solid-​State Circuits Society New Frontier Award. This recognition is bestowed upon an early career researcher for innovative and visionary technical work in the field of solid-​state circuits. Congratulations!

At the Christmas apéro on 13 December, D-​ITET employees celebrated the upcoming festive season and took the chance to exchange with other members of the department. Among the culinary specialties offered were raclette, crêpes, mulled wine and home-​brewed beer by AMIV. Prof. Jürg Leuthold, Head of Department, thanked everyone for their efforts in 2023 and gave a brief overview of this year's achievements.

The project Quadrupedal Robot for Assisting Visually Impaired People, led by Dr. Michele Magno and developed by students and the PBL research assistant Davide Plozza is getting nationwide advertisement. The project has been partially supported by the ETH+ project Future Learning Initiative, and the ETH Future Computing Laboratory (EFLC).

A team of students from the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS) and the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET is working on a cutting-edge project to improve the performance and training of ski jumpers. The cross-federation effort involves the development and testing of a multi-sensor feedback system that can measure and analyse various aspects of a ski jump, such as the centre of gravity during the inrun, the trajectory and the edge angle.

Silvano Cortesi, Marco Giordano, and Michele Magno from the D-ITET Center for Project-Based Learning (PBL) received the Best Paper Award at the 11th ACM International Workshop on Energy Harvesting & Energy-Neutral Sensing Systems (ENSYSS) in conjunction with ACM Sensys 2023. Their outstanding paper was entitled "Energy-Aware Adaptive Sampling for Self-Sustainability in Resource-Constrained IoT Devices".  Congratulations!

The ETH board has appointed Morteza Aramesh, currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, as Assistant Professor of Single Molecule and Single Cell Biophysics. He will start his position at D-​ITET as of January 2024.

Kanika Dheman, postdoctoral researcher at PBL, claimed the coveted Best Pitch award at IEEE Sensors 2023 in Vienna. Her visionary startup idea "PI Health: Pervasive Intelligence for Organ Failure Detection with Embedded AI in Wearables," stood out among 10 finalists during the conference. Congratulations!

This year’s "Student meets Lab" took place on 5 December 2023 in the ETZ foyer. During the well-attended event the students got the opportunity to meet the different ITET labs. The labs presented their topics for Bachelor’s, Master’s and semester theses as well as group projects and got into conversations with the students in person. As usual the focus was on the available Bachelor’s thesis projects for third year students at D-ITET.

Students and alumnae of D‑ITET can now enter the study programme for the teaching diploma for Matura schools in physics without further requirements. In case of studies with a focus on electrical engineering or physics, no additional courses must be attended for the admission.

The SAFARI Research Group, lead by Prof. Onur Mutlu, was present at PACT 2023 with several presentations at the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC). The ACM SRC is a forum for graduate and undergraduate students to share their research results, exchange ideas, and improve their communication skills while competing for prizes. The top 3 undergraduate and graduate students received awards, and the first-place winner in each category will go on to participate in the SRC Grand Finals.

Each year, around 80 young women* from high schools from all over Switzerland take part in the Schülerinnen*tag, organized by the student organisation LIMES. During this all-day event, the participants do a campus tour, visit a couple of labs, and receive first-hand information about the study programmes in electrical and mechanical engineering.

Keep up to date with the NomadZ robotic football team here, where team member Nicole Damblon writes about the latest events, inlcuding the Swiss Robotics Day, Treffpunkt Science City, and the CoRL 2023's RoboLetics Workshop.

Mila Lewerenz, a PhD candidate at the Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), has been honored with a Best Oral Presentation Award at Memrisys 2023 for her presentation on "Pulsed Atomic-Scale Three-Terminal Memristor". Congratulations!

At this year's ETH Day Wera Hotz Kowner, the first woman to complete a degree in electrical engineering at ETH Zurich in 1963, was named an honorary councillor in recognition of her outstanding services in the promotion of young talent.

Dr. Saverio Bolognani, lecturer at the Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA), has received the teaching award "Golden Owl" for D-​ITET at this year's "ETH Day". awarded each year . The Golden Owl, created by student organisation VSETH, honours lecturers who have provided exceptional teaching and motivates them to continue in this way.  

The company iniVation combines its novel camera technology with energy-​efficient processors and AI algorithms, developed by the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL) to achieve ultra-​fast low-​power eye tracking for augmented and virtual reality. 

At the World Forum of Internet of Things, a groundbreaking paper, titled "Advancing Freight Train Integrity Monitoring for Next-Generation Railway Signaling Using UWB," authored by Denis Mikhaylov, Fu Zheng, Philipp Mayer, Christian Vogt, Tommaso Polonelli, and Michele Magno, from the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL) has clinched the prestigious Best Paper Award. 

The SAFARI Research Group, lead by Prof. Onur Mutlu, received a Distinguished Artifact Award at MICRO 2023 for their work "Victima: Drastically Increasing Address Translation Reach by Leveraging Underutilized Cache Resources". Congratulations to the authors Konstantinos Kanellopoulos, Hong Chul Nam, F. Nisa Bostanci, Rahul Bera, Mohammad Sadrosadati, Rakesh Kumar, Davide Basilio Bartolini and Onur Mutlu on this prestigious award! 

Researchers around Prof. Kaveh Razavi, head of the Computer Security Group (COMSEC), received the Best Paper Award at the flagship MICRO conference this week in Toronto. Their paper "Phantom" shows the security implications of pre-decode speculation that is fundamental in achieving high performance. 

At yesterday’s Departemental Conference, the newly established "Best BSc Thesis Award" was granted for the first time to three outstanding Bachelor’s students at D-ITET. It was handed over to the laureates Jan Brändle, Jente Clarysse, and Zhenrong Lang by the prize donors Christophe Beaud, CEO and his wife Danette Beaud, COO of Peoplefone. The donation also supports flagship projects within the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL).

On 4 October, the traditional "Spaghettiplausch" took place for first-semester female students* at D-ITET and their female mentors* . In the "Commihalle", there was a lively exchange between the first-year students* and the students* from higher semesters. Prof. Gabriela Hug shared experiences from her own studies with the students. The annual event is organised by the student association LIMES, Women* in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at ETH Zurich.

Benjamin Grewe is Professor of Neuroinformatics and Neural Systems at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI) of ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich and a researcher at the ETH AI Center. In the interview, he talks about his fascination for biologically inspired algorithms and the advantages of the newly developed language model SwissGPT over ChatGPT.

Lithium-​ion solid-​state batteries are the batteries of the future. However, their mass production is still too expensive. D-ITET spin-​off Eightinks, supported by Prof. Vanessa Wood, is developing a manufacturing technology for the mass production of new battery materials and designs. In addition to the scalability of the technology, the goal is also a complete circular economy for batteries.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) this year, a special retrospective of selected papers was created. Out of the 1077 papers published over the last 25 years, only 98 papers were recognized, among them 5 papers published by Professor Onur Mutlu’s SAFARI Research Group. Congratulations!  

On 23 June 2023 D-​ITET's Master's Graduation Ceremony took place in ETH's Scherrer auditorium. More than 150 graduates of the Master's programmes in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (EEIT), Biomedical Engineering (BME), Energy Science and Technology (EST), and Quantum Engineering (QE) attended the celebration together with their families and friends. Congratulations and all the best for the future!

Prof. Gabriela Hug is a professor at the Power Systems Laboratory in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and head of the Energy Science Center (ESC). In our interview, the D-ITET graduate talks about her professional career and the importance of electrical engineering for future energy security.

Prof. Kaveh Razavi, leader of the Computer Security Group (COMSEC) at D-ITET, started his Master’s studies at ETH Zurich in 2009 thanks to an Excellence Scholarship. In this interview, he talks about his time as a student, why he left his professorship in Amsterdam to return to Zurich, and the reasons he supports the scholarship programme today.

Deep Neural Networks (DNN) can extract useful representations from unstructured data, which can be used for tasks like classification or object detection. In a joint publication in "Nature Nanotechnology", the team of Prof. Luca Benini at the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS) together with IBM Research Zürich present an efficient compute engine for disentangling these data-driven holographic representations.

The Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW) has elected Prof. Christian Franck, head of the High Voltage Lab at D-​ITET, as Full Member. The appointment is made in recognition of his outstanding achievements in teaching and research, particularly regarding the use of new climate-friendly insulating gases in electrical energy technology.

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH ranks among the top ten in 16 disciplines. Electrical Engineering improves from fifth to an excellent fourth place worldwide.

In a joint publication by the team of Prof. Luca Benini at the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS) and IBM Research Zürich in "Nature Machine Intelligence", the researchers report on the construction of a neuro-vector-symbolic AI model capable of solving Raven’s matrices with an 88% success rate.

Dr. Corsin Battaglia, currently D-ITET Lecturer and Group Leader at Empa, has been appointed as Adjunct Professor by the ETH board. Corsin Battaglia's research investigates the flow of charge in different battery materials and generates fundamental knowledge which improves the performance, stability, cost and sustainability of devices.

Lana Josipović is an assistant professor and head of the Digital Systems and Design Automation Group (DYNAMO) at the Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (TIK) of D-ITET. In our interview, she talks about her research and her brand-new course “Synthesis of Digital Circuits”, and she explains how motivated students inspire her.

Hua Wang, Professor of Electronics at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, was named top contributing author from 1954 to 2023 at the International Solid-​State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). ISSCC is the top conference of the IEEE Solid-​State Circuits Society and the most prestigious conference for integrated circuits (IC) research.

Congratulations to SAFARI Research Group members Nandita Vijaykumar, Ataberk Olgun, Konstantinos Kanellopoulos, F. Nisa Bostanci, Hasan Hassan, Mehrshad Lotfi, Phillip B. Gibbons, and Onur Mutlu, for their Best Paper Award at the HiPEAC 2023 conference for their ACM TACO paper "MetaSys: A Practical Open-source Metadata Management System to Implement and Evaluate Cross-layer Optimizations".

Thanks to the valuable support of SBB and SBB Cargo, students at the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL) can test their projects on real operating trains. In this case, Master's student Frank Fu Zheng tested his project named "Future Generation of Railway Applications Cargo Wagon Tagging" that is able to localize anywhere and anytime a cargo wagon using the state-of-the-art technology, GNSS, 4G and UWB.

Prof. Jürg Leuthold, Head of the Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF) at D-ITET, is leading an interdisciplinary project together with Hector Fellow Eberhard Zrenner from the University of Tübingen entitled "RetinaSensor: Novel Electronic Retinal Implants for the Blind". The goal of the project is to develop a new generation of retinal implants that will improve the vision of visually impaired people.

Order, unpack, sleep: this is the simple promise of the D-ITET spin-off Sleepiz. A small medical device monitors our sleep - and it's as simple as can be. Now the Zurich company is gaining a foothold in the USA.

The Swiss Artificial Gravity Experiment SAGE, an interdisciplinary team of students highly supported by the Center for Project-Based Learning (PBL) as D-ITET flagship project, got selected as one of six teams to enter a pilot scheme by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Fly Your Satellite Design Booster offers a 1.5-year programme of individual expert training, review support, and access to testing facilities by ESA.

Prof. Mehmet Fatih Yanik, head of the Neurotechnology Group of UZH and ETH Zurich, and his team recently developed a novel technology for non-invasive focal drug delivery to the brain circuits using focused ultrasound. The project receives the BRIDGE Discovery Award, funded by SNSF and Innosuisse.

On 14 December the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards were granted for the third time to the best teaching assistants at Bachelor's and Master's level at D-​ITET. The winners are Lina de Windt (Technische Mechanik, 1st semester BSc) Doruk Bekatli (Digitaltechnik-Praktikum, 1st semester BSc), and Roland Schmid (Discrete Event Systems, 5th semester BSc / 1st Semester MSc) Congratulations!

Jürg Leuthold is Professor of Photonics and Communication at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. In this interview, he talks about his research areas and their challenges, as well as the changes he would like to implement as new Head of Department.

We’d like to congratulate Minesh Patel on receiving an ETH Doctoral Medal for his outstanding Doctoral thesis.  Minesh’s dissertation, "Enabling Effective Error Mitigation in Modern Memory Chips that Use On-Die Error-Correcting Codes" was nominated by D-ITET and will be presented at the Doctoral Awards Ceremony in January 2023.

Prof. Onur Mutlu was recently honored by Google with a 2022 Google Security and Privacy Research Award for his work on hardware security and side-channels. This award recognizes the work done by Mutlu and his team, the SAFARI Research Group, for making significant, recent contributions to protecting users across the Internet, especially for their work on the discovery of the DRAM RowHammer vulnerability.

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is currently having a prototype built for better early detection and treatment of breast cancer. The novel and painless X-ray procedure was co-developed by Marco Stampanoni, researcher at PSI and Professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering. It depicts breast tissue much more precisely than is possible today with conventional mammography. It thus prevents false cancer diagnoses in particular, but also facilitates treatment.

Many patients with chronic diseases benefit from regular blood tests, for example to adjust medication. CEO and co-founder Alexander Tanno explains how the D-ITET spin-​off Hemetron has developed novel and affordable tests that are simple enough to use at home.

Marco Pocaterra and Dr. Mauro Ciappa from the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS) received the Best Paper Award at the 33rd European Symposium on Reliability of Electron Devices and Physics (ESREF 2022) organized by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in Berlin from September 26 to 29, 2022.

During the "Welcome Day" on 19 September 2022, D-ITET's Director of Studies Prof. Sebastian Kozerke, Study Coordinator Reto Kreuzer and representatives from the student organizations AMIV and LIMES provided the almost 180 new Bachelor’s students with helpful information for a successful start at ETH Zurich. A hearty welcome not only to all new Bachelor's students, but also to all new Master's students at D-​ITET!

At this year's ETH Industry Day, more than 600 visitors attended the research, case study, and spin-​off talks given by 27 speakers. Complemented by a large exhibition, the event offered plenty of opportunities to network and to learn about the latest technologies. In their talks Prof. Hua Wang, head of the Integrated Devices, Electronics, and Systems (IDEAS) Group, and Fisher Yu, Professor at the Computer Vision Lab (CVL) gave interesting insights into their research.

After two years of being held as an online event due to the Corona pandemic, last week's Information Days took place in person again at ETH's main building. D-​ITET was present with exciting exhibits and demos as well as interesting presentations giving high-​school students a valuable insight into the department's study programmes.

Tommaso Polonelli, Andrea Bentivogli, Guido Comai, and Michele Magno from the Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL) won the Best Poster Award for the paper "Self-sustainable IoT Wireless Sensor Node for Predictive Maintenance on Electric Motors" at the IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium 2022 in Sweden.  

But AI is still a long way from having its own feelings and consciousness, say experts like Benjamin Grewe, professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich and UZH.

ForzaETH, a team of students from the Center of Project-Based Learning at D-ITET (PBL) and the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI) at ETH Zurich and UZH competed at two F1TENTH autonomous racing challenges and finished first place at the Germany 2022 grand prix. F1TENTH is a 1:10 scaled autonomous racing competition, where teams from all over the world aim to develop the fastest robotic racecar on the track.

Three D-ITET graduates have been awarded an ETH Zürich Pioneer Fellowships for their groundbreaking technology innovations for the industry. PeakFlow, developed by Yvan Bosshard and Tiago Salzmann, brings "the Smart to Smart Infrastructure" and is capable of completely self-​sustaining operation. Tethys Robotics, co-founded by Pragash Sivananthaguru, enables search, recovery and inspection missions in all waters.

The Standard Platform team NomadZ of the Computer Vision Lab (CVL) and the Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA) is participating in the RoboCup 2022 in Bangkok, the world cup of autonomous robotic soccer. After investing many hours into developing the algorithms that operate the robots, the team members finally have the chance to put them to the test by playing against the other participating teams.

Even today, machines can have a kind of consciousness. But can this also be compared to that of a human being? "The assumption that you only need enough data to explain the world to a machine is wrong," says Benjamin Grewe, Professor of Neuroinformatics. After all, humans don't need to be fed trillions of words.

Touchdown, park, hook up, unload, clean, refuel, load, and depart – every minute counts when it comes to aeroplane turnarounds. D-ITET spin-​off Assaia’s technology revolutionises the workflow on the tarmac to make it more efficient, safer, and sustainable. An interview with Max Diez, CEO of Assaia.

D-ITET's Master's Graduation Ceremony took place in ETH's Scherrer Auditorium on 1 July 2022. 140 graduates of the Master's programmes in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (EEIT), Biomedical Engineering (BME), Energy Science and Technology (EST), and the new study programme Quantum Engineering (QE) attended the celebration together with their families and friends.

Patrick Jattke, a doctoral student in the Computer Security Group, led by Prof. Kaveh Razavi, has been awarded the prestigious Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship Europe award. Patrick has been selected for his proposal "Rowhammer Meets AI: Leveraging Deep Learning for Building a General Rowhammer Testing Methodology".

During the ETH Studienwoche from 7 to 11 June 2022, 30 highschool students from all over Switzerland designed, programmed, and built their own drones. They were supervised by members of the Center for Project-Based Learning at D-ITET (PBL).

The energy turnaround requires more sustainably produced electricity. It is also important that the electricity flows through the grid as efficiently as possible. When it comes to transmitting energy, direct current offers clear advantages: fewer energy losses than with alternating current, which dominates today.

Last week, the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards for this semester were granted to the best teaching assistants at Bachelor's and Master's level at D-ITET. The winners are Manuel Schneider (Analysis II), Tobias Bühler (Communication Networks), and Nicolas Lanzetti (Game Theory and Control). Congratulations!

Bottle jams on the conveyor belt or overheated machines – such interruptions to production cost a lot of time and money. "Cerrion", a D-ITET spin-off founded by former members of the Computer Vision Lab (CVL) detects and analyses problems in the process automatically and in real time.

Sebastian Kozerke, professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBT), explains in our interview how magnetic resonance imaging and personalised "digital twins" can help in diagnostics and disease prediction in the future. He also talks about what he particularly appreciates about his position as Director of Studies at D-ITET and reveals himself to be a lover of Toblerone mousse at Dozentenfoyer.

Marco Stampanoni, researcher at PSI and Professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, his colleague Dr. Zhentian Wang and their team have been nominated for this year’s European Inventor Award. The two scientists have been conducting research for more than ten years, in the pursuit of improved diagnostic methods for the early detection of breast cancer. The nomination for this prestigious award is in recognition of their pioneering work. The winners will be announced on 21 June 2022.

During the lockdown Jeremy Coulson, Paul Beuchat and Prof. John Lygeros from the Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA) developed the course "Quad-​Rotors: Control and Estimation" for Bachelor’s students at D-ITET. Their project was nominated as one of three KITE Award finalists as a particularly innovative teaching initiative. Congratulations!

Rüdiger Birkner, former doctoral student at the Networked Systems Group (NSG), led by Prof. Laurent Vanbever, just won the EuroSys Roger Needham PhD Award for his PhD thesis "Improving Network Understanding".

Untreated breathing pauses during sleep can make you ill. A new apnoea screening device, developed by D-ITET spin-off Sleepiz, offers help here. With the device, you can test at home whether you are affected by apnoea - without any cables attached to your body.

Prune Truong, doctoral student at D-ITET's Computer Vision Lab (CVL), receives an Apple Scholars in AI/ML PhD fellowship. The PhD fellowships in Machine Learning and AI were created to celebrate the contributions of students pursuing cutting-edge fundamental and applied machine learning research worldwide.

On 14 March 15 ETH students and apprentices from ABB were trained in a workshop at Wyss Center Zurich to become “Magic Cube” coaches in high schools. Magic Cube is a teaching tool developed by D-ITET, ABB and mint & pepper. It was introduced in fall 2020, and recently all twelve modules have been successfully completed.

Professor Mathieu Luisier, currently Associate Professor, has been appointed as Full Professor of Computational Nanoelectronics at D-ITET.

Big Data applications require high computing performance while consuming as little power as possible. Current computer systems are reaching their limits in both areas. Prof. Onur Mutlu, head of the Chair for Computer Science at D-ITET, is working on alternative systems.

Neuromorphic engineering takes inspiration from the human brain in an attempt to design more efficient computer architectures. Prof. Giacomo Indiveri, director of the Institute of Neuroinformatics at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, and other experts explain, how.

Prof. Roger Wattenhofer, head of the Distributed Computing Group (DISCO) at D-ITET, and his team developed the Cascade asynchronous proof-of-stake blockchain architecture. He estimates that the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism, used for Bitcoin, is responsible for about 99.99% of blockchain energy consumption. 

Prof. Ulrike Grossner, head of the Advanced Power Semiconductor Laboratory, has been elected as a Member-at-Large (MAL) to the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) Advisory Committee for a three-year term beginning 1 January 2022.

Money rules the world. But what if the nature of money changes fundamentally? How revolutionary are cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin really? A conversation with Roger Wattenhofer, Professor at the Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (TIK), and philosopher Ijoma Mangold about the utopias and dangers of digital gold.

Maz Wegmüller, Bachelor's student at D-ITET, was the only foreign participant in the research competition in Taiwan to win the Young Scientist Award. He was supported in the development of his musical tesla transformer by Raphael Färber, researcher at the High Voltage Laboratory (HVL).

Joudi Hajar, Master’s student in Robotics, Systems and Control, receives the „GE Impact Award“. Supervised by Prof. Florian Dörfler, she supported the development of a novel tool that designs a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) at the lowest cost possible.

After almost 20 years in D-ITET's Student Administration Office, Doris Döbeli is retiring. Her successor Andrea Salow, a long-standing administrative assistant at D-INFK, is looking forward to the new challenge.

Dr. Lana Josipović, former Research Assistant at EPFL, joined the Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (TIK) as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Digital Systems and Design Automation as of 1 January 2022. We wish Lana a good start at D-ITET!

What looks like an electric toothbrush turns out to be a mini camera with which anyone can take microscopic pictures of their own teeth and gums. "The users immediately see how well they brush their teeth and which areas they neglect - often up to 40% of the teeth," explains Severin Stalder, former doctoral student at D-ITET and founder of the ETH spin-​off Zaamigo.  

Daniel Razansky, Professor of Biomedical Imaging at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBT) has been named IEEE Fellow for contributions to multispectral optoacoustic tomography. The IEEE Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors of the IEEE, and is bestowed upon a very limited number of Senior Members who have contributed importantly to the advancement of engineering, science and technology bringing significant value to our society.

In a short ceremony on 15 December 2021, the new Outstanding TA Award was granted for the first time to the best teaching assistants at Bachelor's and Master's level at D-ITET. 

Prof. Kaveh Razavi is leader of the Computer Security Group (COMSEC). In our interview he talks about his passion for hacking, why we should care more about computer security, and how he is preparing the Computer Engineering lecture he will take over next semester from Prof. Lothar Thiele. Currently the group is looking for a new doctoral student in Hardware Security. Applications are very welcome!

Dr. Alvaro Gomariz of the Computer-​assisted Applications in Medicine group (CAiM) at D-ITET receives this year's best PhD award from EXCITE Zurich.

"Engineering sciences are fun" - that is the core message of the taster day for schoolgirls. More than 80 girls followed the invitation of LIMES (Ladies In Mechanical and Electrical Studies) and came to ETH Zurich to find out more about studying at the Departments of Mechanical and Process Engineering and Information Technology and Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Dengxin Dai has received the teaching award "Golden Owl" for D-​ITET, awarded each year by student organisation VSETH. The Golden Owl honours lecturers who have provided exceptional teaching and motivates them to continue in this way.  

Together with other group members, doctoral student Oscar Castañeda from the Integrated Information Processing Group (IIP), headed by Prof. Christoph Studer, won the Best ESSCIRC Paper Award. ESSCIRC, the European Solid-State Circuits Conference took place virtually in September 2021.

Amirmohammad Miran Zadeh, doctoral student at the Millimeter-​Wave Electronics Laboratory (MWE) group, won the second prize at the ideas competition of ETH Zurich Staff Commission (PeKo). His idea "Paying by Legi" involves expanding the function of the ETH card (Legi) so that it can in the future be used at ETH as a means of payment.