2017

At the traditional D-ITET Christmas Apéro on 13 December 2017, several hundreds of members of the department and students took the opportunity to exchange with the Department Management, friends and colleagues.  

D-ITET is happy to announce the election of the new Department Management as of 1 February 2018. Prof. Vanessa Wood will be the new Head of Department and Prof. Klaas Enno Stephan will be the new Deputy Head of Department. Juerg Leuthold will remain Director of Studies.

Ultraprecise simulation of a computer storage technology known as CBRAM reveals its optimal geometry: an insulator roughly ten atoms thick sandwiched between two electrodes. CBRAM (conductive bridging random access memory) could play a fundamental role in memory in the future by storing data in a non-volatile (i.e., near-permanent) way. Prof. Mathieu Luisier and his team studied this type of memory, which consists of two metal electrodes separated by an insulator.

What can you do with a degree in engineering? To find out more about mechanical and electrical engineering more than 60 girls from all over Switzerland participated in the taster day for schoolgirls 2017 of the departments MAVT and ITET on 1 December.

GratXray, a spin-off of PSI and D-ITET has received this year's Swiss Technology Award. The young company develops a new method for early diagnosis of breast cancer. One of the co-founders is Marco Stampanoni, professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at D-ITET.

For the second time after 2011, Prof. Johann W. Kolar has received the teaching award Golden Owl for D-ITET, awarded each year by VSETH.

Success for Prof. Niels Kuster (director of IT’IS Foundation and Adjunct Professor at D-ITET): the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected IT’IS to lead the Modeling and Simulation Core (SIM-CORE) of their Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program. IT’IS will be the central hub for hosting and connecting simulations across the whole SPARC community.

Embotech AG, spin-off of the Automatic Control Laboratory, has raised CHF 1 million in a seed financing round. The company develops decision-making software solutions for autonomous systems. The funds will be used to adapt its core technology for automotive applications and to fund go-to-market activities. Lead investors in the round are Swiss business angels and the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB).