Newsletter 03/2020
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Dear D-ITET members,
dear students

Challenging times lie behind us, but – more importantly – also in front of us. Thanks to the discipline of all of you, ETH and D-ITET are still rather safe places regarding Covid-19 with a relatively low rate of reported cases. Let’s all make sure it remains like this!

With this edition of DISCOVER D-ITET I would like to give you an overview about current developments and initiatives at our department: First, we are especially proud that the new teaching tool “Magic Cube” has been officially launched. It uses a playful approach to teach junior high and high school students the basics of electrical engineering and awaken their interest in the field. We are confident that raising fascination for the area will bring a lot of new D-ITET students over the years.

As you will read, we have had a few changes over the last months D-ITET internally. One piece of news concerns myself, as I will be taking over the new role of Vice President for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations at the ETH Zurich Executive Board. This means that there will be a new Head of Department – I will update you very soon on these developments.

Last, but not least, I would like to ask all of you to please hold on and keep up the good work, be it in the labs, as admin staff or as a student.

Stay safe and healthy!

All the best,

Vanessa Wood
Head of Department
Prof. Vanessa Wood
Vanessa Wood appointed as new ETH Vice President as of 1 January 2021
Vanessa Wood, currently Head of Department at D-ITET and professor at the Institute for Electronics (IFE) is the new Vice President for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations. She will continue as ETH professor at D-ITET, but with a reduced workload. “I’ve always had a keen interest in the interface between research and industry; I’m delighted that I can now assist ETH at an institutional level in facilitating the transfer of knowledge to society,” she says. Our warmest congratulations!
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Magic Cube
Magic Cube
On 1 November 2020, Prof. Christian Franck introduced the new teaching tool "Magic Cube" in a live presentation from the SRF TV studio during the Digital Days 2020. It was developed jointly by D-​ITET, ABB and "mint & pepper" and aims to teach high school students the basics of electrical engineering and awaken their interest in the field.
Read article and watch video
Prof. Daniel Razansky
“I was born an engineer”
In our interview, Prof. Daniel Razansky explains how his research helps to recognize diseases in an early stage and why combining engineering and medicine was a very natural choice for him.
Prof. Florian Dörfler
“A good theory is very practical"
Prof. Florian Dörfler explains why systems control has been the "backbone" of all automation for decades. For him, today is the most exciting time in the history of his field of research.
Read more news on our website!
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Workshop D-ITET
Change at the top of the D-ITET Workshop
After almost 30 years at ETH Zurich, Martin Vogt will retire at the end of November as head of the mechanical workshop at D-ITET. We bid farewell to a committed and helpful leader! His successor is Silvio Scherr, a proven expert with many years of experience in a comparable environment. We wish Silvio a good start and Martin all the best for this new chapter in life.
Martin about 30 years at D-ITET
Prof. Sebastian Kozerke
New Director of Studies at D-ITET
Prof. Sebastian Kozerke has taken over the role of Director of Studies from Prof. Juerg Leuthold as of 1 August 2020.
Prof. Onur Mutlu
Welcome to D-ITET, Prof. Onur Mutlu!
Onur Mutlu, former Professor of Computer Science at D-INFK, has joined our Department as of 1 September 2020 together with his research group SAFARI.
Prof. Mathieu Luisier
New Delegate for Communication and PR at D-ITET
Prof. Mathieu Luisier has taken over the role of Delegate for Communication and PR from Prof. Christian Franck as of end of October 2020. The PR team would like to thank Christian Franck for the good collaboration during the last years, and is looking forward to working with the new delegate.
DK
Members Departemental Conference
With the retirement of Hans-Jürg Weber, a seat in the Departemental Conference reserved for administrative and technical staff became vacant. In an internal selection procedure, Jens Poulsen, administrative assistant at the Institute for Electronics (IfE) was elected on 15 May. Since then Jens has been representing the "admin-​tech" personnel together with the long-​standing representative Christine Haller.
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Prof. Lukas Novotny
Prof. Lukas Novotny receives ERC Synergy Grant
Professors Lukas Novotny and Romain Quidant (D-MAVT) have been awarded one of the highly coveted ERC Synergy Grants. With their Q-​Xtreme project they will for the first time put a solid object with a diameter of 100 nanometres into a quantum superposition state.
Prof. Metin Sitti
Prof. Metin Sitti's microrobots voted Breakthrough of the Year
Research done by Metin Sitti, affiliated Professor at D-ITET, was voted the Breakthrough of the Year in the category “Engineering & Technology” at this year’s Falling Walls Conference in Berlin. He researches in the field of bio-​inspired micro-​ and nanorobotics.
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Past events
Welcome doctoral students
29 October 2020
More than 50 participants received a lot of useful information from several presenters and sources via Zoom.
Read article

Opening ETH AI Center
20 October 2020
On 20 October, the ETH AI Center officially began its operations with a starting faculty of 29 professors in its core faculty and steering committee, among which three professors from D-ITET.
Website ETH AI Center

Welcome Day
14 September 2020
During the "Welcome Day" all new Bachelor's and Master's students at D-​ITET were provided with important information by Director of Studies Prof. Sebastian Kozerke, Study Coordinator Reto Kreuzer and representatives from the student organizations.
Impressions from Scherrer auditorium

Master's Ceremony
26 June 2020
This year's Master's Ceremony was the first ever to be held online at ETH Zurich.
Impressions from Audimax

Upcoming events
Schülerinnentag
23 November 2020
Female high-school students from all over Switzerland will attend the D-ITET online Taster Session. Organised by LIMES – Ladies in mechanical and electrical studies
LIMES – Ladies in mechanical and electrical studies

Student meets lab
30 November 2020
3rd year students get the opportunity to meet the ITET labs via a Zoom call. A special focus this year will be on the available bachelor projects.

Virtual Staff Coffee
2 December 2020
We meet online! About every three weeks members of the administrative and technical staff at D-ITET meet online for an informal exchange and to be informed about the latest developments regarding the coronavirus epidemic.

Useful links
Coronavirus – COVID-19
The ETH task force headed by the Vice President for Infrastructure is monitoring developments in the coronavirus pandemic.
ETH information page on the coronavirus

Online teaching at D-ITET
Since 2 November 2020, lectures and exercises of the fall semester at ETH have been available online only.
Webpage online teaching

Online social events and other offers

If you would like to register an event or if you have questions, get in touch with us at pr@ee.ethz.ch.