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| Laying the groundwork for a more secure future |
Dear readers,
With the omnipresence of information technology, the number of security attacks has increased and cyber security is more essential than ever. As a computer science department, it is important to us to take an active and responsible role in making the cyberspace more secure. Just recently, researchers from our department made valuable contributions in the area. Kenny Paterson and his team uncovered several weaknesses in the protocol of the messaging platform Telegram. And, decision-makers of the Swiss financial sectors decided to use the SCION technology by Adrian Perrig, his team, and our spin-off Anapaya to increase cyber resilience.
Furthermore, the department offers various study programmes to train the cyber security experts of tomorrow. Besides the specialised Master’s programme, we also offer a CAS and DAS course in Cyber Security. The application deadline for the two latter courses has just been extended to August 15. Please help spread the word.
Stay tuned on what’s happening at our department and enjoy your read.
I wish you all a relaxing summer vacation.
Best regards,
Timothy Roscoe
Department Head
P.S. On the topic of increasing safety and security for all of us collectively, have you had your COVID-19 vaccinations yet? Stay safe and healthy. |
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| Faculty and staff |
We would like to extend a warm welcome to all new staff members who have joined our department by the end of last month. We look forward to working with you.
Our new staff
To the staff who are leaving us, we wish you the best of luck in your future careers and hope to work with you again someday.
Farewells |
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Welcome, Barbara Gleich
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| Barbara has joined the Computational Robotics Lab, led by Stelian Coros, as administrative assistant. Good luck in your new role!
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All the best, Enis Ulqinaku
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| Enis, formerly a postdoc in the System Security Group, moves on to support our spin-off ChainSecurity as Senior Blockchain Engineer. All the best for the next career step! |
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| Prizes and awards |
Congratulations to our faculty, researchers and students who have won prizes, awards and fellowships for their work. We are proud of you and thank you for asserting our reputation.
Browse our award section |
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| Passed doctoral examinations: June and July 2021 |
Luca Corinzia (Prof. Joachim Buhmann)
Planted Models in Machine Learning: Theory and Applications (29.6.)
Jing Yan (Prof. Friedemann Mattern)
Audio-Facilitated Human Interaction with the Environment Advancements in Audio Augmented Reality and Auditory Notification Delivery (30.6.)
Peindong Liu (Prof. Marc Pollefeys)
Robust Visual Odometry (1.7.)
Vojislav Dukic (Prof. Ankit Singla)
Leveraging Workload Knowledge to design Data Center Networks (5.7.)
Aritra Dhar (Prof. Srdjan Capkun)
Building Trust in Modern Computing Platforms (6.7.)
Aytunç Sahin (Prof. Joachim Buhmann)
Integer Submodular Maximization: Algorithms and Modeling (14.7.)
Congratulations to our newly minted Doctors of Sciences ETH Zurich!
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| Stories of the month |
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Four cryptographic vulnerabilities in Telegram
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| Prof. Kenny Paterson,
Dr. Igors Stepanovs
An international research team of cryptographers, including Kenny and his postdoc Igors, completed a detailed security analysis of the popular messaging platform Telegram, identifying several weaknesses. |
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“I was moving out, but it also felt like coming home”
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| Julia, computer science student
When Julia discovered a rainbow-coloured pride flag at the Activity Fair, she was surprised at the multiple LGBT+ organisations at ETH. Two years later, she joined one of them as an active member. |
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| Happy 40th anniversary, D-INFK! |
| Throughout this special year, we'll be presenting you stories and other activities. Stay tuned and visit our anniversary website. |
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| "We professors have the privilege that our profession is also our hobby" |
| Prof. em. Walter Gander helped Switzerland acquire a high-performance computer, promoted the implementation of e-mail at ETH Zurich, and wrote the first book using LaTeX. Interviewed by Senior Scientist Lukas Fässler, he talks about the beginnings of the Department of Computer Science and about his career. Watch video (Part 1) |
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“Enthusiasm for the subject always came first”
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| Daniel Schenker received his diploma in computer science from ETH Zurich in 1988. Afterwards, he turned his hobby into his job and vice versa: today, he is a jazz musician and music professor who enjoys coding in his free time. |
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From the archives: the supercomputer Cray at ETH Zurich
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| The SRF programme Mensch, Technik, Wissenschaft from September 9, 1988, reported on the supercomputer Cray X-MP/28, which can still be found at ETH Zurich today – albeit in a somewhat different function. You may even have sat on it yourself. |
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“I still work with my fellow students to this day”
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| Gabriela Keller studied computer science at ETH Zurich from 1988 to 1993. Today, she is the CEO of Ergon Informatik, where she started working as a software developer shortly after graduating. She still feels connected to the department. |
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| Upcoming events |
VIScon Hackathon Registration opens August 16
VIScon combines a symposium with a hackathon, is organised by VIS and takes place October 15-17. If you are passionate about hacking, mark your calendar to make sure you get your spot.
More information and registration |
AI+X: Dialog on the Future of Retail, August 25, 16:00-17:30
In this webinar, Head of Strategic Foresight at ETH Zurich Chris Luebkeman talks with Prof. Siyu Tang from the Computer Vision and Learning Group at D-INFK about the future of retail.
More information and registration |
Paul Bernays Lectures, August 30-31
This year’s Paul Bernays Lectures on the philosophy of physics will be held at ETH Zurich with Prof. Andrea Ghez, an eminent astrophysicist and Nobel Prize winner in physics in 2020, as guest speaker.
More information |
Schnupperstudium für Maturandinnen, September 15-17
The taster week organised by the network CSNOW gives female high school students insight into studying computer science at ETH Zurich. The event will mainly take place via Zoom.
More information and registration |
Digital Festival Zürich, September 23-26
The annual festival is a platform for digital leaders, digital aficionados and innovators. Prof. Ana Klimovic will give a keynote speech and members of the ETH AI Center including Prof. Marc Pollefeys will talk about the future of augmented reality glasses. Members of ETH Zurich get a 25% discount on all tickets for virtual and on-site events until the festival is sold out. Use the code DIG ETH19617.
More information and registration |
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| D-INFK in the news |
| • | | Prof. Marc Pollefeys
IEEE Spectrum: Tesla Places Big Bet on Vision-Only Self-Driving
Read article |
| • | | Scandit, D-INFK Spin-off
Verkehrsrundschau: Einsatz von Smartphones auf der letzten Meile entscheidend
Read article |
| • | | Prof. Adrian Perrig
Swissinfo: How re-thinking data security could help the most vulnerable
Read article |
| • | | Project SCION, D-INFK Spin-off Anapaya
Finews: The Swiss National Bank and exchange operator SIX are joining forces to make the domestic financial center more resilient to cyber attacks
Read article |
| • | | Veezoo, D-INFK Spin-off
PR Newswire: Veezoo Selected as Finalist in 14th Annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards
Read article |
| • | | Dr. Olivier Verscheure, Executive Director Swiss Data Science Center
Netzwoche: Wie Unternehmen die Datenwissenschaften für sich nutzen können
Read article |
| • | | ABZ, EGOI
Science.olympiad.ch: Schweizer gewinnt Informatik-Gold für aussergewöhnliche Leistung
Read article |
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| Please meet... |
Anouk Paradis, doctoral student in the Secure, Reliable, and Intelligent Systems Lab (Prof. Martin Vechev)
Describe what you do in one sentence.
I work on bringing programming language concepts to quantum computers, to make them easier to program.
What do you like most about what you do?
First, learning about and working on complex topics. Second, I also appreciate the wide array of topics that people in my lab work on. It allows us to bring together many areas of computer science.
What are the most important skills someone in your role must have?
Perseverance, as most interesting problems take a lot of work before an interesting solution appears. Also, a maths background always helps!
What do you do if you have a few minutes to spare?
Mostly climbing and other activities in the mountains – though that requires more than a few minutes.
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| Open positions |
LatticeFlow, D-INFK spin-off
The spin-off offers several positions to help build the first private beta version of their platform for safe and robust AI and to deploy it on early customers.
Learn more
Camera Motion and Capture Systems Engineer, AIT Lab, Prof. Otmar Hilliges
How about helping to build the next generation of perceptual AI systems? The Advanced Interaction Technology Lab, led by Otmar Hilliges, is looking for support.
Learn more
Tinamu Labs, D-INFK spin-off
The spin-off provides an environment-independent, drone-based, end-to-end data acquisition platform to enable the realisation of automated inspection solutions. And, they have some open positions to fill.
Learn more
Highly qualified doctoral students, SPCL, Prof. Torsten Hoefler
The Scalable Parallel Computing Lab, led by Torsten Hoefler, seeks doctoral students to pursue research in scalable parallel computing. Postdoc research positions may be available to outstanding candidates.
Learn more
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| rETHink ETH |
The ETH project rETHink was initiated by ETH President Joël Mesot and functions as a roadmap for the university’s ongoing institutional and organisational development. The project aims to ensure that ETH Zurich remains competitive in the future. This section provides information on the latest updates.
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| “The conversation about culture and values is open to all” |
| Andre Kahles, Senior Scientist in the Biomedical Informatics Group, is part of the rETHink workstream 6, which concerns itself with culture development. Learn in this interview what he is working on and how you can help shape the culture of ETH. Read interview |
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| The coronavirus will continue to affect our lives and our work for some time to come. To keep you informed about news, regulations and projects connected to the pandemic, we will add a short COVID-19 section to the end of every READ.ME until further notice. |
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Students shouldn’t have to bear the burden of the pandemic
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| After three semesters of online teaching, it’s time for students to get back to ETH, says Hermann Lehner, Head of Academic Services at ETH Zurich. He hopes that the Federal Council's further decisions will enable face-to-face teaching at universities. |
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June master plan still status quo
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The coronavirus situation continues to improve. However, the recent set of regulations from June is still in place. Wearing a face mask is no longer compulsory outdoors and only necessary indoors in certain circumstances. Events and sports activities are also possible again to a greater extent. |
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