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| Tower of Power |
Dear readers,
The weather is finally getting warmer and the end of the semester is near. But before the semester break starts, the last relocations in our department are happening. At the end of May and the beginning of June, some of us in the CAB building are moving. I would once again like to thank everyone involved for your cooperation and patience during this time.
Last Wednesday, the Staff Party and Housewarming took place in the Andreasturm (OAT). The Tower of Power Party was, as expected, fully booked, since it was the first one in four years. After engaging in sessions on the upper floors of the OAT, the attendees indulged in delicious food and drinks, and tried their luck with different competitions and VR experiences. It was a successful evening, and I am happy that we were able to celebrate together at last.
Other news worth celebrating: No less than five members of our faculty were honoured for their achievements this month! Senior researcher and lecturer David Cock and Professors Bernhard Schölkopf, Ralf Jung, Marc Pollefeys and Gustavo Alonso have all received awards or been elected members of academies. Many congratulations!
I wish you all a successful end of the semester. Please enjoy this edition of READ.ME.
Best regards,
Kenny Paterson
Department Head
Title image: Staff Party & OAT Housewarming, 24 May 2023.
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| Faculty and staff |
We extend a warm welcome to all new staff members who have joined our department in the 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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Congratulations, Johannes Lengler
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| Johannes, currently Lecturer in the department, has been promoted to Adjunct Professor. His research covers a wide range of topics, from pure mathematics to neurosciences. Congratulations, Johannes!
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Welcome, Nabil Abubaker
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| Nabil, from Bilkent University in Turkey, has joined the group of Professor Torsten Hoefler as a post-doc. He will be developing algorithms for accelerating sparse kernels used in scientific computing & machine learning on HPC systems. Welcome, Nabil! |
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Welcome, Kacper Sokol
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Kacper has joined the group of Professor Julia Vogt as a post-doc. He was previously working at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and will now focus on explainable machine learning for medical applications and clinical decision support tools. Welcome, Kacper! |
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Farewell, Binhang Yuan
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| Binhang was a postdoc in the group of Professor Ce Zhang. He is leaving the department to become Assistant Professor at the CSE HKUST in Hong Kong in August. All the best in your new role, Binhang! |
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Farewell, Mirjam Rösli
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| After working at and managing the D-INFK library for more than 15 years, Mirjam has been responsible for the department's space and site planning for the last two and a half years. She will leave us at the end of June. We wish you all the best for the future, Mirjam! |
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Welcome, Yih-Chun Hu
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| Prof. Hu from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is staying with us from 16 May 2023 until 15 April 2024. He is hosted by the group of Prof. Adrian Perrig and focuses on security and systems, especially in the areas of secure systems and mobile communications. Welcome, Yih-Chun! |
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| Passed doctoral examinations: |
David Daoe (Prof. Ce Zhang), 04.05.
Max Paulus (Prof. Andreas Krause), 12.05.
Johannes Rausch (Prof. Ce Zhang), 16.05.
Congratulations to our newly minted Doctors of Sciences ETH Zurich! |
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| Relocation to CAB and CNB |
Following the relocations to the Andreasturm (OAT), several groups and units are now moving within and to the CAB building. The UNH and UNG buildings will no longer be occupied by our department.
Here are the new addresses of the groups moving this spring:
Lecturers and Developers: CAB H floor,
Study Administration: CAB H floor,
Department Administration: CNB E floor,
Communication and Marketing: CNB E floor,
Prof. Kenny Paterson and Prof. Denis Hofheinz: CAB E floor,
Prof. Florian Tramèr: CAB F floor,
Prof. Valentina Boeva, Prof. Fanny Yang, Prof Julia Vogt, and the Visual Computing groups that were in UNH: CAB G floor.
To everyone involved: We hope you have a seamless move and settle in well! |
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| Stories of the month |
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Saving lives with Artificial intelligence
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Fabian Laumer, doctoral student
Fabian is a doctoral student in the Information and Science Engineering Group. Together with his colleagues, he is using machine learning to develop new personalised 3D models of the beating human heart. Their goal is to assist clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, the most prevalent cause of deaths worldwide. |
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Two new projects from the Sensing, Interaction & Perception Lab
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| Prof. Christian Holz
Two new projects from the Sensing, Interaction & Perception Lab were presented at the last ACM CHI conference. Taking advantage of common devices such as a fitness watch or a smartphone, they allow VR users to freely interact in 3D space and grab objects that are out of sight, or even play in places as small as a car, a train or an airplane seat. |
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By living in a different country, I have grown a lot as a person
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| Cella Florescu, Bachelor's student
Cella is a Bachelor’s student and member of the VIS university politics committee. In this interview, she talks about her experience moving to new countries and studying at ETH Zurich, as well as the rewards of representing computer science students at VIS. |
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“For very small problem sizes a classical computer is faster”
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| Prof. Torsten Hoefler
Prof. Hoefler explains why, although the theory says that quantum computers compute much faster than classical computers, it is not always the case. For them to do so in practice, it is necessary to design more and novel high-speed algorithms. |
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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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Ralf Jung is awarded the 2023 Alonzo Church Award
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| Ralf, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Programming Languages and Systems, has been awarded the 2023 Alonzo Church Award for Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Computation for his work on the Iris logic framework. Good work! |
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David Cock co-receives ACM Software System Award
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| David, senior researcher in the ETH Systems Group, is one of the co-recipients of the prestigious ACM Software System Award for the development of a new high-performance operating system. Well done! |
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Marc Pollefeys was elected member of Academia Europaea
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| Marc has been invited to become a member of the prestigious Academia Europaea for his outstanding research achievements. His work focuses on 3D computer vision as well as robotics, graphics, and machine learning. Congratulations! |
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Gustavo Alonso receives EuroSys Lifetime Achievement Award
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| Gustavo, Head of the Institute for Computing Platforms, has received the prestigious EuroSys Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding technical contributions to the field of computer systems. He is working on multi-core architectures, large clusters and big data. Congratulations! |
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2023 VIS Teaching Awards
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Students have voted for their favourite lecturers and teaching assistants! During the last Department Conference, Julia Bogdan, VIS president, announced the winners of the 2023 VIS Teaching Awards. Congratulations and thank you for your dedication! |
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| Upcoming events |
ETH Game Programming Lab, 30 May, 18.00, CAB G11 and online
The final presentations of this year's 13 teams will be fun and dynamic, featuring gameplay footage to showcase the 14-week journey from a raw idea to a finished game. Help select the Audience Award by voting for your favorite game. The games will be set up so that you can play them yourself during the apéro after the presentations. Watch the live stream.
lfl Colloqium "Troubling Visualization", 1 June, 17.15–18.30, BIN 2.A.01, UZH
The Informatics Department of UZH welcomes Professor Dr Miriah Meyer from Linköping University for his talk on "Troubling Visualization". More information here.
John von Neumann Symposium, 2 June, 15.00, Audi Max HG F 30
An afternoon of exciting talks is organised to celebrate John von Neumann (1903-1957), who matriculated for a degree in chemical engineering at ETH Zurich 100 years ago in 1923. Four special guests will give talks in some of those domains where John von Neumann’s pioneering work continues to be of great importance. The talks will be followed by an apéro. More information here and registration at this link.
Markus’ 60th birthday celebration, 16 June, 13.00–15.15, CAB G 11
On the occasion of Markus Gross' 60th birthday, join us for an afternoon of talks and a review of the last 30 years. Professor Gross has been the head of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH since 1994. He has taught numerous lectures and in major conferences in the field of computer graphics and scientific visualisation, and authored many publications and books on visual computing.
12. Schweizer Tag für den Informatikunterricht (STIU), 21 June, 12.00–18.15, ETH Zurich
Professor Dennis Komm from the ABZ (Education and Advice Center for Informatics Teaching) is organising the twelfth Swiss Day for Teaching in computer science. The STIU offers workshops for teachers of elementary and baccalaureate schools, workshops and lectures for all, as well as a competition, the “Informatikbiber”, for children. More information and registration (until 4 June 2023) here.
ETH Week 2023: Circular Realities, 10–15 September, ETH Zurich
The registration is now open for the 2023 ETH Week. This year, 150 students and more than 60 experts from academia, industry, public policy and public service will tackle numerous questions around the concept of a circular economy. More information and registration here.
Zukunftstag ETH Zurich, 9 November 2023
ETH Zurich will open its doors to the general public for the National Future Day, giving children the opportunity to learn about the daily work in non-stereotypical professional fields. Children are encouraged to join their parents or relatives at their workplaces, and can also visit other offices or labs to learn about different professions. To be a part of this day with your team and inspire tomorrow’s students to pursue careers in computer science, submit your project until 23 June 2023.
More information and contact here. |
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| Past events |
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Visit of the Alumni Class of 1993
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On 27 April, the computer science graduates of 1993 returned to their alma mater to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Presentations from Prof. Ueli Maurer and VIS president Julia Bogdan were followed by a wonderful reception, where everybody was happy to catch up with former fellow students. |
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Visit of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU
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| On 30 March, 48 computer science students visited our department. The programme included several activities, including presentations by department head Prof. Kenny Paterson and Prof. Thomas Hofmann, and visits to the ETH main building, Student Project House and the new Volumetric Capture Lab. |
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Distinguished Colloquium
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The spring series of the Distinguished Colloquium has come to an end. Topics ranging from machine learning to data structures to automation of circuit design have been presented by colleagues from around the globe. We thank all of the speakers and hosts! Pictures are available here. |
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| D-INFK Staff Party & Housewarming OAT |
Last week, we had the pleasure of gathering in the OAT building, the new home of several of our groups and institutes. We hope you had fun meeting friends and colleagues, flying above the Engadin and stacking cards. Thank you to everyone who came and made this evening special!
Congratulations to the AST team for taking the Quiz trophy home, and everyone else who participated: Most of you did better than ChatGPT! As a bonus, here is the answer to one of the Quiz questions you found the hardest: When he was a student, Prof. Jürg Nievergelt solo climbed (twice) the cupola of the ETH main building. You can read more about it here.
PS: If you forgot your bracelet at the party, please contact us to get it back. |
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| AI Retro Photo Booth winners |
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| The team of Julia Bogdan wins the AI Center Retro Photo Booth contest. Congratulations! |
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| The Sky is the Limit winner |
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| Jonás Fiala has built the highest tower, at 27cm. Well done Jonás, your dedication paid off! |
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Party pictures
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As a souvenir, you can find some pictures of the evening at the following link. Use the password "Staffparty2023". |
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| Please meet... |
Clara Meister, doctoral student, Rycolab
Hello Clara, in one sentence, what do you do?
I do research in natural language processing-specifically, probabilistic models for language generation, computational methods in psycholinguistics, and whatever interesting topics (of which there are too many) my labmates have honed in on recently.
Why did you decide to study computer science?
I wanted a career where I could solve puzzles all day long but without the frustration of losing puzzle pieces between the couch cushions. I also figured that if I had a doctorate in computer science, surely I would finally be able to help my grandma set up her new computer (still TBD).
How do you spend your leisure time?
I love doing things in the outdoors: trail running, rock climbing or even just riding my commuter bike through the foothills of Zurich. And I am in the perfect place for doing these things! Switzerland is so unique in the sheer magnitude of world-class options for outdoor sports that are easily accessible. It is a magical place.
Next September, you will be running 268 kilometers across the alps over the course of a week. Why?
Many of us at the department are used to challenging ourselves mentally; why not switch it up and take on a physical challenge? In seriousness though, completing the Transalpine Run is one of the crowning achievements of trail running and it is something that I want to prove to myself that I can do. I am hoping to use it as a tool for fundraising for a cause that I hold dear to my heart: empowering women! |
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| Clara will run the Transalpine with her teammate Marcia Mürner. On their way, they want to raise awareness about the marginalisation of women in sports, and support the non-profit organisation ASCEND Athletics. ASCEND mentors a small group of women in a two-year program to empower them through mountaineering-based leadership training and community service endeavours. |
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| CAS/DAS in Cyber Security |
The CAS ETH in Cyber Security Programme provides the necessary fundamental knowledge to understand concurrent challenges in cyber security. It is accessible for professionals without a strong background in computer science, but who need a basic understanding of technical, policy and strategy-related aspects of cyber security.
Applications are open until 1 July 2023. Find out more here. |
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| D-INFK in the news |
| • | | AI Center and Deep Judge (D-INFK Spin-off)
NZZ am Sonntag: Die Schweizer KI-Forschung ist Weltklasse. Warum aber hinkt die Wirtschaft hinterher?
Read article |
| • | | BLP Digital (D-INFK Spin-off)
Punkt 4: BLP Digital erhält 2,5 Millionen Franken von Innosuisse.
Read article |
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| Open positions |
VIS job mailing list
Are you a student interested in open positions, full-time or part-time, and internships? Then the job mailing list by the Association of Computer Science Students (VIS) is for you. |
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| Tip of the month – VMI Helpdesk |
Do you, or one of your colleagues, need a safe space to discuss personal and professional issues?
The VMI Helpdesk is a strictly confidential service for the Scientific Staff. Volunteers from the department can help you by listening to or giving you advice about relevant offices and services available at ETH.
If you would like to talk or volunteer at the Helpdesk, don't hesitate to get in touch. |
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| Welcome to the student corner! Here you can find the latest news and updates regarding student life. Whether you're looking for information on upcoming events, tips for studying or just a glance at what's happening on campus, this is the place to be. |
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| Student workspaces food&lab temporarily closed |
Due to maintenance, the food&lab guest room will not be available from 3 until 16 July 2023.
We kindly ask you to switch to the student workspaces in the buildings CHN, CLA, HG and MM.
Thank you very much for your understanding. |
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| VIS events |
Summer brunch, 2 June, CAB
It will soon be time again for the traditional end-of-semester brunch in typical VIS style, with enough food for everyone. More information about the event at the here. |
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