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| An eventful time |
Dear members of our department,
The Autumn Semester is well underway and the department is as busy as ever with a number of high-profile events. The VIScon symposium and hackathon, organised by our students, took place two weeks ago, with around 450 people attending. Well done!
Last week, 150 Masters students graduated from the department, in the first graduation ceremony in over three years to take place fully in person. Thanks to all faculty and staff who helped make the event festive and memorable for our graduates and their families.
Next week, we are looking forward to hosting computer graphics pioneer and Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull. Don't worry if you didn't secure one of the limited tickets for what should be a great talk – there will be a video recording.
Last but not least, I would like to sincerely thank everybody involved in the department evaluation that concludes this week. We are grateful for the outside perspective and feedback it will generate. We were also ranked as the fourth-best CS department in the world by Times Higher Education, a reflexion of everybody's hard work and dedication.
Please enjoy this edition of READ.ME.
Best regards,
Timothy Roscoe
Department Head
Title image: Our Master's graduates celebrate their degree.
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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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"Games are empathy machines"
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| Johanna Pirker, assistant professor at TU Graz and visiting professor at GTC, talks about what we can learn from video games and why the average gamer is not who we think they are. |
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New affiliated professor Ulrik Brandes
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| Ulrik Brandes, Professor for Social Networks at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, is now an affiliated professor at D-INFK. We look forward to working with you! |
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Farewell, Simona Bochsler
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| Simona, a frequent co-author of this newsletter, is leaving the department's Communication & Marketing Group at the end of the month. Starting in December, Ulrike von Groll will take over her position. Farewell and all the best! |
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Welcome, Hermann Blum
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| Hermann has joined the Computer Vision and Geometry Group as a postdoc coming from D-MAVT. He researches localisation, anomaly detection, continual learning and self-supervision for autonomous robots. Welcome! |
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Welcome, Alex Warstadt
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Alex Warstadt is a postdoc with Ryan Cotterell and Mrinmaya Sachan. He recently received his PhD in linguistics from NYU. His work uses natural language processing to study human language acquisition. Welcome, Alex! |
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Welcome, Juan David Guarnizo
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| Postdoc Juan David Guarnizo came to the Information Security Group from the Singapore University of Technology and Design. His research interests include applied cryptography, blockchain applications, and distributed systems. Welcome! |
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Welcome, Alessandro Torcinovich
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| Alessandro joined Joachim Buhmann's group as a postdoc after earning his PhD and working as postdoc at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. He researches weakly-supervised learning, computer vision, and game theory. Welcome, Alessandro! |
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Congratulations, Marco Eilers
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| Marco, a former doctoral student in the Programming Methodology Group, is staying on as a postdoc. His research focuses on deductive verification, in particular verification of security and hyperproperties. Glad to have you, Marco! |
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| Passed doctoral examinations: September 2022 |
Simon Kassing (Prof. Gustavo Alonso), 3.10.
Philippe Wenk (Prof. Andreas Krause), 7.10.
Niels Gleinlig (Prof. Torsten Hoefler), 10.10.
Jean-Pierre Smith (Prof. Adrian Perrig), 26.10.
Congratulations to our newly minted Doctors of Sciences ETH Zurich! |
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| Stories of the month |
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The joy of getting things off the ground
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| Emir İşman, Master's student
Emir, well-known to many at the department from his time at the helm of the computer science student association VIS, has now taken over as president of the ETH-wide student organisation VSETH. |
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Science for humanitarian action
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| Prof. Adrian Perrig
Prof. Srdjan Capkun
As part of the Engineering for Humanitarian Action initiative, Adrian, Srdjan and Prof. Luca Benini are using the SCION internet architecture to develop a secure digital infrastructure for the ICRC. |
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Trying on clothes virtually
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| Fayçal M'hamdi, Master's student
Together with D-MAVT student Pietro Zullo, our student Fayçal has created a virtual fitting room called Alter Ego that creates a virtual avatar based on a full body photo and the user's height. |
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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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D-INFK places fourth in THE subject ranking
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| Times Higher Education has ranked ETH Zurich as the fourth-best university to study computer science. Rankings have limitations, but we're happy to be rated as one of the world's best CS departments. Thank you all for contributing. |
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| Upcoming events |
Zero Trust in Zero Trust? (Distinguished Colloquium), 31 October, 16.15 – 17.15, CAB G 61
Professor Virgil Gligor from Carnegie Mellon University will give an overview of the basic concepts of trust, trust minimisation, zero trust, and trust establishment in his talk "Zero Trust in Zero Trust?" Learn more
ETH Global Lecture by Ed Catmull, 2 November, 17.30 – 18.30, HG E 5
Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull will give a talk on computer graphics and the rise of computing power driven by the Game Industry. The tickets are already gone, but there will be a video recording, so stay tuned.
Read more
Inaugural Lectures Niao He and Zhendong Su, 7 November, 17.15 – 18.30, HG F 30
Join us in Audi Max on 7 November for two inaugural lectures: "The dawn of reinforcement learning and a theory quest" by Prof. Niao He and "Four dreams for a better software future" by Prof. Zhendong Su. Learn more
Art & Computer Science – "Interactive Animation", 9 November, 18.00 – 19.00, CAB G 61
Mario von Rickenbach and Michael Frei collaborate on playful projects between video games and animated films. In this talk about interactive animation, hosted by the Game Technology Center, Mario and Michael will give insights into different aspects of making their projects. Learn more |
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| Past events |
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Congratulations to our graduates
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| We warmly congratulate our 152 Master's graduates. Around a 100 of them attended the festive graduation ceremony on Friday, 21 October, which took place in person and with full attendance for the first time in three years. Photos will be available in the department's photo gallery shortly. |
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A successful edition of VIScon
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| VIScon, the annual symposium and hackathon organised by our student association VIS, took place on 14-16 October. With around 250 symposium attendants, 100 people participating in the hackathon and around 90 helpers, the event attracted significantly more people than last year. |
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| Please meet... |
Pascal Kogelmann, study counsellor
What do you do at ETH?
As a coach and counsellor, I support D-INFK students in achieving their study-related goals and in steering through difficult times. At events and at workshops I also welcome new students at ETH and provide information on study-related topics like learning strategies, project management or preparing for exams.
Which skill are you learning or improving these days?
Currently, I am obtaining a diploma in advanced studies in resource and solution focused coaching to further enhance and expand my coaching skills.
As a coach, do you have any tips for the D-INFK community?
In a competitive environment, it is equally important to not only focus on the goal in front of you, but to regularly check in with yourself and ask how you are doing. Think of ways to make the day a little more rewarding for yourself to keep you motivated and your energy level up. This is a topic in quite a few coaching sessions.
What did you want to be as a child?
I was really fascinated by dinosaurs, so I wanted to become a palaeontologist.
What is your favourite place at and around ETH?
My office at HG, to be honest. We are blessed with a stunning view on Polyterrasse, Uetliberg, the lake and the city.
How do you spend your leisure time?
I enjoy nature, art, music and spending time with friends and family.
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| D-INFK in the news |
| • | | Prof. Marc Pollefeys
SRF Echo der Zeit: Kampf gegen digitalen Analphabetismus, Projekt GESDA
Watch video |
| • | | Prof. Dennis Komm
Bildung Schweiz: Der algorithmisch optimierte Rundgang durch den Zoo
Read article (page 13) |
| • | | Thomas Gassmann, D-INFK student
Inside IT: 3 Schweizer Informatiker an den Berufs-Weltmeisterschaften ausgezeichnet
Read article |
| • | | Futurae, D-INFK spin-off
Inside IT: "IT-Sicherheit ist auch eine Kulturfrage"
Read article |
| • | | LatticeFlow, D-INFK spin-off
TechCrunch: LatticeFlow raises $12M to eliminate computer vision blind spots
Read article |
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| Open positions and projects |
Student programmer for CYBATHLON
The CYBATHLON team is looking for a student to help program the competition results system. The job includes coding app components for the judges, interfaces to the results databases as well as front ends for the competition management.
Learn more and apply
Peer-to-peer counsellor at the association of scientific staff (VMI)
VMI and AVETH are looking for a doctoral student, postdoc, or other non-professorial staff member to help establish the new D-INFK help desk. Training on counselling and related topics, as well as a supportive network, will be provided.
Apply now
Open call: AI + Art with photographer Herlinde Koelbl
For an artwork together with German artist and photographer Herlinde Koelbl, the ETH AI Center is looking for computer science students familiar with GPT-2 or GPT-3 who would like to develop and expand the artist's work into an AI+Art piece.
Learn more and apply |
| 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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| Tips of the month – Research data management and energy savings |
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New guidelines for research data management
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| On 1 July 2022, the ETH Executive Board adopted new Guidelines for Research Data Management (RDM). The Scientific IT Services of ETH Zurich provide a number of RDM services that support researchers at ETH Zurich in complying with these new guidelines. |
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ETH Zurich implements initial energy-saving measures
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| ETH Zurich has launched a first round of measures to reduce its gas and energy consumption. These measures concern the room temperature in the buildings, the hot water and the lighting and are designed to have as little impact as possible on classes and research. |
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