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| Something new |
Dear readers,
This month, we're trying something new. Click on the image below to start the editorial, for the first time presented as a video, and discover why it's not just an ordinary video.
Disclaimer: The language in the translated video contains minor mistakes. Here is the orginal version.
Best regards,
Kenny Paterson
Department Head
Title image: Attentive listeners at one of the distinguished colloquia from the spring series 2024.
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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. |
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| Farewell, Joachim Buhmann |
| After more than 20 years of being a driving force in teaching, research and administrative roles in our department and at ETH, Professor Joachim Buhmann will officially retire in July. His research covers topics related to pattern recognition and data analysis, i.e., machine learning, statistical learning theory and applied statistics. In his farewell interview, he reflects on his main achievements and shares some advice for younger researchers. |
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Farewell, Fernando Pérez-Cruz
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| Fernando has left his position as Chief Data Scientist at the Swiss Data Science Center to become a Sr. Advisor at the Bank for International Settlements. Fernando works on machine learning research applied to economics and in the future will help central banks navigate the impact of AI on economic stability. All the best in your new role, Fernando! |
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Farewell, Fan Shi
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Fan is leaving the ETH AI Center which he joined in November 2022 as a postdoctoral fellow. He will become an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore. At the ETH AI Center, Fan was focusing on safety verification in black-box neural-net robot controllers. All the best with your future endeavours, Fan! |
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Welcome, Leonid Leiva Ariosa
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| Leonid joined the Communication & Marketing Group in May and will focus on creating editorial content. He holds a Physics degree from the University of Zurich and has extensive experience in science journalism and communications. Over the last five years, he worked at IBM Research. Welcome aboard, Leonid! |
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| Congratulations to Sandra Herkle on her 15th service anniversary |
| A lot has happened since Sandra made her way from industry to D-INFK. The department has doubled in size, and Sandra has worked with seven heads of department and six study directors. She has seen many students and staff come and go. What has remained and is still as fresh as on day one: her enthusiasm for people and topics and her drive to make a difference along with her Communication & Marketing team. Thank you very much for your great work, Sandra! |
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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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Markus Gross awarded Eurographics Gold Medal
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| The European Association for Computer Graphics has recognised Professor Markus Gross for his outstanding research contributions, his contributions to bridging industry and academia and his leadership in the field at large. Congratulations, Markus! |
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Andreas Kuster wins student essay competition
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| Andreas, a D-INFK alumnus, was one of three winners of the St. Gallen Symposium Global Essay Competition. His essay was one of 700 submissions. It deals with the issue of information verification on the internet. Big congratulations! |
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VIS recognises best teaching assistants
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Congratulations to Sarah Kuhn, Manuel Di Sabatino, Anja Sjöström, Maria Makeenkova, Roberto Oliveira Pais, Constantin Mussaeus, Ramon Wick, Joël Vögtlin, Georgia Hadjipanayiotou and Yanik Künzi for winning this spring semester's teaching assistant awards. |
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| Story of the month: "I want to build bridges between humans and machines" |
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Professor Menna El-Assady, ETH AI Center
In an interview for the ETH AI Center 2024 Annual Report, Menna El-Assady discusses her vision to build AI systems that empower humans rather than replacing them. She also speaks about how ETH's culture of fostering interdisciplinarity is crucial for her work on creating human-centered AI. |
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| Tips of the month |
Design++ Summer School: AI in AEC
From 2 to 6 September 2024, the Design++ Summer School will offer a weeklong deep dive into applications of AI, machine learning and deep learning specifically tailored for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). The summer school aims to equip the participants with the necessary skills, tools and practical experience through hands-on coding sessions and mini-projects. Applications will be open in June for selected doctoral students, postdocs and advanced Master's students. |
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Help wanted
The two Master’s students Shriya Chaudhry and Martin Kohlberger from the Department of Architecture are currently working on their thesis titled “Temporary Living Situations in the City of Zurich”. If you currently live or have lived in Zurich on a temporary rental contract, they would appreciate your help in completing the survey. The survey is open to students and staff. |
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| Upcoming events |
CS Colloquium: Computational Models are the new Human-Computer Interface, 10 June, 09.15–10.15, HG D 16.2
Professor Christian Holz will talk about how emerging 3D Mixed Reality systems aim to interpret users' input through passive observation of behaviour, yet often revert to traditional cursor-based interactions familiar to conventional computing.
Read more
CS Colloquium: The Rise of Reinforcement Learning (Theory): from One to Many, 10 June, 10.30–11.30, HG D 16.2
For this upcoming colloquium, Professor Niao He will take the stage to talk about the theoretical gaps in many-agent reinforcement learning by introducing promising optimisation principles.
Learn more
Nature and Science Festival, 8 June, 12.00–17.00, Irchel Campus UZH
Under the motto "Discover | Research | Celebrate Diversity", the departments of the University of Zurich will present themselves and offer experiments, workshops, guided tours and more. The programme is suitable for people of all ages and will be enriched by music and food trucks.
See the programme here
Poster Session "Interactive Machine Learning: Visualization & Explainability", 17 June, 11.30–13.00, OAT S 16
Student teams spent a whole semester working on different projects and will present their results with posters and interactive demos. There will be opportunities to play around with the visual interactive interfaces and to discuss possible future work directions with the students.
Register by 10 June |
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Reminder: Register now for the D-INFK Staff Party on 11 June
Soon, our next Staff Party under the motto “D-INFK Summer Olympics 2024” will take place again. Join us on Tuesday, 11 June for a memorable evening of camaraderie, laughter and friendly competition! There will be some sporty challenges, but it is up to you whether you want to be part of the games. Make sure to register by Friday, 31 May to secure your spot. |
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| VMI Summer Retreat, 7–10 and 12–15 September, Zermatt |
| In September, VMI is hosting a summer retreat for all scientific staff of D-INFK. It will take place in Zermatt and offer great scientific exchange opportunities, networking and socialising. The registration will be open from 12 June. |
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| Past events |
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Visit from Gymnasium Einsiedeln
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| On 16 May 2024, 24 students from the 5th grade of Einsiedeln grammar school visited our department to get an insight into computer science studies. They received a presentation on human-robot collaboration through mixed reality from Zuria Bauer, postdoc at the Computer Vision and Geometry Lab. The highlight of the visit was the robot dog "Spot", demonstrated by Tim Engelbracht, Master's student in robotics. |
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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 "Polynomial time cryptanalytic extraction of neural network models" to "AI-resilient interfaces and the value of variation" have been presented by colleagues from around the globe. A big thank you to all the speakers and hosts! Pictures of the colloquia are available here. |
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| Open positions and opportunities |
CAS ETH in Cyber Security: Application window open until 1 July 2024
This is a continuing education programme that focuses on the technical foundations of information security from a computer science point of view with essential strategic aspects of cyber security. It targets professionals, not necessarily with a strong background in computer science, who are connected to decision-making processes in information and cyber security. You can find the programme and apply for the Autumn Semester 2024 on our website. Spread the word!
More information here
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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| This is a spontaneous, light-hearted and fun segment, where we can share bits and pieces that we see along the way. We are also open to suggestions and submissions from our community! |
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| Fun zone |
| Computer science jokes are not funny – or are they? Send us your funniest jokes and we will publish the best one in the next edition of READ.ME. |
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| VIS, the Association of Computer Science Students, traditionally has many events throughout the year. This year, they have been especially active as they are celebrating their 40th anniversary. Here are two of their most recent events: |
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VISTA Grill & Drinks
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| VISTA, the biggest VIS event to date, took place on 17 May at the Circle Park. It's the spiritual successor to VISKAS, another grill event, and attracted over 900 attendees. Congratulations to the organisers on pulling off this event! |
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Björn's 40th birthday
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| At the end of April, VIS celebrated their mascot Björn's 40th birthday in the CAB courtyard with lots of delicious cakes. Among the many party guests were also our Department Head Kenny Paterson and Study Director Dennis Hofheinz. Happy birthday, Björn! |
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