D-INFK news channel

We've all heard it, we all know it, we’ve all seen it: Computer science is not regarded as a “beacon” of diversity. In this interview, Professor Kenny Paterson, Head of the Department of Computer Science details his experiences with diversity, the challenges we face, and how D-INFK might be getting a bit better one step at a time.

Professor Ce Zhang was Associate Professor in the Data Sciences, Data Systems, & Data Services Lab (DS3Lab). He left ETH Zurich at the end of last month to take a position as an associate professor at the University of Chicago, USA. We wish him all the best!

Ce Zhang, currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Computer Science. Zhang conducts research at the interface between data science and systems, and works at the cutting edge of developments in IT following the transition to cloud-based systems. 

D-INFK students Jan Schnyder, Nicolas Muntwyler and Konstantin Wohlwend teamed up with UZH computer science student Kyrill Hux to launch "Generai", a platform that creates works of art from text prompts.

Autonomous virtual humans that move and behave naturally are Siyu Tang’s vision. One area from which the computer scientist draws inspiration are our behavioural patterns. Collaboration with architects and surgeons provides further input – and it also reveals the enormous potential of virtual people.

Manuela Fischer, former doctoral student at the Institute of Theoretical Computer Science, receives the 2022 ACM Principles of Distributed Computing Doctoral Dissertation Award. Congratulations!  

Octavian Ganea passed away unexpectedly while hiking in French Polynesia in late May 2022, at the age of 34. He was a doctoral student at the Department of Computer Science from 2014 to 2019 and, more recently, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT.

Professor Otmar Hilliges from the Institute for Intelligent Interactive Systems and Professor Martin Vechev from the Institute for Programming Languages and Systems receive ERC Consolidator Grants for their respective research projects. The mid-career award is given to outstanding researchers with highly promising scientific track records. Congratulations!

Cookie consent banners only appear to give users control over their data. Researchers from the Information Security Group have developed a browser extension that uses machine learning to recognise and block unnecessary cookies.

Martin Vechev, head of the Secure, Reliable, and Intelligent Systems Lab at the Department of Computer Science, has been promoted from Associate Professor to Full Professor.

Theodoros Theodoridis, doctoral student in the Advanced Software Technologies Lab, has won two awards at the ASPLOS 2022 conference.

Professor Ankit Singla, head of the Network Design Lab, is leaving ETH Zurich to take on a new role with Google.

Postdoc Moritz Geilinger visited the Pestalozzi School Camps to show children what a robotics researcher does and how robots can be used in the real world.

Professor Ueli Maurer was Director of Studies at the Department of Computer Science (D-INFK) from January 2020 to December 2021. In his farewell interview, he looks back on an intense but rewarding time.

When working with neural networks, their training is the single most resource-​demanding and costly process. Two computer scientists from Torsten Hoefler's team have now developed a software that considerably speeds up training. This will be especially relevant for scientific applications of future users of “Alps” at CSCS.

Stelian Coros, currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Computational Robotics in the Department of Computer Science.

Alexandre de Spindler was an active VIS member from 2001-2003 and is the founder of the Snowdayz. Visionen editor Ricardo Heinzmann asks him in an interview about his time in VIS 20 years ago.

Björn the Polar Bear has been the unofficial mascot of the Association of Computer Science Students (VIS) since the turn of the millennium. Happy Birthday!

During her visit to ETH Zurich, Defence Minister Viola Amherd sketched a picture of an unstable, unpredictable world to which Swiss security policy must adapt. D-INFK contributes to Swiss cyber security through a number of initiatives and projects, including the secure internet architecture SCION and the Cyber Security Master's programme.

Prof. Angelika Steger has been elected as a new member of the ETH Zurich Prize Committee as of 1 November 2021. The Prize Committee advises the Executive Board on science prizes.

Fredi Schmid was a co-founder and the first President of the Association of Computer Science Students at ETH Zurich (VIS). In the interview he remembers the founding, the parties, and studying computer science in the 1980s.

Gagandeep Singh, former doctoral student at the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, received the 2021 ACM SIGPLAN Dissertation Award for his work on building safe and robust AI systems. Congratulations!

Vinicius Azevedo, research scientist at DisneyResearch|Studios in Zurich, was honoured with the 2021 SCA Early Career Researcher Award. Congratulations!

From robots that offer solace to algorithms that help judges make fact-​based decisions, robotics and machine learning are entering new domains that were once the preserve of humans.

Professor Markus Gross, head of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich and Vice President of Research for The Walt Disney Studios, has received the prestigious Steven Anson Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics.

The future quantum computers should be capable of super-​fast and reliable computation. Researchers at the DS3Lab conduct an early exploration for reliable quantum machine learning.

Professor emeritus Peter Läuchli passed away on May 12 at the age of 92. He was one of the founders of the Department of Computer Science.

Under the direction of D-INFK Professor Juraj Hromkovic, the ABZ trained children for the robotics competition entitled "First Lego League". Two teams made it to the finals, one of which was received by ETH Rector Sarah Springman for a visit.

Cybersecurity is important in our increasingly digitised society. Cyber Group ETH Student Initiative, a student-founded organisation, works to educate and inspire students about cybersecurity, for instance by hosting events such as the virtual Meet & Greet.

As the coronavirus pandemic exploded in March 2020, students at ETH Zurich founded two online platforms that assigned volunteers to healthcare institutions in need: Students4Hospitals and Care Now. After six months of living with the virus, where are these platforms now?

Professor Gunnar Rätsch played a major part in creating the biggest public database for anonymised information on two important breast cancer genes. The database helps to improve the treatment of patients.

Stelian Coros is an innovative young scientist who demonstrates great potential in the area of finding novel methods and algorithms for digital design, and in the computational fabrication of robots.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and Disney Research Zurich have developed a new technique called Computational Thermoforming. It enables them to manufacture plastic replicas of digital 3D models, in which the shape and colour are reproduced in detail. This technique extends the range of digital fabrication methods and represents an efficient and cost-​effective alternative to colour 3D printing.

Researchers from ETH Zurich's Computer Vision and Geometry Group transformed a smartphone into a portable digital scanner. In the form of an app, the 3D mobile technology allows users to snap pictures on the fly and scan objects, from a statue to a piece of furniture, or even a person. It also enables scanning in outdoor environments to model arbitrary objects or scenes.

Google honours the Centre for Computer Science Education (ABZ) of ETH Zurich, which promotes computer science skills at primary schools by offering programming courses. Now, the programme leaders can extend their efforts onto other parts of Switzerland. (German)

Top honour for ETH-Zurich professor and Disney director Markus Gross: he is to receive a “Tech Oscar” from the Academy of Motion and Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) along with three other computer scientists for a procedure they developed which leading special effects studios now use to simulate smoke and explosions in Hollywood films.

Alumni and current students discuss the opportunities of the joint Master in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CBB) offered by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich.