A milestone worth celebrating
The first-ever Bachelor Graduation Ceremony organised by VIS, the Association of Computer Science Students at ETH Zurich, took place on 27 June 2023. Eligible Bachelor’s graduates were invited to the ceremony to celebrate this important achievement.
It used to be like this: You make three clicks, and you get your Bachelor’s degree sent home to you. That was it. No ceremony, no pat on the back. The lack of acknowledgement is what came up frequently when VIS discussed the wellbeing of students. It takes a lot of work to receive the Bachelor’s degree and the honouring was underwhelming.
That is why VIS came up with the idea of organising a Bachelor Graduation Ceremony on their own. VIS president Julia Bogdan explained, “Last summer we were at the University Politics Meeting where the Idea of a Bachelor Graduation first came up. Now, less than a year later, the first Bachelor Graduates were able to celebrate their achievement at their very own Graduation Ceremony.” She thanked everyone who made this possible, especially her fellow board members Andri Hunkeler and Florence Kissling, but also Professors Zhendong Su and Kenneth Paterson for being so supportive.
“Last summer we were at the University Politics Meeting where the Idea of a Bachelor Graduation first came up. Now, less than a year later, the first Bachelor Graduates were able to celebrate their achievement at their very own Graduation Ceremony.”Julia Bogdan, VIS president
Although it was not an official ceremony from the department, as the ETH Zurich generally does not celebrate the undergraduate degree, it was a welcome gesture of appreciation for the graduates and acknowledged their hard work. The support from the department was there nevertheless: Zhendong Su, Study Director, and Ghislain Fourny, Lecturer, were present as speakers. After the welcome speech by Julia Bogdan, Ghislain Fourny took the stage to talk about the graduation in a multilingual and entertaining way. He explained that, while the Master’s degree is professionally qualifying, the Bachelor’s degree is epistemologically qualifying, which should not be neglected. “The Bachelor’s studies sometimes resemble a Pokémon hunt – if you catch Linalgochu, Probabilotaur, and Analysaur, you are qualified to learn about quantum computers. If you catch Comparkchu and Digitaltechnopp, you are qualified to use hardware to accelerate data analysis”, he said. There are many other “Computer Science Pokémon”, like Programmygon, Numerikalmethott, Discretomatik, and Parallelprogash, and the students catch most of them during their studies. He concluded by explaining that the superpower of these Pokémon is to attract more and more knowledge, just like the Bachelor’s degree qualifies the students to acquire further knowledge.
Zhendong Su congratulated everyone on behalf of the Department of Computer Science on their milestone. The department valued the initiative and courage from VIS to organise this ceremony. He highlighted the importance of computer science stating, “These are the most exciting times in one of the most impacting fields in the world. The prospects are great and the future is bright.” At the end of his speech, Zhendong Su quoted Forrest Gump saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” He urged the students to cherish whichever chocolate they get, work hard and smart, and never despair.
The last speech of the ceremony was from Florence Kissling, the VIS vice president and event organiser. She thanked all the involved parties in making this historical event happen. Even though a lot of the organising was done last minute, which she compared to the Bachelor’s studies, it was still a ceremonial way to complete this chapter.
Afterwards, the graduates were invited to join the Apéro outside of the Audi Max. They were happy to celebrate their degree with their peers and invited guests, and were grateful for the acknowledgement of their efforts. One of the highlights for them was Ghislain Fourny’s comparison: “It was great! Lecturer Fourny talking about Pokémon was ‘peak fiction’,” said John Staib Matilla, former HoPo (university politics) president at VIS. To crown the event, VIS organised a party in the evening at the Supermarket club for the graduates and their invitees.
We hope that all the Bachelor’s graduates will continue their studies at ETH Zurich so that we can celebrate in a big way at the official Master’s Graduation Ceremony. There are two ceremonies per year, one in the springtime and one in autumn. The next ceremony will take place on 20 October 2023.
2023 Bachelor’s Graduation Ceremony
(Picture: D-INFK) …for the graduates and their guests to enjoy at the Apéro.
(Picture: D-INFK)
