VENTURING INTO the UNKNOWN How Fundamental Research Creates Options for the Future PAGE 12

NO. 2/2018

VENTURING INTO THE UNKNOWN How fundamental research creates options for the future PAGE 12

The rise of China Breaking a sweat Beekeeper for as an AI superpower for a cooler Singapore the digital age PAGE 8 PAGE 36 PAGE 46 Opportunities for you

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GF_Anz_ETH_Globe_2018-Jan.indd 1 06.02.18 08:39 EDITORIAL

GLOBE NO. 2/2018

WHY RESEARCHERS SHOULD EXPLORE UNCHARTED TERRITORY

Imagine you were building a house. You wouldn’t even consider starting with the first floor and leaving out the foundations, because the resulting structure would never be able to stand up to the physical forces that apply in the real world. And just as every house needs foundations, so too does science, in this case in the form of knowledge-oriented fundamental research. James Clerk Maxwell’s mathematical work on electro magnetism and Heinrich Hertz’s experiments at the end of the 19th century laid the foundations of radio technology. Maxwell Lino Guzzella, President of ETH Zurich and Hertz made decisive contributions that paved the way for new communication technologies such as radio, GPS and WLAN decades later, yet neither of them wasted any time worrying about whether their work was useful. Photovoltaics would be inconceivable without the knowledge gained by ETH alumnus Albert Einstein in 1905 in his theory of the photoelectric effect. And the list goes on and on: one example after another where fundamental research, pursued by an inquisitive spirit, has led to revolutionary applications. The urge to push the boundaries of knowledge and think of things nobody has thought of before continues to be one of the See our Focus section key drivers of scientific research at ETH, whether in physics, starting on page 12 for materials science, life sciences, or any other field of knowledge. more images and insights But fundamental research inevitably poses risks, too. It creates related to this topic. options for the future, but provides no guarantee as to whether these will ultimately bear fruit. Obviously this clarion call for fundamental research in no way undermines the importance of applied research. Both are equally important. This issue of Globe will take you on an exciting journey into a world in which scientists pursue fundamental concepts and explore uncharted territory. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Lino Guzzella, President of ETH Zurich

Globe, the magazine for ETH Zurich and ETH Alumni

Cover image and Focus artwork: Cornelia Gann / ETH Library Zurich, Image Archive, Photographer Stumpf, W.; Editorial: Giulia Marthaler GLOBE NO. 2/2018 CONTENTS

NEW AND NOTED COMMUNITY 5 News from ETH Zurich 31 Connected to ETH

6 Heading to Mars 32 The age of sustainability

8 The rise of China 35 Column as an AI superpower China’s ambition to become an Artificial Intelligence superpower REPORT FOCUS – page 8 36 Breaking a sweat for a cooler 14 New ways of exploring Singapore the unknown Students from the Institute of An interview about the risks and Landscape Architecture are rewards of fundamental research. designing natural ways to cool this heat-afflicted metropolis. 20 Keeping up with the quick-change artists Tanja Stadler studies how viruses CONNECTED and bacteria genetically mutate 42 Encounters at ETH and spread. Students are developing green spaces 44 Agenda 23 A vision becomes reality to cool down Singapore For a long time, people regard- – page 36 ed quantum computers as an PROFILE unattainable dream. Now they are 46 Beekeeper for the digital age finally within reach. But making Cristian Grossmann is revolution- them truly useful still requires ising how companies communi- plenty of fundamental research. cate internally with the spin-off company Beekeeper. 28 Searching for traces in the ocean Derek Vance seeks to discover how life evolved on Earth by 5 QUESTIONS studying trace metals in seawater 50 Philip Ursprung and sedimentary rock. A historian and Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, Philip Ursprung is also the Designated Dean of the Depart- ment of Architecture.

IMPRINT — Publisher: ETH Alumni / ETH Zurich, ISSN 2235-7289 Editorial team: Martina Märki (Head), Isabelle Herold, Corinne Johannssen-Hodel, Michael Keller, Nicol Klenk, Karin Köchle, Florian Meyer, Samuel Schlaefli, Felix Würsten Contributors: Claudia Hoffmann Advertising administration: ETH Alumni Communications, [email protected], +41 44 632 51 24 Advertising management: Fachmedien, Zürichsee Werbe AG, Stäfa, [email protected], +41 44 928 56 53 Design: Crafft Kommunikation AG, Zurich Printing and proofreading: Neidhart + Schön AG, Zurich Translation: Burton, Van Iersel & Whitney GmbH, Munich; Clare Bourne, Nicol Klenk, ETH Zurich Circulation: 34,000 (German), 31,300 (English), published quarterly Subscriptions: CHF 20.– annually (four issues); included in full menbership of the ETH Alumni Association Orders and changes of address: [email protected] and for Alumni at www.alumni.ethz.ch/myalumni Contact information: www.ethz.ch/globe, [email protected], +41 44 632 42 52 Free tablet version.

Illustration: Till Lauer; Images: Lina Meisen; Daniel Winkler NEW AND NOTED

Meteorology 3D SIMULATION OF CLOUD FORMATION

ETH computer graphics specialists have developed a three-dimensional visualisation method for weather events that enables them to analyse cloud formation. Compared to today’s standard two-dimensional representations, this method improves visualisation of vertical cloud forma- Visualisation of air currents tion and flow velocity. The first visual over Germany. Red areas representations show how clouds indicate transport barriers that occur, for instance, in form and change over time, and how the event of strong updrafts. they are transported by winds. In the future, the aviation industry and meteorologists may be able to benefit from this visualisation method. 5

Energy research tery’s positive pole. For the conductive parts of the battery, Kovalenko and his SUSTAINABLE colleagues have found a suitable solu- BATTERIES tion in the form of titanium nitride, a ceramic material that exhibits sufficiently high conductivity. “This com- A long-term structural change in ener- pound is made up of the highly abun- gy systems, known as energy transi- dant elements titanium and nitrogen, A genetically encoded music album tion, depends on technologies that al- and it’s easy to manufacture,” explains low inexpensive storage of electricity Kovalenko. DNA storage from renewable sources. Made from The second new material is cheap and abundant raw materials, polypyrene, a hydrocarbon with a THE GENETIC CODE aluminium batteries are a promising chain-like molecular structure, used by candidate for the job. Among those in- the researchers for the positive elec- OF TRIP HOP volved in researching and developing trode (pole) of the aluminium battery. batteries of this kind are scientists In contrast to graphite, the material British band Massive Attack are seen from ETH Zurich and Empa – led by from which the electrode is usually as pioneers of trip hop music. It has ETH Professor Maksym Kovalenko. made, scientists can influence the now been 20 years since they released The researchers have now identified properties of polypyrene electrodes, their breakthrough album Mezzanine. two new materials that could bring such as their porosity. The material can To mark the anniversary, the band are about key advances in the develop- therefore be adapted to perfectly suit having it stored in the form of genetic ment of aluminium batteries. The first the specific application – and it rivals code. Using technology developed by is a corrosion-resistant material for the graphite in terms of the amount of en- ETH Zurich, the music can be coded conductive parts of the battery; the ergy a battery is able to store. in DNA molecules and poured into second is a new material for the bat- tiny glass beads.

Images: Tobias Günther, Computer Graphics Lab, ETH Zurich; Massive Attack / Colourbox / Caroline Laville ETH GLOBE 2/2018 NEW AND NOTED

Space travel TAKING THE PULSE OF MARS

NASA’s unmanned InSight mission to Mars launched on 5 May 2018. After a six-month journey through space, the InSight robotic lander will reach the Red Planet on 26 November. One of the instruments on board is a seismometer, featuring data-acquisition and control electronics developed at ETH Zurich. The seismometer will measure seismic activity such as marsquakes and meteorite impacts, providing insights into the planet’s composition and interior structure. Researchers will use the data collect-

6 ed by the lander to learn more about the processes that formed Mars in such a similar way to Earth over 4 billion years ago – as well as those that continue to shape it today.

ETH Zurich on Mars: → www.insight.ethz.ch/en/home

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 NEW AND NOTED 7

Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Lockheed Martin ETH GLOBE 2/2018 8 analysis, Fischer examinedChina’srise nance inAIby 2030.InarecentCSS by 2025,andachievingglobal domi a worldleaderworth60billion dollars transforming China’sAIindustry into with theWest inthefieldofAIby2020, including closingthetechnological gap on thepartofChinesegovernment, some breathtakinglyambitiousgoals (AI Plan) in July 2017. This contains ficial Intelligence DevelopmentPlan” tion ofChina’s“NextGenerationArti found interestinAIwasthepublica One ofthereasonsforEurope’snew Breathtaking ambition ETH Zurich. Center forSecurityStudies(CSS)at scientist anddoctoralstudentatthe Sophie-Charlotte Fischer,political left behindintheAIrace,” says something tostopthecontinentbeing ups. “Macron realised he had to do euros inAIresearchandrelatedstart- government planstoinvest1.5billion Over thenextfiveyears, French had suddenlywokenfromadeepsleep. on 29March2018,itfeltlikeEurope developing artificialintelligence(AI) France’s newnationalstrategyfor When Emmanuel Macron announced intelligence (AI)by2030.Aspartofherdoctoralthesis, China intendstobetheworldleaderinartificial China’s riseasanew is analysingthecurrentChineseupswinginAI. political scientistSophie-CharlotteFischer AI superpower - - - - already wellunderway, withresearch as anAIsuperpower.Thisprocessis over 13billiondollarsintheICTindus 2017, Chinesecompaniesalsoinvested in SiliconValley. Between2014and help companiesestablishthemselves ment providestargetedsupportto ing heavilyinAI.TheChinesegovern (e-commerce), allofwhomareinvest Baidu (searchengine)andAlibaba the techgiantsTencent (messaging), tories in Silicon Valley. These include companies havesetupresearchlabora Virtually allthemajorChinesetech significantly higherintermsofimpact. even thoughUSpublicationsstillrank AI than their counterparts in the US – ers inChinapublishingmorepieceson eet cmn ot f China with acritical eye,despitethecoun of out coming announcements February. Yet Fischerviews the paranoid,” warnedThe Economistin ties. Chinese techcompaniesand universi hai, tempted by lucrative offersfrom Valley toheadbackBeijingorShang ican universitiesorworkedinSilicon researchers whohavestudiedat Amer ment istheincreasingtendencyfor try intheUS.Anothernewdevelop “For SiliconValley, it’s time toget Artificial intelligence NEW AND NOTED ETH GLOBE 2/2018 GLOBE ETH ------technology falling intoChinesehands. tors couldresult inimportantmilitary American start-upsbyChinese inves ingly concernedthatthepurchase of searchers. USpoliticiansare increas of knowledgebyUS-basedChinese re this situation,aswellfrom a transfer access them.Chinahasbenefitedfrom open source, whichmeans anyone can research publicationsarepublishedas ment anddisseminationofAI.Most power, itishardtocontrolthedevelop dual-use technologiessuchasnuclear says Fischer.Yet, unlikeconventional for bothcivilandmilitarypurposes,” US. “Artificial intelligencecanbeused is causingconcern,especiallyinthe China’s ascension as an AIsuperpower AI for weapons andsurveillance 1.5 billionpotentialusers. term, basedonitsdomesticmarketof its AIstandardsgloballyinthemedium China may succeed in pushing through panies. Shedoes,however,acceptthat percent ofthatAmericantechcom Chinese techcompaniesisonly32 that the total market volume of come fromtheUS,” shesays,noting ful microchipsforAIapplicationsstill rapidprogress.“Themostpower try’s ------

------— Samuel Schlaefli Fischer therefore warns against panies to rapidly test out new develop ments in real-life applications. With 731 million Internet users – most of divulge more data than users in whom the US – plus lax data protection laws, China offers extremely fertile ground for new developments. adopting too much of a one-sided perspective on the intercontinental relationships involved. “Chinese and American companies alike benefit mutually from progress in both coun she says. “The evolution of AI is tries,” characterised by cooperation as well as competition.” analysis the CSS download can You High-Tech China’s Intelligence: “Artificial Fischer by Sophie-Charlotte Ambitions” link: using the following free for → www.ethz.ch/cssanalyse220-en emerging market. Last December, December, Last market. emerging its in (Google) announced Alphabet AI research cen tention to open a new though Google’s tre in Beijing – even email service are search engine and China. Fischer is both blocked in Chinese market is convinced that the for AI com becoming more important have “The Chinese panies in the West. affinity for an even greater cultural she says, we do,” new technologies than her during experiences her on based “Even in rural parts own trips to China. of China, there are lots of places where people pay using their smartphones,” she adds, noting how this enables com - - - - ETH GLOBE 2/2018 NEW AND NOTED AND NEW lance cameras and plans to add a fur a add to plans cameras and lance ther 450 million by 2020. Fischer is one of many experts who believe that the ability to combine this data with advanced AI “has the potential to cre surveil total of model Orwellian an ate lance.” and competition Cooperation have society civil politicians and While reservations about China’s AI boom, American tech companies are showing a great deal of interest in this new ment obtain benefits such as better ment obtain benefits such as better terms for bank loans and easier access to good schools. In contrast, those who behave suspiciously may find they are no longer able to leave the country. China already has 176 million surveil - - - - - Image: Till Lauer haviour encouraged by the govern haviour using video cameras and image data from government databases as well as personal data from the Internet. Those who demonstrate the kind of be bility”. This has set alarm bells ringing bility”. of increasing politi against a backdrop cal repression and social control under the current leader Xi Jinping. China’s roll-out of its Social Credit System show how surveillance and AI can go hand in hand: a number of Chinese cities have already introduced systems to continuously evaluate people’s be As well as AI’s potential military use, As well as AI’s potential military use, political commentators and human further highlight a also activists rights risk, namely China’s stated strategic goal of using AI to “maintain social sta NEW AND NOTED

New images from the SPHERE instrument reveal details of the dusty disks surrounding nearby young stars. The disks show an astonishing variety of shapes and structures.

Cancer diagnostics The early warning system comprises a genetic network that biotechnologists BIOMEDICAL TATTOO integrate into human body cells, which in turn are inserted into an implant. Cancer is the leading cause of death in This encapsulated gene network is industrialised countries. Many of those then implanted under the skin, where affected are diagnosed only after the it constantly monitors the blood calci- RXJ 1615 tumour has reached an advanced stage. um level. As soon as the calcium level This often significantly reduces the exceeds a particular threshold value chance of recovery. Reliable, early de- for an extended period of time, a signal tection of such tumours would not only cascade is triggered that initiates pro- save lives, but also reduce the need for duction of the body’s tanning pigment expensive, stressful treatment. melanin in the genetically modified Researchers working with Martin cells. The skin then forms a warning Fussenegger, professor at the Depart- signal in the form of a brown mole that ment of Biosystems Science and Engi- is visible to the naked eye – a kind of neering at ETH Zurich in Basel, have biomedical tattoo. now presented a possible solution to So far, this early warning implant

IM Lup this problem: a synthetic gene network is a prototype; the associated work re- that serves as an early warning system. cently published in the journal Science

10 It recognises the four most common Translational Medicine is a feasibility types of cancer – prostate, lung, colon study. and breast cancer – at a very early stage, namely when the level of calcium in the blood is elevated due to the developing tumour.

MY Lup

Astronomy

PLANET FORMATION Medical technology

An instrument partially developed EARLIER DIAGNOSIS and built at ETH Zurich has proved to OF DEMENTIA be particularly successful at studying newborn stars still surrounded by gas and dust. The SPHERE instrument is Jannis Fischer and Max Ahnen, two located at the Very Large Telescope ETH physicists, are building a brain (VLT) facility, which is operated by scanner that is much smaller than cur- the European Southern Observatory rent models and only one-tenth as ex- in Chile. Data collected over the pensive. Their groundbreaking work Model of the headpiece of the inexpensive course of several nights in March has earned them a place on the 2018 PET scanner 2016 and 2017 were of very high “30 Under 30” list published by the quality. Scientists are now using the American business magazine Forbes. data to shed more light on the process Such positron-emission tomogra- earlier than a conventional diagnosis. of planet formation. phy (PET) scanners can help to diag- The scientists hope to launch their nose certain neurological conditions, compact scanner in 2021. such as dementia, ten to twenty years

Images: ESO/H. Avenhaus et al. / DARTT-S Kollaboration; ETH GLOBE 2/2018 F. Bachmann NEW AND NOTED

3D printing INSECT ORIGAMI SETS AN EXAMPLE

Origami also exists in the natural world. One of the most remarkable examples of this ‘art of folding’ is the wing of an earwig. When open, the insect’s wing is over ten times larger than when closed – the highest folding ratio in the animal kingdom. Researchers at ETH Zurich and Purdue University have created a synthetic structure that works on the The 3D printer produces an imitation earwig wing that can be folded compactly. same principle. To analyse the wing structure and transferred their findings to a multi- just like the insect’s wing – but folds function, the researchers ran a compu material printer, manufacturing what together automatically at even the ter simulation of the wing. This re- is known as a 4D object comprising slightest touch. The potential applica- vealed that the insect’s wing is elastic four stiff plastic plates connected to tions of such objects include foldable 11 and can operate as either an extensional each other by a soft and elastic plastic electronics and solar sails for satellites or rotational spring. The researchers joint. The object is stable when open – and space probes.

Drug discovery stable ring-shaped basic structure. The The foundations for the principle of chemists attached three different small DNA encoding were laid by the Scripps FISHING FOR DRUGS molecules to one side of each ring. This researcher Richard Lerner and Nobel forms a kind of highly specific fish hook Prize winner Sydney Brenner at the be- Searching for new drugs requires pa- that can bind onto a protein if its form ginning of the 1990s, but the idea lay tience – and generally costs a lot of perfectly matches the protein’s struc- dormant for over a decade until Neri money. ETH researchers led by Dario ture. The researchers used hundreds of and his colleague David R. Liu from Neri have developed a new screening such molecules, combining them in Harvard University revived it. In 2009, method that speeds up the search for various ways to create a library of 35 they presented a DNA-encoded chem- drugs, making it cheaper and more million different “fish hooks”. ical collection for the very first time. efficient. At the heart of the method is a new DNA-encoded chemical library that contains 35 million different drug You can find more information candidates. Such collections are noth- on this topic and other research ing new, but the structure and scope of news from ETH Zurich at: the substances contained in this one are → www.ethz.ch/news-en something special. It allows researchers to examine millions of potential self-produced drug candidates in one go. ETH chemists deploy a large collection Each of the drug candidates of “fish hooks” to catch the fish – a target contained in the collection consists of a molecular structure.

Illustration: Morris Köchle; Image: Peter Rüegg ETH GLOBE 2/2018 FOCUS

Fundamental research Some adventures have a lasting effect Researchers who venture into uncharted territory have no idea where they will end up. Their spirit of adventure may lead

12 them to a dead end – or lay the foundations for future discoveries. Sometimes it takes generations for these new discoveries to bear fruit.

FOCUS ILLUSTRATIONS: Cornelia Gann FOCUS

Harnessing the power of the sun

2. The first solar cell was created at Bell Labs in the US in 1954. It had an energy conversion

efficiency of around 13 5 percent.

3. Today, researchers from ETH Zurich and Empa working at the spin-off company Flisom produce flexible thin-film solar cells with a world-record-breaking efficiency of 20.4 percent. 1. Solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. Albert Einstein laid the foundations for understanding solar cells in 1905 with his theoretical explanation of the photoelectric effect. Einstein studied physics at ETH Zurich and worked there as a professor from 1912 to 1914.

Images: ETH Library Zurich, Image Archive; HiLo Team: Block Research Group, Architecuture and Building Systems Group; Flisom AG FOCUS

Fundamental research is a risky venture. Detlef Günther, Vice President for Research and Corporate Relations, and Uwe Sauer, President of the “We need to ETH Zurich Research Commission, explain what makes it so worthwhile. find new ways

INTERVIEW Martina Märki and Samuel Schlaefli of exploring the unknown” 14

Detlef Günther is Vice President for Research and Corporate Relations at ETH Zurich, responsible for strategic guidance You have worked in research for over search, specifically in biotechnology. of research initiatives and the transfer of research findings into 20 years. What do you particularly But I quickly realised that – at least in industry. He is Professor for Trace enjoy about fundamental research? the rational design of biological net- Element and Micro Analysis in the DETLEF GÜNTHER – People regularly works – we were only ever working on Department of Chemistry. come across phenomena they can’t tiny steps, because we didn’t know explain. Finding a piece of the puzzle enough about how things interlinked. that makes things easier to under- We were essentially solving whatever stand is something I find tremendous- problem came up next. In contrast, ly satisfying. Time and again, I have fundamental research offers the come across situations in my research opportunity to tackle issues that will work where fundamental research has affect us in both the near and more not only helped us understand pro- distant future. I found that much Uwe Sauer cesses better, but also opened up new more fulfilling. is ETH Professor of Systems Biolo- avenues that ultimately led to specific gy and President of the ETH Zurich applications. But laying the initial What distinguishes fundamental Research Commission. The commission advises the ETH Executive foundations always relies on a thor- research from applied research? Board on research-related matters ough understanding of the basics. SAUER – In applied research, the issue and assesses internal research UWE SAUER – The reason I originally is often dictated from the outside or grant applications. joined ETH was to do applied re- emerges from the circumstances of

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Images: Markus Bertschi; Giulia Marthaler FOCUS

whatever you are working on. In SAUER – There’s no sense in everyone Do you have any examples that fundamental research, one has much tackling the most immediate prob- show what happens if you neglect more freedom to define the issue to lems using similar methods. In many fundamental research? be addressed. cases, it’s not even clear how or at SAUER – Japan is a good example. In GÜNTHER – Fundamental research what level to address the problem, or the 1980s they focused heavily on ap- can obviously be a risky venture. The which method is appropriate. The plied research, at least in the field of results are open-ended. Although you best solutions usually emerge from biology, and that’s where all the fund- have a hypothesis, you can’t predict creative approaches at a fundamental ing went. Then it subsequently took the outcome. It’s rather like someone level – although these may initially decades for the country to regain its groping around in the dark in search seem like something of a detour. position as a leading player in that of the matches and candles they GÜNTHER – Take the example of a field. If you solely focus on doing the need to light up the room. It calls quantum computer. We know it will things you need right now, you nar- for creative, out-of-the-box thinking happen one day, but we don’t yet row down your options for the future. and a systematic approach, as well know which fundamental principle GÜNTHER – Switzerland didn’t ac- as a certain amount of trust in the will ultimately bear fruit. It could be tively participate in the international researchers. superconductors, ion traps, or a genome project in the 1990s. That completely different principle. If we subsequently led to a gap in the knowl- Has the pressure to justify the benefits don’t carry out fundamental research edge we needed for DNA sequencing. of research increased in recent years? in this area, then we won’t find the It took a huge amount of effort to And has that curtailed the amount way in. It’s risky and difficult, and it catch up internationally. Back then 15 of freedom researchers have? takes time – but we have to accept people didn’t realise how important SAUER – On a global level, absolutely. that if we want to be a frontrunner. this field would be for personalised The US is one country that suffers medicine. That’s why we should al- considerably from that problem. They But don’t worldwide challenges such as ways remember that all applications have long had research programs global warming, resource scarcity are fuelled by the basic fundamentals. targeted at specific applications, and famine call for applied research? many of which are highly politically SAUER – Global challenges are actual- Scientists around the world, including motivated. That means the financial ly a good example of a field that has in Switzerland, are increasingly incentives are set according to politi- many basic issues that still need to be expected to obtain external funding. cal priorities. Fortunately, the situa- clarified. For example, how should we Doesn’t that also increase the pressure tion is different in Switzerland. That’s feed the world in the future? Should to carry out more applied research? why so many good researchers come we invest primarily in the use of algae? SAUER – Younger researchers who are and work here. Or should we grow meat in Petri dish- aiming for a professorship may well GÜNTHER – Providing solid backing es? Even if we opt for the latter, it is feel under more pressure nowadays. for fundamental research has always still no easy matter to coax stem cells In my view, that has less to do with been one of ETH’s strengths. It’s an to differentiate into muscle cells so external funding, and more with the advantage of the way we do things they can be used as a meat substitute. fact that today’s scientists have to here – and I’m saying that not just as GÜNTHER – One of our strengths at publish their work in certain journals ETH Vice President, but also as a ETH is our ability to cover the entire to advance their career. researcher! Without access to ETH’s value chain, from fundamental and infrastructure and resources, I would applied research right through to Has that changed the situation for never have been able to carry out key translating findings into practice and fundamental research? parts of my research work, especially creating spin-offs. We have to focus GÜNTHER – Yes, it has. Fundamental in the early stages before I had built up on maintaining a healthy balance be- research doesn’t often get a place on a reputation in my field. tween these three pivotal tasks. We the podium, and it gets less media at- also have to make sure we are aware of tention because it’s harder to explain. How do you explain to laypeople why our responsibilities to society, while at Fortunately, there are many funding fundamental research is necessary even the same time not being sidetracked providers in Switzerland who under- though it is so expensive and laborious? by each and every comment. stand the importance of funda-

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 FOKUS A universe of inspiration

2. ETH researchers led by solar researcher Arnold Benz developed key components of one of the main measuring instruments on board ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, which launched in 2009.

3. ESA’s Swiss Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC Switzerland) is now located at ETH Zurich. It supports start-up companies involved in space technologies, such as the ETH spin-off ANYbotics.

1. Gazing into the universe has not only shaped the way we see the world, it has also inspired technology. In 1855, the newly founded Polytechnic School appointed the astronomer Rudolf Wolf, who went on to establish a long tradition of solar research at what would later become ETH Zurich. Gottfried Semper built the Swiss Federal Observatory according to Wolf’s specifications. FOCUS

mental research, including the Swiss such as Germany or France. The EU’s you don’t need a long list of published National Science Foundation SNSF, system of research funding involves work in order to apply to the Research which – by definition – funds funda- annual reports that serve only one Commission for funding to try out mental research and is one of the most purpose, namely to tick off each of the something new. And it’s also accept- important supporters of our research. individual milestones and achieve- able to occasionally follow a line of SAUER – If people feel certain publica- ments that were defined five years research that fails. tions are necessary, they will structure previously. That’s not a good way to their research work and strategy carry out research. What criteria does the Research accordingly, even if just slightly. Commission use to choose which What’s important is that they don’t How does ETH promote fundamental projects to support? stick too closely to expectations from research? SAUER – The Research Commission the outside. That’s more difficult in a SAUER – There are few places in the represents the full spectrum of ETH’s system such as the American one, world that offer such good conditions! activities. It includes architects, ma- where funding is much more tied to The resources I get as an ETH profes- terial scientists, engineers and natural meeting those expectations. Here in sor are a tremendous advantage – scientists. The question we ask our- Switzerland we’re fortunate to still especially combined with the freedom selves in the Research Commission is have funding for more individual to employ them as I see fit. It allows us whether researchers are looking for fundamental research. to invest in staff, technologies, meth- something truly groundbreaking that ods and developments that we need to involves risks. If it’s already fairly Apart from the SNSF, are there any build up over the long term. clear how it could work, then there are other circumstances in Switzerland GÜNTHER – Another important tool is plenty of other organisations that that make it a particularly good place ETH’s internal system of research could support it. We offer seed fund- for fundamental research? promotion, which is assessed by the ing for the uncertain, more risky part GÜNTHER – The main thing you need ETH Zurich Research Commission. It of research – which other institutions for fundamental research is talented is designed to provide funding oppor- typically don’t support. people who are keen to do it! So far tunities for seminal research – in both GÜNTHER – The Research Commis- 17 ETH has always been able to offer the fundamental and applied areas – in sion’s funding mandate starts at the right conditions to support this kind addition to other funding instru- point where other people are not yet of research. Trusting researchers, ments. That means, for example, that willing to invest. As well as pro- providing good infrastructure, and offering appropriate resources and opportunities to obtain funding and time are definitely key components of promoting creative fundamental research. SAUER – A culture of trust is one of the strong points of the Swiss university system. Funding bodies offer researchers financial support and responsibility without insisting on monitoring every step they take. That’s very different from countries

“If you solely focus on doing the things you need right now, you narrow down your Uwe Sauer, President of the ETH Zurich options for the future.” Research Commission

Images: ETH Library Zurich, Image Archive (2); ETH Zurich (2); ESA; ANYbotics ETH GLOBE 2/2018 FOCUS

Detlef Günther, Vice President for Research “The main thing you and Corporate Relations need for fundamental research is talented people who are keen to do it!”

moting completely new ideas, this approach also allows us to help young people – those who are not yet sufficiently known in their field – to successfully apply for funding from other organisations.

Which of the Research Commission’s projects have particularly impressed you in recent years?

18 GÜNTHER – There are so many examples, but I would say the winner is the trust the government places in Supporting of this year’s Spark Award, the ETH Swiss universities. fundamental research spin-off PharmaBiome. The research GÜNTHER – I hope we can maintain Fundamental research often goes project started off in a group run by people’s awareness that you can’t hand in hand with applied research. Ideally, it is an avenue for tech Christophe Lacroix, professor at the measure the success of research work nology transfer to industry, where Institute of Food Science and Nutri- with a simple metric. In return, we the scientific groundwork leads tion. Lacroix and his colleagues had to have to be constantly ready and will- to technical innovations. However, unravel all sorts of fundamental ques- ing to justify the trust placed in us and reaching this goal is a challenging tions before they succeeded in creat- to explain our work and the impor- and time-consuming process. ing a biologically and medically safe tance of fundamental research to the Exceptional research projects intestinal flora for immunocompro- general public. therefore require exceptional support. The ETH Zurich Foundation mised patients. After turning down establishes partnerships with the project the first time with some private individuals, foundations positive, constructive criticism, the and companies that, among other Research Commission subsequently things, wish to advance fundamen- accepted the application for funding tal research at ETH Zurich. For in 2013. At this stage it’s reached now, example, the Uniscientia Founda- many funding agencies would support tion supports postdoctoral students working on environmental and this kind of project, but back then its sustainability projects, including success was far from certain. a project on landslides and debris flows. By providing targeted sup- What role do policymakers play when port, the Foundation aims to give it comes to creating a positive environ- young researchers an opportunity ment for fundamental research? to push boundaries with their research. SAUER – Policymakers in Switzerland provide a degree of reliability that has → www.ethz-foundation.ch/en proved to be crucial for our successful Swiss system. One of the key elements

Images: ETH Library, Image Archive; Scanderbeg Sauer Photography; ETH GLOBE 2/2018 ETH Zurich / Peter Bösiger, Thomas Järmann Imaging the inside of the human body

2. In the 1960s, ETH Nobel Prize winner Richard Ernst developed Fourier transform (FT) NMR spectroscopy, which helped achieve a breakthrough in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

3. Research conducted at ETH and the University of Zurich has now made it possible to take real-time images of a beating heart and reconstruct individual nerve fibres in the brain.

1. Imaging methods such as MRI are an essential part of modern medicine. The underlying phenomenon of magnetic resonance was discovered in 1946 by two researchers working inde- pendently of each other: Edward Purcell at MIT, and Felix Bloch at Stanford. Bloch had previously studied at ETH Zurich. FOCUS

Sometimes viruses and bacteria undergo genetic changes that alter their properties and eventually make them more dangerous Keeping up to humans. Tanja Stadler’s mathematical models shed light with the on how fast they can mutate and spread. quick-change TEXT Florian Meyer artists

20 Why are many antibiotics no longer A model as a magnifying glass Stadler derives the theoretical foun- effective in animals and humans? How Galileo Galilei was thinking in similar dations of her models from stochas- is the antibiotic resistance of bacteria terms when he said that the book of tics. This is a branch of mathematics linked to viruses that cause infectious nature is written in the language of that studies random processes, mod- diseases such as influenza and Ebola? mathematics. Both these notions reso- elling events which occur only occa- And what do they have in common nate with Tanja Stadler, who combines sionally and whose occurrence cannot with the evolution of penguins? fundamental mathematical research be predicted, precisely because As different as these phenomena with applications in biology and chance plays a role. One of Stadler’s are, the processes underlying them medicine. “We design mathematical specialisations is “birth-death pro- can be described with closely related models that can be used to understand cesses”, which she examines in the mathematical models. This is the area and explain how genetic information context of genetic mutations and re- of expertise in which the mathemati- changes and evolves,” she says. These production. Mutations also occur cian Tanja Stadler conducts her funda- models can be thought of as a magni- spontaneously, and only occasionally. mental research. As a Professor in the fying glass that reveals previously But when they do occur, they are sub- Department of Biosystems Science unread passages in the book of life. sequently inherited in randomly oc- and Engineering, she studies viruses, curring reproductive events. bacteria, stem cells and the origin of Stadler uses stochastic processes species. to study rates of change: How quickly Stadler focuses on the informa- do changes occur in the genetic infor- tion that is contained in the genes of mation of humans, animals, bacteria all living organisms and viruses. This and viruses? And how quickly are information has become much more these changes inherited by offspring readily available thanks to the latest – or even transferred to other species? biological methodologies such as Sometimes her work involves DNA sequencing, and it provides in- changes in the genome over very long sights into the processes that influ- periods of time. For example, working ence the course of epidemics and evo- with New Zealand researchers she was lution. In principle, gene sequences Flu viruses mutate within just a few able to show that the first penguin spe- can be read like a “book of life”. months during an epidemic. cies emerged 12.5 million years ago.

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Image: iStock FOKUS

with data from livestock and agricul- tural production as well as data from wastewater. Among other things, she hopes that the genetic sequence data will provide insights into what happens when resistant bacteria emerge in livestock farming. To overcome incomplete data, mathematical models must be based on assumptions that are in line with But when it comes to medical research Sparse data, smart models the current state of knowledge in biol- and dealing with epidemics, it is the During an epidemic, however, the ogy and medical science, says Stadler. rapid changes that are particularly routes of transmission are often so Otherwise, the results will be inaccu- revealing: flu viruses mutate at such a labyrinthine and random that Stadler rate – as evidenced by the 2014 Ebola rapid pace that different patients are has to get by with comparatively little epidemic. infected with different mutated virus- sequencing data. Information on the Tanja Stadler has another aspira- es even in epidemics that last just a genetic sequence of a pathogen gener- tion she would like to fulfil. Currently, few months. Bacteria in livestock ally comes from only a few patients or she designs a separate model for each farming can mutate within a matter of animals, and only at a single point in individual case: one for influenza, one weeks or months to avoid the effects time during each infection so the situ- for E. coli, one for penguins, and so of antibiotics. But how fast do they ation is very much one of “sparse on. But just like the members of a pass on this resistance to the next gen- data” rather than “big data”. “We’re family, these models share certain eration or to humans? always working with incomplete characteristics. Based on these com- “Access to constantly updated ge- snapshots,” she says, comparing it to monalities – and because “I can say netic data allows us to determine how an attempt to chronicle the history of for each model which questions it quickly a mutant virus or resistant a whole city based on just one photo- can’t answer” – Stadler is hoping to 21 bacterium spreads through a city or graph. derive a “super model” that can be region, and draw conclusions on the Like a detective, Stadler uses her applied equally to viruses, bacteria, risk of infection for humans,” says scientific toolbox and creativity to animals and humans. “That’s some- Stadler. It is also possible to track a extract meaning from the data. She thing I enjoy doing!” pathogen’s route of transmission: the is assisted by researchers at the greater the similarities between the University Hospital Basel. One project genetic information of pathogens they work on together is antibiotic- from two different people, the more resistant E. coli bacteria. Here she directly the pathogen was transmitted predicts the spread of the bacteria by between them. collating the hospital’s patient data

“We design mathematical models that can be used to Tanja Stadler is Associate Professor at the Department explain how genetic of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel and Head of the Computational information changes and Evolution Group. The group develops statistical and computational approaches evolves.” for understanding evolutionary processes based on genetic data.

→ www.bsse.ethz.ch/cevo

Image: Giulia Marthaler ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Brilliant minds in the world of computing

1. Konrad Zuse developed the world’s first computer in Berlin in 1941. The mathematician Eduard Stiefel, who founded the Institute of Applied Mathematics at ETH Zurich, laid the foundations of computer science in Switzerland in 1948. In 1950, ETH Zurich was the only university in mainland Europe to have a working computer, Zuse’s Z4.

2. Between 1968 and 1972, ETH professor Niklaus Wirth developed the Pascal programming language, which shaped computer science education at ETH and many other universities for years to come.

3. Global companies such as Disney and Google are attracted to Zurich by the reputation of ETH Zurich and its graduates. One of them is Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President of Google. FOCUS

This small quantum circuit was used for simulating a model related to photosynthesis in For a long time, people plants. regarded quantum computers as an unattainable dream. We now know that it is possible to build such computers. But making them truly useful still requires a fair amount of fundamental A vision research – and a lot of money. becomes TEXT Felix Würsten

reality 23

In the 1920s, Werner Heisenberg, investing billions in this promising Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli technology. and other great physicists worked out Even though people have long ex- the fundamentals of quantum mecha tolled quantum computers as genuine nics. They probably never imagined miracle machines, the breathtaking that their exotic-sounding theories pace of recent developments still would lead people to invest tremen- seems astonishing. After all, there was dous sums in the manufacture of fu- serious debate among experts just be- turistic calculating machines 90 years fore the turn of the millennium as to later. In fact, recent years have wit- whether it would ever be possible to nessed something of a race to see who leverage the enigmatic phenomena of can produce the first quantum com- quantum mechanics to solve everyday puter capable of solving tasks that are problems. simply too time-consuming for classi- Now we know that building such cal computers. Global technology computers is feasible, at least in prin- companies such as Google, Microsoft, ciple. Today’s quantum computers IBM and Intel are spending large can handle a few dozen quantum sums of money on laying the ground- bits (or qubits), the basic elements work for the production of quantum that quantum computers will use to computers. The Chinese are likewise execute tasks, explains Andreas

Images: Google; ETH Library, Image Archive; ETH Zurich; Gerry Amstutz; Alessandro Della Bella; Quantum Device Lab, A. Potočnik ETH GLOBE 2/2018 FOCUS

Wallraff, Professor for Solid State will emerge as the winner. “Super value. Although factorisation can be Physics at ETH Zurich. “That raises conducting circuits offer a lot of used to crack modern encryption pro- the question of how much longer we promise right now,” says Wallraff, tocols – an appealing prospect for will have to wait until we can use these who is exploring this technology along governments and intelligence agen- novel supercomputers for specific ap- with the rest of his team. cies – it is not particularly lucrative. plications,” he says. Matthias Troyer, There are essentially two key Wallraff also takes a critical stance on one of Wallraff’s colleagues and Pro- technical challenges. First, it is com- this issue: “If researchers fail to iden- fessor for Theoretical Physics, esti- plicated to manipulate quantum ob- tify commercially viable applications mates it will be necessary to entangle jects accurately, and the electronics in the foreseeable future, then large approximately one million qubits. required for operating large comput- companies may not make the neces- “That’s a big leap,” he admits. “But we ers have yet to be developed. Second, sary long-term investments. And in- already have very detailed plans for today’s components must be drasti- stitutions of higher education do not constructing a quantum computer. cally reduced in size so that we can have sufficient funds of their own to There are no more fundamental scien- integrate them into a manageable build a large-scale quantum computer tific obstacles.” computer. One of the problems of that could outperform conventional superconducting circuits, for in- supercomputers.” Different paths stance, is that the techniques typically As it turns out, Troyer played a Quantum researchers follow different used in the microchip industry to in- key role in persuading leading com- approaches in their work. Some re- tegrate circuits first need to be adapt- puter companies to invest large sums searchers are keen to use ions as quan- ed for quantum applications to ensure in quantum computing – despite the tum-mechanical objects for comput- the quality of the qubits. “Chip manu- risks. About three years ago, he ing, while others are pinning their facturers have to come up with truly demonstrated that a quantum com- hopes on special semiconductor ma- innovative solutions to accomplish puter can successfully run certain terials or superconducting circuits. It this feat,” says Wallraff. chemical simulations more efficiently remains to be seen which technology than a classical computer. “A quan- Applications wanted tum computer could allow us to pre-

24 Renato Renner, Professor for Theo- dict far more precisely how molecules retical Physics, agrees that recent will behave,” says Troyer. “That would advances in the development of hard- be very beneficial in the development ware are impressive, but he now finds of new chemicals and materials.” himself focusing on a different ques- Wallraff concurs that this example tion: What exactly do we want quan- makes for a persuasive argument: “As tum computers to do? Until recently, things stand now, drug development scientists knew of only one case where costs billions. If quantum computers quantum computers were clearly can offer a competitive advantage, superior to classical computers: the then companies will have a keen inter- factorisation of large numbers. But est in developing them even if it this application has no commercial requires some major investments.”

Matthias Troyer is Professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. He focuses on key issues in the field of quantum information theory, such as the simulation of materials and quantum devices, quantum software and the applications of tomorrow’s quantum computers. “We have very detailed → www.comp.phys.ethz.ch plans for constructing a quantum computer.”

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Images: Giulia Marthaler FOKUS

“If researchers fail to identify commercially viable applications, the necessary investments Andreas Wallraff may fail to materialize.” is Professor at the Laboratory for Solid State Physics. His primary research focus is on quantum 25 information processing and quantum optics with superconducting circuits.

→ qudev.phys.ethz.ch

Renner is not concerned by the to leverage quantum effects to solve scarcity of examples of real-world ap- problems,” says Troyer. plications. “Quantum computers are still hypothetical devices. Nobody Europe versus the competition should expect scores of computer The prospect of a paradigm shift in scientists to work on a machine that is information technology triggered by merely a theory.” But that will change quantum computing has led some once people start talking about quan- people to ask if Europe can keep pace tum software – and not just quantum with Asia and the United States. “Eu- hardware, as is the case now. “Quan- rope has made key contributions to tum computers have a much broader quantum research. All the same, Eu- range of software commands at their ropean countries have struggled to disposal than do classical computers. use research findings to create eco- That’s why we need computer scien- nomic value,” says Troyer. “That’s tists who really can exploit these ad- partly due to the long-term mindset of vantages,” says Renner. American businesses. They are al- Troyer is one of the few specialists ready contemplating what will hap- who already know how to programme pen in the computer industry once quantum computers. “We need com- limits to miniaturisation make the puter scientists who have a good un- further development of microchips derstanding of quantum mechanics impossible.” and feel comfortable working in that But all is not lost. The European field. Building a quantum computer Union recently launched a large-scale makes sense only if people know how flagship programme slated to pro-

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 FOCUS

Renato Renner is Professor for Theoretical Physics. His research interests include quantum information science, quantum thermodynamics and the foundations of quantum physics. “Perhaps our very → www.qit.ethz.ch understanding of the physical world will

change – as it did during quantum computers might reveal potential inconsistencies in quantum the pioneering days of mechanics. Physicists are particularly interested in the grey area between quantum mechanics.” the atomic realm, where the rules of quantum mechanics apply, and the macroscopic world, which follows the laws of classical physics. If researchers

26 can someday study larger quantum systems, they will probably better comprehend what exactly occurs in this transitional grey area. “Perhaps vide one billion euros in funding over more important for these countries to our very understanding of the physi- the next ten years. A key objective is figure out now where they want to be cal world will fundamentally change for more European research findings in future.” once more – as it did during the pio- in quantum mechanics to be translat- As technology companies commit neering days of quantum mechanics,” ed into commercially viable products. more resources to quantum comput- says Renner hopefully. “It would be It remains to be seen whether this is ing, media coverage also increases, wonderful if building a quantum com- enough money to keep up with com- largely due to the effusive praise these puter could help bring that about.” petitors worldwide. China, for exam- companies at times heap on any pro- ple, will invest 10 billion dollars over gress they make. The general public the next few years in a new national may be focusing on real-world appli- lab for quantum sciences. And the fact cations, but specialists at ETH Zurich that Intel pours billions into design- and elsewhere who conduct funda- ing a new chip puts into perspective mental research still have lots of work the amount that the EU intends to to do some 100 years after the early spend on quantum research. Wallraff days of quantum mechanics. “A quan- considers it noteworthy that it is the tum computer is essentially a big relatively small countries in Europe quantum-mechanical experiment,” that tend to be at the forefront. says Renner. As a researcher in funda- Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands mental science, Renner hopes for in- and Switzerland publish more quan- put that could broaden the scope of tum research per capita than other quantum mechanics. Much like physi European countries. “ETH Zurich, cists who utilise large particle acceler- and Switzerland in general, have es- ators to search for clues on how they tablished a good starting point,” says could advance the standard model, Wallraff. “But that makes it even Renner hopes that the construction of

Images: Giulia Marthaler; ETH Library, Image Archive; ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Yves Bachmann; Körber Foundation / Friedrun Reinhold Materials that don’t exist in nature

1. Few synthetic materials were discovered prior to the 20th century. The triumphant advance of such materials began 100 years ago.

2. Hermann Staudinger – Professor of General Chemistry at ETH Zurich from 1912 to 1926 – coined the term macromolecular compounds in 1922. His concept laid the foundations of polymer chemistry and the production of synthetic materials.

3. Today, ETH Professor Nicola Spaldin develops entirely new materials called multiferroics: crystalline compounds that respond to both electric and magnetic fields. In 2015, Spaldin received the Körber Prize for her research work, one of the most prestigious scientific awards in Europe.

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 FOCUS

How did life on Earth evolve? Derek Vance seeks to answer this question by studying trace metals Searching in seawater and sedimentary rock. for traces in TEXT Felix Würsten the ocean

Iron, copper, zinc and molybdenum that bind the copper, rendering it are all elements that occur in only harmless. trace amounts in seawater. Yet these What interests geologists now is metals play a vital role; not only for the fact that metabolic processes at

28 life in the oceans, but also for scien- the ocean’s surface leave their mark tists, because they can tell us a lot deep down on the ocean floor. When about how life evolved on Earth. the organisms die, they sink to the That’s why Derek Vance, Professor of bottom of the ocean and settle into the Geochemistry, has made these ele- sediments that accumulate continu- ments one of his top research priori- ously on the seabed. By studying the ties. “By understanding which pro- ETH researchers on board the Akademik trace elements in rocks that were de- cesses influence the abundance of Treshnikov use a special device to collect posited as sediment millions of years these elements in today’s oceans, we seawater samples containing diatoms. ago, scientists can reconstruct the can gain insights into issues such as conditions that prevailed on the which lifeforms evolved when.” ocean’s surface at that time. This, in turn, provides insights Evolution of microorganisms into how microorganisms have These elements are an important part evolved over time. “Biologists have a of life in the sea. That’s because the What’s striking is that there is clearly very clear idea of how the various dif- unicellular organisms that occupy the a close inter-relationship between ferent types of microorganisms have bottom of the marine food chain and Earth’s environment and biosphere. evolved over the course of time,” says live in the ocean’s uppermost layer – “Each of the various elements has to Vance. “But they find it difficult to or sunlit zone – depend on these met- occur in the right concentration,” says precisely date the bifurcations in the als for their very existence. Without Vance. “For example, the presence of phylogenetic tree.” Vance hopes to fill iron and zinc, for example, they would too much unbound copper in the this gap in their knowledge by includ- be unable to produce the proteins water is toxic for these organisms.” ing biologists on his interdisciplinary they need to survive. Surprisingly, the amount of copper in project team. “We know, for example, Consequently, in some regions, seawater is nevertheless between that older species of microorganisms the growth of these organisms is not 1000 and 10,000 times higher than primarily require iron for their meta- only limited by nutrients such as the single-celled organisms should be bolic activity, while zinc is a key ele- phosphorus and nitrogen that are cru- able to tolerate. Scientists have since ment for species that emerged more cial, but also by the presence of these discovered that these tiny organisms recently in Earth’s history. By mea trace elements. release special organic compounds suring the iron/zinc ratios in sedi-

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Image: Matthias Sieber / ACE FOCUS

sea. He is also interested in processes in rivers, because they play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle as a link between land and sea. To track down natural conditions that are still unaffected by human activity, he has to be prepared to travel long distances. “You can forget the Rhine,” he says bluntly. He has found a good spot in northern Sweden, where he recently studied a largely unspoilt river, and the Amazon is also on his list of research projects. “Apart from the coastal region, the Amazon is still really quite pristine,” says Vance. ments from different eras, we can re- series of methods to extend this type “And because there is such a variety of construct and date the spread of each of research to new metals. “If you rivers flowing into the Amazon basin, type of microorganism.” want to use a new element as a geo- you get a very differentiated picture of chemical archive, it takes several how the mainland affects the outflow Geochemical archive years to get the method properly es- to the sea.” The problem is that these kinds of tablished,” he says. studies are far from simple. Even col- Derek Vance Research Group: lecting samples is a time-consuming From oceans to rivers → www.isotope.ethz.ch/research/ business. Listening to Vance, it be- Nowadays, this area of research is no geochemical-evolution-earth-surface.html comes clear that he has already taken longer his primary interest. Instead, samples of water and rock from every he is now keen to use the methods he 29 conceivable part of the world over the has developed to better understand course of his career as a researcher. how the oceans have changed over But collecting samples is only the time and how they might evolve in the first step: to measure the concentra- future. He hopes this will offer insights tion of trace elements, the samples into how life on Earth originated and, have to be prepared in a special proce- conversely, how life also influences dure back in the lab and then analysed processes on the Earth’s surface. in a plasma mass spectrometer. In Vance’s research is not limited to recent years, Vance has developed a geochemical processes in the open

“We can gain insights into issues such as which lifeforms evolved Derek Vance when.” is Professor at the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology. In his research, he studies how geochemical processes at the Earth’s surface have evolved over time.

Image: Giulia Marthaler ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Design quieter gearboxes with multiphysics simulation.

Noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) testing is an important part of the design process, but you are not limited to conducting physical experiments. When optimizing gearbox designs, you can perform vibroacoustic analyses using simulation software — producing virtual test results you can see and hear. The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply it to modeling gearbox vibration and noise.

Visualization of the noise pressure level outside the gearbox comsol.blog/NHV-simulation and vibration-induced von Mises stress in its housing.

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Hyperloop Pod Competition ered by four electric motors that pro- The team is currently in discussions duce a combined total of over 540 hp. with potential partners. SWISSLOOP This is an important milestone, POWERS AHEAD but far from the end of the story: Live stream of the Hyperloop Pod Swissloop intends to continue its chal- Competition final on 22 July: lenging work after the competition and → www.swissloop.ch The vision behind Elon Musk’s Hyper- one day help to move freight faster. loop is to make travel faster and more environmentally friendly than a The new prototype plane – and ETH Zurich students are was revealed at the end of May. on board to help bring it to life. For the second year in a row, the Swissloop team has qualified for the Hyperloop Pod Competition, a design competition for students spon- sored by SpaceX in Los Angeles. Swissloop will compete against 19 teams from 15 to 22 July 2018. Their new pas- 31 senger capsule, or pod, is pow-

Continuing education key characteristic of the School for Sawiris Foundation Continuing Education, and its new NEW FRAMEWORK – programme in materials science and RENEWED SUPPORT NEW COURSES manufacturing technology was specifically developed in dialogue with indus- Egyptian businessman Samih Sawiris try. Participants in the customised has been supporting students’ pro- Technological transformation is hav- continuing education programmes re- jects in ETH Zurich’s Engineering for ing a major impact on the world of ceive tailored study plans that take into Development (E4D) programme for work. This has prompted ETH Zurich account both their practical experience the past ten years through his Sawiris to launch the School for Continuing and the interests of their employers. Foundation for Social Development. Education, a new initiative that ETH The School for Continuing Education By renewing his commitment for hopes will enable it to react even better groups the continuing education op- another five years, Sawiris has now to the needs of the labour market. This tions into “Environment, Infrastruc- ensured that ETH can continue to dynamic is already evident from the ture & Architecture”, “Technology, support one, two or three E4D stu- content of the two new cybersecurity Management & Innovation”, “Public dents each year. programmes that ETH Zurich will of- Policy & Governance” and “Health, In addition, a new Continuing fer from autumn 2018. The DAS Cyber Life & Natural Science”. These the- Education Scholarship Programme Security is aimed at staff in organisa- matic fields provide a framework for will award four to eight scholarships tions who already have IT training. the 17 MAS (Master of Advanced annually to candidates from low- The CAS Cyber Security is aimed at a Studies), 8 DAS (Diploma of Advanced income countries to help them attend broader audience, targeting all em- Studies) and 20 CAS (Certificate of continuing education courses at ETH ployees and managers who deal with Advanced Studies) programmes that Zurich. information security issues in their ETH offers. And around 20 new pro- daily work. Close ties to business are a grammes are in development.

Image: Swissloop ETH GLOBE 2/2018 COMMUNITY

Ten years of ETH Sustainability The age of sustainability

Connecting people, initiating projects, pooling expertise: ETH Sustainability is the central hub for coordinating sustainability activities at ETH Zurich. The staff unit turns ten this year. 32

During ETH Week, students brainstorm ideas for a more sustainable society.

When Christine Bratrich became head The university tasked ETH Sustaina- ed with, transforming a nascent staff of ETH Sustainability at ETH Zurich bility with pooling various ETH unit into an ETH-wide hub of sustain- in 2008, she entered her office to find a sustainability activities under one roof ability issues and activities in research, telephone and a flower on an otherwise and fostering new initiatives, as well as teaching, and campus life. empty desk. “We essentially had a raising awareness both on and off cam- blank canvas to work with as the basis pus of ETH’s sustainability achieve- Sustainable campus for our assignment,” she says, reflect- ments. Bratrich has been passionately “Christine Bratrich and her team de- ing on her team’s work over the past pursuing these objectives ever since. serve credit for making sustainability ten years. She relies on her four-person team and part of everyday life at ETH. They have A decade has passed since the a top-flight steering committee led by helped stakeholders to network and Executive Board decided to give top Associate Vice President for Sustaina- launched initiatives that not only pro- priority to sustainability, creating a bility Reto Knutti, a climate physicist. mote sustainability on campus and well specialised staff unit that reports di- They have collectively made the most beyond, but also enhance the universi- rectly to the President of ETH Zurich. of the blank canvas they were present- ty’s reputation,” says ETH President

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Image: Alessandro Della Bella COMMUNITY

Lino Guzzella. “I’m truly grateful to gerberg campus also has the House of ETH Sustainability for their outstand- Natural Resources, a modern timber ing commitment. And I’m proud of construction that serves as a research everything they have accomplished.” subject, teaching space and demon- The team can certainly point to some stration exhibit. “This was made possi- impressive achievements. One of ble by a lot of researchers, experts from Philanthropy Bratrich’s first goals was to systemati- facility management and real estate cally collect and harness the various specialists who teamed up to boost sus- TWO FOR ONE endeavours and pieces of information tainability at ETH,” explains Bratrich. By Florin Iten dispersed throughout the organisa- Proof that sustainable changes can tion. ETH Zurich was among the also be achieved in on-campus catering In April, I was invited to the annual world’s first institutions of higher edu- comes from a project that treated “Meet the Talent” event at ETH cation to strategically prioritise sus- ETH’s two largest canteens as “living Zurich. This is an opportunity for tainability. The university has held it- labs”. Students researched the impact Sarah M. Springman – ETH Rector self accountable for the environmen- of advertising for climate-friendly and patron of the Excellence tal, economic, and social aspects of meals on the items that patrons select- Scholarship and Opportunity sustainability ever since. ed. The results of this study – initiated Programme (ESOP) – and the ETH by ETH Sustainability and the World Zurich Foundation to thank donors Committed to teaching and dialog Food System Center together with the for their support. As an enthusiastic ETH Sustainability has developed new Catering Commission – helped shape donor myself, Meet the Talent 33 approaches to teaching over the past the ETH Climate Programme, which gives me an opportunity to learn ten years, too. “We felt it was impor- was launched in early 2018. This pro- more about the recipients’ projects tant to give students opportunities to gramme requires on-campus catering and chat to them face-to-face serve as change agents and get actively companies to reduce their CO2 emis- about their work. I was particularly involved in the shift towards sustaina- sions by ten per cent within three years. pleased to be able to support the bility,” says Bratrich. Examples include “We are hoping to pave the way for ad- students in two different ways this the Seed Sustainability project plat- ditional living labs for pioneering year. Firstly, I called on former form, which encourages student re- achievements,” says Bratrich. Excellence Scholars to make search in sustainability-related areas, a donation by SMS to help future and the ETH Sustainability Summer Diversity of ideas participants in the programme. School and ETH Week – two events To this day, Bratrich can recall her Secondly, I doubled every Swiss that offer students the chance to criti- first impression of her new employer. franc collected during the event, cally examine societal challenges from “Even back then, ETH Zurich fostered based on the motto of “two for one”. an interdisciplinary perspective. In a vibrant enabling culture,” she says. 2009, the staff unit launched its cli- Soon after joining the university ten I am committed to seizing the mate blog, one of the first science blogs years ago, Bratrich said in an inter- moment to support the next in Switzerland. Now known as the view: “ETH Zurich is one of the most generation of talented students Zukunftsblog, it plays a pivotal role in prestigious universities for science and at ETH. I also believe in the idea of university communications. technology. It brings together people giving something back. The fact from different disciplines and places. that so many students made Campus as a living lab By joining forces, they offer tremen- donations in addition to myself is ETH is also working on its own envi- dous potential to find solutions to our fantastic – it’s great to see that ronmental footprint – and its campus planet’s most pressing problems. I’m kind of philanthropy at such a offers an ideal testing ground. One ex- absolutely fascinated by this diversity young age. ample is the ‘anergy grid’, an under- of ideas.” Her words ring true to this ground storage system ETH installed day. — Michael Keller More ways to give: on its Hönggerberg campus, designed → www.ethz-foundation.ch/en to significantly reduce CO2 emissions Sustainability at ETH: from heating and cooling. The Höng- → www.ethz.ch/sustainability

Image: Nicola Pitaro / ETH Zurich Foundation ETH GLOBE 2/2018 COMMUNITY

ETH Rector Sarah M. Springman with the winners of the 2018 KITE Award, Lukas Fässler, Markus Dahinden and David Sichau, and with KdL President Edoardo Mazza (from left to right)

Braginsky Foundation COMMITMENT TO MEDICAL RESEARCH

The René and Susanne Braginsky Foundation is continuing its support for medical research at ETH Zurich. The foundation has been supporting research at the university’s Zurich site for several years now. In 2011, the foundation support- ed the establishment of a professorship in translational neuromodeling with a donation, and Klaas Enno Stephan was appointed to the role. The professorship is based at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, a joint institution of the University of Smiling faces at the presentation of the 2018 KITE Award

34 Zurich and ETH Zurich. The associated research group – the Translational Neuromodeling Unit, or TNU – was KITE Award project, the three lecturers from the established in 2012 and has been fully Department of Computer Science operational since July 2013. At the VIRTUAL communicate the basics of IT to more TNU, Professor Stephan develops PROGRAMMING than 800 first-semester students from and tests mathematical models for in- five departments. They send the par- ferring mechanisms of mental disea LABORATORY ticipants to a virtual programming lab- ses. These models are also designed to oratory where the students solve prac- help researchers predict how patients tical problems from their area of study will respond and react to specific Honouring teaching: the ETH Zurich’s using real data: for example, contain- therapies. To achieve these goals, the Lecturers’ Conference (KdL) recently ing the spread of a disease, calculating TNU brings together clinicians and held the second edition of its KITE an ocean current or monitoring the specialists in computer science. Award to honour innovative teaching effects of a medication in a patient’s formats and exceptional commitment blood. The students are guided by an by teaching staff. “The prize aims to e-tutorial tailored to their abilities, reward pioneering teaching concepts which also allows them to test their and inspire further ideas,” Edoardo knowledge themselves. Mazza, Professor of Mechanics and The KITE Award attracted entries KdL President, told approximately from every department of the univer 300 guests at the beginning of the sity, with 27 teaching concepts submit- event in the Audimax. “KITE” stands ted in total. The various ideas covered for “Key Innovation in Teaching at every area of teaching, from individual ETH”. events to entire degree programmes. The 2018 KITE Award went to Four of the concepts were shortlisted. Lukas Fässler, Markus Dahinden and David Sichau for their e-tutorials, Professor Klaas Enno Stephan (left) and Dr. h.c. René Braginsky which teach programming to students from all departments. In their teaching

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Images: ETH Zurich Foundation / Hannes Heinzer; Oliver Bartenschlager COMMUNITY

nd yet, how do we teach in schools and uni Aversities now? We decouple knowledge of mathematics from the practice of mathematics, knowledge of engineering from the practice of engineering, knowledge of medicine from the practice of medicine, and so on. We do this because we assume that the basic knowledge of the discipline needs to be learned first before it can be applied in professional practice. This is a flawed assumption.

ake an engineering student, for example, who Tmay have learned advanced differential calculus, yet finds it difficult to apply to solve engineering problems in practice. Or a medical student, who crams in a lot of knowledge about anatomy, yet finds it difficult to remember soon after the final exam, let alone use it for diagnosis during clinical practice. Or a science student, who learns the laws of motion, yet may be lost when 35 Column asked to conduct scientific inquiry using that very knowledge. Why we fail n the learning sciences, we call this a problem Iof transfer. That is, although students learn substantial amounts of formal knowledge in their to transfer subject area, they find it difficult or are often unable to apply this knowledge in real-life situations. Why does this happen? Because we are teaching in ways that tend to be decontextualised and are et’s go back a couple of centuries — imagine a misaligned with the practices where such knowledge Lcarpenter training his son or daughter in the will be used. And having ourselves created the craft. Does he first make his child learn all the problem, we then lament that our students find it basic concepts of mathematics, because well, one difficult to transfer what they learn to the real needs arithmetic and geometry in carpentry? Does world. he also make his child learn the basic concepts in physics, because a knowledge of forces and equilib- ria is also critical for carpentry? How about throw- ing in some material science, communication skills, business management and creativity courses into the mix too? And only when his child has passed examinations to test this knowledge in contexts that have little to do with carpentry, involve him or her Manu Kapur is professor for learning in the practice of the craft? Hopefully not. Instead, sciences at ETH Zurich. Previously he the carpenter is more likely to take his child to taught and researched in Hong Kong and the shed, and set to work on various tasks. The child Singapore. He is known worldwide for his learns all there is to learn about mathematics, work on learning by failure. physics, and so on, in his practice of carpentry. → www.manukapur.com

Illustration: Benedikt Rugar; Image: Courtesy of Manu Kapur ETH GLOBE 2/2018 REPORT

Breaking a sweat for a cooler Singapore 36

Students from the Institute of Landscape Architecture are planning some natural ways to cool the heat-afflicted metropolis of Singapore. Their testing ground is a disused railway line reclaimed by nature and converted into a tropical recreation area.

TEXT Samuel Schlaefli IMAGES Lina Meisen

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 REPORT

he midday heat in Singapore is merciless. The sun over this trop- Tical metropolis doesn’t shine, it burns. That’s why the city has air- conditioned underpasses that connect metro stations to shopping centres and office buildings, creating kilometres of interconnected tunnels that give its 5.6 million inhabitants at least some tem- porary respite from the adverse climate. This Wednesday lunchtime, ETH Professor of Landscape Architec- A project is underway to transform a disused railway line into a green corridor ture Christophe Girot, 4 teaching running through this city of 5.6 million people. The aim is to enhance the Rail assistants and 14 students have sought Corridor to create a recreational space and a natural form of air conditioning. shelter beneath the broad tin roof of the Maxwell Food Centre in China- town. One of Singapore’s countless down-to-earth food markets, it serves 37 a wealth of delicious meals that com- waste heat from hundreds of thousands bine the influences of Chinese, Malay- of air conditioning units. Other UHI COOLING SINGAPORE PROJECT sian and Indian cuisine – the dominant drivers include densely packed build- The Singapore-ETH Centre is currently leading a research cultures of the former British Crown ing complexes that are not optimised project entitled Cooling Singapore. colony. for wind, as well as dark surfaces ETH researchers are actively Tucking into a spicy noodle soup such as tarmac roads and building collaborating with local and foreign and Chinese dumplings, Girot explains facades that store heat instead of universities to find ways to mitigate why he brought his students to Singa- reflecting the sun’s rays. the urban heat island effect in the pore: “Most of them have never been heat-afflicted city-state. Their goal is to develop a roadmap based to Asia, so it’s hard for them to under- Green spaces to cool the city on scientific evidence by the middle stand what life in a tropical metropolis Girot’s colleagues at the Future Cities of this year. This roadmap will is like – it’s something physical you Laboratory – an urban research group provide the basis for coordinating have to experience in the flesh.” He at the Singapore-ETH Centre – are long-term UHI mitigation efforts hopes this experience will help his stu- hoping to break the vicious cycle of and UHI-related R&D activities. dents gain a better understanding of self-heating cities. As part of the large- Government agencies, private the growing problem of urban heat scale project Cooling Singapore (see companies and universities will join forces and follow the roadmap islands (UHIs). Heat is increasingly box), they are working together with to improve the thermal comfort posing health and energy challenges in partner universities to develop a of Singapore’s residents. big cities throughout the tropical belt, roadmap by the middle of this year that from Jakarta and Manila to Bangkok will offer measures designed to cool the → www.coolingsingapore.sg and Singapore. In Singapore, tempera- city down. The Bachelor’s and Mas- tures in central, heavily built-up areas ter’s students who Girot has brought to such as Orchard Road sometimes ex- Singapore as part of his three-month ceed those in surrounding rural areas seminar Singapore hot, Singapore cool by up to 7 °C. The city is heated not just are here to help with that project. The by its tropical climate, but also by the testing ground is a 24-kilometre-long continuous injection of anthropogenic green space known as the Rail heat from car exhausts, industry and Corridor, a disused railway line that fossil fuel power stations, as well as stretches from Malaysia in the far

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 REPORT

north of the island down to the port in the south. It was built at the turn of the century under British colonial rule. In 1918, the British handed over owner- ship to Malaysia, which ceased operating the line in 2011. Everything that was easy enough to remove was taken back to Malaysia, including the rails, signals and signs. What remained was a largely undeveloped green space, a corridor that nature has gradually reclaimed. Today, one million people live within a one-kilometre radius of the Rail Corridor – a space that offers tremendous potential for the city-state. “The value of urban green spaces has been rising for years,” says Girot. “Not just for decorative purposes like before, but because they are increasingly taking on key functions.” Re- searchers have shown that green areas contribute to a more comfortable cli-

38 mate in urban environments. What’s more, targeted landscape architecture interventions can unlock further potential benefits such as using wind and water to cool the environment. “Urban planning in the 21st century is increasingly about landscape planning,” in- sists Girot, an award-winning landscape architect. “It will play a key role in giving cities a more liveable climate in the future.”

In the urban jungle After lunch, the group splits up. I take an Uber to the central section of the Rail Corridor together with a teaching assistant and two students. At the edge of a busy road, we scramble up a slope A good place for research and sport: many Singaporeans already to a rusty iron bridge. The temperature use the Rail Corridor as a recreational area. has now hit 32 °C with a humidity of over 80 percent, causing us to sweat profusely with every step we take. We walk along the green corridor past the bright yellow butterflies. Cicadas chir- carried out an initial reconnaissance of crumbling Bukit Timah station and rup in the bushes around us. the Rail Corridor. Today they are back slowly make our way into the tangled Jonas Haldemann and Manuel with a 3D laser scanner. Jonas and undergrowth. We see giant ferns, tall Viecelli are familiar with the area from Manuel place the blue box on its tripod shrubs festooned with tiny green ba- plans they studied in Zurich at the start and start taking measurements. nanas, and rubber trees overgrown of the seminar. Shortly after arriving The scanner begins to rotate slow- with vines that occasionally attract in Singapore on Sunday, the students ly around its own axis, while a round

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 REPORT

Nicolas Wüthrich (at the front) and Julian Fischbacher set up the laser scanner at a cross- roads immediately mirror in the open, central part of the adjacent to the Rail device spins around vertically at tre- Corridor. They mendous speed. The scanner is sweep- will subsequently ing the area with a barrage of invisible insert their designs laser beams, which are reflected by any for the corridor objects within a distance of 300 me- in the point cloud tres, including leaves, wooden posts, images created by the scanner. puddles and mounds of earth. The scanner converts each reflected pulse into a data point in a three-dimensional model. It captures up to 500,000 points a second, and the intensity of the reflected beams provide information on the properties of the surface they bounce off. The scanner also shoots 80 images of its surroundings, so that they can be assembled into a 360° panorama, to later on render the point clouds in their original colours. Girot’s group has spent years using these kinds of three-dimensional point cloud models to map large-scale urban 39 topographies and their characteristics. As part of this seminar, the students will create their own point clouds of the Rail Corridor and then flesh them out with interventions to combat Singapore’s urban heat island effect. “Our design harnesses the Just before sunset, as the first mos- topography of the Rail quitoes start to bite, the two students successfully complete the last of their Corridor to transform a six laser scans. We bid farewell to the wild stretch of urban rainforest and, covered section of just 15 minutes later, find ourselves expressway into a park. back in the heart of the noisy, bustling metropolis. A heavily air-conditioned The breeze and the metro train, which runs every five shady trees give this new minutes, whisks us back to Little India where the students are staying the meeting place a pleasant night – back to the ever-chaotic part of climate.” Singapore, where the humid air smells of masala, carnations and perspiration. Nicolas Wüthrich, Bacherlor’s student at ETH Zurich Transcontinental cooperation Christophe Girot has spent many years establishing a broad network of con- tacts across Japan and Singapore, including Professor Erwin Viray at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Girot managed to persuade Viray to hold the seminar

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 REPORT

in tandem at SUTD, and on Sunday before to create three-dimensional National University of Singapore evening the students from Zurich and point clouds. They will then integrate (NUS), the city’s oldest and largest Singapore met for the first time. Two these in lower resolution but more university. We can see the CREATE days later, they were already in mixed comprehensive spatial data sets based Tower from far off. Adorned with teams working on designs for the Rail on data collected by aircraft using greenery and topped with photovoltaic Corridor. Another joint workshop is lidar. Each team must submit multiple solar panels, this glass tower lies at scheduled for Thursday morning, this views of their planned interventions in the heart of the eight-year academic time at SUTD, which is near the air- different scales by 10 p.m. – but no- collaboration between Singapore and port on the eastern part of Singapore body intends to stay that late, not when Zurich. The Singapore-ETH Centre island. Palm trees tower over the the evening beckons as the perfect time (SEC) stretches over two floors of the courtyard of the modern, organical- to explore Singapore! From the stylish tower. Some 200 employees from all ly-shaped building, and the bougain- waterfront promenade at Marina Bay over the world work for ETH here, villea has transformed the balconies to the delicious food of the hawker surrounded by colleagues from MIT, into a riot of violet. The university’s centres and the rooftop bars with their the Technical University of Munich motto – For a better world through magnificent views, there is no shortage (TUM) and Cambridge University. design – is displayed on the white of things to do. SEC’s Future Cities Laboratory facade of the reception building. (FCL), which specialises in urban re- In a heavily air-conditioned semi- Expert audience in the Value Lab search, helped organise Girot’s seminar room, the six project groups have Friday morning arrives, and it’s clear nar. The students gather at the centre pushed together tables and set up their that the students are a little bit ner- of the lab on the sixth floor in an area plans and laptops. They are now using vous. We’re heading to the west coast known as the Value Lab, a loft-style, a cocktail of different software to pro- for their final presentations, specific multi-functional presentation room

40 cess the data they captured the day ally to the sweeping campus of the bathed in light and featuring a three- by-six metre LED wall. For the final presentation, Girot has invited two FCL researchers and Abby Ng, who works for NParks, Singapore’s park authority. Each group of students has ten minutes to present their interven- tion for one of the three sections of the Rail Corridor. They have to win over their audience with four to ten slides containing sketches, axonometric pro- jections, point clouds and reference images. The six teams have come to similar conclusions. Their designs propose channelling the wind to cool the city, regrouping buildings and trees to allow the wind to blow unimpeded, and creating pleasant spaces to spend time in the Rail Corridor by increasing the amount of greenery. All the groups em- phasise the need to create new links between neighbourhoods to replace ones that were eliminated by road- building. The Pont des Arbres project has Impressive views of the big city from the terrace of the CREATE Tower at NUS, pushed this idea the furthest, with the home to the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC). team creating a spacious new park for the Rail Corridor by re-routing four

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 REPORT

At the Futures Cities Laboratory (FCL), six groups of students from ETH and SUTD attempt to impress the audience with their designs for the Rail Corridor.

“It’s been very useful sharing ideas with our colleagues

from ETH. They have a fresh 41 perspective on the Rail Corridor and use new methods, while we are familiar with the local context and can assess what will

work, and what won’t.” In her Green Routes project, Ng Xing Ling explains how she hopes to replace links between neighbourhoods Ng Xing Ling, that were destroyed when the main road was built. SUTD Master’s student

lanes of the main road through tunnels. almost ephemeral air, yet the depiction of the seminar, both in Zurich and in This would transform a noisy, un is precise and easy to relate to. Girot Singapore. “In my experience, Singa- attractive and segregated space into a smiles; he has advocated this technolo- pore’s city planners take persuasive green and predominantly shady oasis gy for over 20 years, but now it is cheap ideas very seriously, no matter where of tranquillity for neighbourly encoun- and user-friendly enough to form part they come from,” he says. ters. The audience expresses enthusi- of the toolkit of a new generation of asm for the three-dimensional point landscape architects. FCL Programme cloud model of this visionary project. Director Stephen Cairns encourages Depicted as nothing but points, the the students to continue developing urban topology takes on a mystical, their proposals during the remainder

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 CONNECTED

1 Expedition Solar System

1 Expedition Solar System land – to learn how its person tracking technology works. The sensors em- SPACE AT YOUR ployed by this technology can count FINGERTIPS passengers as well as recognize long queues and notify personnel to open People packed the ETH focusTerra additional counters. Xovis is the epi- centre this spring to kick off the tome of a successful Swiss start-up. Expedition Solar System special exhi- Founded by brothers Christian (left) bition. Lino Guzzella, President of and David Studer (right) in 2008, it ETH Zurich (2nd from right), wel- employs more than 85 people world- comed the guests. Afterwards, Swiss wide. astronaut and astrophysicist Claude Nicollier (left) gave the audience a 4 Pioneers & Innovators walking tour of outer space. Professor Domenico Giardini (right) explained SHARING IDEAS how specialists can measure mete- The ETH Zurich Foundation’s Pio- orite impacts on Mars and mars- neer Fellowship programme supports quakes. Ulrike Kastrup (2nd from pioneering ETH researchers on their left), Director of focusTerra, gave an journey from the theoretical to the entertaining introduction to the exhi- practical. The Pioneers & Innovators

42 bition. get-together offered an opportunity for sponsors and recipients to chat in 3 Unique sensor technology 2 2018 Spark Award person. In addition, three Pioneer Fellows talked about their back- INTESTINAL FLORA grounds. One of them was Enkelejda This year’s Spark Award went to a Miho (on left at front), founder of research team led by microbiologist the ETH spin-off aiNet, seen here Tomas de Wouters (right) for develop- speaking to guest Christian Stauber. ing a synthetic intestinal flora. Their spin-offPharmaBiome started off as a 5 2018 Meet the Talent research group run by Christophe Lacroix (centre; on his right, Detlef EXCELLENT SUPPORT Günther, ETH Vice President for Excellence Scholarship & Opportuni- Research and Corporate Relations). ty Programme (ESOP) donors met up The Pharmabiome researchers Florian with scholarship recipients at this 4 Pioneers & Innovators Rosenthal, Marco Meola, Markus year’s Meet the Talent event. This Reichlin, Fabienne Kurt, Laura initiative gives ETH Rector Sarah M. Berchtold and Marianne Spalinger Springman (left) and the ETH Zurich (from left to right) hope to advance Foundation a chance to express their the intestinal flora to a stage where gratitude to the people who make this medical specialists can use it to treat programme a success. Thanks to inflammatory intestinal diseases. them, 57 talented ETH students will receive a scholarship this year – as Pol 3 Unique sensor technology Duhr (right) did three years ago for his Formula 1 car. LESS WAITING EAEM Engineering & Management Alumni visited Xovis AG – a high- tech company in Zollikofen, Switzer-

ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Images: focusTerra / Matthias Auer; Xovis AG; Hannes Heinzer 43

exhibition. 2018 Spark Award 2018 Meet the Talent 2018

Claude Nicollier 2 5

takes a selfie at the ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Images: Oliver Bartenschlager; Nicola Pitaro Nicola Bartenschlager; Images: Oliver Innovators & Expedition Solar System Solar System Expedition Pioneers

4 1 CONNECTED

Agenda 17 July 2018, from 6.15 to 7.15 p.m. versity, these artworks at ETH Zurich ART AT ETH bear testament to an exciting dialogue EXHIBITIONS between art and science. SINCE 1955 ETH Zurich, fountain in the main building The year 1955 was an important one at → www.library.ethz.ch/en/Ueber-uns/ ETH Zurich, as it marked the univer- Veranstaltungen/Kunst-in-der-ETH- sity’s centennial. This historic year seit-1955 therefore serves as the starting point for an art history tour of the Zentrum campus. Acquired through Percent for Art schemes or as donations to the uni-

Runs until 24 June 2018 On Glaciers and Avalanches Climate change, glacier retreat and changing water levels: for decades, glaciologists have been studying how glaciers are changing. Argentinian artist Irene Kopelman accompanied some of

44 these specialists on an expedition. Her artistic explorations yielded fascinating images that evoke simple structures. ETH main building, Graphische Sammlung → gs.ethz.ch/en/agenda

26 June 2018, 6.30 p.m. tion. Guillaume Habert, Professor at KEYNOTE AND the Institute of Construction and Infra- structure Management (IBI) at ETH PODIUM DISCUSSION Zurich, will explain the unique challenges of sustainable construction: how Where is innovation in construction one must weigh up societal, personal Runs until 28 September 2018 headed in an age of increasingly quick and institutional interests as well as Max Frisch’s notebooks construction projects and ever more planned projects and works in progress This exhibition presents original notebooks intense pressure from rising costs? The – and how one can harmonise all these belonging to Max Frisch. Alan Maag has industry is already undergoing some disparate factors. also captured a series of photographs of major changes. Extensive research is the notebooks. underway into timber and concrete ETH main building, HG F3 ETH main building, structures as well as the combination of Sign up here: Max Frisch Archive the two, known as hybrid construction, → www.alumni.ethz.ch/en/events → www.mfa.ethz.ch/en and construction firms are applying new methods of planning and produc-

Images: © Irene Kopelman and Labor Gallery; ETH GLOBE 2/2018 Alan Maag / Max Frisch Archive, Zurich; ETH Library, art inventory CONNECTED

TOURS ALUMNI TRIP

24 October to 3 November 2018 Trip to Jordan The next ETH Alumni trip will be to one of the Middle East’s most celebrated archaeological cities: Petra in Jordan. Desert castles, Byzantine mosaics and Roman ruins exemplify Jordan’s glorious and varied past. For more information and to sign up, please visit: 3 July 2018; from 6.15 to 7.15 p.m. → www.alumni.ethz.ch/en/events “If you fear that computers Ötzi und Mona Lisa will soon replace humans, you need to Is there a second genuine Mona Lisa? read this book.” When might Ötzi have died? When historic Professor Timothy Lenoir sources are missing or inconclusive, there are scientific ways of definitively dating items. On this tour, researchers from the Recommended reading Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics will show how these methods work. HOW WE PUT 45 ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg campus, HIL building, Campus Info entrance THE WORLD INTO → www.tours.ethz.ch COMPUTERS FOR KIDS If humans want to use computers to July to October 2018 manage and organise the world, they Holiday camps must transfer the world to the digital Researchers at ETH and the University of realm of machines. ETH historian Zurich have teamed up with Zurich Uni- David Gugerli relies on succinct versity of the Arts to develop activities that examples to tell the story of this tre- pique children’s curiosity and playfully mendous move. interconnect science, design and techno He portrays how engineers, logy. The camps allow kids aged between managers, consultants and users 8 and 14 to explore various fields of re- fought over how to format their rea- search. Activities include using a drone to lity and the consequent new confusion 1 July 2018; from 2 to 3 p.m. view mountains and conducting research they caused. They interconnected InSight mission on a houseboat. machines, combined data and trans- Visit the Expedition Solar System special → www.plantsciences.uzh.ch/en/ cribed programs, in the process trans- exhibition to learn all about the mission to outreach/informal forming the computer for human Mars that NASA launched on 5 May 2018. resources into a resource for humans: Mission scientists plan to study mars- the personal computer. Why did they quakes to gain insights into the interior do this? And how? Read this brilliant structure of our red neighbour. book to find out. ETH Zurich, Zentrum campus, focusTerra, Sonneggstrasse 5 S. Fischer Verlag → www.focusterra.ethz.ch/en (available in German only) 256 pages, CHF 39.90 ISBN: 978-3-10-397226-9

Images: ETH Zurich; focusTerra / Matthias Auer; rhz Reisen; PSC / Juanita Schlaepfer-Miller; Verlag S. Fischer ETH GLOBE 2/2018 46 Despite Beekeeper’srapidrisetosuccess, as hotelchainssuchMarriottandHilton. including Holcim,RivellaandMigros,aswell people acrosstheglobe–alreadyuseapp, companies – employing a total of 2 million grown toover100employees.Some500 launched six years ago, the workforce has And businessisgood:sincethestart-upwas and operationalsystemsinonesecurehub. necting internalcommunicationchannels mobile appforcompanies:aplatformcon nothing todowithhoney. Itsproductisa and CEOofBeekeeper.Butthiscompanyhas for astudentdoingholidayjob. with ayouthfulsmilewhocouldeasilypass ges CristianGrossmann,alanky36-year-old From the centre of this hive of activity emer- telephone callsaremadeinglasscubicles. voicescanbeheardfromthecoffeebar,while room toroom.Laughterandthehumof hive. Menandwomenwhizaroundfrom pany, the offices are not dissimilar to a bee At Beekeeper, a Zurich-based software com cleaning staff, concierges,salespeopleand address either, forinstancekitchenand desk and,inmanycases,no company email companies whoseemployees havenofixed app,” saysGrossmann. Theappisaimedat “We wanttoachievethesamewithour how effectivelytheycommunicate inswarms. basis thatbeesworktogetherwellthanksto Beekeeper’s founderschoseitsnameonthe Swarm communication says Grossmann. “We’ve stillgotthatinitialstart-upvibe,” the companycultureremainsunchanged. Beekeeper for thedigital age passion forhiswork–plusafewstrokes ofluck. The ETHalumnusattributeshissuccesstoanunwavering revolutionising internalcommunicationincompanies. Cristian Grossmannhasdevelopedamobileappthatis TEXT ClaudiaHoffmann In fact,Grossmannisoneofthefounders IMAGE DanielWinkler - - -

the company’s internalcommunicationnet the company’s than intended. important informationsporadicallyorlater company emailsmeanstheytendtoreceive production workers.Theirlackofaccessto was myfirstever communicationtool.” looks backon it withfondmemories:“That to sendmessageshisfather. Grossmann small applicationforthecompany secretary his father’scompany. Heevenprogrammeda twelve he started helping out with IT jobs at terest incomputersfromayoung ageandat he learnedGerman.Hedevelopedakeenin but GrossmannwenttoaSwissschoolwhere zerland. AthomehisfamilyspokeSpanish, and hisfather’sancestorsoriginatedinSwit million inhabitants. His mother is Mexican the metropolisofMexicoCityasoneits20 Cristian Grossmannwasbornandraisedin Growing upinMexico to people’slives,” hesays. Grossmann: “Iwanttomakearealdifference the wall.It’sstorieslikethisthatmotivate work attheweekendtolookrotaon they nolongerhavetomakeanextratripinto find outtheirshiftsforthefollowingweek, genui app fostersagreatersenseofbelongingandis company events. Employees report that the the corporate network and post photos of connect withpeopleatotherlocationsin ployees, meanwhile,canviewtheirrotas, conduct surveysorsendoutpayslips.Em individual employees,sendgroupmessages, tatives canusetheapptosendmessages work,” saysGrossmann.Companyrepresen ETH GLOBE 2/2018 GLOBE ETH “Our app helps connect all employees to nely useful.For example,iftheywantto PROFILE - - - -

energy.” initial start-up sense ofthat a palpable “There’s still 47 ABOUT Cristian Grossman Cristian Cristian Grossmann studied chemical chemical studied Grossmann Cristian on at ETH Zurich and went engineering in electrical his doctorate complete to and his engineering. In 2011, he an created Flavio Pfaffhauser colleague friends app with some of his university chatting use for could that students Beekeeper the start-up founding before used app is now in 2012. The Beekeeper by communications internal for countries. in 137 different companies and both a Mexican holds Grossmann in Zurich. and lives passport a Swiss PROFILE ETH GLOBE 2/2018 48 level.” on apersonal employee to know every my aimto get “I still make it using theapptoshareinformationabout something differenthappened.Theystarted did usetheappdidn’tittoflirt.Instead, take offamongthestudents.Andthosewho one anotheranonymously. Butitdidn’treally the University ofZurichtochatandflirtwith 2011, whichenabledstudentsfromETHand launched wasanappnamed“BlicKlick”in first productthetwoyoungentrepreneurs But Beekeeperwasstillalongwayoff.The Dating appfor students sity daysatETH. computer scientistheknewfromhisuniver his first business with Flavio Pfaffhauser, a offered forexperimentation.Heco-founded nologies andthetremendouspotentialthey fascinated bytheemergenceofmobiletech ambition tosetuphisowncompanyandwas enough forme.” Hehadlongharbouredthe wasn’t histhing.“Itjustcutting-edge pany for a short while but soon realised that it in 2009.Hewentontoworkatabiotechcom electrical engineeringatETH,completingit Zurich, too. lowed inhisfootstepsandcametostudy few years later,histwo younger brothersfol several previousoccasionswithhisfamily. A Switzerland, havingvisited the country on like.” Hefounditeasytointegrateintolifein saw whatagoodqualityoflifecouldlook needed toworryabouthispersonalsafety. “I chaotic trafficofMexicoCity and nolonger worked asitshould.Hehadleftbehindthe Switzerland. Everythingwascleanand have theopportunitytostudyandlivein He recallsthathe was “overthemoon”to 2001 tostudychemicalengineeringatETH. trance exams,GrossmannmovedtoZurichin After passinghisMatura,oruniversityen forms, including forSwissrailcompanySBB Pfaffhauser built variouscommunityplat As demandincreased,Grossmann and kind ofplatformfortheir own purposes. companies beganaskingifthey couldusethis online advertisingtobusinesses, andsoon and soonhadover12,000users. iteration oftheappwasfarmoresuccessful advertised as a chatroom for students. This “Spocal,” acommunityplatformthatthey and Pfaffhauserdevelopedtheappinto everyday livesatuniversity. SoGrossmann anything andeverythingtodowiththeir In 2006, he embarked on a doctorate in They startedmakingmoney byselling ETH GLOBE 2/2018 GLOBE ETH PROFILE ------

and theUBSbankinggroup.Theyalsodevel at 120hotels.“Ourbusinesssuddenlygot decided torollitoutforits50,000employees received byFairmont thatthecompany same groupasSwissôtel.Theappwassowell dian hotelchainFairmont thatbelongstothe also gotthechancetomarketitCana duo developedanapp for thestaff,andthey munication networkforitspersonnel.The looking forawaytoestablishaninternalcom Swissôtel wasundergoingarestructureand break camein2012whenluxuryhotelchain services. GrossmannandPfaffhauser’sbig who plantodevelopinnovativeproductsand programme, hesupportsyoungresearchers Zurich Foundation’s Pioneer Fellowships portunity toothers.AsadonortheETH us,” saysGrossmann. jobs provedtobeavaluablespringboardfor networking toolforETHspin-offs.“Those technology transfer office as a university’s oped theETHFounders Communityforthe know everyemployeeonapersonal level.” company. “Istillmakeitmyaimtoget keep thatinitialstart-upvibe aliveatthe adulthood,” hesays.ButGrossmannwantsto people by2030.“At thisrate,we’llsoonreach count atBeekeeperissettogrowover500 30 additionalstaffmembersandthehead teenage years.” Thisyearheplanstorecruit growth spurts and has already reached its growing child, “one that goes through big ing withhistwo-andfour-year-oldnieces. leagues. Therestofhistimeheenjoysspend for uptoeighthoursaweek,oftenwithcol sport, doingtriathlontrainingandCrossFit balances outhismentallydemandingjobwith Grossmann: “IlovewhatIdo,” hesays.He work remainsintense.Thatdoesn’tbother have settleddownnow, butthenatureof cally dayandnight,evenatweekends.Things Grossmann andPfaffhauserworkedpracti been sometwistsandturnsalongtheway. straightforward inretrospect,therehave Even iftheroadtosuccessseemspretty Sport asacounterbalance keeper wasborn. a lotbigger,” saysGrossmann.AndsoBee Today, Grossmann offers a similar op Grossman viewshiscompanyabitlike ------

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Philip Ursprung thinks it is fantastic that ETH brings together so many different people and disciplines: “Misunderstandings can be very productive.”

What’s it like being a historian at members of the scientific staff are de- 1an institute of technology? pendent on them. If I could, I would “Where the future begins” is the convert half of the scientific staff posts motto at ETH. As an art historian, that into assistant professors. Wherever I

50 does make me feel slightly like an out- can, I work with my colleagues to im- sider! Not because I live in the past but, prove conditions for young academics. above all, because I want to improve That includes a doctoral program run our understanding of the present. Fix- Philip Ursprung is Professor of the by a collective – in other words not by ating on the future runs the risk of History of Art and Architecture at individual professors – where doctoral overlooking the here and now. Histori ETH Zurich and currently Dean of the students have the freedom to choose cally, it’s an approach we can trace back Department of Architecture. their own topics. It also includes the to the ideology of progress (from circa → www.ethz.ch/ursprung-en recently launched Center for Advanced 1870 to circa 1970) and, in my view, Studies in Architecture, with scholar- it’s a little outdated. At the same time, ships for advanced researchers. I have more leeway here than I did in the Faculty for Arts and Social Sciences What things exasperate you? at the University of Zurich. Back there eventually became President. I’ve al- 4 PowerPoint presentations. Long I was among my own kind, but here ways been drawn to the world of labo- e-mails. Coffee machines. the differences between disciplines ratories, machinery halls and lecture are bigger. That creates an atmosphere theatres. The ETH spirit stems from What makes you laugh out loud? of what I call “productive misunder- the fact that we are a public university 5 I’ve recently been watching some standings”, and I find that very fruitful and that people come here from far and of the old Laurel and Hardy films indeed. wide. Just as big cities owe their spirit from the late 1920s on YouTube with to a steady stream of immigrants, the my son just before his bedtime. They How would you describe the ETH spirit is the result of diversity and are just as funny now as the first time 2 “ETH spirit”? openness. I watched them when I was a child. It’s a sense of community. Most — Interview conducted by Isabelle Herold people are here because this is exactly What would you change about where they want to be. I’m biased, of 3 today’s world of academic research course, because this is what I grew if you had the chance? up with. When I was six years old, my Research in Switzerland has a very dad became Professor of Biology at hierarchical structure. Responsibility the “poly”, as it was called then, and lies with just a few professors, and the

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