Future visions
With the world facing enormous challenges, the need for innovation has never been greater. But how can we design universities to deliver the kind of knowledge we need for the future? And how do we deal with the ever-increasing pace of change?
Chris Luebkeman
What are the key concepts for a university that is fit for the future? As the past two years have proven, many aspects of university life can move online, but many cannot. The future will bring us closer and closer to a full hybridisation, and this will have a profound effect on our society and daily life. We have seen too that the physical aspect of ETH is vital for our wellbeing and underpins our community. So what will this place mean for us, moving forward? Another key concept is lifelong learning. In the future-fit university, you will come back to glean new knowledge from the next generations while sharing your experiences with them, in a cycle that reinforces all of ETH as a dynamic learning community. Lastly, our nation faces huge challenges that call not just for outstanding basic science research, but also for implementation strategies that can be embraced by everyone. A future-fit Humboldtian university will understand this as part of its core mandate and incorporate it in its vision – a vision which recognises its role as instigator, incubator and integrator; one which is empowering and clearly marks out the way ahead. The rETHink programme is a critical step toward making our university truly fit for the future.
Lydia Bourouiba
In my work I focus on problems at the intersection of fundamental fluid dynamics and health, with a particular focus on the fundamental physical mechanisms shaping microorganisms and pathogen transport, adaptation, and evolution critical to disease transmission. The pandemic has shown clearly that we can address societal and health challenges of great magnitude only with a combination of deep disciplinary insight combined with true transdisciplinary collaboration. Nurturing, building, and achieving this fine balance of depth and synergistic exchange between fields will be a crucial responsibility of universities in the future.
Although research grants in the US and Europe increasingly encourage interdisciplinary approaches, actual integration remains loose, in part because true integration is highly challenging in the historically siloed spheres of training and scholarship. A more promising attempt would be to build truly interdisciplinary centres/institutes focused on problem solving with depth in individual disciplines, yet with researchers from different fields working side-by-side and interacting from the very beginning of research question design; and a focus on grand challenges of infectious diseases, or the environment, for example. Such centres would not just be focused on research but would also train via mentoring and teaching; and the shared physical space would nurture truly synergistic transdisciplinary work.
Michael Kiy
Our world is changing faster than ever before – and global markets with it. Each year brings a new generation of mobile phones – sometimes several – and other innovative product launches are driving change like never before. There has been a massive increase in the pace of product development, along with the flexibility required to respond to new market trends. Against this backdrop, modern engineering education must provide a solid grounding not only in the technical aspects but also in the methods needed for carrying out agile and iterative development in collaboration. Deciding on development priorities often relies on fact-based decision-making processes that in turn require extensive knowledge of data analysis techniques. In addition, the decisions made during development are often of direct relevance to the business as a whole. That’s why entrepreneurial skills, such as the ability to draw up a business case and understand modern business models, are a valuable advantage. At Siemens, we develop innovative products in the fields of automation, energy management, building technology, and mobility. To achieve our goals, we work in diverse teams and apply agile development methods.
Zuzana Sediva
Groam is an aspiring ETH spin-off working on biodegradable foamed materials based on agricultural waste streams, such as leftovers from cereal and fruit production. Our goal is to scale our idea for fast, disposable applications like packaging or plant substrate and in this way replace plastic foams based on fossil fuels. In 2020, I was awarded a Pioneer Fellowship through donors from the ETH Foundation, allowing me to validate potential business cases. This support kick-started our entrepreneurial journey. Innovation is key to university institutions and their future role in society. The Pioneer Fellowship programme is just one of the ways in which ETH is pursuing an entrepreneurial strategy in cultivating multidisciplinary projects that address today’s global challenges. Universities of the future will drive impact by launching high-tech innovation and intensifying knowledge transfer with international organisations, big industry players and governments.
Samira Cabdulle
My parents are from Somalia, so I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to grow up and study in a wealthy country like Switzerland. The topic of my Master’s thesis is drought in East Africa, a problem that will affect far more people in the future, either directly or indirectly, than it does today. The only way to successfully address these kinds of global challenges is by taking into account multiple perspectives. We need to tap into ideas from people from a wide range of cultures – people of diverse origins with diverse experiences. In my opinion, the universities of the future will need to show a much greater commitment to diversity and inclusion than they do today. That’s why I think it’s so important to make education accessible to everyone. But equal opportunities don’t just happen by themselves. I was lucky enough to have people constantly encouraging me to apply for a place at university. But we’ll only achieve diversity if universities and society actively pursue that goal.
Jan Freihardt
Our society is on the brink of radical change – but escalating ecological and social crises raise the urgent question of whether this change will happen by design or by disaster. By rethinking their research and teaching, universities can become catalysts of transformation by design. In the world of research, closer collaboration with key players from government, business, and civil society can help generate knowledge with a practical edge – not least in critical fields such as climate change mitigation and digitalisation. However, today’s teaching fails to equip students with the skills they need to achieve this. Dealing with crisis situations and complex dilemmas requires not only analytical skills but also proficiency in soft areas such as empathy and self-reflection. These kinds of changes cannot be made overnight. Yet, whether we work in research or teaching, we all have the power to take the first steps by changing our own behaviour today.
What is your vision? Join in!
Which initiatives, ideas or concepts from today should we keep or expand? What should be new? What are promising hybrids between the established and the new? ... and what should be allowed to go bye-bye? What is already obsolete today? What do we no longer need? Where can we declutter the university?
Share your pictures, photos and comments, ideas and visions with the community on the following miro-board: external pagebit.ly/3D2nFY5. Alternatively, you can also write to with subject cut&paste. The board is open for editing until Jan. 23, 2022 and is curated by the Strategic Foresight Hub team at ETH Zurich.
This text appeared in the 21/04 issue of the ETH magazine Globe.