News from the Executive Board 2020 / 7

The Executive Board has confirmed the Associate Vice President for Sustainability, Reto Knutti, and the Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation, Lothar Thiele, for an additional term of office. Knutti’s term will run from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, Thiele’s to 31 July 2022, which is when he retires. The Executive Board thanks Renate Schubert for her excellent work as Associate Vice President for Equal Opportunities. Schubert, who retired in the middle of this year, built up this central function and held it from 2008 to the end of 2020. Gisbert Schneider, the Associate Vice President for ETH Global, also leaves his office with great thanks to become the new director of the Singapore ETH Center (SEC) from 1 January 2021.

Computational thinking

At present the sciences are experiencing a fundamental paradigm shift in the knowledge process: the digital transformation generates enormours amounts of data, and exploring it all calls for complex modelling by algorithms. Now it is not only humans who represent their reality using models: for the first time, such models are being determined by algorithms. In future, this computational thinking and modelling is set to be integrated into all study programmes at ETH Zurich.

The Executive Board has decided to introduce computational modelling and the necessary basics for it in all Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes. To this end, the curricula of all ETH Zurich study programmes will be gradually revised accordingly in the coming years. The project will be presented at the Study Conference on 3 December. It is expected to start with pilots in the Bachelor’s programmes in Physics (D-PHYS), Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST) and Agricultural Sciences (D-USYS). Further study programmes may also be included in the pilot round.

New CAS in Robotics

Long-standing employees of robotics companies will have the opportunity to receive further training in robotics with the new CAS ETH. This CAS is based on the concept of “industrial sabbaticals” in the field of materials sciences, which was introduced in 2018 (CAS ETH AMaP). Participants gain a deep insight into current research, for instance receiving the opportunity to launch a pilot project for which they do not necessarily have the infrastructure in their own company. In return, ETH research groups benefit from the exchange of ideas with practitioners from the business world. The programme is directed by Marco Hutter and Roland Siegwart. This CAS ETH in Robotics was developed by the RobotX Center, an Open ETH initiative.

A doctoral school in the field of materials and processes

The Competence Center for Materials and Processes (MaP), which comprises some 78 research groups from nine departments with around 700 doctoral students, is establishing a doctoral school. This school aims to attract doctoral students from many different disciplines whose research topics focus on materials and processes. In the respective cohorts, modules will be offered for the exchange of expertise and the acquisition of interdisciplinary skills. This will enable doctoral students to network within their cohort. Moreover, their participation in the doctoral school is explicitly desired in order to build a strong community. This is ETH Zurich’s third doctoral school, alongside the Graduate School in Mathematics with 120 doctoral students and the Life Science Zurich Graduate School with a good 500 doctoral students (both with the University of Zurich). However, conventional PI-controlled recruitment is also still an option.

An ETH platform for clinical studies

In recent years, ETH Zurich has systematically expanded medical research: half of all departments and a third of all professorships are involved in clinical or translational research. To support these researchers and their various spin-offs in clinical trials, ETH Zurich is founding a new technology platform called the digital Trial Intervention Platform (dTIP). As a standardised platform, in future dTIP will enable ETH researchers to take on leading roles and collaborate with hospitals when conducting translational and clinical studies.

Election to the Ethics Commission

The Ethics Commission at ETH Zurich is being extended. The Executive Board has elected Isabel Günther to the Ethics Commission as of 1 December 2020. Günther is Professor of Development Economics at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences and heads the MAS and CAS in Development and Cooperation (NADEL). The Ethics Commission’s new member was nominated by the Lecturers’ Conference (KdL).

Two new members for the Teaching Commission

The Executive Board has appointed two new members to the Teaching Commission: Laura Nyström (D-HEST) and Christoph Stadtfeld (D-GESS). Christoph Stadtfeld will replace Renate Schubert (D-GESS) as of 1 January 2021. Laura Nyström will take up the new position on 1 October 2021, when she will succeed Ruben Kretzschmar (D-USYS). The Executive Board thanks the two departing members for their valuable services to this commission, which supports and advises the Executive Board, especially in the area of teaching innovations.

A regulation for the Commission for Science Awards

The Commission for Science Awards is to receive a regulation. The Executive Board has also confirmed the current members of the Commission until 2024. They are Nicolas Gruber, David Norris, Annette Gigon, Manu Kapur, John Lygeros, Peter Bühlmann, Martin Quack and Uwe Sauer, as well as Monika Gessler, Wendy Altherr, Martine Vernooij and Rainer Borer from the Executive Board. The Commission, which was founded in 2017, advises the Executive Board on science awards. It is tasked with following national and international developments and proposing potential candidates for nomination to the Vice President for Research.