D-BAUG News

ETH Zurich Master’s programme in Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems provides a strong academic and interdisciplinary foundation in urban planning, mobility, and infrastructure management. Combining expert-led lectures with hands-on projects, it enables students to develop practical and sustainable solutions to real-world challenges. It prepares graduates for careers in spatial, mobility, or infrastructure planning, as highlighted in a newly released video on the degree programme.

Founded with a view to boosting the lifespan and reliability of wind turbines, the ETH spin-off RTDT is now improving the devices’ electricity production and performance – all with the help of an intelligent plaster for rotor blades.

A construction industry without concrete seems impossible. However, due to the huge volumes of concrete production globally, its massive carbon footprint makes it a major environmental concern. D-BAUG researcher Arnesh Das and his team have developed a solution, which is now being tested with an industrial partner.

While cycling infrastructure promotes sustainability, health, and increased bike adoption, its implementation often sparks controversy due to the need to repurpose car lanes, parking spaces, or public transport routes. With a novel optimization approach that carefully balances the trade-off between bike and car travel times, bike lanes can be allocated such that they have minimal impact on other travel modes – paving the way for a more widely accepted (e-)bike city.

Joaquin Jiménez-Martínez combines experimental work with advanced modeling to explore how water moves and interacts with its environment. With expertise spanning from micrometer-scale pore processes to field-scale hydrology, his research is dedicated to understanding and protecting our underground reservoirs. On the occasion of his promotion to Adjunct Professor, we asked what currently drives him in research and teaching.

Location data allows rich insights into private details about our lives: where we live and work, how we spend our free time and what is important to us, says Nina Wiedemann. This poses a considerable security risk – even if we have nothing to hide.  

Whether tunnels or retaining walls – many Swiss reinforced concrete structures from the 1960s to the 1980s are at risk. Corrosion can make them unstable. ETH start-up Talpa Inspection has now developed a solution to localise corrosion more easily, even in hard-to-reach places.

Planning and building Europe’s largest capacity geotechnical centrifuge took seven years. Now, after one and a half years of operation, its official inauguration is finally being celebrated at the Hönggerberg campus. And it’s no coincidence that this is happening today.

Researchers at ETH Zurich led by Professor Guillaume Habert and Magda Posani have developed a climate-friendly covering for walls and ceilings that temporarily stores moisture, creating a comfortable environment in heavily used indoor spaces. The covering components are made of mineral waste materials and are produced by means of 3D printing.

"Living materials" could contribute to future building materials with their ability to sense and react to environmental changes, capture CO2, or self-repair. The field is still in its infancy, but at the Dept. of Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering three research groups are exploring the potential of living materials. They combine living cells with conventional materials to develop living materials with innovative properties. An inside look at the ETH ALIVE initiative.