October 2021

For the first time, researchers at D-BAUG have measured air-water flows with velocities exceeding 40 m/s. To this end, two challenging measurement campaigns were carried out in the tunnel spillway of a 225-meter high dam, for which special probes first had to be developed. With the new data, existing design guidelines can be validated, and so-called scale effects can be assessed more accurately. This is relevant for the safe operation of hydraulic structures.

Researchers at D-BAUG have created the world’s first self-owned house managed by blockchain. The result is a meditation cabin that shakes up the usual economic and social expectations. The project was developed in the research group of Daniel Hall, Chair of Innovative and Industrial Construction, with the support of project partners Digitec, Dezentrum and Ernst & Young. The prototype with the name "no1s1" can now be tested at ETH Student Project House.

The Albert Lück-Stiftung has pledged a generous donation to flagship research projects in the field of future-oriented infrastructure at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG) of ETH Zurich. The funding will be provided over a period of four years.

Science can provide insights into some "cold cases" – for example, the Dyatlov Pass mystery in Russia, where a group of students died under mysterious circumstances in 1959. More than 60 years later, researchers have used computer simulations and analytical models to present a plausible explanation for the accident. In the ETH podcast, Alexander Puzrin, D-BAUG professor of geotechnical engineering, and EPFL professor Johan Gaume speak about why they got interested in the incident.

In the latest ranking of the British magazine "Times Higher Education" (THE), ETH Zurich ranks ninth in the field of engineering and thus maintains its strong position from the previous year. Among the evaluated subject groups are D-BAUG’s programmes in civil and environmental engineering as well as geomatics and spatial planning.

The Foundation Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has appointed Eleni Chatzi, Associate Professor of Structural Mechanics and Monitoring at the Institute of Structural Engineering at D-BAUG, to the National Research Council. She took office on October 1, 2021.

Operators of tunnel boring machines must continuously make complex decisions under great uncertainty. AI algorithms can help with decision making and also guide novice operators. This shows a recent study from the D-BAUG Chair of Intelligent Maintenance Systems led by Olga Fink.

In the largest worldwide pricing experiment to date, researchers have demonstrated that road users change their behaviour when they must pay for the social and environmental effects of their transportation. The study was led by researchers from the University of Basel, ETH Zurich and ZHAW.