October 2022

The D-BAUG Gender and Diversity Commission (GDK) has launched a mentoring programme for doctoral students. The mentorship will take place over a 12-month period and candidates will be matched with mentors from either academia or industry to offer them guidance through their studies as well as insights into professional options after graduation.

The ETH Entrepreneur Club and the ETH AI Center present an annual award for professors who promote and facilitate talented people to take the leap into entrepreneurship: the "Dandelion Entrepreneurship Award". This year, D-BAUG professor Eleni Chatzi is among the winners. Nominations were made in the departments by students, doctoral candidates and postdocs. Congratulations, Eleni!

What if 50 percent of existing urban road space was allocated to e-bikes and the slow modes? How would this change our daily lives? How many CO2 emissions could this save? These questions are at the core of the D-BAUG lighthouse project "E-Bike City". Seven research groups will join forces to explore the effects of an urban future giving absolute priority to cycling, micromobility and public transport. Join the kick-off event on 23 November 2022!

This fall, the second edition of the "D-​BAUG Urban Research Seminar" will be held. Led by Prof. David Kaufmann, the new initiative aims to build a bottom-​up network that brings together early career researchers and their ongoing urban research projects. On 20 October and 17 November 2022, twelve short talks will present the variety of perspectives and methods from which urban research is approached across ETH Zurich. An exciting networking event for all early career researchers!

In their practice-oriented master's theses, environmental engineers Louis Barth and Diego Gregorio show how smart control of the Olten wastewater system could reduce infrastructure costs and improve water protection. Especially during heavy rainfall, optimized measurement and control technology allows the wastewater pipes to be utilized more evenly, thus fully exploiting the wastewater treatment potential. These findings will now be implemented to improve the wastewater treatment plant.

Researchers at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) have developed a new type of guidance system to improve fish protection at hydropower plants. The protection system was recently put into operation at the ecologically refurbished power plant Herrentöbeli on the river Thur. If successful, it could be used at many other plants in Switzerland and abroad. The pilot project is supported by the Federal Office for the Environment.

Using innovative technologies and scientific expertise to help people in need is the goal of the Engineering for Humanitarian Action initiative launched by the ICRC, ETH Zurich and EPFL in 2020. Six of the projects are already offering results for tangible improvements for the ICRC. Among them are two D-BAUG projects led by Prof. Guillaume Habert and Prof. Konrad Schindler respectively.

If the transition to renewables is to succeed, we will need a viable means of storing surplus heat and electricity. Globe interviewed four experts from ETH Zurich about the promising technologies that could help us reach net zero. Robert Boes, D-BAUG Professor of Hydraulic Engineering, spoke about the role of hydropower and ways to make it more eco-friendly.