November 2023

What happens when cities gear their road space primarily to the needs of cyclists and e-bikers? On a new popular-science website, ETH researchers from the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering use examples from the city of Zurich to show what such an “E-Bike City” could one day look like.

Three students from the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering have been awarded a scholarship from the Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme (ESOP). The full scholarship enables them to concentrate fully on their studies and realise their full potential. Congratulations!

Before a young person with talent is awarded a scholarship or fellowship from ETH Zurich, they must first cross the hurdles of a multi-stage selection process. D-BAUG Professor Lorenz Hurni, long-standing Vice Rector for Study Programmes at ETH, provides insight into how the process works in the case of Excellence Scholarships.

Globalisation is leading to the homogenisation of urbanized landscapes, which has a direct impact on our ability to create affective ties to place. This demonstrates the EU-funded project "GLOBESCAPE" (2018-2023), led by D-BAUG Professor Adrienne Grêt-Regamey. Using empirical data, innovative methods and cutting-edge technologies, the project has advanced theories and developed new tools for urban and landscape planning processes to promote inclusive, sustainable and resilient cities.

This year, D-BAUG students awarded Stefan Moser the "Golden Owl" for his dedication to teaching. He has been a lecturer in civil engineering for many years and is a member of the management of the engineering firm Basler & Hofmann. In this interview, he talks about what he likes about being a lecturer and what it takes to make a successful start in the profession.

The research centrifuge with the highest capacity in Europe has been in operation at the ETH Hönggerberg campus since June 2023. It’s being used to investigate the effects of earthquakes and floods on buildings, bridges and dams. A visit with Professor Ioannis Anastasopoulos, Head of the Geotechnical Centrifuge Center at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering.

Researchers led by environmental engineer Professor Jing Wang have developed a biosensor that detects aerosols in the air to which coronaviruses adhere. This allows real-time monitoring of virus levels in indoor environments. The aim is to apply the principle to other viruses to detect and stop epidemics at an early stage. The project was presented today in the Synthesis Report of the National Research Programme "Covid-19" of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

D-BAUG Professor Martin Raubal has been awarded the “Outstanding Achievement in Urban Informatics Award” by the International Society for Urban Informatics. The award aims to recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions of researchers in the field of urban informatics and smart cities. Raubal’s research focuses on spatial decision-making for sustainability, involving the Mobility Information Engineering Lab and the GeoGazeLab at ETH and a research group at the Singapore ETH Centre.

ETH researchers from the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic engineering are developing a low-carbon cement with a significantly lower embodied CO₂ content than traditional cement. The Ultra Green Concrete project is led by Franco Zunino and aims to make low-carbon, high-performance concrete widely accessible.

In a practical teaching project, ETH students used materials from the demolished Huber Pavilions to construct a building in the spirit of the circular economy. The Re-Use Pavilion on the ETH Hönggerberg campus has now been honoured with an Arc Award. The project was led by Professors Catherine De Wolf (D-BAUG) and Momoyo Kaijima (D-ARCH).