ETH concludes a successful year

Last year a total of 21,397 students were enrolled at ETH Zurich, an increase of 3.8 percent on 2017 when there were 20,607 students. The proportion of enrolled women rose slightly in 2018 from 31.8 percent to 32.3 percent. The percentage of foreign students (39.4 percent) was also somewhat higher than in the previous year (38.7 percent). These figures are taken from the current annual report of the ETH, which also highlights the strong growth of the university over the last ten years. During this period student numbers increased by 50 percent.

Other key projects from the previous year are presented in the annual report. They demonstrate that major international companies continue to value collaboration with ETH Zurich. For example, ETH has opened a computer vision research laboratory in partnership with Microsoft. The US corporation and the university started building the Mixed Reality & AI Zurich Lab in autumn 2018. The aim is to advance research in the field of computer vision. “Computer vision enables devices to locate and orientate themselves in an environment and understand the user's activity”, explains ETH professor Marc Pollefeys.

In addition to working with large corporations based in Switzerland the ETH also cooperates closely with SMEs. To make this easier, a special website has been set up showing SMEs opportunities for cooperation based on examples.

In the area of research two initiatives for promoting personalized medicine are highlighted. In addition, a research center for childcare co-founded with the University of Basel is helping to advance medical research.

Another highlight of 2018 was the successful InSight mission landing on Mars. A seismometer fitted with electronics developed at ETH Zurich records and transmits data from the Red Planet. This will provide insights into the structure and composition of Mars.