D-ITET News Channel (EN)

Rabea Rogge, who completed her master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, is back on earth after a four-day expedition with a SpaceX team.

Dr. Alessandro Novello, post-doc in the Integrated Devices, Electronics, And Systems (IDEAS) group led by Prof. Hua Wang, won the Hans-Eggenberger-Award 2024 for the outstanding results of his PhD research on record power density fully integrated power management circuits.

D-ITET researchers have taken a significant step towards advancing next-generation communication technologies by unveiling the electro-optical properties of lithium niobate (LN) and barium titanate (BTO). Their findings, published in Nature Materials, provide the first comprehensive characterization of these materials across an unprecedented frequency range.

Luc Imperiali, doctoral student in the Advanced Mechatronics Group, received a Best Paper Award for his paper "Comparative Analysis of Carbon Footprints and Material Usage of Solid-State Transformers and Low-Frequency-Transformer-Based MVac-LVdc Interfaces for High-Power EV Charging".

In collaboration with UT Austin, PhD candidate Manasa Kaniselvan from Nano-TCAD Group published an article in Nature Materials. The study investigates the origin of resistance switching in 2D materials, presenting findings which are of interest for nano-devices in applications in next-generation computer memory and communication technology.

Doctoral student Ataberk Olgun and postdoc Giray Yağlıkçı, both members of the Safari Research Group led by Prof. Onur Mutlu, were inducted into the HPCA Hall of Fame.

Dr Maksym Yarema has been promoted to Adjunct Professor. Maksym Yarema’s research takes place at the intersection of natural and engineering science, investigating the relationships between materials and performance. His mission is to combine chemistry and materials with electronics. 

Professor Christoph Studer has been promoted to Full Professor of Integrated Information Processing in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. Christoph Studer’s research lies at the intersection of wireless communication, machine learning, digital signal processing, numerical optimisation and the design of integrated circuits.

Professor Taekwang Jang, currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Analog and Mixed Signal Circuits. Taekwang Jang’s research focuses on the design of mixed analogue-digital circuits for miniaturised computer systems. He is especially interested in designing ultra low power circuit components used in miniaturised computer systems with a very limited energy budget, such as for wireless sensor nodes or in biomedical electronics.

Authors Yahya Can Tugrul, Abdullah Giray Yaglikci, Ismail Emir Yuksel, Ataberk Olgun, Oguzhan Canpolat, Nisa Bostanci, Mohammad Sadrosadati, Oguz Ergin, and Onur Mutlu, head of the SAFARI Research group, have won a Distinguished Artifact Award for their joint work "PaCRAM: Understanding RowHammer Under Reduced Refresh Latency: Experimental Analysis of Real DRAM Chips and Implications on Future Solutions".

Five years ago, the Center for Project-Based Learning (PBL) at D-ITET was launched with the goal of providing students with a hands-on, interdisciplinary education. Since its founding, the center has implemented numerous projects, developed new teaching formats, and built valuable collaborations with industry. Michele Magno, head of PBL, offers insights into its development, successes, and vision for the future.

Stefan Gloor, former Master's student, Patrick Jattke, doctoral student, and Prof. Kaveh Razavi, head of the COMSEC (Computer Security) group, have received the Best Paper Award at the 1st Microarchitectural Security Conference last week.

Emmet Murphy, doctoral student in the DYNAMO group headed by Prof. Lana Josipović, won the first place in the Machine Learning Contest for Chip Design with High-Level Synthesis (Prediction task), organized by AMD and UCLA.

Optica (formerly OSA), the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the science of light, awards Prof. Juerg Leuthold the 2025 Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize. Prof. Leuthold, head of the Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), is honored for pioneering plasmonics based devices and in particular developing broadband modulators and detectors with highest bandwidths.

Klaas Prüssmann is professor of Bioimaging and the head of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBT). In this interview, he speaks about his mission to generate images from inside the human body and how he came to ETH Zurich rather accidentally.

Dr. Antonio Di Maio has received an Ambizione grant from SNF for his research project "Efficient Distributed Intelligent Applications in Mobile-Network Dynamics (eDIAMOND)". He will start at the Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory (TIK) on 1 September 2025.

ProTRR, the first principled in-DRAM mitigation against Rowhammer attacks, has been described in a paper published by Prof. Kaveh Razavi's COMSEC group. It has heavily influenced the design of follow-up work on secure mitigations in both academia and industry.

It is our pleasure to announce that the Editorial Board of the IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics (OJPEL) has awarded the paper entitled “Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Based Fast and Accurate Inductor Modeling and Design” (authors: Dr. Thomas Guillod, Dr. Pantelis Papamanolis, Prof. em. Dr. Johann W. Kolar) with the First-place Prize Paper Award for 2023.

Two projects with contributions from the Power Systems Laboratory (PSL), headed by Prof. Gabriela Hug, have won the Watt d'Or Award 2025.

Prof. Onur Mutlu, head of the SAFARI Research Group, has received the IEEE Computer Society 2025 Harry H. Goode Memorial Award for "seminal contributions to computer architecture research and practice, especially in memory systems".

In the Masoala Rainforest at Zoo Zurich, a state-of-the-art prototype developed by the Center for Project-Based Learning (PBL) is currently undergoing testing. This new device provides unprecedented and pivotal data for research on Goodman's mouse lemurs, one of the world's smallest lemur species.

The National Academy of Inventors announced the election of exceptional inventors into the 2024 Class of Fellows. The NAI Fellowship is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. 

The DISCO group’s "Banyan: Fast Rotating Leader BFT" has won the Best Paper Award at Middleware 2024. The paper demonstrates how to reduce the latency of modern blockchain protocols.

Students and alumni of D-ITET can now enter the study programme for the teaching diploma for Matura schools in mathematics more easily. With a focus on information technology or mathematics, all requirements can be obtained during the regular studies.

Prof. em. Dr. Johann Kolar has been awarded the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering 2025 sponsored by the IEEE Industry Applications, Industrial Electronics, Power Electronics, and Power & Energy Societies.

At the end of this semester, the best assistants were awarded the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award HS 2024. The winners are Lars Kröger (Analysis 1) und Alina Nekora (Physik 2 / Numerische Methoden).

Albert Gran Alcoz, Martin Strohmeier, Vincent Lenders, and Laurent Vanbever, Head of the Networked Systems Group, won the "CYD Award 2024 for outstanding publication" for their paper "Aggregate-Based Congestion Control for Pulse-Wave DDoS Defense".

Patch-IT, multi-sensor sensor nodes for continuous vital sign monitoring for sepsis detection in neonatal intensive care, has been selected among the best 100 projects as part of the Prototype for Humanity Initiative. The initiative aims to foster partnerships among sectors, institutions, and individuals, all working toward a better world where innovation is at the heart of comprehensive, sustainable development.

Prof. Lana Josipovic has been awarded the Best Reviewer Award at the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Computer-Aided Design. Congratulations!

Konstantinos Kanellopoulos, doctoral student in the SAFARI Research Group, joins the ACM SIGMICRO MICRO Hall of Fame. The MICRO Hall of Fame recognizes authors who have had eight or more papers published in MICRO. This year’s inductees were announced at MICRO 2024 during the awards ceremony.

Gian Marti, doctoral student at the Integrated Information Processing group, has achieved the second place at the Student Paper Contest of the Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers – for the second year in a row! This year, he participated with the paper "Fundamental Limits for Jammer-Resilient Communication in Finite-Resolution MIMO," which he co-authored with Alexander Stutz-Tirri and Prof. Christoph Studer.

Prof. Laurent Vanbever, Head of the Networked Systems Group, has won the Dandelion Award 2024, which recognises professors for their outstanding commitment to promoting entrepreneurship at ETH Zurich and beyond.

Prof. Dr Lana Josipović, "Digital Systems and Design Automation" Group Leader at D-ITET, was shortlisted for her Scientific Achievement in Nature Portfolio.

Lars Beglinger, doctoral student at the Laboratory for High Power Electronic Systems (HPE) together with colleagues Daniel Steinert and Thomas Nussbaumer from Levitronix GmbH, and Jürgen Biela, HPE head, won the best paper award for their paper "Concept and Design of a Bearingless Spinfilter".

Yichao Zhang, doctoral student in the Digital Circuits and Systems group headed by Prof. Luca Benini, has received the Best PhD Forum Award at the VLSI-SoC conference in Tanger, Morocco.

Google has awarded Prof. Kaveh Razavi, head of the Computer Security Group (COMSEC), an unrestricted gift in the amount of USD 100,000 to support his work in the area of Open Hardware Security.

At the Open House Day of the Center for Project-Based Learning (PBL) on 24 September, the "Best BSc Thesis Award" was granted to three outstanding Bachelor’s students at D-ITET. It was handed over to the laureates Jethusan Jeyaruban, Maria Sophie Schnuck, and Max Manuel Wipfli by the prize donors Christophe Beaud, CEO, and his wife Danette Beaud, COO of Peoplefone.

Thomas Ewald, Florian Krismer and Jürgen Biela received the best paper award at the ECCE Europe 2024, which took place in Darmstadt/Germany on 2-6 September 2024.

Professor Benjamin Grewe, currently Tenure Track Assistant professor, was appointed as Associate Professor of Neuronal Learning and Intelligent Systems, within the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI).  

On this year's Information Days on 4 and 5 September, D-​ITET was present with exciting exhibits and demos as well as interesting presentations giving high-​​school students valuable insights into the department's study programmes.

In the course of the "D-​ITET Welcome Day" on 16 September 2024, study director Prof. Christian Franck, study coordinator Reto Kreuzer and many others provided the new students with important information for their start at ETH Zurich.

Prof. Lana Josipović received, together with collaborators from AMD and EPFL, the Michal Servit Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL'24). The paper is titled DynaRapid: Fast-Tracking from C to Routed Circuits. It presents a framework that redefines how we interact with FPGAs and reduces FPGA compilation time to just seconds.

Richard Hahnloser of the Institute of Neuroinformatics (ETH Zurich and UZH) was awarded a prestigious fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) in Princeton. The fellowship for the 2024–25 academic year recognizes the significance of a scholars' work, and it is an opportunity to advance their research and exchange ideas with scholars from around the world.  

Prof. Luca Benini, head of the Digital Circuits and Systems group of the Integrated Systems Laboratory, has received the IEEE TCMM Open Source Hardware Contribution Award at this year's Hot Chips 2024.

Rabea Rogge, who completed her Masters's degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, will be part of Fram2, a SpaceX polar exploration mission.

The Power Electronic Systems Laboratory, headed by Prof. Johann Kolar, were awarded the 2024 APEX Award for Publication Excellence under the category of "New Technology" for their March 2023 cover feature "Monolithic Bidirectional Power Transistors" in IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.

Rahul Bera, doctoral student at the SAFARI Research Group of Prof. Onur Mutlu, and Adithya Ranganathan, Intel Processor Architecture Research Lab, and co-authors received the Best Paper Award at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) 2024 for their joint work “Constable: Improving Performance and Power Efficiency by Safely Eliminating Load Instruction Execution”.

The paper "Multi-resolution Rescored ByteTrack for Video Object Detection on Ultra-low-power Embedded Systems" coauthored by a ETHZ, UNIBO, IDSIA, KUL team got the best paper award at the the 20th Embedded Vision Workshop in conjunction with the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition held from 17 June 2024 to 21 June 2024 in Seattle, Washington, United States.

Prof. Christian Franck, Head of the High Voltage Laboratory, received the award at the 2024 IEEE ICD in Toulouse and held his lecture on “Green Developments in Gaseous Insulation Systems”.

As part of the ETH Board funded Joint Initiative SynFuels, researchers led by Corsin Battaglia, who is affiliated also with D-ITET, and Alessandro Senocrate from Empa's Materials for Energy Conversion laboratory have developed a system that can be used to investigate up to ten different reaction conditions as well as catalyst and electrode materials simultaneously.

In a recent nature electronics article, Melika Payvand from the Insitute of Neuroninformatics (INI) and Elisa Vianello of CEA-LETI write about "Scaling neuromorphic systems with 3D technologies".

The SAFARI group, led by Prof. Onur Mutlu, has won the Jean-Claude Laprie Award in Dependable Computing 2024 for their ISCA’14 paper: “Flipping bits in memory without accessing them: An experimental study of DRAM disturbance errors”.

In its 50th anniversary year, the Swiss Telecommunications Association, asut (https://asut.ch), awarded the Swiss Telecommunications Prize for the second time. The award went to Dr. Gregor Dürrenberger, who was honored for his commitment to the development of mobile communication technologies.

At the end of this semester, the best assistants were awarded the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award FS 2024. The winners are Angelo Nujic (Analysis II) and Philipp Schilk (Embedded Systems).

A few years ago, Apple took over two start-ups that had their origins at Luc van Gool's Computer Vision Lab. In an interview with SRF, the head of the Computer Vision Lab talks about the advantages and disadvantages of US dominance in the tech sector.

Andreas Horat, doctoral student at the Power Electronic Systems Laboratory headed by Prof. Johann Kolar, received the Young Researcher Award for his paper “Highly-Compact Bearingless Axial-Flux Motor for a Pediatric Implantable Fontan Blood Pump” at PCIM 2024.

A consortium comprising Maksym Kovalenko from Empa's Thin Films and Photovoltaics laboratory, Ivan Shorubalko from Empa's Transport at Nanoscale Interfaces laboratory, as well as Taekwang Jang, head of the Energy-​Efficient Circuits and Intelligent Systems Group, and Sergii Yakunin (Kovalenko Lab, D-CHAB), is working on an image sensor made of perovskite capable of capturing considerably more light than its silicon counterpart.

Last week, the Center for Project-Based Learning at D-ITET (PBL) won two awards at challenging conferences. Andrea Ronco, Philipp Schilk and Michele Magno won the best demo award at the 9^th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things Design and Implementation (IoTDI). The other prize was the best paper award at the 75^th IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I²MTC) 2024.

The Digital Circuits and Systems Group, lead by Prof. Luca Benini, received the Best Paper Award at the tinyML Research Symposium 2024. The paper, titled "Boosting Keyword Spotting through On-Device Learnable User Speech Characteristics", was co-authored by Cristian Cioflan and Lukas Cavigelli.

The Center for Project-Based Learning D-ITET (PBL) is among the three finalists for the KITE Award 2024. The KITE Award honors particularly convincing teaching innovations and will be presented as part of the Innovation in Learning and Teaching Fair on 15 May. 

An article in Nature Communications published by the Institute of Neuroinformatic, UZH/ETH Zurich (Filippo Moro, Tristan Torchet, Yiğit Demirağ, Giacomo Indiveri and Melika Payvand) and CEA-LETI in France features DenRAM, the first hardware realization of spiking neural network with dendritic architecture. It utilizes memristive devices to implement both delay and weight parameters, enhancing low-power signal processing with reduced memory use.

Prof. Kaveh Razavi, head of the Computer Security Group, has received the Jochen Lietke Young Researcher Award at EuroSys. This award was created in 2014 by ACM EuroSys to reward junior European researchers who have demonstrated exceptional creativity and innovation in systems research, broadly construed. 

In the science programme "Einstein", Benjamin Grewe, Professor of Neuroinformatics and Neural Systems at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), talks about how AI could learn even more about its environment and thus increasingly become a learning algorithm.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) unveiled its 2024 World University Rankings by Subject. In electrical and electronic engineering ETH Zurich achieved an excellent fifth place. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Haocong Luo, doctoral student in the SAFARI Research Group, led by Prof. Onur Mutlu, and co-authors for their ISCA 2023 paper "RowPress: Amplifying Read Disturbance in Modern DRAM Chips", chosen as an IEEE Micro 2024 Top Pick!

Dr. Stefan Köpfli, postdoc at the Institute for Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), headed by of Prof. Jürg Leuthold, was awarded the Hans Eggenberger Prize 2023 for his dissertation "Graphene for Highest Speed Photodetectors". Congratulations!

The ETH Board has appointed Laura Bégon-​Lours, currently Senior Researcher at the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS), as Assistant Professor of Neuromorphic Electronics with Oxides. She will start her new position at IIS on 1 April 2024. Congratulations!

In an experiment carried out at D-ITET's Photonics Laboratory, researchers at the University of Manchester, together with scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Innsbruck, have established a new approach to overcome a common problem in quantum physics. The results were published in the journal Nature Physics.

Semiconductor technologies and IC design are vital for Switzerland's science and industry, but global trends like the US, China, India or the EU intensifying domestic production could harm Switzerland's position. Additionally, exclusion from EU programmes limits access to crucial research infrastructure. To counter this, the SwissChips initiative, led by ETH Zurich with its designated head Prof. Christoph Studer, aims to strengthen Swiss research collaborations in IC design and microelectronics.

As of 1 February 2024, Prof. Christian Franck will take over the position of Director of Studies from his predecessor Prof. Sebastian Kozerke. The new incumbent is looking forward to the role and explains: "As a lecturer, I ensure that I plan and deliver individual lectures successfully. In my role as Director of Studies, it is now my job to ensure an optimal learning environment and experience for students on both Bachelor's and Master's levels."

Prof. Luca Benini holds the chair of digital circuits and systems at the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS). In the interview he talks about the trends towards open-source hardware architecture, new technologies, such as 3D integration, and fruitful collaborations within ETH.

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 in Davos, AI pioneer Yann LeCun, VP & Chief AI Scientist at Meta, was awarded the Global Swiss AI Award 2023. Jury member Prof. Benjamin Grewe, representing the ETH AI Center as Head of the Neural Learning and Intelligent Systems Group at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich, gave the laudatory speech and provided background information and rationale for the AI jury's decision.