D-MAVT News

Reflecting on his 27 years at D-MAVT, Sotiris Pratsinis recalls his students' successes in nanoparticle research and looks back on his time as department head. As he nears retirement, his essentials for a productive day will remain strong Swiss coffee and a laptop.

Stefan Leutenegger and Kent Warren have been appointed professors in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, effective 1 April 2025.

Die Weltwoche, Prof. Aldo Steinfeld, Spin-offs Climeworks und Synhelion

On the occasion of the "International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2025", we were able to conduct an interview with D-MAVT alumna Noah Zegna Rothenberger. Noah is a robotics engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. In this interview, she talks about her career in robotics and why she is excited about using robots in extreme environments - whether it is in blood vessels or on Mars.

The recently published ETH Zurich Spin-off Report 2024 shows the innovative strength of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. Of the 37 ETH spin-offs last year, 9 came from the D-MAVT. A total of 119 companies have emerged from the department - this corresponds to 20 percent of all ETH spin-offs.

Seven doctoral students from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering have been awarded the ETH Zurich Silver Medal for their outstanding doctoral theses. The awards were presented by Rector Günther Dissertori during the graduation ceremony on Friday, January 24, 2025, in the Paul Scherrer Lecture Hall at ETH Zurich.

Kristina Shea, Professor of Engineering Design and Computing in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, has been elected to the Board of Innosuisse, the Swiss innovation agency.  The Federal Council elected Shea as a new board member for the term 2025 to 2028.

Charles Dorn, postdoctoral researcher at the Mechanics and Materials Laboratory under Professor Dennis Kochmann in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, has been appointed as Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.

TechCrunch, Spin-off Anybotics

Elizabeth Tilley, Professor of Global Health Engineering at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, and her team have been awarded the National ORD Prize 2024 by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences for their research project «openwashdata».

Around 80 female students from all over Switzerland had the opportunity to gain insights into electrical engineering and mechanical engineering for a day on 28 November 2024. Organized by the student association LIMES, the program of this year's "Schülerinnentag" included numerous lectures and lab visits.

The ANGIE research project was honored with the «Prototypes for Humanity Award» in the «Health» category. At the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab of the D-MAVT, Fabian Landers and his team are developing magnetically controlled microcapsules that precisely release drugs in the human body.

Maria Lukatskaya, Professor of Electrochemical Energy Systems, and André Bardow, Professor for Energy and Process Systems Engineering, have both been recognized as Highly Cited Researchers in 2024 by global information service provider Clarivate.

Yu Zhang, postdoctoral researcher at the Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory in Professor Kristina Shea's group at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, has been appointed as assistant professor at the University of Cambridge.

Raoul Hopf, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Mechanical Systems at ETH Zurich, has been awarded the Golden Owl 2024 for his outstanding teaching in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. 

At this year's ETH Day on 16 November 2024, ETH President Joël Mesot appointed alumnus Walter Fust to the Honorary Board of ETH Zurich. Fust studied mechanical engineering at ETH and founded the electrical retail company Dipl. Ing. Fust AG.

Tom Terlouw has been awarded the ABB Research Prize 2024 for his doctoral thesis ”Techno-economic and environmental assessment of low-carbon energy systems”.

Taking a position at ETH Zurich was the most important decision in his professional life. Marco Mazzotti is still convinced of this today. Now, at the end of January 2025, he will retire, and he already knows that he will greatly miss the exchange with young researchers and the work on challenging scientific questions.

Francesco Vicentini and Marco Cattaneo, doctoral students at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, have received the COMITES award for scientific excellence within Italian community in Zurich. COMITES are representative bodies of the Italian community, elected by Italians residing abroad in each consular district.

BBC News, Dr. Iwan Hächler

Wired, Prof. Bradley Nelson, Spin-off Nanoflex Robotics

Inge Herrmann, Professor of Nanoparticle Systems, has been awarded the Dandelion Award for her outstanding efforts to promote entrepreneurship at ETH Zurich and beyond. She readily connects people, encourages students to launch start-ups and is a scientific advisor to several spin-offs from her lab.

720 new bachelor students at D-MAVT – 24 percent growth compared to last year

Lucrezia Maini has been awarded the Swiss Physical Society Award 2024 in the Computational Physics category for her doctoral research on acoustic metamaterials to measure temperature with ultrasound for implantable applications.

Reuters, Soft Robotics Lab, Thomas Buchner; Max Planck Institut

Paolo Ermanni receives the Adaptive Structures and Material Systems Prize 2024. This prize, awarded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of adaptive structures and material systems

Laura De Lorenzis, Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, has been awarded the IACM Fellows Award by the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM). The award recognizes her outstanding contributions to the field of computational mechanics.

Tagesanzeiger, Prof. Dr. Marco Hutter, Spin-off Swiss Mile

Der Spiegel, Prof. Marco Hutter

CNN, Prof. Dr. Robert Katzschmann

wonderfulengineering.com, Prof. Dr. Melanie Zeilinger

New synfuels can be used directly in today's vehicles

Technology Networks, Prof. Dr. Maria Lukatskaya, Nathan Hong

Aldo Steinfeld, Head of the Renewable Energy Carriers Group at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, has been awarded the Yogi and Lovely Goswami Achievement Award in Energy and Sustainability.

Mark Fuge has been appointed Full Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Design in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. Starting 1 July 2024, he will strengthen the Department’s use of AI in technical design and product development processes.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Spin-off Synhelion, Prof. Aldo Steinfeld

Knowridge Science Report, Prof. André Bardow, Dr. Dennis Roskosch

Moritz Flaschel, former doctoral student of the Computational Mechanics Group led by Professor Laura De Lorenzis, receives numerous awards for his dissertation.

Focus Online, Professor Aldo Steinfeld

"INSPIRE Potentials -- Quantum Center Master Award" -- We invite female students looking to conduct a Master‘s project in a research group of the Quantum Center to apply. Deadline: 1 July 2024. 

Learn tele-robotics from an expert. Create an account and start today.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Spin-off Climeworks AG

ETH Zurich runs like a red thread through Paolo Ermanni's life. He first studied mechanical engineering here before returning as a professor in 1998. In this interview, he looks back on 26 eventful years in teaching and research.

Roland Siegwart is honored by the academic platform research.com in the field of mechanical and aerospace engineering as well as in the field of electronics and electrical engineering.

Nau, Research project Space Hopper

The Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering has awarded 12 Master's students with the ETH Medal and five with the Willi Studer Prize. The awards for their outstanding achievements were presented during the Master's Ceremony 2024.

Patrick Benito Eberhard, Teresa Sánchez-Robles Herrero and Max Schaldach received the «Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award» of the D-MAVT for the fall semester 2023.

Konstantinos Karapiperis and Vignesh Kannan, both postdoctoral researchers in Professor Dennis Kochmann's lab at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, have been appointed professors.

The Economist, Prof. Dimos Poulikakos

Annalisa Manera and Marco Hutter, professors at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich have been elected full members of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.

A new magnetically controlled microrobot helps navigate catheters faster and more accurately in brain surgery. Its unique surface structure improves catheter guidance in tortuous blood vessels. This tech aids emergency stroke or aneurysm surgeries, enhancing patient recovery chances.

For 24 years, Ulrike Schlachter steered the fortunes of D-MAVT as Department Coordinator. Since September 2023, Karin Werer and Maddalena Velonà have been gradually taking over from her. In this interview, they talk about their lessons from the past and plans for the future.

Students give teaching in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering a very good rating. The department is pleased about the excellent teaching performance in the spring semester 2023.

Finanz und Wirtschaft, Spin-off Climeworks AG

Eight doctoral students at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering received the ETH Silver Medal for their outstanding doctoral theses.

Jan Carmeliet and Dominique Derome recently wrote a comment paper on invitation by Nature Reviews Physics. In the paper, they explain how computational fluid dynamics can help with designing more sustainable cities.

Each year, around 80 young women* from high schools from all over Switzerland take part in the Schülerinnen*tag, organized by the student organisation LIMES. During this all-​day event, the participants do a campus tour, visit a couple of labs, and receive first-​hand information about the study programmes in electrical and mechanical engineering.

Maria Lukatskaya, Professor of Electrochemical Energy Systems at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, has been recognized again as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2023 by global information service provider Clarivate.

Signode Switzerland GmbH, Dietikon 1, Switzerland

George Haller, Professor at the Institute for Mechanical Systems at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich, received the Stanley Corrsin Award 2023 by the American Physical Society (APS).

Konrad Wegener, Professor Emeritus for Machine Tools and Manufacturing at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, receives the Golden Owl for his excellent teaching. The Owl is awarded by the student association of ETH Zurich (VSETH) and honors particularly committed teachers.

Karen Bodie was awarded the ABB Research Prize 2023 on the ETH Day. She received the award for her doctoral thesis „Omnidirectional Tilt-Rotor Flying Robots for Aerial Physical Interaction: Modelling, Control, Design and Experiments“.

Giacomo Matteo Mastroddi and Marco Muttoni, Bachelor’s graduates from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, receive an excellence scholarship from the Fondazione Nizzola. With this scholarship, the foundation supports students from Ticino who are studying for a Master's degree at ETH Zurich or the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (SUPSI).

More female students in the Student Project House - that's what Rafael von Sury and Serena Stefanoni want to achieve. In the interview they talk about why this is important to them and introduce women in video portraits who already make use of the SPH.

Konstantinos Magkoutas, former postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT), has been awarded the 2023 ASAIO Top Biomedical Engineering Abstract Award.

SRF «Schweiz Aktuell», Prof. Roland Siegwart, Prof. Robert Katzschmann

SRF 1 - 10 vor 10, aCentauri Solar Racing

Eight Master’s students of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering receive scholarships from the Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme of ETH Zurich.

Professor Daniel Ahmed, head of the Acoustic Robotics for Life Sciences and Healthcare Group at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, has been awarded the Dandelion Award for his outstanding efforts to promote entrepreneurship at ETH Zurich and beyond. 

National Geographic, Prof. Aldo Steinfeld, Climeworks AG

Andrea Veciana and Maximilian Eberlein receive the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. Maximilian Eberlein is being recognized for his outstanding performance in the course Introduction to Quantum Mechanics for Engineers during the spring semester 2023. Andrea Veciana is honored for the Nanorobotics course.

The students Jonas Bauer, Gino Kreis, Alexandros Ntakoulas, Gabriele Piovan and Justin Weiss receive the Outstanding D-MAVT Bachelor Award for the best examination block B in the examination session Summer 2023. Congratulations!

The Outstanding D-MAVT Bachelor Award for the best Bachelor's degrees issued between 1 October 2022 and 2 October 2023 goes to Patrick Eberhard Benito, Laurent Hoffmann, André Muff, Roland Stärk and Emma Steinke. Congratulations!

Jennifer A. Lewis has been awarded the Aurel Stodola Medal 2023 by the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. At the award ceremony, the Harvard professor presented her groundbreaking research on the 3D printing of soft and living matter.

George Haller, Professor at the Institute for Mechanical Systems at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich, received the Stanley Corrsin Award 2023 by the American Physical Society (APS).

Every year, students invest many hours in developing and constructing the focus project Formula Student Electric at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT). Now their efforts have paid off. The racing car “mythen” they initially helped develop has broken the world acceleration record.

Emilio Frazzoli, Professor of Dynamic Systems and Control, is the new chairperson of the Center for Sustainable Future Mobility (CSFM). He takes over the role from Professor Kay Axhausen, who will retire early next year.  

At the ETH information days, the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering introduced prospective students to the broad field of mechanical engineering. 

Wirtschaftszeit.at, Focus project aCentauri

Weather Network, Prof. Thomas Schutzius

Bilanz, Spin-off Voliro AG

t3n, Focus project Magnecko

The positive impact of transdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration on medical solutions is demonstrated by a project involving Julian Wolf, a doctoral student at ETH Zurich, working together with Florentin Liebman and Marco von Atzigen from the University of Zurich/Balgrist.

Schweizer Maschinenmarkt, Prof. Konrad Wegener

Salvador Pané i Vidal, Professor of Materials for Robotics at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and Co-Director of the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, appointed corresponding member of the Institute of Catalan Studies in the Section of Sciences and Technology.

Roland Siegwart, head of the Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL), and Samir Bouabdallah received the Most Influential Paper Award at ICRA 2023. Andrei Cramariuc, also from ASL, won the Hilti Multi-Session SLAM Challenge.

Blick, Prof. Elizabeth Tilley

Melanie Zeilinger, Professor at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich, received the European Control Award 2023.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Prof. Annalisa Manera

Hossein Gorji, former doctoral student with Professor Patrick Jenny at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, has been appointed Adjunct Research Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California (USC).

At the MaP Graduate Symposium 2023, four doctoral students from the D-MAVT received awards for their research. Awards went to Oscar Cipolato, Anna De Vries, Yannik Glauser, and Sonja Schreiner.

Markus Bambach, Professor of Advanced Manufacturing at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT), will assume the position of Vice Rector for Study Programs at ETH Zurich as of 1 July 2023.

Spiegel Online, Focus project MetaSuit

Iwan Hächler has been awarded the "Swiss Nanotechnology PhD Prize 2023" by the Swiss Micro- and Nanotechnology Network. He is a former doctoral student at Professor Dimos Poulikakos’ Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies.

Gioele Zardini, doctoral student with Professor Emilio Frazzoli at the Institute of Dynamic Systems and Control at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, has been appointed Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Thirteen teams, nine months, countless hours of work. With an exhibition and presentations on 30 May 2023, the third-year Bachelor’s students of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering presented their Focus Projects.

Tiemo Pedergnana has been awarded the "2022 Edward N. Lorenz Early Career Award" from the AIP Journal Chaos. He is a doctoral student at Professor Nicolas Noiray’s laboratory of Combustion and Acoustics for Power and Propulsion Systems.

20 Minuten, Focus project SURF-eDNA

Spin-offs, focus projects, industrial partnerships: Konrad Wegener has made a lot of things happen in his 20 years at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. His approach has been to tackle problems courageously and to solve them. Konrad Wegener will retire at the end of July 2023.