Virtual exchange for doctoral students
In times of working remotely and social distancing, personal exchange and networking opportunities often fall by the wayside. The Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT) has thus launched the doctoral student event "DocS@MAVT" in a virtual format. With success! More than 270 people participated in the event.
The event’s focal point were the flash presentations that followed: One doctoral student per professorship presented their respective research. With only one slide and one minute per person, the presentations moved rapidly from CO2 capture technology to acoustic microrobots, to virtual reality and artificial spinal discs. After 45 minutes, celebrated with a "We did it!", participants voted for their favorite. The "People's Choice Award" went to Mortiz Flaschel, who conducts research at Professor Laura De Lorenzis' Computational Mechanics Lab, for his presentation on "Switzerland's Next Top Material Model."
After a short Q&A session between the doctoral students, they were able to interact at their leisure in four breakout sessions with the doctoral administration, representatives of AV-MAVT, ETH transfer and SGU as well as the HR department.
Zoom events can be fun – even after months of living in a pandemic, as proven by the "Docs@MAVT" event, which was held virtually for the first time on 20 January 2021. Professor Dennis Kochmann, Delegate for Doctoral Affairs and Deputy Head of Department at D-MAVT, welcomed the 270 participants – including new doctoral students, "oldies" and other ETH members and research enthusiasts – and introduced the department.
Research in a Flash
The event’s focal point were the flash presentations that followed: One doctoral student per professorship presented their respective research. With only one slide and one minute per person, the presentations moved rapidly from CO2 capture technology to acoustic microrobots, to virtual reality and artificial spinal discs. After 45 minutes, celebrated with a "We did it!", participants voted for their favorite. The "People's Choice Award" went to Mortiz Flaschel, who conducts research at Professor Laura De Lorenzis' Computational Mechanics Lab, for his presentation on "Switzerland's Next Top Material Model."
After a short Q&A session between the doctoral students, they were able to interact at their leisure in four breakout sessions with the doctoral administration, representatives of AV-MAVT, the HR department and representatives of ETH transfer and SGU.
Positive response
The feedback received after the event was uniformly positive. Dennis Kochmann also expressed his satisfaction: "In such unusual times, when we spend a lot of time alone working from home, it was a great opportunity to get to know the whole range of exciting research topics of our doctoral students and to get a chance to talk to each other." In addition to exchanging research ideas, he said, it is important to be there for each other and to talk.
Giancarlo Luongo, president of AV-MAVT, agrees: “The large number of participants proves that there is great interest in the ongoing research in the department. The event further helped fostering the D-MAVT community, especially during these difficult times. Therefore, we would be very supportive of repeating this event in the future”.