Auf dem Laufenden bleiben

Wenn Sie sich mit automatischer Steuerung befassen, haben Sie sicherlich schon von der modellprädiktiven Regelung (MPC) gehört, aber was ist das eigentlich? Lassen Sie uns herausfinden, wie einige unserer Forscher diese Technologie in Zügen anwenden.

Sophie Hall, a doctoral student at D-ITET’s Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA) and NCCR Automation, has been researching carbon-aware computing within Google’s global data centre network. Alongside Ana Radovanovic, Technical Lead for Energy Analytics and Carbon-Aware Computing as well as project leader, she shares insights into this unique and mutually beneficial academic-industry collaboration.

Fabian received the IEEE CSS TC Outstanding Student Paper Award and Engineering in Hydrocephalus Research Award.

Congratulations to NCCR Automation alumnus Xavier Guidetti, who was awarded the Hilti Prize for Innovative Research for his thesis, "Intelligent Additive Manufacturing: a Holistic Approach to the Optimization of Data-Poor Complex Processes"

We are happy to announce that a pilot project we have with Mint&Pepper is up and running and in the test phase.

From self-driving cars to drone swarms and air traffic control, machines that act without human oversight are becoming part of everyday life. But ensuring they operate safely in unpredictable environments is one of the biggest challenges in modern engineering. You can read an interview with our new professor Lars Lindemann where he explains how he tackles this problem.

Anna Maddux untersucht Algorithmen, die das spieltheoretische Problem der Steuerung von Akteuren trotz unvollständiger Informationen lösen könnten. Zum Beispiel, wie man einen faireren Zugang zu Fahrdienstvermittlung fördern kann.

Congratulations to Elise Cahard who has been presented with the ALEA Award for exemplary leadership.

Neuronale Netze durchdringen unser tägliches Leben. Wir müssen daher sicherstellen, dass sie zuverlässig sind. Muhammad Zakwan nutzt dazu Werkzeuge aus der Regelungstechnik.

Relive a great week or see what you missed!

We are proud to announce three entirely new research projects for NCCR Automation, all centred around the topic of robotics.

Do you need a break from research? Would you like to learn something new, gain a different perspective? Then you might want to consider doing an industry internships for a few months. Three of our NCCR Automation researchers have done this, and they all strongly recommend it.

Congratulations to Panagiotis D. Grontas who won for the paper “BIG Hype: Best Intervention in Games via Distributed Hypergradient Descent”.

Congratulations to Jonas Matt who won the community award and Jared Miller who won the jury award.

Zappy, robotics workshops for girls and boys, targets 11 to 13 years old in order to introduce them to the robotics world. The courses are free and open to all. The organization of separate workshops for girls and boys with the same content also aims to encourage girls' access to these activities.

Mengmeng Li was awarded the second place in the 2025 Dupačová-Prékopa Best Student Paper Prize for her paper "Towards Optimal Offline Reinforcement Learning" (co-authored with Daniel Kuhn and Tobias Sutter).

This time host Alberto Padoan takes us on a deep dive into some of the main pillars of modern control theory. From Kalman's paradigm-shifting state-space approach to the space race, complex networks, and more...

Die diesjährige John-von-Neumann-Vorlesung befasste sich mit dem Thema „Privatsphäre für Paranoide“, aber Paranoia ist nicht wirklich der springende Punkt. Es geht vielmehr darum, ein uraltes Spiel zu gewinnen.

Congratulations to Jan Brändle, who won the medal for his thesis which focused on quantification of the flexibility potential of real-world distribution grids.

Für seine bahnbrechenden Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der Energie und Regelungstechnik wird Florian Dörfler mit dem diesjährigen Rössler-Preis ausgezeichnet. Der mit 200’000 Franken höchstdotierte Forschungspreis der ETH Zürich wurde ihm im Rahmen des Thanks-Giving-Anlasses der ETH Foundation überreicht.

Maitraya Desai is a doctoral student in the Power Systems Laboratory, researching at the intersection of power systems, power electronics and control. In this interview, he explains a novel control approach for grid-forming converters that could enhance the stability of future power grids, especially with high penetration of renewable energy sources.

Congratulations to the NCCR Automation team.

This body will advise the Executive Board on fundamental issues such as the direction of ETH's strategy, the role of universities in sustainable development and international developments related to sustainability.

The KlimUp prize supports start-ups in with a focus on climate protection.

Wenn es um die Optimierung von Energieeffizienz auf der Schiene geht, ist Geschwindigkeit das A und O – aber nicht unbedingt schneller fahren! Eher die Berechnung sollte schneller gehen.

Join us for the 2025 John von Neumann lecture as Artur Ekert (University of Oxford, Centre for Quantum Technologies) guides us through "Privacy for the paranoid ones - the ultimate limits of secrecy"

Our latest fact sheet, co-authored with SATW, shows application cases for AI.

What do Alpiq, GWF, Hamilton Medical, VAT, and Zurich Insurance have in common? A deep interest in control and optimisation! We were happy to host them at the third iteration of our Workshop on Control and Computational Methods together with researchers from ETH, EPFL, Empa, ZHAW, FHNW, OST, and Inspire AG.

NCCR Automation offers travel grants for eligible researchers to attend and present their research at CLOCK 2025.

We invite applications from master’s students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty members from Universities in geographical regions that are under-represented in the Control and Automation community. This is a fantastic chance to engage with experts in the field, present your work in the poster session, and gain insights into the latest research developments.

This time host Alberto Padoan is talking to Miroslav Krstić (UC San Diego) about nonlinear adaptive control, PDEs, delays, extremum seeking, safety and neural operators for control.

How do you boil down years of work to a three minute talk? Watch Pengbo Zhu summarise her thesis in 180 seconds and see how she is hoping to make your taxi rides better.

Apply now for the opportunity to spend up to six months in an NCCR Automation lab.

This month we are welcoming five new fellowship holders.

Congratulations to Sophie, who presented the paper "Stability Certificates for Receding Horizon Games"