Internal retreat 2026: A look back

14 Septembre 2026
At the beginning of September we uprooted the whole consortium for 3 days in Gruyères. Thank you to everyone who made it such a fun and successful event.
Photo of the whole consortium at the internal retreat
Photos: Amélie Clements except where stated

The theme of this year's internal retreat was around how to make yourself visible in conferences and to network effectively. 

We began the year's event with a talk by guest Nadine Stutz, on "the strength of weak ties", followed by a panel discussion on effective networking, moderated by Zara Malgir and Ilia Shilov and roundtable discussions on  experiences at conferences.

Nadine Stutz speaks to the audience
Nadine Stutz speak to the audience. Photo: Management team.
The panel discussion
The panel discusses their experiences with networking. Photo: Management team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we were back with the social programme, with the presentation of the winners of the stamp challenge (congratulations to the top three: Cara Koepele, Jan Brändle and Zara Malgir), and the winner of the IEE CSS Swiss Chapter young author award (more on that later...), before moving into the traditional pub quiz evening. 

Group of people collecting their stamp challenge t shirts
Thank you to all those who helped out NCCR Automation this year and were rewarded with inControl t-shirts. Photo: Management team. 
The top three teams
The top three teams were awarded prizes which had been kindly sponsored by hotel Cailler. Photo: Management team.
Pub quiz team celebrating their win
Congratulations to team "Squeeking 7700 (Please send help)" on winning the quiz! Photo: Management team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day two began with a poster session whereby members were invited to present an idea to be persued as part of our theory pathfinder project.

Poster session
Poster session
 
Poster session
Poster session
 
Poster session
Poster session
 

 

Following on from the poster presentations, PIs were invited to give short pitches for an idea for NCCR Automation branded special sessions, with breakout sessions afterwards for researchers to join in with each PI's idea.

Presentations
Asking questions during the presentation
Group discussions
Presentations
Presentations
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions
Group discussions

After a pause for a lunch break in the autumn sun, it was time for a team building exercise, where we were guided through making a Rube Goldberg machine together.

People sitting on a terrace eating lunch
People sitting on a terrace eating lunch
People sitting on a terrace eating lunch
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
Team building event
A man looks over a plastic pipe during a team building event
Team building event

On Friday morning we were back with Katrin Baumgärtner and Armin Nurkanović (Universität Freiburg) showing us how to turn code into software, followed by Niklas Schmid presenting some of his outreach and teaching projects, including the ball-on-plate, and finished up with Saverio Bolognani talking about the use of AI in teaching.

presentations at the retreat
Katrin Baumgärtner and Armin Nurkanović. Photo: management team.
Niklas Schmid
Niklas Schmid. Photo: Management team.