Singapore students visit the NCCR Automation

10-06-2022
A group of 20 Bachelor students from the Chen-Ning Yang Scholars Programme based at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore travelled to Zurich to familiarize themselves with the research of NCCR Automation and to closely experience its experimental facilities at ETH Zurich.
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NTU students and NCCR Automation researchers gathered at ETH Zurich. Image: Mohammadhossein Mamduhi

The Chen-Ning Yang Scholars Programme, named after the Chinese-American Physics Nobel Prize winner of 1957, aims at developing young scholars who have a great passion for science and engineering. In doing so, the Nanyang Technological University hopes to inspire their next generation of technical scientists.

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Mohammadhossein Mamduhi, scientific coordinator at the NCCR Automation, introduces the NTU students to the research the NCCR does. Image: Frederik Banis

In the beginning, Mohammadhossein Mamduhi, who is the NCCR Automation’s scientific coordinator, gave the guests from Singapore an overview of the activities of the NCCR, such as research, education, equal opportunities, communication and knowledge transfer. Later, NCCR Automation researcher, Gioele Zardini introduced the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) of ETH Zurich.

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NTU students test their skills in flying quadcopter drones at the Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA) of ETH Zurich. Image: Mohammadhossein Mamduhi

The group then visited two of the Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA) experimental facilities - the Drone Lab and the Snookerbot Lab - where they could experience both the manual and autonomous control of a drone, and also watched an autonomous robot playing snooker. “It was a great experience visiting the drone and snookerbot labs where we learned about the value of feedback control. The hands-on experience of trying to control the flying drone was unique and showed how closed-loop control can make life easier”, one of the NTU students said.

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The "Snooker Bot" demonstrates its skill at Snooker to the interested NTU students. Image: Mohammadhossein Mamduhi

The meeting concluded with a friendly and live coffee break with the NCCR Automation, IfA, and IDCS researchers. The visitors expressed their great interest in the research areas of the NCCR Automation and the mentioned labs. Inspired by what they had witnessed, the NTU students took council in possible directions in their education, the selection of their final project topics, and the possibilities of conducting them here in Switzerland. 

Certainly on this day, the Chen-Ning Yang Scholars Programme took a great step towards its goal of inspiring their future technical scientists.