NO. 4/2019

Building bridges for scientific staffPAGE 32

Helping people with para-plegia to walk againPAGE 36

Martina Hirayama sets the education system on trackPAGE 46

NEW MATERIALS

How materials are becoming one with their functions

PAGE 12

EDITORIAL

Cover illustration: Vasjen Katro / Editorial image: Markus Bertschi

Globe, the magazine for ETH Zurich and ETH Alumni

Marvellous materials

GLOBENO. 4/2019

Cutting-edge materials research is paving the way for developments we could pre-viously only dream of – from biodegradable bridges and concrete that heals its own cracks to stretchable, flexible batteries and implants that dissolve in the body once they are no longer needed. Scientists are also equipping materials with properties they do not naturally possess, as in the case of Nicola Spaldin’s multiferroics. At the same time, innovative approaches to materials research are helping us design and use materials in more efficient and eco-friendly ways.

These advances are fuelled not only by collaboration between very diverse discip-lines, but also by new methods of addi- tive manufacturing such as 3D printing. Per sonally, I believe we are standing on the

Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich

threshold of an exceptionally fertile period of development. With its interdisciplinary Competence Center for Materials and Processes, ETH Zurich is well equipped to play a key role in bringing this to fruition.

I have always found it fascinating how new ideas can emerge through the meeting of great minds from entirely different back-grounds. For example, when a researcher who develops self-healing materials for medical applications teams up with a civil engineer to discuss the building materials of the future. Or when a researcher special-ising in soft materials and a scientist researching magnetic nanostructures join forces to develop a material with shape memory. You can find out more about these exciting developments in this new issue of Globe.

I hope you enjoy reading it!

CONTENTSGLOBENO. 4/2019 NEW AND NOTED

5

ETH GLOBE 4/2019Images: Peter Rüegg, Urs Matter, Daniel Winkler

COMMUNITY31 Connections to ETH

32 Fifty years of AVETHBuilding bridges for scientific staff

35 Column

REPORT36 Helping people with paraplegia to walk again

Two teams demonstrate their exoskeletons at an event in the run-up to Cybathlon 2020.

CONNECTED42 Encounters at ETH

44 Agenda

PROFILE46 The right chemistry for ERI

ETH alumna Martina Hirayama is the perfect choice to bring out the strengths of the Swiss education system.

5 QUESTIONS50 Daniel Farinotti

Melting glaciers mean plenty of work for this glaciologist.

NEW AND NOTED5 News from ETH Zurich

6 A mountain of data

8 Physically and mentally fitter

FOCUS12 New materials

Scientists are developing a new generation of dynamic materials that are perfectly attuned to their functions.

17 The power inside Metamaterials defy conventions, making rigid media flexible.

20 Seemingly impossible Materials scientist Nicola Spaldin discusses her fascination with multiferroics.

23 Materials, get into shape! ETH researchers are developing materials that change shape on command.

26 Biodegradable bridges New ideas lay the foundations for living structures that respond to their environments.

28 New materials in action An overview of the latest developments from ETH labs.

Ready to stand – page 36

Permafrost research on the Hörnligrat ridge – page 6

IMPRINT — Publisher: ETH Alumni / ETH Zurich, ISSN 2235-7289 Editorial team: Martina Märki (head), Fabio Bergamin, Corinne Johannssen, Nicol Klenk, Karin Köchle, Corina Oertli, Norbert Staub, Michael Walther, Felix Würsten Contributors: Claudia Hoffmann, Oliver Morsch, Samuel Schlaefli Advertising administration: ETH Alumni Communications, globe@alumni.ethz.ch, +41 44 632 51 24 Advertising management: Fachmedien, Zürichsee Werbe AG, Stäfa, info@fachmedien.ch, +41 44 928 56 53 Design: Crafft AG, Zurich Printing and proofreading: Neidhart + Schön AG, Zurich Translation: Burton, Van Iersel & Whitney GmbH, Munich; Clare Bourne, Anna Focà, ETH Zurich Auflage: 39,500 German, 31,500 English, published quarterly Subscriptions: CHF 20 annually (four issues); included in full membership of the ETH Alumni Association Orders and changes of address: globe@hk.ethz.ch and for alumni at www.alumni.ethz.ch/myalumni Contact information: www.ethz.ch/globe, globe@hk.ethz.ch, +41 44 632 42 52 Also available as a free tablet version.

Images: iStockphoto; Stefan Fattinger

Biology

CURBING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

According to laboratory experiments conducted by researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Basel, antibiotic resistance spreads not only where antibiotics are used in large quantities. Reducing antibiotic use alone is therefore not sufficient to curb resistance, and should be com-bined with measures to prevent the spread of resistant germs.

Medicine

AI IMPROVES IMAGINGScientists at ETH Zurich and the Uni-versity of Zurich have used machine learning methods to improve opto-acoustic imaging. This technique can be used for applications such as visual-ising blood vessels, studying brain ac-tivity, characterising skin lesions and diagnosing breast cancer.

However, the quality of the ren-dered images depends heavily on the number of sensors used by the device: the more sensors, the better the quality of the image. The team led by Daniel Razansky, Professor of Biomedical Imaging at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, searched for a way to enhance image quality of low-cost opto acoustic devices that possess only a small number of ultrasonic sensors.

To do this, they started off by using a self-developed high-end optoacous-tic scanner with 512 sensors, which

delivered superior-quality images. They had these pictures analysed by an artificial neural network, which was able to learn the features of the high-quality images.

Next, the researchers discarded the majority of the sensors, so that only 128 or 32 sensors remained, with a det-rimental effect on the image quality. Due to the lack of data, distortions known as streak type artefacts ap-peared in the images. It turned out, however, that the previously trained neural network was able to largely cor-rect for these distortions, thus bring-ing the image quality closer to the measurements that had been obtained with all 512 sensors.

International merchant ships and large freighters are responsible for the lion’s share of CO2 emissions from shipping.

Sustainability

EMISSION-FREE SHIPPING

Shipping accounts for around 3 per-cent of global CO2 emissions. Experts from the Sustainability in Business Lab (sus.lab) at ETH Zurich therefore decided to map out some of the pos-sible paths to achieving emission-free shipping. Petrissa Eckle and her team see zero-emission propulsion sys -tems in the form of electric motors, fuel cells and combustion engines powered by ammonia as holding the greatest potential in the near future.

Antibiotic-resistant salmonella is a particular problem.

NEW AND NOTED NEW AND NOTED6 7

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019 Image: Peter Rüegg

For the past ten years, a wireless

sensor network on the Hörnligrat

ridge of the Matterhorn has

provided data that is unprecedented

in terms of quantity and quality.

Ten years of permafrost research

A MOUNTAIN OF DATA In the hot summer of 2003, a massive rockfall from the Hörnligrat ridge of the Matterhorn dislodged 1,500 cubic metres of rock. This spectacular event sparked an unusual research project by the name of PermaSense. Today, geos cientists and engineers from ETH Zurich and other institutions are studying the impact of climate change on permafrost in the steep rocky terrain of high mountain regions. Here, the ground is permanently frozen; when the ice melts, the danger of rockfalls and land-slides increases.

Using a combination of thermal, kine-matic and seismic data – provided by a net-work of wireless sensors installed on the Hörnli grat – researchers can now precisely detect changes in the rock mass. To date, this network has supplied over 115 million data points, which are fed into the internet in real time. Over the past ten years, this has gener-ated an extensive dataset that is now one of the largest in the history of permafrost research. In future, this knowledge could be used to develop early-warning systems.

The image from 2012 shows ETH re-search group leader Jan Beutel and project partner Samuel Weber conducting mainten-ance work in the detachment zone on the Hörnligrat, at a height of over 3,500 metres above sea level.

→ www.permasense.ch

8 9

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

NEW AND NOTEDNEW AND NOTED

Image: VBS / ZEM

Improving people’s ability to deal with stressful situations is increasingly important in today’s army.

H ubert Annen confesses with a smile that the subject he teaches has sometimes been dismissed

as a soft approach to a tough subject. But the lecturer in Psychology and Military Pedagogy at the Military Academy at ETH Zurich (MILAC) doesn’t let that bother him. “Those are the kinds of stereotypes you simply have to live with in our job,” he says. “What matters is the ability to counter those prejudices with hard facts.” And Annen certainly has strong arguments ready to refute the accusation that what he does somehow softens people up. The “Progress” project reconfig-ured boot camp to make it easier for young men and women to enter every-day military life, increasing the amount of pressure they are exposed to on a gradual basis. As Annen expected, this has had beneficial results. “Both the number of injuries and dropout rates went down. The recruits were more motivated yet were performing just as well as all the other recruits after 11 weeks of boot camp,” he says, sum-ming up the key points.

It takes more than just drillsAnnen firmly believes that a modern army should take psychological as-pects into account, while acknowledg-ing that tough physical training con-tinues to be as important as ever. The US Army has played a pioneering role in this area. Faced with the realisation that many soldiers were struggling with major mental health issues after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the

Pentagon decided to take action. The solution they sought is known in psych-ology as resilience, in other words the ability to cope effectively with emo-tionally challenging situations and set-backs. The basic idea is that, before going into battle, soldiers should be made not just physically fitter, but also mentally more stable.

When the US Army launched its “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Pro-gram” in 2009, the new concept it her-alded also attracted Annen’s interest. On a research visit to the US Military Academy at West Point, he completed the Master Resilience Trainer (MRT) course, which gave him first-hand

knowledge of the kind of resilience training experienced by American sol-diers. “Obviously you can’t avoid the fact that some soldiers will return from military deployment suffering from severe psychological trauma,” Annen cautions. “But if most of them end up coping better with the situation at the front, the benefits are huge.”

Modern Switzerland is fortunate never to have been at war. Neverthe-less, Annen believes that resilience should be a priority for the Swiss Army, too: “For example, it’s important for young officers to learn to cope better with stressful situations.” There are three key elements of mental fitness

Military psychology

Physically and mentally fitterSoldiers must be fit enough to successfully accomplish their mission. As well as physical fitness, that also includes mental resilience in challenging situations.

that help people become better lead-ers: maintaining a degree of compos-ure in a crisis, the ability to stay focused and filter out what’s important in high-pressure situations, and a funda-mentally positive and confident atti-tude. “It’s not a matter of people being like some kind of rock and simply let-ting all the stress bounce off them,” says Annen. “It’s more about the abil-ity to respond flexibly to challenges and setbacks.”

Practical exercisesThe training programme developed by Annen and his colleagues is currently being put through its paces at an officer training centre. A total of 10 to 12 in-structors provide regular, hands-on training to approximately 40 officer cadets. The course materials include some elements that are also used in sport psychology, for example. The as-piring officers learn how to better con-trol their thoughts and emotions in challenging situations. To do that, they need to understand their weaknesses and identify situations in which they tend to overreact.

In collaboration with the chair held by Ulrike Ehlert, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Zurich, the MILAC researchers are conducting longitudinal studies to de-termine whether the programme offers real benefits. “We’re hoping these studies will help us make a name for ourselves in international resilience re-search,” says Annen. One of the keys to success is choosing a suitable evalua-tion process. That’s why many of the methods used by the MILAC team allow them to draw conclusions on a dem onstrably objective basis – for ex-ample stress tests under lab conditions in which they also study biological re-sponses. An increase in a subject’s pulse rate during the test is a normal stress response. But what’s interesting

is whether they still have enough in re-serve to accomplish the task under pressure – and how quickly they re-cover from that challenge.

Interest from the army and beyondAnnen’s confidence has been buoyed by the results so far: “Our studies show that our training has genuine benefits and that officers subsequently stay calmer when dealing with stress.” These findings have also attracted at-tention outside the army. Annen re-ceives many enquiries from emergency services and even from psychiatric hos-pitals. His findings have also been in-corporated in training courses run by the SWISSINT centre of excellence in Stans, which coordinates all Switzer-land’s foreign peacekeeping missions. Annen is clear about the purpose of his work: the primary focus is not on the general well-being of those affected, but rather on the question of how lead-ers, in particular, can receive even more targeted mental training to en-able them to perform their assign-ments as credibly and confidently as possible. — Felix Würsten

Find out more about MILAC:→ www.vtg.admin.ch/de/organisation/

kdo-ausb/hka/milak.html

Quantum Engineering – and what it is As of this semester, it is possible to do a master’s degree in Quantum Engineering at ETH Zürich. What actually is Quantum Engineering? Who is studying this new subject? In this episode of the ETH Podcast we accompany a student, talk to a professor about the curricula and also ask people from the industry what their hopes are in the graduating class in Quantum Engineering from ETH Zürich.

Steering a car with thought alone Samuel Kunz has quadriplegia and needs a wheelchair to get about. Right now he’s preparing to take part in the Cybathlon, an international championship for people with physical disabilities. With the support of neuroscientist Rea Lehner and a team from ETH Zurich, Kunz is training his brain to navigate a car through a computer racecourse. The ETH podcast will follow a test run.

Find out more:→ www.ethz.ch/podcast

Images: Yves Salathé; Nicola Pitaro

New ETH podcasts

1011

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019 Images: Pascal A. Halder; Giulia Marthaler (2); courtesy of anonymous Image: Matthias Huss

Climate research

WORRYING PROSPECTS FOR THE ALETSCH GLACIER

The glaciers in Switzerland are suffer-ing the effects of the warming climate. The snout of the Aletsch glacier, the largest in the Alps, has retreated by al-most 1 kilometre since 2000. An ETH research team at the Laboratory of Hy-draulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) has carried out a detailed simu-lation to predict changes in the Aletsch glacier between now and 2100.

This popular tourist destination in the Wallis region could disappear al-together unless global warming is capped at 2 degrees Celsius, as laid down in the Paris climate agreement. But achieving this goal requires mas-sive efforts to reduce worldwide green-house emissions in the near future in

order to stabilise climate change from about 2040 onward. Even then, it is probable that the Aletsch glacier would continue to melt up to the end of the 21st century, according to the re-searchers. Both the volume of ice and the length of the glacier can be expect-ed to decline by more than 50 percent by comparison with today. The reason why the glacier will continue to retreat even if we manage to stabilise our im-pact on the environment is that the in-ertia of the climate system is such that large glaciers take a long time to re-spond to climate change.

In the worst-case scenario, which is nevertheless perfectly real istic, aver-age temperatures in Switzerland would rise by between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, compared with the reference period 1960–1990. If this were to happen, there would be almost nothing left of what used to be the largest glacier in the Alps – just a few patchy areas of ice.

ETH spin-off

INSULATION MATERIALS FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE

Housebuilders are faced with a dilem-ma when choosing the right insula-tion. They can opt for a synthetic ma-terial such as expanded polystyrene or rockwool, which has the advantage of being cheap and efficient, but is not very ecological. Or they can choose a natural alternative such as wood fibre or flax straw, which is sustainable but more expensive and, in some cases, less efficient. Added to which, some of the insulation materials on the market today are highly flammable. ETH spin-off FenX has set about finding a solution to this dilemma. FenX has de-veloped a process that converts indus-trial waste into a porous foam, which can be used to insulate buildings. Un-like other sustainable insulating ma-terials, it is non-flammable and can be manufactured cheaply.

The fledgling company is now looking for a partner to handle the production side. Until now, the young entrepreneurs have financed their venture through an ETH Pioneer Fel-lowship and Swiss government and EU grants. Their goal is to raise start-up capital of around 1.5 million Swiss francs by April 2020 and launch their foam insulation board on the com-mercial market in 2021.

→ www.fenx.ch

View of the Great Aletsch Glacier from the Moosfluh cable car above Bettmeralp. Even in the best-case scenario, there will be no ice visible from here in the year 2100.

You can find more information on this topic and other research news from ETH Zurich at:→ www.ethz.ch/news-en

NEW AND NOTEDNEW AND NOTED

Sustainability

PROTECTING THE RAINFOREST

The forest fires in the Amazon basin are caused by humans, and humans can stop them – by cooperating and by investing in forest protection and sustainable farming, according to Rachael Garrett.

→ www.ethz.ch/zukunftsblog-garrett-en

Digitalisation

TIME FOR A NEW SOCIAL COMPACT

New technologies are not only funda-mentally changing the world of work but also the relations between work-ers, employers and trade unions, as Gudela Grote reports.

→ www.ethz.ch/zukunftsblog-grote-en

Health

THE THING ABOUT INTERFACES

There’s still a long way to go before brain-computer interfaces are cap-able of reading thoughts. And the technology has its limits in other re-spects too, as Roger Gassert explains.

→ www.ethz.ch/zukunftsblog-gassert-en

Zukunftsblog

Rachael Garrett, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences

Gudela Grote, Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology in the Depart- ment of Management, Technology and Economics

Roger Gassert, Professor of Rehabilitation Engineer-ing in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology

Read the full-length blog articles on these topics and more:→ www.ethz.ch/zukunftsblog

Physics

TINY BUT PRECISEAn ETH research team led by Rachel Grange has developed a miniature in-frared spectrometer that can be mounted on a chip with a surface area of around two square centimetres, making it much smaller than conven-tional devices of this type. Its compact size opens up promising perspectives not only for space exploration, but also for everyday items. Whereas con-ventional infrared spectrometers ana-lyse the incident light with the aid of movable mirrors, the newly de veloped instrument uses special light guides.

The wavelength spectrum of infrared light can be analysed precisely by this chip, which is just two centimetres long.

FOCUS FOCUS

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

12

Imagine a robot gripper arm that could retract without mechanical assistance. Or how about screws that could hold a broken bone together before simply dissolving harmlessly inside us? Or building materials that sound the alarm before they become brittle? Many new materials are not static – they are dynamic, and perfectly attuned to their function.TEXT Fabio Bergamin

method of repairing cracks in flexible elec-tronic components. “As a rule, the conduct-ors and semiconductors used in microelec-tronics have a low elastic limit. Combine them with something pliable, and they often end up being exposed to more stress than the metals can withstand. That’s what can cause cracking,” says Spolenak. He cites examples such as flexible smartphone screens and elec-tronic components woven into textiles to cre-ate wearable electronics.

Assuming they’re not too wide, cracks in these kinds of electronic components can be fixed by simply applying localised heat and melting the conductive metal at exactly the right spot to fill in the crack. To put that into practice, Spolenak and his colleagues devel-oped a precisely controlled heat source in the form of a film that can be placed beneath an electronic circuit, or on which a circuit can be printed. The film consists of multiple thin layers of nickel and aluminium arranged in a sandwich-like structure. Activate these

C ast your eye over the objects and building materials around you. Many of them have been

made from exactly the same material for gen-erations. From your coffee cup and your kid’s Lego toys to the bricks your house is made from, their design and construction has long followed a fixed and unchanging pattern.

This is a far cry from many of the modern materials currently undergoing research at ETH Zurich. Scientists are busy producing new materials with internal structures and properties that differ from one point to the next on the nanoscale. Some materials can change shape or colour at the touch of a but-ton, in response to external conditions, or when they begin to exhibit the first internal signs of deterioration. Other materials are made in such a way that internal cracks are simply patched up from the outside.

One of the researchers working on these new materials is Ralph Spolenak. Recently, the ETH professor developed a simple

NEWMATE-

R IALS

Flexible, dynamic, adaptable

13

Illustrations: Vasjen Katro

FOCUS FOCUS1415

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

duce our use of rare and expensive chemical elements by only using them at the points within the component where they are essential to its func-tion,” says Spolenak. The same applies to toxic alloying elements. “Applica-tions such as soldering, for example, are difficult to perform without at least some lead, which is obviously toxic.” In future, this new technology could help restrict the use of lead to the places where it is absolutely necessary. That would make components less toxic overall, effectively bridging the gap un-til materials science finally comes up with completely lead-free alternatives.

The option of nanoscale metal 3D printing has only become feasible thanks to huge advances in 3D printing technology over recent years. “Mod-ern additive manufacturing is close to perfection, both in terms of engin-eering and control algorithms,” says Spolenak. Yet he still sees plenty of room for improvement in materials science: “It was only a few years ago that researchers in this field were basic-ally in the business of just trying out everything they could. Now we’ve tightened our focus and are attempting to pinpoint the effect we can have on localised points in a material’s struc-ture by changing a process in specific ways.”

Take metal printing for example: we’ve discovered that we can change a metal’s strength and ductility by mod-ifying the temperature, which means we can make objects that have localised variations in these two properties. So one option would be to produce com-ponents that can withstand high inter-

two metals by applying a localised spark or dropping a small weight on them, and a chemical reaction occurs that releases heat, causing a conductive wire to melt at exactly this point.

Spolenak calls it “healing on de-mand” and suggests that, in the long term, scientists might even be able to create self-healing electronic compo-nents. “That would mean the moment a crack occurred, it would have to trig-ger the heat reaction itself,” says the ETH professor. He is confident this will soon be feasible, noting that a crack is an elastic deformation that al-ways generates a small degree of heat. On that basis, he and his colleagues are now attempting to develop a system in which this tiny amount of initial heat would be sufficient to trigger melting.

Warning colours that replace sensorsAnother example of a dynamic mater-ial from Spolenak’s lab is a very hard metal surface coating that reacts to high temperatures by changing colour. You might say that the material in-cludes its very own built-in tempera-ture sensor. The coating stemmed from Spolenak’s work on compounds of titanium, aluminium, and nitrogen. Chosen for their hardness, these are used to coat items such as cutting tools and drills that are subject to high mech-anical stresses. Researchers in his group have shown that it’s possible to produce coloured coatings by skilfully combining layers of various titanium-nitrogen alloys that are just a few nano-metres thick. The colour of these coat-ings – green, blue or purple – depends on the thickness in nanometres of the

outer layer and the internal arrange-ment of atoms.

The researchers have also demon-strated how sharp tempera ture in-creases to 500 degrees Celsius or high-er leads to irreversible rearrangement of the atoms and thus to a change in colour. For example, a purple coating would turn yellow. “This kind of coat-ing with built-in temperature sensor capabilities could be applied to ma-chine parts that can be damaged by high temperatures and therefore re-quire monitoring,” says Spolenak. “This would eliminate the need for electronic sensors, because you could simply see with the naked eye whether the machine part had been exposed to excessively high temperatures in the past.”

Solid on the inside, pliable on the outsideModern materials research is also in-creasingly turning to the opportunities offered by additive manufacturing and 3D printing. An interdisciplinary ETH team consisting of experts in mechan-ical, electrical and chemical engineer-ing and materials science – including Spolenak – recently came up with a new way of fabricating metal objects with a chemical composition and intern al structure that can change from one voxel to the next. A voxel is a three-dimensional version of a pixel – and in this case, the printed voxels are tiny, measuring just 200 nanometres in diameter.

This means that metal compo-nents no longer need to be made en-tirely from just one alloy. “We can re-

“Modern additive manufacturing is close to perfection in terms of engineering, but there’s huge potential in materials development.”Ralph Spolenak

nal stresses because they are so strong on the inside, but that are capable of deforming at other points to absorb ex-ternal shocks.

Nanoscale 3D printingExpertise in printed materials is not the only thing that materials scientists can offer nanoscale 3D printing. They can also help improve process control. This is a key consideration in the ETH researchers’ current work, because high-precision printing naturally re-quires precisely controlled positioning systems. This is because the nozzle generally remains in one place during 3D printing while the print bed moves beneath it. “Moving these kinds of pos-itioning stages in three spatial dimen-sions with high precision typically re-quires piezoelectric materials,” says Spolenak. Piezoelectric materials change shape when exposed to electric fields. Often these changes in dimen-sion are very small, which is an advan-tage in this case because it opens the door to high positioning accuracy.

The goal Spolenak is pursuing to-gether with his colleagues in the nano 3D printing project is to make printing

even more precise: “Ultimately we’re hoping to increase the resolution to the point where we can print microelec-tronic components. This would open up the third dimension for microelec-tronics and help make components smaller.” According to the researchers, this step would require a feedback sys-tem to provide the printer with real- time information and control it on this basis. Right now, print jobs are essen-tially carried out blind once the printer launches into action.

Spolenak also sees potential in the technology behind personalised medi-cine because 3D printing is ideal - ly suited to producing individually tailored components and small batch-es. This might make it possible to unite a patient-specific combination of bio-sensors on a single component. A sen-sor arrangement 3D printed in this way would be far smaller than a combin ation of individual, mass- produced sensors, and would therefore be easier to implant.

In the future, it might even be pos-sible to equip such microelectronic components with self-healing prop-erties. “Additive manufacturing and

Nano 3D printing can be used to fabricate objects that combine alternating metals within the tiniest of spaces, in this case silver (blue) and copper (red).

3D printing open up new avenues for materials scientists like me. And it works the other way around, too, be-cause materials science is giving these technologies a boost in return!” says Spolenak. “Ultimately, materials sci-ence has always been about combining processes, materials and properties. And now adaptive and dynamic mater-ials and methods are enabling us to de-velop materials with entirely new properties and functions.”

Ralph Spolenak’s research group:→ www.met.mat.ethz.ch

A thin coating of nickel and aluminium layers causes conductive metal to melt at exactly the right spot, potentially offering a way to repair cracks in electronic components.

Damaged Healed

Images: Stefano Danzi and Alain Reiser, Laboratory for Nanometallurgy

FOCUS FOCUS17

ETH GLOBE 4/2019 ETH GLOBE 4/2019

16

Institute of Technology in Pasadena developed this ceramic. It is a meta-material, engineered to possess prop-erties not found in nature. Its internal microstructure lends it these artificial properties.

Stretchable ceramics are a rather unspectacular example. Other meta-materials are known for their ability to control the propagation of waves. For example, researchers have managed to produce a metamaterial with a nega-tive refractive index. It refracts light or other waves in the “wrong” direction. Applications include totally flat lenses and, in theory, optical and acoustic cloaking. With metamaterials, that fic-tional cloak of invisibility could be-come science fact.

This relatively new field is prov ing to be a goldmine for researchers. In theory, metamaterials could be tailored to adopt practically any com-bination of prop erties. This field

T he ceramic cube under the microscope is gifted with super powers. Compressed

to nearly a third of its height, it refuses to crumble, break or tear. When the pressure releases, the cube returns to its original state with the resilience of a sponge. The press comes down again, but the cube remains intact. The re-markable elasticity of this tiny ceramic cube – just 0.1 millimetres tall – stems from the curving grooves and cavities that traverse its internal structure. Their layout is such that tensile forces cannot concentrate within any one area of the cube when pressure is ap-plied. It’s this concentration of forces near defects, notches or sharp corners that makes ceramic materials so brit-tle. The twisted architecture of the cube prevents this, hence the ceramic’s unexpected elasticity.

ETH Professor Dennis Kochmann and his colleagues from the California

INSIDE

THE

POWER Metamaterials defy conventions, making rigid media flexible, soft materials transmit signals, and sound and light behave in bizarre ways.TEXT Michael Walther

ETH GLOBE 4/2019

FOCUS FOCUS1819

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

design that induces the desired prop - erty amid countless combinations of geo metric shapes, architectural princi-ples, and base materials. Kochmann says efforts are underway to comb through potential architectures using algorithms and artificial intelligence, but notes that these methods are in an early phase: “There’s still a lot of brain-storming and creative design based on experience going on.” One often finds his team at the blackboard, browsing through known architectural compo-nents to come up with a new repertoire of exciting material properties.

Kochmann’s speciality field, simu-lations, certainly helps in this regard. He looks at a material’s chemical com-position and microstructure in order to invest igate its properties when they are exposed to specific stimuli such as heat, electricity and mechanical loads. Just as with the ceramic cube described above, Kochmann also applies the principles and insights gained from conventional mater ials to develop new metamaterials.

Tools from theoretical physicsColleagues in other disciplines support Kochmann’s efforts. One of them is ETH physi cist Sebastian Huber. De-veloping and building structures and systems that behave as predicted by abstract the ories is one of his areas of specialisation.

He has already succeeded in build-ing a topological insulator, for ex-ample. This is a system in which waves can propagate only on the surface and only in one direction. In 2015, Huber

could become a playground for those capable of mastering this game of geom etry and physics.

Soft and conductiveKochmann and his group are research-ing the fundamentals. As they explore that playground, they are pushing back the boundaries of what materials can do. A few years ago, they demonstrated that soft materials can be made to transmit waves. The researchers clev-erly arranged polymeric structures to lend them this capability through bistable components. Each of these components can take on two stable states, one taut and the other slack. The scientists arrayed the polymers in a row like dominoes and connected

A switchable metamaterialThis silicon-coated metamaterial can be charged electrochemically. This changes its structure as the lattice’s straight cross-members morph into arches.

was the first to demonstrate this effect with a model consisting of 270 pendula arrayed in a square. The concept had been known, but only as a hypothetical construct in quantum physics. He is now doing something very similar for metamaterials, developing and build-ing structures like these pendula to demonstrate effects that can otherwise only be observed in elaborate experi-ments. Huber says his research is al-ways about gaining the ultimate con-trol over the propagation of waves.

Translating the concepts of theor-etical physics into the engineering world with his metamaterials, Huber is putting practical tools into the hands of Dennis Kochmann and other re-searchers looking into such materials. He is also introducing new ways of thinking about materials’ structures and materials design concepts. The third benefit is perhaps the most re-warding for a physicist: the measure-ments taken in experiments with his metamaterials enable him to refine physical models. Metamaterials’ intern al structures are thus the key that unlocks the door to a vivid under-standing and exploitation of physical principles – and to creativity for scien-tists seeking to engineer novel mater-ials with unprecedented properties.

Learn more about Dennis Kochmann’s research at→ www.mm.ethz.ch

Learn more about Sebastian Huber’s research at→ www.cmt-qo.phys.ethz.ch

them to one another. Nudging one end of this structure triggers a wave that travels to the other end, just like collid-ing dominoes. With this simple solu-tion for transmitting signals in soft materials, the researchers had found a soft alternative to conventional cables. This advance lays a basis for future all-soft technologies such as soft robots.

Kochmann’s team is now working on ways to apply the same principle be-hind this one-dimensional action to two and three dimensions. The idea is to engineer materials that can change their shape in two or three dimensions in response to a specific stimulus, with-out having to rely on drives or motors as actuators. They aim to program the initial, final and intermediate states of

a transformable shape, as well as the speed and sequence of this transform-ation, using nothing but the structure as the medium.

Metamorphosis at the touch of a buttonWhile the transformation of these ma-terials is actuated mechanically – for example, by hand in the lab – other ma-terials’ metamorphoses are induced electronically, at the touch of a button. Kochmann helped develop a silicon- coated metamaterial that can be elec-trochemically charged to change its structure. In its initial state, it looks like a three-dimensional grid with thin horizontal struts connecting thicker vertical posts, similar to a boxing ring. When charged electrically, the struc-ture’s horizontal struts expand and bend into a symmetric pattern made up of opposing sinusoidal arches. The researchers took advantage of an effect known to cause problems with bat-teries: electrodes swell and shrink as a battery charges and discharges. The swelling of the horizontal struts in this new metamaterial causes its structure to change fundamentally and remain in its new state until it discharges.

These researchers thus succeeded in creating a switchable metamaterial. It works like a rechargeable battery, so it could also serve in the future to develop implantable energy stor - age devices on a micrometre scale. Kochmann and team have also used simulations to verify another intri-guing property: charging the meta-material to change its shape prevents waves from propagating in certain fre-quency ranges. These bands can be varied by modulating the voltage. Kochmann says these adjustable wave barriers could be an interesting op - tion for damping vibrations in very small components such as those found in microelectronics.

A creative search for structureHe points out that the key to tailoring material properties on demand is find-ing the right small-scale architec ture. The question is how to find the one

“With the right internal structure, the properties of materials can be changed in a controlled manner.”Dennis Kochmann

Images: Dennis Kochmann Group

FOCUS FOCUS2021

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

N icola Spaldin, what fascinates you about multiferroics?

NICOLA SPALDIN – I noticed that there seemed to be no ferroelectric materials that were also ferromagnetic. I was keen to understand why the two phe-nomena don’t coexist. We then tried to find ways around those restrictions in order to make materials that combine both properties.

Why is it so difficult for ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity to coexist?It turns out that it’s not down to any profound law of physics – it’s just that the kind of atoms that are good at mak-ing magnetic dipoles sit in a diff erent place in the periodic table than the kind that are good at making electric dipoles.

How do you get around this?We simply made materials that had both kinds of atoms. And that’s largely what we still do. There are also some clever developments in which one uses

atoms that don’t generally make elec-tric dipoles and forces them to do so through unconventional mechanisms. But I think the most promising mater-ials for technologies are just the simple ones, where we combine the two kinds of atoms.

Are there already applications for these materials?There are prototypes, yes, but no wide-spread applications yet. There are two ways forward here. The first applica-tion we had in mind was controll ing magnetism with an electric field. This has exciting potential for data storage or processing because magnetic de-vices, for example in a computer hard drive, are usually controlled with magnetic fields. However, to make a magnetic field you need to run current through a large coil of wire, which heats up. This uses a lot of energy and means your device is very big. We can get round this problem by controlling magnetism with an electric field.

SEEMINGLY

IMPOSSIBLEMaterials scientist Nicola Spaldin on her fascination with multiferroics, perfect order and materials with exotic properties.TEXT Oliver Morsch

metries in multiferroics to simulate, in the laboratory, processes that occurred in the early universe just after the Big Bang! That’s not really a technologic- al application, I guess, but it’s very exciting.

Will multiferroics revolutionise modern technologies?There are many aspects of materials that determine whether they’re adopt-ed in a particular application. Our role as fundamental materials researchers, I think, is to generate a broad palette of possibilities so that device physicists or medical technologists have a range to choose from. It’s hard to say whether any particular material will be a game changer in a particular device. There are too many economic and practical considerations. With multi-ferroics, we’ve made a class of mater-ials that’s really diverse and multi- functional, and so it increases the pos-sibilities for what we might even expect a material to do.

You mean they do things that you wouldn’t even be able to imagine?In a way, yes. I actually remember a col-league calling me up at the start of our multiferroics work to say he was organ-ising a workshop on impossible mater-ials and would like me to come!

What new ideas are you working on right now?My latest hobby – well, I do it at work, but it’s still a hobby – is investigating something called “hidden order”. A historical example of hidden order is

antiferromagnetism, where the mag-netic dipoles on the atoms in a material are arranged such that one points up, the next one down, then one up, and so on. Overall, this means that the mate-rial is not magnetic – but there’s still a perfect order inside. So, we’re asking ourselves what other kinds of order might be hidden in materials which we haven’t detected yet because they don’t appear on the outside – and what exotic properties could they lead to? Together with colleagues at the Paul Scherrer Institute and EPFL, we re-cently won a collaborative grant from the European Research Council to an-swer this question. And I’m secretly trying to make a room temperature superconductor – but maybe this one really does belong in the class of “im-possible materials”!

Materials Theory Group:→ www.theory.mat.ethz.ch

Listen to Nicola Spaldin on the ETH Podcast:→ www.ethz.ch/podcast

MULTIFERROICSMultiferroics are materials that are both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric at the same time. In a ferromagnet, the magnetic dipoles on the atoms (which can be envisaged as tiny compass needles) all point in the same direction, making the whole material magnetic. In a ferro - electric, the electric dipoles inside the material, which are due to slightly displaced positive and negative electric charges, line up to make a large electric dipole. Multiferroics combine those two properties and also link them to each other. While magnetic dipoles are usually controlled using magnetic fields (think of a compass needle pointing along the Earth’s magnetic field) and electric dipoles react to electric fields, in a multi- ferroic, the magnetic dipoles can be controlled through electric fields – and, similarly, the electric dipoles through magnetic fields.

Nicola Spaldin is Professor of Materials Science at ETH Zurich. She has received numerous national and international awards for teaching and research.

“A colleague was holding a workshop on impos sible materials and said he wanted me to come.”Nicola Spaldin

When did you first get involved in this line of research?I wrote a paper in 2000 that addressed the question of why there are so few magnetic ferroelectrics. It sparked the interest of groups who are very good at making materials. In 2003, to-gether with my long-time collaborator Ramamoorthy Ramesh at UC Berke-ley, we established a good multiferroic that worked at room temperature, bis-muth ferrite, which is the one that’s most widely explored for applications. Around 2008, we demonstrated elec-tric-field control of magnetism in that material. And now, ten years on, there are the first prototype devices.

What other applications of multi ferroics are there?The other main class of applications is based on magnetic-field control of the electrical properties – so, the other way around. I’d not thought of that when I first started working on these mater-ials, but this is now being explored for biotechnology applications such as drug delivery. The idea is to have a tiny multiferroic particle which, because it is magnetic, can be guided to a specific place in the body, say a tumour site, using a magnetic field. Then, because the magnetic and electric dipoles are coupled, you can apply an oscillating magnetic field and shake the particle, which makes it release the drug mol-ecules it’s carrying. The advantage of a magnetic field is that it can be applied remotely, just as for an MRI scan. There are also many other applications. For example, you can use the unusual sym-

Image: L’Oréal Foundation

FOKUS FOCUSFOCUS23

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

22

Conserving fuelA number of ETH researchers are working on such shape-shifting mater-ials. One is Paolo Ermanni, Professor of Structure Technologies and Direct-or of the Composite Materials and Adaptive Structures Lab. He and his team are developing aerospace struc-tures that combine three apparently contradictory properties: they need to be light, stable and flexible, all at once. “That’s a big challenge,” says Ermanni. Most materials are either stable and able to bear loads like steel, elastic like rubber, or light like polystyrene. Few combine all these properties in a single material. This is why the researchers are opting to combine mater ials: for example, fibre-reinforced poly mers – which are very light, extremely stable and stiff – with flexible materials.

These scientists have already made strides with an aircraft wing that adapts its shape to changing conditions, much like birds’ wings. “Our goal is to im-prove aerodynamics and increase effi-ciency,” says Ermanni. Conventional wings are largely rigid. They need flaps called ailerons and airbrakes to modify their profile. These aerodynamically inefficient controls consume an exces-sive amount of fuel. Made of a carbon fibre-reinforced composite, only the front section of the newly developed aircraft wing is rigid. The rear section’s structure has some give built into it. An electric control system bends it up-wards or downwards to change the lift. “Airliners with deformable wings could save up to a third on fuel,” says Ermanni. The technology is not ready for deployment just yet, but the team has proved it viable with a model air-craft developed to this end.

Flexible designAnother project is underway to im-prove aerodynamics. Part of the Sus-tainable Design of 4D Printed Active Systems (SD4D) research programme, an initiative of the ETH Board, its goal is to develop new materials that can subsequently change their shape in which they are fabricated by a 3D

M ost objects require a set of parts connected by hinges, rivets or screws to move

and change shape – be it an umbrella, car door or robot arm. But that may soon change as scientists around the world conduct research into materials that can shift their shape on command. There are many benefits to a compo-nent made of a single such adaptive material. It could replace several con-ventional parts and render hinges and screws obsolete. Fewer parts also means less maintenance effort and lower weight. The latter is essential to aerospace and other high-tech applica-tions where every gram matters. It also opens the door to new exciting possi-bilities in many other areas.

GET ETH researchers are developing novel materials that change shape on command. This could herald the arrival of flexible car bodies and new kinds of medical devices. TEXT Claudia Hoffmann

SHAPE! MATERIALS,

INTO

FOCUS FOCUS2425

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

printer. These materials could suit many applications, one being car bodies. “Streamlining is a key factor for boosting efficiency and thereby ex-tending range, particularly for electric cars,” says Ermanni. A body that adapts its shape to the vehicle’s speed of travel would reduce aerodynamic drag and conserve energy.

This insight prompted Ermanni and his doctoral student Oleg Testoni to test engineering principles that would achieve the greatest possible deformability. One approach is to com-bine different materials in a modular way to make composites. The team’s basic building blocks are rectangular elements made of polylactide, with car-bon fibre-reinforced polymer later serving to ensure stability. Polymer connectors manufactured with a 3D printer hold these elements together to give them the necessary flexibility. Each connector features an embedded

modulate their transmission frequency by deforming. Postdoctoral researcher Maria Sakovsky, who is a member of Ermanni’s group, is busy working on this application. The nickel-titanium wire that the researchers use in the new composite belongs to a special class of materials. Remarkably elastic yet stable, these materials have what scientists call shape memory. They can remember their original shape even when heavily deformed, and return to their initial state in response to a stimu-lus, usually heat. For example, a paper clip made of shape-memory wire can be bent beyond recognition, but it twists straight back into shape when immersed in hot water. Medical and aerospace engineers are already put-ting this property to work in various applications. Surgeons can thread crimped stents made of shape-memory alloys through blood vessels, which ex-pand when they arrive at their destina-

tion. Folded up and shuttled into space, component platforms for devices such as solar panels unfold when warmed by the heat of the sun.

Shape memory is not limited to metals. The list of smart polymers is also growing longer. Their great ad-vantage is that they are many times softer and more flexible than metal. Some are also more biocompatible, so they lend themselves to medical appli-cations such as implants, prostheses and artificial muscles. Their prospects in robotics also look bright. Shape- memory polymers can serve to build soft robots based on living organisms. These robots could pick up an object, put it down again and move in other ways by shifting the shape of the mater-ial of which they are made.

Magnetically programmableA drawback of most shape-memory materials is that they have to be heated to return to their true form. “This is a problem in medicine because high temperatures can damage tissue,” says Eric Dufresne, Professor at the Labor-atory for Soft and Living Materials at ETH Zurich. The material often proves difficult to heat uniformly, and the pro-cess consumes a great deal of energy.

With this in mind, Dufresne, doc-toral student Paolo Testa and Laura Heyderman, Professor of Mesoscopic Systems at ETH Zurich and the Paul

delivered in a compact form to a specif-ic location,” says Dufresne. Switching off the magnetic field would expand the stent to help prevent thrombosis.

The development of the material came about almost by chance. While Dufresne’s group is mainly concerned with exploring the interaction of soft materials with their environment, Heyderman’s team researches mag-netic nanostructures. “By combining our expertise, we ultimately came up with a material with entirely new prop-erties,” says Heyderman, clearly de-lighted with the outcome.

Paolo Ermanni’s research group:→ www.structures.ethz.ch

Eric Dufresne’s research group:→ www.softliv.mat.ethz.ch

Laura Heyderman’s research group:→ www.mesosys.mat.ethz.ch

Scherrer Institute, developed a new type of polymer composite. This mate-rial does not require heat as the nature of its shape memory is magnetic. Take, for example, a strip of polymer twisted into a spiral. An applied magnetic field forces it to hold its form. The spiral un-winds back into a strip when the mag-netic force is removed.

This action is due to the mater - ial’s two constituent components. A silicone- based polymer provides the scaffolding. This polymer contains droplets of a liquid with tiny, suspend-ed iron particles. Holding a magnet to the liquid causes the particles to align with the force lines. This instantly makes the material stronger, increas-ing its stiffness by a factor of 30. Re-move the magnetic field, and the iron particles disperse in the liquid and the material softens.

“One great benefit is that the ma-terial is very easy to make,” says Testa. Simply blend the liquid components, cast the mix into any form, and then cure it. Introducing additives would also make 3D printing a viable op - tion. Both casting and printing har-bour great potential for industrial manufacturing.

The researchers see various poten-tial applications for this new polymer, including biomedicine and soft robot-ics. “For example, it could be used to build a new type of stent that can be

“ By combining our expertise, we ultimately came up with a material with entirely new properties.” Laura Heyderman

nickel-titanium alloy wire. When elec-trically heated to around 100 degrees Celsius, these wires contract, deform-ing the connectors to change the entire structure’s shape as intended.

Depending on which wires are ac-tuated, the flat panel can extend lengthwise or breadthwise, or bend into other shapes such as a hemisphere. The new form holds its shape until the electrical voltage cuts off. As the wires cool and expand, the entire structure returns to its original form without fur-ther prompting. “Many different con-figurations are possible thanks to the modular design,” says Ermanni. Prod-ucing different structures is quick and easy thanks to 3D printers, so the con-nector can take a variety of forms in its initial state.

Materials with a memoryThis new composite material could first be used in satellite antennas that

The presence of a magnetic field forces the composite material to hold its deformed shape. In the absence of this force, the material returns to its original shape.

Suspended in the water and glycerine

droplets are tiny magnetic particles of

carbonyl iron.

Image: Paolo Testa

FOCUS FOCUS2627

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

W hen Eleni Chatzi is not busy reading technical

papers about vibrating bridges, smart infrastructures and data- driven engineering, she enjoys im-mersing herself in science fiction novels. “I like pondering unconven-tional ideas and imagining a world that is yet to come,” says Chatzi, Pro-fessor of Structural Mechanics at ETH Zurich. Indeed, there is a ring of sci-fi to it when she talks about ap-plications that her research could someday lead to. One such futurist vision is bridges that grow out of a handful of seeds and consist entirely of organic material.

This 38-year-old civil engineer, whose professorship has received funding from the Albert Lück-

Stiftung since 2010, specialises in structural health monitoring. Chatzi diagnoses the health of dams, bridges, wind turbines, aircraft and ve-hicles using sensors, algorithms that convert and process signals, and ma-chine learning. Currently, engineers have to either externally install the sen-sors needed to measure tension, de-formation, acceleration, wind and strain, or incorporate these devices into the initial structural design. “However, this is usually an extra ex-pense and a disruptive factor, especial-ly on building sites,” explains Chatzi. Crews have to install countless cables to transmit the measured data to a cen-tral computer for analysis. “That’s why we’d like to develop infrastructures and machines with intrinsic intelli-

gence that are aware of their condition even without externally mounted sen-sors,” says Chatzi.

Conscious concreteAn unprecedented class of materials provides the underpinning for this kind of self-aware infrastructure – and researchers around the world have been busy exploring their mysteries for the past few years. One example is in-trinsic self-sensing concrete. Mixed with carbon fibres, carbon nanotubes and nickel powder, this material moni-tors its condition autonomously to provide information about cracks, moisture or unusually heavy loads. This data is coaxed from the structure by applying voltage and constantly measuring the electrical resistance. A second line of research into materials with self-healing properties points in a similar direction. Last year, in a project inspired by plant photosynthesis, US researchers presented a polymer that can repair itself by reacting with car-bon dioxide in the surrounding air. Other groups are working with bacter-ia that form lime when exposed to rain-water and other moisture. Added to concrete, they can seal small cracks on their own. Experiments are underway with microvascular networks that re-lease “healing” fluids when an injury occurs. Responding much like the human organism to a skin wound, they polymerise to fill the fractures.

“We’re seeing a fusion of materials science and biology,” says Mark Tibbitt, Professor at the Macro-molecular Engineering Laboratory at ETH Zurich. He notes that in the past,

chemical and other engineers had looked to nature primarily for inspir-ation for mimicking properties such as the lotus blossom’s ability to repel water. “Today, we’re trying to incorp-orate biological functions into mater-ials.” These efforts are fuelled by break-throughs in materials science and bio-technology. DNA engineering and new molecular biological methods such as CRISPR/Cas gene editing can now serve to introduce new biological func-tions into cells for very specif - ic purposes. Additive manufacturing using 3D printers enables high- resolution, data-based material design. Combining concepts from a number of fields – chemical engineering, polymer chemistry, materials science and sys-tems biology – Tibbitt’s research aims to develop soft, tissue-like polymers for biomedical applications.

“The fascinating thing about living organisms is that they perceive their environment, react to it and even heal themselves when injured. We want to instil these qualities in materials and infrastructures,” says Tibbitt. He be-lieves future applications could include houseplants that clean the air and change the colour of their leaves to call attention to air quality, and buildings that change with the seasons to keep their interior climate comfortable.

Tibbitt met Eleni Chatzi a year ago at an event for exploring radically new avenues of research. Although the two work on very different scales, they often talk about the same concepts. Recurring topics include mater ials that can “heal” themselves. Recently, they began to foster dialogue among researchers at ETH about living, self-sensing and self-healing mater ials and infrastructures. Mater ials scien-tists, chemical, civil and electric al engin eers, biologists and computer sci-entists have all joined in to develop materials with the goal of working at different scales right from the start instead of scaling them at a later stage.

“ETH Zurich is the perfect hub for this venture because it has so much expertise in all the key areas,” says

Tibbitt. An initial workshop and a symposium are scheduled to take place in spring 2020 for experts to discuss the matter. The idea is to define re-search questions and then launch the first transdisciplinary projects.

Living with animated environmentsThis is a fresh avenue of research that Chatzi and Tibbitt have embarked upon, and at this stage there are many more questions than answers. One big question is how to assure safety and stability when infrastructures develop a life of their own. Another is how humans and animals will react to an en-gineered environment consisting of living organisms. And what happens if a synthetic organism leaches from a new building material into surround-ing waters? “We have to think about bioethical questions and safety con-cerns from day one,” says Tibbitt.

BRIDGESBIODEGRADABLE

Researchers are looking into new materials to lay the foundations for living structures that respond to their environment. They aim to create self-sustaining infrastructures that can monitor their condition and even repair themselves.TEXT Samuel Schlaefli

Such risks also present great opportu-nities: concrete production accounts for around eight percent of today’s global CO2 emissions. Entire strips of sandy beaches are being sacri-ficed to the global construction boom. Many landfills are overflowing with rubble from demolished buildings. Or-ganic infrastructures with closed mater ial cycles – such as bridges made of remarkably robust plant fibre – offer a sustainable alternative. If damaged, they could repair themselves. At the end of their service life, they could sim-ply break down into individual compost able components.

Chair of Structural Mechanics:→ www.chatzi.ibk.ethz.ch

Macromolecular Engineering Laboratory:→ www.macro.ethz.ch

Image: iStockphoto

Living structures such as this traditional bridge in India made of vines provide a source of inspiration for entirely new materials.

FOCUS FOCUSFOCUS FOCUS

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

2928

CUTTING-EDGESome may sound like science fiction, but these exciting new developments from ETH labs are very much a reality.COMPILATION Fabio Bergamin

Longer-lasting foamThere’s more to foam than the frothy head on a freshly pulled beer. In physical terms, bread dough, ice cream and even liquid concrete are all

Flexible batteriesDeveloped by ETH Professor Markus Niederberger, this ultra-thin lithium-ion battery can be twisted, bent and even stretched. It is ideal for use in foldable and rollable electronic devices or for powering sensors incorporated in clothing or other textiles. This new thin-film battery has a sandwich-like structure similar to that of existing bat teries. For the first time, however, scientists have used flexible components throughout as well as a newly de-veloped electrolyte gel. The project is supported by the Adrian Weiss Stiftung.

→ www.ethz.ch/battery-with-twist

Liquid safety vestsSome suspensions behave like a fluid as long as they are not subject to a powerful force. If, however, such a force is suddenly applied, they be-come viscous and almost solidify. As ETH Professor Lucio Isa has shown, this phenomenon is due in part to the surface characteristics of the solid particles in the suspension: the rougher the surface of these parti-cles, the likelier it is that the suspen-sion will suddenly solidify. This knowledge is handy when it comes to optimizing the flow properties of liquid concrete, for example, or

developing bullet- and stab-proof vests based on these suspensions. These offer the same protection as conventional safety vests but are more comfortable to wear.

→ www.ethz.ch/viscosity-bullet-proof

Bioresorbable implants In the future, orthopaedic surgeons will be able to use magnesium-alloy screws to fix broken bones. The ad-vantage of this particular light metal is that it is bioresorb able, which means that implants do not have to be removed at a later date. Further-more, magnesium promotes bone growth, thereby supporting the heal-ing process. A research group led by ETH Professor Jörg Löffler has de-veloped a way of making magnesium implants that are por ous but have a high mechanical strength. Using an additive manufacturing process, a lattice-like template is made of salt. This then serves as a casting mould for the magnesium implant. The pores are created by dissolving the salt lattice. Inside the body, these pores are colonized by bone cells, which produce new bone within the structure of the implant.

→ www.ethz.ch/bioresorbable

Controlled warpage of woodWood can be formed with the help of steam and great force. This is how traditional wooden chairs are made. Led by Markus Rüggeberg, research-ers at ETH Zurich and Empa have now found a way of forming wood into a predefined shape without applying external force. Two layers of damp wood, each with the grain running in a different direction, are glued together. As the wood dries, it contracts more strongly at right an-gles to the grain than along the grain. Using a computer, researchers have been able to model the precise degree of warping of their twin-layer con-struction. This method has already been used to build a wooden tower in Remstal, near Stuttgart.

→ www.ethz.ch/self-shaping-wood

types of foam. As a rule, foams are short-lived. This is because the small bubbles in the foam shrink over time. A research group led by ETH Pro-fessor Jan Vermant has studied this process in detail and demonstrated how coating the bubbles with tiny par ticles can hinder this process. This knowledge will now kick-start the development of suitable stabilisers for a range of foams in foodstuffs and building materials.

→ www.ethz.ch/stable-foam

Images: Group Niederberger; Chiao- Peng HsuImages: Laboratory of Metal Physics and Technology / Complex Materials; ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart; Ravi Patel, unsplash

NEW MATERIALS

SOLUTIONS

COMMUNITY

COME AND JOIN US.

Start your global technical career in the high-tech industry.mikron.com/career

1400 employees

Two innovation awards in 2019!

Globally operating

group

Versatile activities in a high-tech environment

Open and fair corporate culture

31

ETH GLOBE 4/2019

Mixed Reality and AI Zurich Lab

NEW MICROSOFT RESEARCH LAB

Microsoft has opened a new lab in Zu-rich for the study of mixed-reality technologies and artificial intelligence. The software corporation is cooperat-ing closely with ETH Zurich, with ETH Professor Marc Pollefeys to head up the new lab. Research and develop-ment will concentrate on devising ways of combining the physical world with virtual reality. Examples include smart glasses for superimposing virtual ob-jects onto the wearer’s field of view. Such optical head-mounted displays can be used, for instance, to provide assistance for service technicians.

Microsoft and ETH have been col-laborating on various projects for the past 11 years. The new lab now takes

this cooperation to a higher level. ETH doctoral students will get to work on genuine industry problems with access to the very latest hardware. In turn, Microsoft will profit from an ETH re-search portfolio that is broad in scope and long-term in outlook as well as a steady stream of first-class doctoral students.

There are currently 12 Microsoft employees at the Mixed Reality and AI Zurich Lab and 5 doctoral students – 4 from ETH Zurich and 1 from EPFL, all working in the fields of visual comput-ing and robotics. As lab director, ETH Professor Marc Pollefeys’ employ - ment contract is split equally between Micro soft and ETH Zurich. He will spend half his time working for Micro-soft, and the other half continuing to teach and research at the university. The lab will also work with other uni-versities on a project basis.

ETH Week 2019

RETHINKING MOBILITY This year’s ETH Week was in Septem-ber and took place in the SBB Werk-stadt Zürich. Students from all depart-ments came together to generate ideas for making future mobility more sus-tainable. It was jointly organised by ETH Sustainability, the SCCER Mo-bility centre of excellence, SparkLabs, and the Chair of Technology and Innov ation Management at D-MTEC, with Swiss rail company SBB as an ex-ternal partner. The annual ETH Week aims to foster interdisciplinary collab-oration and provide students with an opportunity to analyse and reflect upon major issues facing society.

ERC Synergy Grants

FUNDING FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS

Two ETH Zurich projects and one with ETH participation have each been awarded a coveted European Re-search Council (ERC) Synergy Grant, which gives funding of up to 14 mil-lion euros. Synergy Grants are one of the ways in which the EU promotes interdisciplinary research collabor-ation. In this case, the ERC has award-ed its synergy grants to a diverse range of projects: earthquake forecasting (Domenico Giardini), genome editing (Jacob Corn) and the development of broadband antiviral therapies (Jeffrey Bode).

Image: Alessandro Della Bella

Two hundred students gathered in the SBB Werkstadt Zürich for a week-long think tank.

The behavior of ferromagnetic materials impacts the overall design.

Ferromagnetic parts influence the magnetic field in their surroundings. This is important to consider when designing electronic components and electrical machinery. Simulation can help you understand how magnetic materials affect the overall performance of a device or system. However, ferromagnetic materials do not all exhibit the same behavior. For accurate models, you need software that can describe what happens in the real world.

The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply it to modeling ferromagnetic materials.

comsol.blog/ferromagnetic-materials

Visualization of the magnetization norm of an AlNiCo soft permanent magnet and the surrounding magnetic field.

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY3233

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

50 years of AVETH

Building bridges for scientific staff For the past 50 years, AVETH has promoted the interests of doctoral students, post-docs and scientific staff. The association gives equal weight to representing its members in university policymaking and providing concrete support and counselling.

W hat began as a tentative idea has evolved over the past 50 years to become a mainstay

of the university: the Academic Associ-ation of Scientific Staff at ETH Zurich (AVETH) includes representatives from all academic departments as well as the Singapore-ETH Centre. It rep-resents the interests of doctoral stu-dents, post-docs and scientific staff in the University Assembly and on a num-ber of university commissions. The or-ganisation currently has 2,300 mem-bers. This is equivalent to one- third of the approximately 6,000 scientific staff, the majority of whom (some 4,000) are doctoral students. “Our membership figures are very high com-pared to other universities,” says Martin Roszkowski, AVETH Presi-dent since 2017.

The association offers concrete as-sistance and represents the scientific staff’s interests in university policy-making. Roszkowski cites the example of a practice that some individual pro-fessors introduced a few years ago of establishing part-time positions for post-docs due to budget constraints. AVETH strongly opposed this practice

Roszkowski notes that the AVETH board has since expressed its satisfac-tion with how the university has re-sponded to the problems of doctoral supervision that came to light in 2017. A two-day symposium, which pro-vided the first platform of its kind for experts and members of ETH to hold wide-ranging discussions on this issue in Switzerland, simultaneously marked the beginning of consultations on new rules and measures for supervising doctoral students – a process in which AVETH played a major role. “It’s a good start. Our task now is to check that the measures are enforced and en-couraged throughout the university,” explains Roszkowski.

Reassessing the doctorateRoszkowski also mentions another topic that AVETH will be focusing on in the future: “The prospects of obtain-

ing a professorship are rapidly dimin-ishing, and competition between doc-toral students and post-docs will con-tinue to increase.” He argues that many students will end up embarking on their doctorates with unrealistic hopes of obtaining their own professorship. Roszkowski therefore proposes that people should reassess how they ap-proach their career in science: “Doing a doctoral thesis is a step toward a pro-fessorship, but it can also be relevant for other kinds of professional activity and social engagement.” Roszkowski is doing his doctorate on the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance at the Laboratory of Neuroepigenetics and will finish his thesis next year. “I know that I want to stay in research and lead a team,” he says. “There are exciting opportunities to do that not only at the university, but also in the private sector.” — Samuel Schlaefli

Images: Gian Marco Castelberg; Eline Keller-Soerensen

Philanthropy

FEEDING FUTURE GENERATIONS

By Donald Tillman

The holiday season at the end of the year is a time for family and

friends. Shared meals, often featuring traditional recipes and carefully selected ingredients,

are an important part of the celebrations. At other times,

however, it can be good to try out new things. Researchers at ETH Zurich are therefore working on

alternatives to help put the world’s food supply on a more

sustainable footing.

Examples include ETH alumnus and Pioneer Fellow Lukas Böni from the ETH spin-off Planted,

who has produced a plant-based chicken substitute from pea protein. Or Cyrill Hess and

Melanie Binggeli from LemnaPro, who plan to cultivate Wolffia – more commonly known

as duckweed – and put it on European tables. Our

supplement Uplift has more on the topic of sustainable food. So

please take a moment to discover some of the exciting

developments from our talented young scientists at ETH! After all,

it’s also thanks to you, our benefactors, that we can provide

education and research at the highest level and help solve the problem of how to feed future

generations.

→ www.ethz-foundation.ch/en

“Supervision used to be an issue nobody wanted to discuss.”

and successfully fought off an alterna-tive proposal to introduce a pay grad-ation scheme instead of part-time pos-itions to cut costs.

AVETH’s broad-based representa-tion and popularity at the university is based on tens of thousands of hours of voluntary work and specific services. The association holds information events to welcome new doctoral stu-

dents, post-docs and academic staff. AVETH representatives from the aca-demic departments get in touch with new arrivals personally, providing use-ful information on life at ETH. The AVETH website offers a survival guide for doctoral students, providing advice and targeted assistance for the doctor-al studies process, which can be a chal-lenging time. Some 30 years ago, the AVETH offshoot Telejob laid the foundations for the online job platform

“ETH get hired”. And this year, to cele brate its 50th anniversary, AVETH organised a series of workshops and takeaway talks.

Focus on doctoral supervisionOne of the services AVETH members use a lot is counselling. Scientific staff can turn to the organisation for confi-dential assistance regarding any con-cerns they may have about their em-ployment or difficulties in their private life. AVETH members provide advice or enlist the help of experts for situ-ations such as conflict de-escalation or the need to prepare for a difficult dis-cussion. The most frequent reason doctoral students turn to the counsel-ling service is to resolve conflicts with their supervisors, says Roszkowski.

In 2017, this prompted AVETH to launch a study into the quality of doc-toral student supervision at ETH. The results made a major impact when they were published in April 2018. Sixty- two percent of the almost 1,600 re-spondents said they were generally sat-isfied with their supervision. Yet al-most a quarter of the respondents said their supervisor had abused their posi-tion of authority.

“Until that point, the issue of su-pervision had been treated much like the issue of salaries,” says Roszkowski. “Nobody wanted to talk about it – dedication to research overruled everything else.” He cautions against putting all the blame on one side, how-ever: “Much depends on the doctoral students themselves,” he argues. “They need to stand up for their rights and clearly articulate what they expect from doctoral supervision.” Against this backdrop, ETH launched a pro-gramme for new candidates in early 2019 that aims to strengthen profes-sors’ supervisory skills while also help-ing doctoral students to know their rights and obligations.

Martin Roszkowski, President of AVETH

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY3435

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

ETH Alumni marks 150 years

A YEAR OF CELEBRATION

Founded by a group of former poly-technic students in 1869, the ETH Alumni Association celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. A host of functions, formal and informal, saw ETH alumni from around the world come together to mark the occasion. The anniversary year kicked off at the end of February with an event organ-ised by the ETH Alumni Association, where 2,000 anniversary cupcakes were handed out to ETH students. On 18 May, an official function to cele-brate the 150th anniversary of the ETH Alumni Association was held in the ETH Main Building. The festivities began in the packed Audi Max, before migrating to the main hall, and offered a sparkling mix of speeches and enter-

The official anniversary event kicked off before a full house with a performance by a cappella group the Singing Pinguins.

tainment. In the same month, the asso-ciation extended a cordial invitation to meet at the VSETH Summerbar on the Polyterrasse. In October, a walking tour of Zurich provided an opportun-ity to follow the tracks left by ETH alumni in the city. Alongside these cele brations, local groups – from the nearby Zurich Oberland all the way to Sydney in Australia – also staged their own anniversary festivities.

In line with its motto – “Connect-ing – Engaging – Inspiring” – the ETH Alumni Association aims to sup-port ETH Zurich and to maintain and cultivate the global network of ETH alumni. “In an increasingly global - ised world, it’s vital to have a network that spans the globe,” says Walter Gränicher, president of the ETH Alumni Association. The association has over 30,000 members across some 60 affiliate organisations divided up according to degree subject, place of residence and field of interest.

ETH Foundation

NEW FACES FOR THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

By supporting top talent and research at ETH Zurich, the ETH Foundation helps deliver the extra momentum that ETH requires in order to take on the major challenges of our times. This past year has seen the appoint-ment of two prominent figures – both with vast experience and extensive networks – to the Board of Trustees of the ETH Foundation: former Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard and Markus Neuhaus, who has a doc-torate in law and is the former CEO and chairman of the board of directors of PwC Switzerland.

They replace former board mem-bers Thomas Knecht and Beatrice Weder di Mauro, who received a cere-monial farewell to thank them for their service to the ETH Foundation.

New on the board of trustees: Doris Leuthard and Markus Neuhaus.

The anniversary celebrations gave

many alumni a welcome opportunity

to revisit the hallowed halls of ETH.

A ll in all, I would say that – thanks to my husband – I manage to get a pretty good bal-ance between my work and family life. I or-

ganise my day to make sure we can all have dinner together in the evening and I can spend time with my family. That means at just after 5 p.m. I have to head to the train station. This is certainly com-patible with the bulk of what I do, such as giving lec-tures, supervising doctoral students and writing research proposals. So have I got the whole work-life issue sorted?

Well, an academic career doesn’t really fit into a 40-hour working week, so it requires a certain level of flexibility in when – and to some extent where – you work. Unfortunately, many of the events that are not a core part of my job, but nevertheless very

interesting, take place between 5 and 8 p.m. in the period normally set aside for the family. They in-clude scientific talks and events, such as inaugural and farewell lectures, as well as social events like networking dinners. And then there are those meet-ings that get pushed into the evening due to sched-uling conflicts – because after 5 p.m. “everyone’s got time”!

S ome lectures are recorded, but it’s the social encounters that are impossible to catch up on. Being able to collaborate with other scien-

tists is a key aspect of innovative research. New discoveries often emerge when researchers look be-yond their own area of expertise and join forces with researchers from other areas. These kinds of partnerships often arise not from some kind of targeted plan, but rather from the random conver-sations between two people that occur at social gatherings. So we’re left with a very real dilemma of whether to go home and put the children to bed or take part in professional networking.

I don’t have a magic formula to improve this aspect of the work–life balance, because it’s true that schedules often collide when trying to find time for a meeting before 5 p.m. – and even I organise an annual retreat with my own group that extends into the evening. I do, however, try to schedule sem inars before 5 p.m. and our department organis-es a month ly faculty lunch (instead of an evening dinner) to encourage networking within the de-partment. These are small steps that can make it easier for researchers with children to get more in-volved in the social fabric of the university. If we con sidered these kinds of things a bit more often in daily academic life, it would benefit both the uni-versity and people’s families.

Images: Courtesy of D. Leuthard, M.Neuhaus; Giulia Marthaler

Gabriela Hug is a Professor at the Insti- tute for Power Systems & High Voltage Technology. In her column, she discusses how to overcome the stereotypical roles and behaviours that create barriers for both men and women.

Illustration: Benedikt Rugar; image: Giulia Marthaler

Between 5 and 8 p.m.

Column

REPORT REPORT3637

ETH GLOBE 4/2019 ETH GLOBE 4/2019

goal and displayed similar levels of mo-tivation, their starting points couldn’t have been more different.

VariLeg enhanced, a team of 15 Bachelor’s students from ETH Zurich and HSR, took just eight months to get their exoskeleton up and running, col-laborating in a focus project through-out the final year of their studies. Com-prising mechanical and electrical engin eers as well as health scientists, the team invested a lot of time in their assistance system, says mechanical engine er Michael Heid: “Seventy-hour weeks were the norm, and that some-times rose to 90 hours in the critical phase.” And lectures? “Well, we might have attended some.” But Michael lived primarily for the focus project – not least because of the people in his environment with paraplegia.

Helping people with paraplegia walk again

T ension is mounting in the atrium of the research centre at HSR University of Applied Sciences

Rapperswil. The viewers in the gal-leries are holding their breath, and you can almost hear a pin drop. The throaty sound of a motor breaks the silence, followed by applause. Rolf Schoch, a 30-year-old man with paraplegia, gets up from a wooden bench and begins to walk. His body is encased in a compact, 35-kilogramme exoskeleton – a wear-able, powered support system that en-ables paraplegics to stand up, walk and climb stairs.

At what has been dubbed the “Cybathlon Experience” at HSR, two teams are keen to demonstrate how this is possible: one team called Vari-Leg enhanced, piloted by Rolf Schoch, the other called Project March, piloted by Sjaan Quirijns. Both teams will be taking part in the Cybathlon in May 2020, a competition launched by ETH Zurich in which people with physical disabilities compete against each other to complete everyday tasks using ro-botic assistance systems.

The two teams are taking the op-portunity of the Cybathlon Experience to present their exoskeletons to the wider public. These exoskeletons enable Sjaan and Rolf to talk with others on an equal footing and com-plete everyday tasks – something Rolf demonstrates by stacking cups on a table. In order to accomplish this, the pilot has to let go of one of his crutches, relying fully on the exoskeleton to hold him in an upright position.

Same goal, different starting pointsGetting to this point wasn’t easy. To compete in Cybathlon 2020, both teams had to develop their robotic exo-skeletons under enormous time pres-sure and in close cooperation with their paraplegic pilots. Though the stu-dent teams were pursuing the same

Before the start: the audience watches intently as Rolf is lifted from his wheelchair into the exoskeleton.

First step on the obstacle course: encased in the exoskeleton, Rolf Schoch has just got up from the bench.

Walking despite paraplegia: at an event in the run-up to Cybathlon 2020, two teams consisting of students,

researchers and people with disabilities show that it can be done. Highlights from the Cybathlon Experience.

TEXT Corina Oertli IMAGES Urs Matter

“Seventy-hour weeks were the norm, and that sometimes rose to 90 hours in the critical phase.”

REPORT REPORT3839

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

A tricky task: Rolf has to let go of one of his crutches in order to stack the cups.

So he and his team had corresponding-ly high expectations of their final prod-uct. Although earlier focus projects had developed an exoskeleton, VariLeg enhanced started more or less from scratch. As Michael explains: “Obvi-ously we talked to our predecessors, and they gave us some valuable tips, but the concept we pursued wasn’t comparable to theirs.” The VariLeg en-hanced team wanted to position the exoskeleton’s motors differently, and the materials and control unit they used were totally new compared with the previous model.

A break in their studiesThings were different with the Dutch team, Project March. The 23 students from 7 different disciplines at Delft

Rolf, the pilot of the VariLeg enhanced exoskeleton, has spent significantly less time practicing with the powered support that is now enabling him to walk at the Cybathlon Experience. The tension is evident in his face as he com-pletes the slalom test, navigating his way between bar tables with long, even strides. He activates each step by pressing a button on one of his crutch-es. Each step forward is accompanied by the mechanical whirring of the robot – and by two helpers, ready to catch him if the motor fails.

Exoskeleton handed overVariLeg enhanced no longer consists solely of ETH and HSR students. Following the roll-out of the focus project in May 2019, the exoskeleton was handed over to the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab and Product Devel-opment Group at ETH Zurich and HSR’s Institute for Lab Automation and Mechatronics. The students were determined to hand over the exoskel-eton – along with the expertise on which it is based – in such a way that the researchers could continue work-ing on it seamlessly.

In addition, Lukas Granzotto, one of the three team members from HSR, was able to secure a temporary position in the HSR lab, enabling him to make a key contribution to the smooth trans-fer of expertise and also stay involved in the project a while longer. His team colleague Michael Heid was certainly happy to have completed the project after eight months of intensive work. “But of course it was a shame to let go of a project that is so close to my heart,” he says.

Sideways through the obstacle courseHaving reached the end of the row of bar tables, the tension in Rolf’s face gives way to a relieved smile, and he lifts up one of his crutches in a gesture

of triumph. The visitors applaud enthusiastically and the VariLeg en-hanced team members are clearly proud.

For them, it’s the end of today’s demonstration. Rolf attempts neither the sideways slope nor the stairs in the obstacle course, having had no oppor-tunity to train for these in the brief two months at his disposal. As Lukas says: “If the Cybathlon Experience hadn’t come around, we would probably have

University of Technology interrupted their Bachelor’s and Master’s courses for one year to work on the exoskeleton in what they call the Dream Team. Over a period of one month, their pre-decessors shared with them all the ex-pertise they had gained in the course of their own project. The fourth- generation Dream Team then spent a year constructing a new version of the existing exoskeleton called March IV – with the knowledge and occa sional support of the old team. Sjaan Quirijns, the exoskeleton pilot, was on board from the start. Thanks to the valuable experience with exoskel-etons she had gained working with the previous team and in other research projects, she was able to provide the new team with optimum support.

coached Rolf to tackle other obstacles, made certain changes and carried out tests. But since the exoskeleton was already working so well, we didn’t want to tinker with it anymore. Never change a winning team!”

While Rolf is giving a brief inter-view at the end of the obstacle course, the Project March team starts prepar-ing for its demonstration. Sjaan is sit-ting in her wheelchair. At this point, she would normally haul herself

The obstacle course also includes a bar-table slalom.

“Obviously we talked to our predecessors, and they gave us some valuable tips, but the concept we pursued wasn’t comparable with theirs.”

REPORT REPORT4041

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

into the empty exoskeleton sitting on the bench beside her. But this time the demonstration will take place without a pilot, which has nothing to do with her and everything to do with the technology. A few hours before, the March IV exoskeleton wasn’t able to move forwards and had to be repaired. As the team had no time to test the system prior to the demonstration, safety dictates the exoskeleton remain empty and tackle the obstacles without a pilot, but in the company of three helpers.

Standing up, tackling the slalom, balancing on the sideways slope and climbing stairs – none of that poses a problem for March IV. On the slope the team presents its latest innovation: the exoskeleton moves sideways, the hip motors slowly shifting one leg after the other to the side. Though specially de-veloped for the sloping surface, this sideways movement also helps the pilot retain his or her balance when walking straight ahead.

Not ready yet for everyday useWhile the two exoskeletons can do a lot, they’re not yet suitable for every-day use. From the outset, VariLeg en-hanced’s exoskeleton was conceived for the obstacles of Cybathlon 2020. To this end, the movements of a person walking through the obstacles were rec orded and programmed into the software. Whereas Sjaan can choose between three steps of different lengths on the crutch display of her exoskel-eton, Rolf has only one at his disposal. What’s more – unlike March IV – the ankles of the VariLeg enhanced exo-skeleton cannot be moved. “It’s not necessary for the obstacles in the Cybathlon and would require addition-al motors that would increase the weight of the exoskeleton,” says Lukas. Project March has a different take on this: mobile ankle joints are ex-

tremely useful for a natural gait and to tackle obstacles efficiently. The Dutch team is convinced that the exoskeleton needs to be as comfortable and suitable for everyday use as possible in order to win the Powered Exoskeleton Race category at the Cybathlon.

Looking forward to the CybathlonBoth teams have their work cut out for them in the run-up to Cybathlon 2020: Sjaan will train with the new Dream Team, while development of the VariLeg enhanced exoskeleton will continue under the leadership of HSR. Immediately after the Cybathlon Ex-perience, the researchers take the exo-skeleton apart to ensure that every-thing is still intact after the intensive training and demonstration sessions. They also want to make some changes to the system. “We’ll start by address-ing the things the students simply didn’t have time for during the focus project,” says Silvia Rohner, a lab worker at HSR. That includes, for ex-ample, optimising the code and prop-erly documenting everything. At Rolf’s suggestion, they will also be reducing the time taken to complete each step in order to improve balance.

Right now, Sjaan, the Project March pilot, is making her way through the Cybathlon Experience obstacle course at a relatively rapid pace. Having successfully completed the course with an empty exoskeleton, the

team is now attempting a run-through with a pilot. As Sjaan makes her way down the last steps of the stairs, the Dutch team is greatly relieved – and clearly looking forward to Cybathlon 2020.

VariLeg enhanced:→ www.varileg-enhanced.ch

Project MARCH: → www.projectmarch.nl

“We’ll start by addressing the things the students simply didn’t have time for during the focus project.”

CYBATHLONThe Cybathlon is a unique championship in which people with physical disabilities compete against each other to complete everyday tasks using state-of-the-art technical assistance systems. The first competition organised by ETH Zurich was successfully launched in 2016. The gates of the SWISS Arena in Kloten near Zurich will be opened for the continuation of the Cybathlon on 2–3 May 2020. Tickets:→ www.cybathlon.com/tickets

The Cybathlon is supported by numerous partners, including maxon, Schulthess Klinik, EKZ, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, BNP Paribas, Ernst Göhner Foundation, Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, the City of Kloten, the Cerebral Foundation, MBF Foundation, Pro Infirmis, PluSport, Hocoma and Balgrist University Hospital. The ETH Foundation is looking for additional partners.Support the Cybathlon:→ www.ethz-foundation.ch/en/cybathlon

Pilot Sjaan Quirijns of Project March is highly experienced.

Even sideways steps are possible with the March IV exoskeleton.

CONNECTED4243

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019

4 ETH Day

AWARD OF HONORARY DOCTORATEAt this year’s ETH Day, Sarah Springman, Rector of ETH Zurich (left), ETH President Joël Mesot (sec-ond from right) and Jérôme Faist, Head of the Department of Physics (right), presented an outstanding sci-entist with an honorary doctorate: the physicist Evelyn Hu was hon-oured for her major contribution to the field of semiconductor physics and to the development of technol-ogies that form the basis for a host of optoelectronic switching elements. Hu was already working in nanotech-nology before this field was even properly defined as such. After com-pleting her doctorate in particle phys-ics at Columbia University, she joined AT&T’s Bell Laboratories in 1975. She was appointed as professor at the University of California, Santa Bar-bara in 1984 and at Harvard Univer-sity in 2009.

5 ETH at OLMA

MICROBES AND AGRICULTUREThe ETH Zurich stand at this year’s OLMA treated visitors to a tour of the world of bacteria and other micro organisms. In the company of ETH President Joël Mesot (centre, right), Federal Councillor Alain Berset (centre, left) enjoyed a fascin-ating introduction to the importance of microbes to agriculture and human health. With around 350,000 visitors, OLMA is Switzerland’s largest agri-culture and food trade fair.

1 Scientifica

SCIENCE UP CLOSEThis year’s edition of Scientifica was a resounding success, with 20,000 to 30,000 visitors seizing the opportun-ity to take a closer look at research being done at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. The motto of this year’s Zurich science fair was Science Fiction – Science Facts. It featured numerous highlights, includ-ing a session on the magic of physics (inset photo) and the opportunity to speak directly with researchers at vari ous stands.

2 Marcel Benoist Prize

“SWISS NOBEL PRIZE” Nicola Spaldin (right), Professor of Materials Theory at ETH Zurich , has been awarded the Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize for her ground-breaking research into multiferroic materials. Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin (left) presented Spaldin with the prize, worth 250,000 Swiss francs.

3 Professorship in genome biology

DONORS ATTEND INAUGURAL LECTUREProfessor Jacob Corn (second from left) gave his inaugural lecture at ETH Zurich in early October. ETH Rector Sarah M. Springman (third from left) welcomed representatives from the Lotte und Adolf Hotz-Sprenger Stiftung and the NOMIS Founda-tion , both of which have helped fund the new professorship in genome biol-ogy. Professor Corn is investigating how to detect and repair damage to DNA by means of genome editing, a process whereby individual genes are deleted, inserted or modified.

Images: Alessandro Della Bella (2); © SNF / Daniel Rihs;courtesy of ETH Foundation; Sebastian Wagner; Oliver Bartenschlager

1 Scientifica

Young visitors have fun with

physics at Scientifica

2 Marcel Benoist Prize

4 ETH Day

5 ETH at OLMA

3 Professorship in genome biology

CONNECTED4445

ETH GLOBE 4/2019ETH GLOBE 4/2019Images: Jean Gaberell, Baugeschichtliches Archiv der

Stadt Zürich; AdobeStock;Images: Reinhard Berndt, Fungarium; Alessandro Della Bella;Artur Pawłowski, the cello voice; Ruby Press

MUSIC 21 January 2020, 7.30 p.m. The beautiful voice of the celloThis concert features the winner of New York’s Naumburg International Cello Competition, Lev Sivkov. He will be playing an inspiring selection of works in the ETH Semperaula, including suites by M. Reger, B. Britten, J.S. Bach, L. Berio and J. Ibert. The concert will also include the European premiere of the solo cello piece Rising by Eric Tanguy. The aim is to showcase solo cello works from different stylistic epochs.

ETH Zurich, Main Building, Semper Aula→ www.musicaldiscovery.ch/konzerte/4

EXPERIENCE 14–17 April 2020, 10 a.m – 3 p.m. Happy city for kids How do you make city dwellers smile? Perhaps with a round of applause from a waste bin? The CreativeLabz project run by the Plant Science Center uses electronic components, microcontrollers and plants to bring such novel ideas to life.

ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, Student Project House→ www.creativelabz.ch/

happy-city- ferienkurs

TOURS 28 January 2020, 6.15–7.15 p.m. Coral fungi and octopus stinkhornsFrom coral fungi to the octopus stinkhorn, fungi come in an extraordinarily diverse range of shapes. Join us on this tour to discover what amazing things can be created through the skilful weaving, felting and gluing of fungal hyphae.

ETH Zurich, Universitätsstrasse 16, CHN building, main entrance

17 March 2020, 6.15–7.15 p.m. A glimpse behind the scenesThis tour delves deep into the past and present of the ETH Library. We’ll be taking a look at our printed books and maps and exploring how we organise and dispatch our physical documents. Then we’ll head to the computer room to show you how to access our electronic resources from the comfort of your own home.

ETH Zurich, Main Building, ETH Library

Information on public tours:→ www.tours.ethz.ch

EXHIBITIONS Until 31 January 2020 How do we want to live?This exhibition immerses visitors in the topic of non-commercial housing and explores the present and future of cooperative living. Everyone who attends the exhibition automatically becomes a member of the Bellerive cooperative when they purchase their ticket. As a member of the cooperative, they help decide how life in Villa Bellerive should be organised. In this way, the exhibition forces us to constantly examine our own attitudes – probing our beliefs, inspiring us, and potentially turning our views on their head.

ZAZ Zurich Architecture Center (Villa Bellerive), Höschgasse 3→ www.zaz-bellerive.ch

Until 29 February 2020

Privacy – protected, shared, soldThis exhibition sheds light on key aspects of privacy – and reveals contradictions in our relationship to it. Examples from past and present show how social changes, the political climate and prevailing moral norms are reflected in discussions about privacy.

Stadthaus Zürich, Stadthausquai 17→ www.collegium.ethz.ch/en

Recommended reading

MIRRORING EFFECTS: Tales of Territory

The case studies presented in Mirror-ing Effects: Tales of Territory unfold as real-life stories that explore how today’s urbanisation processes con-tribute to the organisation of terri-tory, particularly in light of economic globalisation. These incredible, yet true, tales help us understand the on-going restructuring of built and lived spaces in the geographical regions generally referred to as the global south and global north.

Though the two parts of this vol-ume are divided along this political and economic equator, the stories gradually start to blur that very dis-tinction. Taking the reader on a jour-ney around the globe that encom-passes Addis Ababa, Mumbai, Cairo, São Paulo, Dubai, Berlin, Paris and Shanghai, the tales reveal how the ap-parently generic forces of the neo- liberal economy have very different effects on local realities. The book highlights both the physical charac-teristics of the territorial changes that are currently unfolding as well as the social transformations that underlie the all the many facets of the current geo-economic order.

Authors: Marc Angelil, Cary SiressPublished by: Ruby PressISBN 9783944074290Language: Only available in English

Agenda

Alumni trip

TO THE ROOF OF THE WORLD

2–19 September 2020 On this 18-day trip, participants will experience the mysteries of Tibet first-hand. Starting in Kunming, we will journey through the ethnic minority areas of Yunnan to the heights of Tibet and the beautiful cities of Dali and Li-

jiang. From the impressive Tiger Leap-ing Gorge on the Yangtze River, we head to Shangri-La. Our time on the Tibetan plateau will include visits to the Ganden and Gyantse monasteries. Our tour then takes us back to Lhasa via the gorges of the Brahmaputra River.

For more information and to sign up, please visit:→ www.alumni.ethz.ch/events

focusTerra

ON OUR DOORSTEP Permanent exhibition The focusTerra museum will have a fresh new look in January 2020 once the current renovations are complete. The museum’s permanent exhibition ex-plores the interplay between geoscienc-es and pressing contemporary issues such as climate change, acute and long-term natural hazards, the use of energy and other resources, and the role of ge-

osciences in underground construction and the disposal of hazardous waste. The new permanent exhibition will also investigate how the Zurich landscape has changed over the past 12 million years.

ETH Zurich, focusTerra, Sonnegg strasse 5→ www.focusterra.ethz.ch

The famous Potala Palace in the picturesque Tibetan mountains

CONNECTED

4647

ETH GLOBE 4/2019 ETH GLOBE 4/2019

Many people consider the foundations of their career to have been laid in their student days. “That’s certainly how it was for me,” says Martina Hirayama. “And ETH was cen-tral to that.” Since early 2019, when she was appointed as State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, she has been directing the fortunes of Switzerland as a knowledge hub. Her own path through high-er education began with a degree in chemis-try, first at the University of Fribourg and then, after her second semester, at ETH, where she plunged into the realm of basic re-search, focusing in particular on polymers. She subsequently switched to Imperial College London to write her Master’s thesis, before returning to ETH in Switzerland to do her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Ulrich W. Suter, a Professor of Materials Science who was also ETH Vice President of Research from 2001 to 2005. Hirayama subsequently opted to remain at ETH to fin-ish off her education with a postgraduate de-gree in economics.

Chance discovery leads to spin-offAs part of her doctoral thesis on mono-molecular nanocoatings, she delved into the question of what makes adhesives work and whether this has more to do with physical or chemical interactions. “The answer, in sim-ple terms, was that both aspects are import-ant,” she says. The decisive factor is the totality of a system, she says, explaining how she was able to demonstrate that in her work at the time.

This conclusion echoes a thread that runs throughout the conversation with the State Secretary about her career, namely that the most effective way to solve a question is by successfully grasping all its many facets. This was certainly the case with a chance observa-tion that Hirayama stumbled upon while con-ducting experiments for her doctoral thesis. “We had observed a reaction in the lab that had nothing to do with the main focus of our project. But it was so unexpected and exciting that we were determined not to ignore it!” The specific result of this reaction was a sur-prisingly strong bond between a certain type of molecule and a surface.

Her scientific experiment had led to a “collateral benefit” – and this was what piqued Hirayama’s curiosity as a doctoral student and sparked her interest in the appli-cation of research results. It led to the patent-ing of a novel coating method and the found-ing of the ETH spin-off Global Surface, swift-ly followed by a number of other patent applications in the field of coating techno l-ogy. “Research typically takes you along a winding path rather than in a straight line,” says Hirayama. “The important thing is to persevere, because that often opens up new options,” she says. Over the course of her career, she gradually gained more and more experience in all the various ambits of educa-tion, research and innovation (ERI).

A talent for applying research findingsYet successfully launching a product requires more than just good technology. “The

The right chemistry for ERIHaving worked as a researcher, an entrepreneur and the head of a major educational institution, Martina Hirayama knows all the key components of the Swiss education system inside out – and that made her the perfect choice as State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation (ERI).TEXT Norbert Staub IMAGE Daniel Winkler

PROFILE PROFILE

MARTINA HIRAYAMA

As State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, Martina Hirayama works with her 280 staff on coordi- nating Switzerland’s education, research and innovation policy. Hirayama studied chem- istry before becoming a lecturer and researcher at ETH Zurich and the ZHAW. She has held positions including Dean and Managing Director of the ZHAW School of Engineering, President of the Institute Council at the Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS), and Vice President of the Board of Innosuisse. She and her family live in Hüttwilen in the canton of Thurgau.

“I’m excited by the oppor-tunity to help forge the foundations of what the ERI sector needs to succeed!”

Inspired by the best: Continuing education for specialists and managers with academic backgrounds

MAS, DAS, CAS and further education courses on www.sce.ethz.ch

ticket now

www.cybathlon.com/

tickets

Get your

2020SWISS ARENA KLOTEN

MOVING PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY

2–3 MAY

191120_Cybathlon_Inserat_Globe_173x113mm_RZ_EN.indd 1 20.11.19 10:3948

ETH GLOBE 4/2019

laboratory and the final product are worlds apart,” says Hirayama, who also studied busi-ness administration while writing her doctor-al thesis at ETH. “Moving from lab results to full-scale production involves huge chal-lenges. There are so many issues you have to address between initial experiments and vol-ume manufacturing, including funding, risks, quantities, energy, infrastructure and the time invested.”

It was also applied research that led Hirayama to take up a position at Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur in 2003, at a time when fledgling universities of applied sciences were bringing a new dynam-ic to the education system. Not long after, four of Zurich’s established universities merged to form the Zurich University of Ap-plied Sciences (ZHAW), a powerful new play-er in the Zurich knowledge hub. “I was thrilled to have that opportunity to help shape the future,” Hirayama recalls. She took up a chair in chemistry at the ZHAW in Win-terthur, where she developed the field of poly mer materials, lectured, conducted re-search and collaborated with industry part-ners to turn innovations into practical appli-cations. She co-founded and subsequently headed the Institute of Materials and Process Engineering and soon took charge of the en-tire field of engineering and computer sci-ence at the ZHAW. Around one fifth of all engineers that attend universities of applied sciences in Switzerland choose to study here.

From university to science policyHer appointment as State Secretary marks the culmination of her work in Swiss research and education, making her the highest repre-sentative of the entire system on both a na-tional and international level. So does she miss being at the heart of day-to-day research and development? “No. I’m simply too ex-cited by the opportunity to help forge the foundations of what the ERI sector needs to succeed!” She also refers to her lengthy in-volvement in nationwide Swiss institutions, noting how this has enhanced her ability to see the big picture. In 2011, she joined the Swiss funding agency for innovation CTI, continuing as Vice President in charge of mi-cro and nanotechnologies when this organi-sation was recast as Innosuisse. In 2016, she became a Member of the Foundation Council at the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Her expertise has expanded not only in geo-graphical terms, but also in terms of her breadth of knowledge. The State Secretary considers it essential to take a well thought-out approach to harmonising the ERI system, noting that two thirds of young Swiss people choose to do an apprenticeship. “We’re fortu-nate that vocational training and industry are so closely intertwined in Switzerland. That benefits the whole country.” She emphasises how important it is to maintain the appeal of this pathway in education, for example by establishing viable links to the university system.

Switzerland needs to go back to the drawing boardHirayama is also increasingly concerned with international issues, including preparing for Switzerland’s participation in Horizon Eur-ope, on a separate basis from the institutional framework agreement. “Strictly speaking there is no connection between the two dos-siers,” she says. “Nevertheless, Brussels may still push for a combined deal. But based on the constructive dialogue with our EU part-ners, I feel optimistic.”

She notes that it is perfectly natural to be absorbed by events in Europe, but equally im-portant to focus on the rest of the world. “It’s not just France and Germany, but also China and the US that have identified research and education as a strategically important part of their development. And the sums those latter countries are investing are truly breath-taking.” Hirayama is adamant that Switzer-land cannot maintain its leading position by simply investing more money. “That’s why we need to take an honest look at the situation and ask what approach makes sense in the fu-ture, where we can pool our strengths and how much funding we can feasibly allocate. Our country has no choice but to develop new, potent ideas and synergies, because the race will only be won by those who adapt best to international competition.”

“We’re fortunate that vocational training and industry are so closely intertwined in Switzerland. That benefits the whole country.”

PROFILE

5 QUESTIONS

A big

#FeelFreeToTransform

for you, a giant leap into the digital transformation of our customers.

Cedric Riester, Digital Consultant

Are you passionate about tearing down barriers and breaking new ground? What about transforming intelligent ideas into valuable solutions through creativity and skill? Then you’re in the right place. As an international service provider specialising in technology-driven innovation, we’ll offer you the right challenges – and plenty of professional freedom to face them. Feel free to Innovate. zuehlke-careers.com

50

ETH GLOBE 4/2019 Image: Caroline Laville

What did you want to be when you were a child?An astronaut! I remember my parents giving me a picture book about nature, the environment and our planet. It also featured astronauts and images of the Earth seen from space. The idea that astro-nauts could see the Earth from the outside was something I found fascinating – and I still do.

You did your doctorate at the ETH Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), where you now work as an assistant professor. What makes the VAW so special?The first things I should probably emphasise about the VAW in my position are the outstand-ing quality of its work, the professionalism of the research and teaching, and its unique infrastruc-ture. But I admit that what makes the VAW a truly special place for me is the great working at-mosphere. People love working there because they feel valued.

Your field of research is glaciers – but some people might say that it’s almost slipping away as we speak. How does that affect your work?The state of the glaciers and other elements of our environment is certainly cause for concern. But the upside for scientists is that our area of re-search is getting more attention than ever. A few decades ago glaciology was a niche topic, but now hardly a day goes by without glaciers being pub-licly discussed. It’s very motivating to see that the public perceives our research as both urgent and relevant.

Which of the world’s glacial regions has made the biggest impression on you?The Antarctic Peninsula. I’ve been lucky enough to lead fieldwork there twice, and the land scapes are incredible. Just picture the Swiss high- mountain regions in winter and imagine filling the valleys with water up to 3,000 metres. The glaciers that form on the jagged high alpine peaks reach as far as the Southern Ocean. It’s breathtak-ing!

Who has been your greatest influence in life? And why?My partner. Her determination, her comprehen-sive, wide-ranging knowledge and her dedication have had a huge effect on my professional life. I can’t think of anyone else who understands me so well and believes in me so strongly. The strength I can draw from that is extremely valuable, and the knowledge that the feeling is mutual makes us very happy. — Interview conducted by Karin Köchle

Daniel Farinotti is Assistant Professor of Glaciology at the ETH Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) and at the Swiss Federal Institute WSL.→ www.vaw.ethz.ch

“Our research is getting more

attention than ever.”

Daniel Farinotti is a glaciologist. Working as part of an international research team, he showed that the volume of ice

in glaciers worldwide is lower than previously thought.

Precision Drive Systems

maxon is supporting the Cybathlon 2020 in Zurich as a Presenting Partner – because we believe that extraordinary engineers and technicians are changing the world for the better. What can we do for you? www.maxongroup.com

Change the world with a reliable partner

173x232.indd 2 23.07.2019 11:00:41