IfI News 2017

BSc, MSc, and PhD Graduations

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 07:41:59 GMT

The Department of Informatics congratulates its 30 Bachelor, 25 Master, and 13 PhD students for having successfully completed their degrees! 🎉

Abraham Bernstein on Digitalization and Politics

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 16:30:37 GMT

Abraham Bernstein encourages the government to embrace digitalization also in political processes.

Thomas Fritz appointed Professor for Human-Oriented Software Engineering

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 13:07:59 GMT

Thomas Fritz has been appointed Associate Professor for Human-Oriented Software Engineering.

Bitcoins vs. Bargeld

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:48:09 GMT

Wie sicher ist die Bezahlung mit Bitcoins wirklich?

Burkhard Stiller über Blockchains

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 12:05:11 GMT

Im Rahmen der UZH Lunchveranstaltung «Digitales Marketing und digitale Transformation» hielt Burkhard Stiller einen Vortrag.

Sven Seuken among "Top 40 under 40"

Thu, 23 Nov 2017 09:54:52 GMT

Sven Seuken was selected by the magazine Capital as one of the outstanding talents under 40 years. Congratulations!

Live Paper in SRF Wissen

Sun, 19 Nov 2017 23:00:00 GMT

In der Hypothekarbank Lenzburg kommt «Live Paper» zum Einsatz: Objekte der realen Welt (Papierblätter, menschliche Hände) werden über ein Projektionssystem mit digitalen Inhalten kombiniert. Entwickelt wird das Projekt von der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz zusammen mit Informatikern der Information Management Research Group. Beitrag auf der Seite von «SRF Wissen»

UZH Teaching Funds for ZPAC project

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 12:11:16 GMT

Each year the University of Zurich supports innovative concepts in teaching. The project ATStat: Active Training in Statistics (Chat Wacharamanotham, People and Computing Lab, together with Carolin Strobl, Rudolf Debelak, and Stella Bollmann from the Department of Psychology) is one of this year's funding recipients.

UZH-Lehrkredit für IMRG-Projekt

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 11:44:43 GMT

Jedes Jahr schreibt die Universität Zürich einen kompetitiven Lehrkredit zur Unterstützung innovativer Lehrprojekte aus. Erfahrbare ERP-Systeme und ERP-Systementwicklung (Gerhard Schwabe, Information Management Research Group) hat in der Ausschreibung 2017 einen Zuschlag gekriegt.

Blockchain-based Car Dossier

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 10:02:00 GMT

Managing the history of a vehicle is useful for insurance companies, garages, used-car dealers, and other stakeholders. Blockchain technology has the potential to ensure a transparent and secure way the stakeholders can access and administer this information.

Swiss software company AdNovum in cooperation with the Information Management Research Group and other partners is now developing a Car Dossier based on blockchain technology.

More…

Das Finanzwesen im Umbruch

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 06:35:37 GMT

Am Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab der Universität Zürich dreht sich alles um die Frage: Wie lässt sich moderne Technologie im Finanzwesen nutzen, um den Finanz- und Versicherungsplatz Schweiz für die Zukunft fit zu machen?

Portrait in den UZH News.

Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab on Digital Change

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 08:28:44 GMT

The Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab of the University of Zurich was established in 2016 by the Department of Informatics and the Department of Banking and Finance. Its research revolves around the question: How can modern technologies be used to make the Swiss financial sector fit for the digital future?

Portrait in UZH News.

Procivis and Communication Systems Group develop Blockchain-based e-voting solution

Tue, 26 Sep 2017 12:38:03 GMT

The Communication Systems Group and Swiss e-government startup Procivis will develop an electronic voting solution. Based on Blockchains, the platform will cover the entire voting process and is planned to be made available publicly as open source software. More…

Drones can almost see in the dark

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 10:36:31 GMT

A group of researchers around Davide Scaramuzza, head of the Robotics and Perception Group, have taught drones to orient themselves using an eye-inspired event camera. This enables agile maneuvers even in low-light environments.

Video (on Youtube)

UZH News release…

Wenn Computer lügen lernen

Mon, 18 Sep 2017 07:42:40 GMT

Vom 22. bis 24. September findet in Vitznau der Salon Public statt. Unter dem Motto «Kluge Köpfe erklären die Welt» werden Themen wie die Digitalisierung, das Weltall, Armut und das Gehirn diskutiert. Abraham Bernstein (Dynamic and Distributed Information Systems Group) erklärt die künstliche Intelligenz.

Der Eintritt ist frei, Anmeldung ist erforderlich.

Awards at RE'17 for RERG members

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 10:01:53 GMT

Apart from Martin Glinz' Most Influential Paper Award, members of the Requirements Engineering Research Group have been collecting other trophies: Parisa Ghazi, Zahra Shakeri Hossein Abad and Martin Glinz have won the Best Poster and Research Demo Award at the 25th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference. More…

Congratulations!

SNSF Professorship at IfI: Alberto Bacchelli

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 06:35:12 GMT

Alberto Bacchelli, former assistant professor at TU Delft, has joined IfI in August. He was awarded a professorship by the Swiss National Science Foundation and is now establishing the “Zurich Empirical Software Engineering Team” (ZEST) here. Welcome to the IfI, Alberto!

Martin Glinz receives the Most Influential Paper Award at RE’17

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 06:23:37 GMT

Martin Glinz, head of the Requirements Engineering Research Group, received the Most Influential Paper Award at the 25th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference for his paper "On Non-Functional Requirements" from ten years ago. More…

Congratulations!

BandwidthX Appoints Sven Seuken as Chief Economist

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 06:19:44 GMT

Sven Seuken, head of the Computation and Economics Research Group at IfI, has been appointed Chief Economist at BandwidthX, the operator of a B2B cloud-based mobile data market. At BandwidthX, Sven Seuken will be overseeing the design and analysis of market mechanisms and trading rules.

Congratulations on this appointment!

Read the full story here!

Es geht um unsere Zukunft

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 06:19:59 GMT

Die Schweiz macht digital mobil: Abraham Bernstein (Dynamic and Distributed Information Systems Group) und Jürgen Schmidhuber (Università della Svizzera Italiana) gehören zu den hellsten Köpfen der Schweiz. Bericht des SonntagsBlicks vom 10. September 2017

CSG partner modum.io raises 4.2 million USD in 10 minutes

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 12:33:34 GMT

Pioneering the use of blockchain and IoT technologies in the pharmaceutical supply chain, UZH start-up modum.io partners with Burkhard Stiller's Communication Systems Group. This technology is hot: On its first day modum.io was offered at the International Token Offering it raised 4.2 Million USD within 10 minutes! More…

Cross-disciplinary Project between the Department of Film Studies and IfI

Mon, 04 Sep 2017 22:00:00 GMT

Prof. Pajarola's research group, the Visualization and MultiMedia Lab, is supporting the ERC AdvG research project FilmColors. Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Aesthetics of Prof. Barbara Flückiger through the development of film and color analysis tools as presented at the Workshop on Computer Vision in Digital Humanities as part of the Digital Humanities Conference 2017 in Montreal.

See the article of the Special Interest Group AudioVisual material in Digital Humanities here.

Two New Associate Professorships at IfI

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 08:28:50 GMT

As per 1 September 2017, the Board of the University has appointed Dr. Davide Scaramuzza as Associate Professor ad Personam for Robotics and Perception and Dr. Sven Seuken as Associate Professor for Computation and Economics.

The Department Management and everybody at IfI congratulate Davide and Sven on their appointments! 🎉

CAPATHITY: Simulating the Post-fossil Swiss City

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:44:25 GMT

The Informatics and Sustainability Research group and Empa’s Technology and Society Lab will work together on CAPATHITY (Constraint-Aware Pathways to the Post-Fossil Swiss City).

This project is supported by the National Research Program 73 "Sustainable Economy" and aims to provide both visionary and realistic pathways to a post-fossil economy.

A major outcome of CAPATHITY will be a simulation game that shows what the "Swiss City" 2050 could look like. The simulations take into account materials, technology, the natural environment, and societal constraints.

More…

New Study on Digitalization and Climate Protection Published

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:39:31 GMT

The Informatics and Sustainability Research group published a new study on “Opportunities and Risks of Digitalization for Climate Protection in Switzerland” in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Swisscom, authored by Lorenz Hilty and Jan Bieser.

More…

100 Digital Shapers 2017: Die Vordenker

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 08:15:30 GMT

Das Schweizer Wirtschaftsmagazin Bilanz hat 100 Menschen zu den «Digital Shapers 2017» gekürt.

Abraham Bernstein, Gründer der UZH Digital Society Initiative, gehört dabei zu den Vordenkern: «Sie denken ihrer Zeit voraus und sehen das grosse Ganze: Was macht die Digitalisierung mit dem Menschen und der Gesellschaft?»

Globales Hirn: Interview in UZH News

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 14:07:31 GMT

Interview in den UZH News: «Die Digitalisierung beschleunigt die Wissenschaft und verändert die Forschung. Abraham Bernstein und Michael Hengartner über die digitale Revolution und die Rolle der UZH.» Zum Beitrag

We put the "IfI" in "Scientifica" :-)

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 07:34:18 GMT

The Department of Informatics is represented with a number of events at this year's Scientifica:

Exhibition: Wie aus räumlichen Daten Wissen wird: Big Data in 3D

Exhibition: Wie fliegende Roboter sehen lernen

Exhibition: Zürich interaktiv

Science Café: Mehr Daten – weniger Verbrauch?

Science Café: Nehmen Roboter uns die Arbeit weg?

Show: Fliegende Roboter

Talk: Wenn Computer Hilfe brauchen - Datenanalyse mit Crowds

Workshop: Data Science im Unternehmen: Was können Sie aus Ihren Daten herausholen?

Visit us at Scientifica from 1 to 3 September at the main buildings of UZH and ETHZ!

Thomas Puschmann appointed Innovation Council member

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 09:07:56 GMT

As of 1 January 2018, Innosuisse will take over the functions of the current Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI). The Innosuisse Board has now appointed the 20 members of the Innovation Council. Thomas Puschmann from the Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab is one of them -- congratulations!

Fokus: Social Bots

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 06:18:59 GMT

Was sind Social Bots? Wie beeinflussen sie die öffentliche Meinung?

Antworten gibt Abraham Bernstein im Beitrag in «10 vor 10», SRF vom 4. Juli 2017

Das Shopping der Zukunft

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 08:03:03 GMT

Wie kann maschinelles Lernen die Zukunft des Shoppings verbessern? Wie sieht es mit der Werbung aus?

Antworten gibt Abraham Bernstein im Interview auf Radio SRF: Wirtschaftsmagazin «Trend» vom 1. Juli 2017 (ab Minute 20).

Kickstarting the UX/HCI Community in Thailand

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 13:29:15 GMT

Chat Wacharamanotham and his colleagues in Thailand had been awarded a funding from ACM SIGCHI Development Fund to organize a workshop to kickstart UX/HCI community in Thailand.

The workshop held on 11 June 2017 attracted 28 practitioners and academics. Participants brainstormed about problems and action items for the UX/HCI community in Thailand. The results of this workshop are a concrete plan to grow the community as well as the founding of ThaiCHI: The Thai ACM SIGCHI Local Chapter of which Chat Wacharamanotham is now the secretary.

Informatiktage 2017 at IfI

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 06:28:03 GMT

For informatics you need full concentration, keen perception – and some perseverance, too. But in the end it’s a lot of fun!

Visitors of the Informatiktage 2017 had the opportunity to experience this for themselves at the Department of Informatics on 16 and 17 June.

We look forward to many visitors again next time!

Semester Award for Markus Göckeritz

Daniel Spicar — Mon, 15 May 2017 13:08:55 GMT

DDIS student Markus Göckeritz wins the University of Zurich's Semester Award for his bachelor thesis Quantifying and Correcting the Majority Illusion in Social Networks. Each term 30 outstanding term projects and theses from all faculties are awarded by the president of the university.

Congratulations!

Martin Glinz’ Farewell Lecture

Wed, 10 May 2017 05:52:50 GMT

In an almost fully-packed lecture hall at Binzmühlestrasse, Martin Glinz held his farewell lecture, reminiscing about the history of Requirements Engineering – and his own part in it. Before being greeted with an apéro in the entrance hall, the crowd was pleased to hear that Martin will be staying two more years at IfI, making his transition from Requirements Engineering to Retirement Engineering a smooth one.

Robotics and Perception Group Wins 2017 Misha Mahowald Prize

Tue, 09 May 2017 12:44:05 GMT

Davide Scaramuzza's Robotics and Perception Group wins this year's Misha Mahowald Prize "for their pathbreaking applications of neuromorphic engineering to robot navigation". Congratulations!

FlowLight: A Highlight of IfI Research

Mon, 08 May 2017 09:01:40 GMT

FlowLight in the New Scientist

Tue, 02 May 2017 06:20:27 GMT

“Can’t you see I’m busy? A desk-mounted traffic light system automatically measures how hard a person is working to tell would-be interrupters when to stay well away.”

The New Scientist reports about the FlowLight system, which was developed by SEAL (Thomas Fritz, Manuela Züger, André Meyer) and ABB (David Shepherd).

FlowLight measures a worker's activity and indicates with a color LED light whether he or she may or may not be interrupted.

(Image credit: FlowLight Team)

Timo Mennle wins 2017 Mercator Award!

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:32:07 GMT

Dr. Timo Mennle, who finished his PhD under Prof. Sven Seuken's supervision in 2016, won the prestigious Mercator Award for the best PhD thesis in Law and Economics. The award recognizes outstanding scientific achievements of societal relevance that apply inter- or transdisciplinary approaches or methods.

See full news here.

Congratulations!

Raffaele Fabio Ciriello Assistant Professor in Copenhagen

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 11:49:21 GMT

Raffaele Fabio Ciriello from Gerd Schwabe's Information Management Research Group will soon start an Assistant Professorship at IT University in Copenhagen. Congratulations!

Drone Research Media Coverage Ranks 3rd

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:24:12 GMT

According to an article in UZH Journal 1/2017(PDF), Davide Scaramuzza’s research on drones ranks 3rd on the list of UZH Media Relation’s most popular news releases of 2016.

Original paper

YouTube video

UZH Journal

Der Mensch verliert sein Poker-Gesicht

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 09:16:21 GMT

Die Software «Libratus» von Tuomas Sandholm und Noam Brown (Carnegie Mellon University) schlägt die besten Pokerspieler, nachdem sie sich das Spiel selber beigebracht hatte. In dieser Sendung von Schweizer Radio SRF kommentiert Avi Bernstein die Vorteile von maschinellem Lernen bei unvollständigen Informationen.

Avi Bernstein elected SNSF evaluation committee member

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 16:02:32 GMT

We are happy to announce that Abraham Bernstein was named external member of the SNSF Ambizione career program evaluation committee. Congratulations!

Renato Pajarola awarded ACM Senior Membership

Tue, 10 Jan 2017 12:23:03 GMT

We are proud to announce that the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently named Renato Pajarola as a Senior Member in recognition of his contributions to computer graphics and visualization. Pajarola, head of the Visualization and Multimedia Lab, is the first IfI professor to be nominated for this recognition. Congratulations!