Alumni News

On September 6, 2024, Beat Keller, Head of Department 3R (Revision, Repair and Refit) at Stadler Service Switzerland, gave us a deep insight and outlook into the processes from damage to rail vehicles to damage assessment, transport and refurbishment to recommissioning.

In just under 6000 steps Eugen Galliker expertly guided us through the hangar at Zurich Airport and the SR Technics engine workshop on May 29 2024.

Mathematicians turn coffee into theorems - and engineers want to know how to make the best coffee!

"What is the hottest chilli you have here?" was one of the first questions we asked Felix Decurtins, the "Chilli Baron", when we AMIV and human medicine alumni visited him at his production nursery in Horgen.

The inspiring event at Sonova stood in stark contrast to the gloomy weather on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, when Chapter Zurich and AMIV Alumni invited alumni for a joint tour of Sonova's headquarters in Stäfa. Around 30 ETH alumnae and alumni were introduced to today's world of hearing and its future.

AMIV Alumni members were able to visit the broadcasting tower with its eventful history for the last time as part of a guided tour. Werner Kriesi, a long-time employee, gave us an informative presentation on the history of the site and today's transmitter station, which he had largely experienced himself, and accompanied us through the facility.

Practice makes perfect. This motto applies especially to the "craftsmanship" of surgery; all the more so when it involves laparoscopic or arthroscopic procedures. On 1 March 2023, 25 interested members of the ETH Alumni were able to experience first-hand how the company VirtaMed supports aspiring and experienced surgeons in this field during a visit to the premises of VirtaMed on Rütistrasse in Schlieren.

ETH alumni Diego Sigrist and Kuba Szczesniak are co-founders of the start-up 'Scandens'. They are working on a software solution to easily quantify, understand and optimise the climate impact of buildings. They talk about their passion to change things and their growing concern for the climate which originated from their time at ETH.

The company tour at Zweifel Pomy-Chips AG was very well attended. On a September afternoon, around 30 alumni and alumnae met in front of the orange-coloured company complex in Spreitenbach.

On 18 May, members of AMIV Alumni were given the opportunity to visit the company Inmark AG. During the tour, the participants learned more about interesting details with regard to recycling and disposal processes of electronic equipment.

“Choco Deluxe” was the euphonious slogan of the guided tour through “Lindt Home of Chocolate”. Fourteen AMIV alumni and alumnae seized the opportunity and took part on a late Wednesday afternoon in mid-April.

On 11 March, AMIV Alumni had the chance to sight a ship from close up. This ship will transport commuters between Switzerland and France one day.

If online only, please sweeten it! Well, one of the whiskies we tasted at the third online tasting on 21 September 2021 actually received the unanimous rating “honey”. However, already in the first two tastings, the whole enormous spectrum of whisky tastes spread out - albeit only individually at home, it had its own special charm.

The first AMIV Alumni Networking Dinner took place on September 23, 2021. It was inspiring to see how participants made new professional contacts while enjoying an excellent meal at the Restaurant Seerose in Zurich.

ETH mechanical engineer Ferdinand Metzler was still writing his Bachelor’s dissertation and had already started his Master’s degree when he founded his company Fision. He wants to use his idea to act as a positive force on the clothing market. Since 2020, he’s taken great strides towards achieving this vision: by selling to Zalando, he now has access to around 40 million customers. He talks to us today about how he wants to set new standards and drive forward development in the European clothing industry.

On 4 February 2021, AMIV Alumni met again for an unconventional regulars’ table online. This time, we spotted a new interactive platform that all participants appreciated and moreover, the platform enabled a spontaneous exchange almost like in real life.

How is this possible? Who hasn’t already had enough video sessions and now we were supposed to volunteer for another one. Nevertheless, the AMIV Alumni board took a chance and organised an online meeting. Though, they did meet neither on Zoom, MS Teams nor Skype, but on a very special platform, which convinced all participants.

The Stamm is established as a permanent institution among the AMIV Alumni. A diverse range of frequent and new visitors, of fresh graduates and retirees, of self- and permanent employees always results in an interesting evening.  

Konstantinos Boulouchos received a doctorate from ETH Zurich and since 2002 has worked as a professor at the Institute of Energy Technology in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. He spoke to us about the conflicts between environmental sustainability, security of energy supplies and economic viability.

Lisa Poulikakos did her bachelor, master and PhD at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH. In October 2019, she received a prestigious award from L’Oréal USA For Women in Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her research in technology that uses light to enable on-the-spot, accurate and cost-effective diagnosis of tissue biopsies, including breast cancer and other serious diseases.

After one month only, the AMIV Alumni met for another “Stamm” again. This time however, it was due to a special reason: Simon Frei had decided to pass on his duty as president after 13 years.

Where is the optimal climate for start-ups in Eastern Switzerland? And in the future, how will the “weather forecasts” get even better for start-ups? A group of AMIV Alumni pursued these questions on October 15, 2019.

ETH Alumnus Julian Heeb graduated 2006 from a master in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. With ginto, he and some friends developed an app for accessibility for people with a disability that rates restaurants, bars and shops. This app recently won a digital and an innovation award. In an interview, Julian tells us about his experiences at ETH as well as how he got the idea for this app.

A group of 40 AMIV Alumni was able to visit the company Sensirion on May 23, 2019 in Stäfa. After a welcoming and an introductive presentation of the company, the participants learned more about the development of products and operations. The visit ended with an interesting tour of the company and a subsequent aperitif.

The AMIV Alumni’s panel discussion took place on March 21, 2019, in collaboration with the AMIV Alumni, the Process Alumni and AMIV as part of the career events. The discussion was dedicated to the topic of “career entry” and therefore could give the graduating students some kind of support. The manigfold selection of speakers was able to attract about 40 participants, students as well as alumni.

The relatively new AMIV-Alumni Stamm enthralled 17 participants in its second edition with new specialist-contacts and exquisite nibbles on January 23, 2019.

On Thursday October 18, 2018 around 20 members of AMIV Alumni met in order to visit the hearing aid producer Sonova AG in Stäfa. The traditional Swiss company, who is still known for their main brand Phonak, researches, develops and produces innovative solutions for hearing aids. 

An airplane -  this means technic, fascination and pure emotion! Over 2000 employees at the headquarters of Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG in Stans give wings to this exaltation - literally. 20 members of the MAS MTEC, AMIV and Process Alumni got the chance to visit the aircraft factory and experience the production of aircrafts on September 12, 2018.