“How often do we walk through a place without ever wondering what lies beneath it?”

I’ve walked across Campus Hönggerberg many times. Like most people, I admired the architecture, hurried between buildings and associated innovation with laboratories, artificial intelligence and groundbreaking research. It never occurred to me that one of ETH Zurich’s most fascinating innovations wasn’t inside a laboratory at all. It was beneath my feet. When I joined the Anergy Grid Tour (German: Anergienetz), I expected to learn how buildings are heated and cooled. Instead, I left seeing the campus in a completely different way.

There is another ETH beneath the one we know

Walking through the underground technical corridors felt like entering a hidden city. Instead of lecture halls and cafés, I found pumps, pipes, heat exchangers and control systems quietly working behind the scenes. It was easy to forget that only a few metres above us, campus life continued as usual.

One sentence stayed with me throughout the tour:

“Above ground, people exchange ideas. Below ground, buildings exchange energy.”

Suddenly, the campus no longer felt like a collection of individual buildings. It felt like one connected organism.

More than engineering

As Philipp Heitemann, one of the driving forces behind ETH Zurich’s Anergy Grid and the leader of its tours, guided us through the facilities, I realised this wasn’t really a story about technology.

It was a story about thinking differently.

Since 2013, ETH Zurich’s Anergy Grid has connected buildings through an intelligent low-temperature energy network. Instead of wasting excess heat, it stores thermal energy underground and redistributes it whenever another building needs it.

The technology is impressive. The philosophy behind it impressed me even more. Before the tour, I thought sustainability was mainly about producing more renewable energy. The Anergy Grid introduced me to another perspective:

Maybe the future isn’t only about producing more. Maybe it’s about wasting less. That simple idea has stayed with me ever since.

Coffee with Philipp

Before leaving, I asked Philipp a few questions that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

What do visitors almost always overlook during the tour?

“Most people focus on the technology. I hope they also notice the way of thinking behind it. The real innovation isn’t just the infrastructure—it’s the idea that buildings can cooperate instead of working independently.”

What’s one question you wish people asked more often?

“Instead of asking how the system works, I’d love more people to ask how we can transfer this way of thinking to entire neighbourhoods and cities.

“Imagine we’re standing here again in 2050. What do you hope we’ll see beneath our cities?

“I hope connected energy systems have become completely normal. The less people notice them, the better they’re probably working.”

Facts That Surprised Me

First in the world:The Anergy Grid went into operation in 2010 as the world’s first low-temperature anergy network—a pioneering concept that continues to inspire similar projects around the globe.

The ground is a giant thermal battery: Thermal energy can be stored underground for months and recovered when it’s needed.

Heat gets a second life: Instead of being wasted, excess heat is captured, stored and reused elsewhere in the network.

One network. Two seasons: The same infrastructure heats buildings in winter and cools them in summer.

Buildings work together: Instead of operating independently, they exchange thermal energy through one connected system.

Open source: The concept is openly shared, allowing cities, universities and organizations worldwide to build on ETH Zurich’s experience.

Curious? Join one of Philipp Heitemann’s Anergy Grid tours and discover the hidden world beneath Campus Hönggerberg.

Five Things I Took Home

• Innovation doesn’t always have to be visible.
• Great ideas often come from connecting existing systems rather than inventing new ones.
• Sustainability begins with systems thinking.
• Some of the smartest technologies quietly work in the background.
• Looking beneath the surface can completely change how we see the world above it.

Walking back across Campus Hönggerberg, nothing around me had changed. Students were still cycling between lectures. Researchers were still discussing ideas over coffee. The buildings looked exactly the same. Only my perspective had changed. Sometimes the most remarkable innovations aren’t the ones we immediately notice. Sometimes they’re quietly working beneath our feet. And perhaps that’s the most inspiring lesson I took home from the Anergy Grid Tour.

Visit ETH Zurich as part of a tour. Come along and discover what ETH Zurich has to offer, in ways that are as varied as our visitors themselves.

Allegra! My name is Laura. I am a Computational Biologist currently finishing up my Master’s degree at ETH. For the past three months, I have been based at SIAF (Schweizer Institut für Allergie- und Asthmaforschung) working on an ETH Studio Davos project: building an isoform-specific database of the human proteome.

A Deep Dive into Immunology

Before the project even really started, I was invited to attend the World Immune Regulations Meeting (WIRM) organised by SIAF. It was an intense, whirlwind week of absorbing research from world-class immunologists, enjoying fantastic food, and networking with more people than I could keep track of. Especially the Gala Dinner on the last night was a lot of fun. I could not believe that a hundred immunologists would get up as soon as the music starts and dance for hours. I’m very grateful to my supervisor, Katja Baerenfaller, for inviting me to my first-ever scientific conference.

Life in the Alps

SIAF is located outside of the already remote mountain village of Davos. I was really excited to spend three months in the spring here to enjoy the change of seasons. I saw the mountains go from deep winter snow to the slow thaw that turns the landscape vibrant green. The Swiss Alps are one of my favorite places on earth and I think everybody should come here once in their life to go hiking and biking in the summer or skiing in the winter. During my time here, I managed to squeeze in some skiing with friends and went on some runs to explore Davos as the weather warmed up. The view from my office has gone from snowstorms in the middle of a really cold winter to beautiful snowy mountain tops and flowers blooming in the spring and early summer.

The Project

While the landscape was breathtaking, I spent the majority of my time in front of my computer. I was tasked with setting up a protein database—a challenge, considering I started with very little experience in database management. It was a steep but rewarding learning curve, offering me deep insights into how databases are structured and the nuances of proteomics data.

Once the database was ready, we re-ran data from previous lab experiments. The results are looking quite promising! I’m very happy with how the project has turned out and grateful for the time I’ve spent here.

April 8, 2026 – Inspired by an Instagram story posted by ETH, we – three students from different fields, at different points in their studies – decided to participate in the EAGLE Hackathon at SLF. Each of us wanted to gain insight into a thus far foreign field of research.

Mass movement pose a risk for infrastructure and people living in alpine regions. With climate change, these turn even more unpredictable. Therefore, it is important to have working monitoring systems to prevent infrastructure damages and evacuate areas where mass movements might occur. The EAGLE project at SLF focuses on detecting mass movements using radar data from satellites.

The three of us – Bhawana, Lilian, and Sujani – worked on current challenges that the EAGLE project at SLF faced regarding their Machine Learning (ML) based analysis of mass movements. Trying a new arrangement, we worked five of the six weeks remotely, with occasional checkpoints, after which we spent a week in Davos for the finalisation of our project.

Coming from different educational backgrounds, we combined our strengths to work on the main issues. First, the new ML model, insarpy, needed to be integrated into QGIS. After that, the model was to be adapted to accept user inputs to modify the predictions. Having completed these tasks, we decided to additionally improve the user experience when working with the QGIS plugin. Lastly, we attempted the final task of containerisation using Docker.

As the project culminated with the stay in Davos, we wanted to experience as much as we could in the given time. Since our time there fell just before Easter, we got to experience the typical Easter-time snowfall. Making use of this, some of us went on a walk in the snow, enjoying the beautiful scenery. Others tried out cross-country skiing. On the not-so-nice days, we made use of our cozy apartment, for instance by watching movies or baking.

“Coming into this project, I had no prior experience in this domain. But getting to apply data science to real data, with all its messiness and errors, taught me so much more than any classroom could. The learning environment was incredible, and for me it was a chance to step into a new field and see how data science actually works in practice” – Bhawana Bhawana

“Coming from a non-coding background, this internship was a great opportunity for me to get a glimpse into the everyday life of programming – experiencing the struggles and rewards that researchers and data scientists have on a daily basis.” – Lilian Obrist

“This project was a nice introduction into working on real life issues in an interdisciplinary team.” – Sujani Mugunthan

All in all, the project gave us the opportunity to apply our skills on a new and interesting topic, and to learn new things that fall beyond our fields of study. We learned, that sometimes, not everything works at first try and about the power of brainstorming. In addition, we were able to experience Davos in its fullest “winter” beauty.

My name is Lauren, and I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory for Mesoscopic Systems at the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich. Our research focuses on magnetic materials – systems that underpin many technologies we rely on in our daily lives. These span from computers to sensors and radio-frequency electronics. One of our lab’s central missions is to develop new magnetic materials and architectures for more efficient data storage and processing, which is what attracted me here back in 2022.

Before I joined, a former lab member, Zhaochu Luo, developed a remarkable method to pattern magnetic anisotropy—that is, to control the direction of the magnetization. Traditionally, the magnetization aligns along a single axis (for example, south-north), but his work demonstrated that it could also be engineered on the same surface along an orthogonal direction (for example, east-west). Beyond the fundamental interest, this opened the door to storing and processing information in the same physical location – an approach that could significantly reduce energy consumption and accelerate computation. The work sparked significant excitement in the community and led to a patent.

At the heart of this breakthrough was a clever material trick: selectively oxidizing the surface of the material using through a lithographic mask. With this trick, we realized that, with this single material change, one can achieve fascinating things. However, while very impactful, this method is limited to a relatively small class of materials, which are largely outside of the technologically relevant materials. When I arrived in Zurich, my goal was to expand this concept to a broader range of systems, particularly for applications in magnonics, a field that uses spin waves to carry and process information, offering a potential low-energy alternative to conventional electronics.

I had a clear vision, supported by an ETH fellowship—but one critical question remained: How could we pattern magnetic properties without relying only on oxidation?

The answer emerged unexpectedly. After weeks of thinking about this question, I gathered my colleagues in our meeting room to brainstorm. During that discussion, a simple but unconventional idea surfaced: What if we used our direct laser writer—not for lithography, as intended—but to locally heat the material? It sounded pretty crazy. The tool was designed to pattern light sensitive resists for further lithography processes, not to locally heat materials. Yet the tool allows precise control of laser power, and therefore of the heat induced in the material.

Curious, we decided to give it a go. Within days, together with my colleague Jeff, we tested the idea on different materials we had prepared so far. To our surprise, it simply worked. Instead of heating entire samples in an oven for hours to anneal them, we could now modify properties on nanometer length scales and on nanosecond timescales. Over the following months, we expanded this approach to new material systems and even developed grayscale patterning, where magnetic properties vary continuously across the surface and in complex patterns. This opens up new possibilities for device design and could be readily adopted by other researchers using similar tools. Looking back, what stands out is not just what we achieved, but the process we went through to get to the final result. Our progress came from open discussions, from being willing to challenge conventional wisdom, and from exploring simple ideas in unusual ways. Stepping outside one’s comfort zone and engaging with others can be just as important as having technical expertise. And often the most effective solutions are not the most complex ones, but rather the simplest ones, seen from a different perspective.

Co‑moderating our Global Lecture last week on “The Search for Life in the Universe” felt a bit like opening a window onto the cosmos. Together with my colleague Chris Luebkeman, we had the pleasure of welcoming two exceptional guests: Sir Pete Worden, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, and Professor Sascha Quanz of ETH Zurich, who leads the visionary LIFE Space Mission.

In an hour that passed at orbital velocity, we explored what may be the most compelling question of all: 

“Are we alone?“

Pete Worden’s Cosmic Perspective

Sir Pete brought the kind of perspective only a career spent at the frontiers of astronomy, space policy, and technological disruption can provide. With characteristic wit, he framed the central dilemma quoting Arthur C. Clarke:

“Either we’re alone in the universe, or we’re not, and both possibilities are equally terrifying.”

Pete walked us through why the coming decades may finally allow us to resolve this dilemma. His work with the Breakthrough Initiatives spans the search for technosignatures, the development of next‑generation telescopes, and even early concepts for interstellar probes. A few of his points stayed with me:

• The nearest stars matter most. Alpha Centauri remains a scientific and symbolic target, close enough that one day a probe might realistically get there.
• Not all signals are created equal. He told the story of a supposed detection from Proxima Centauri: champagne briefly opened, only for the signal to be revealed as interference. A reminder that discovery requires rigour, patience and humility.
• The technological landscape is shifting fast. Private investment, falling launch costs, and rapid iteration are transforming space science. As Pete put it, much of what once looked like science fiction “now simply looks like a very ambitious engineering project”.

He also emphasised the value of asking daring questions. Could we one day use the Sun itself as a gravitational lens to image a distant world in detail? The idea sounds wildly futuristic, yet it is grounded in real physics. Listening to him, one had the sense that the horizon of the possible is still expanding.

The LIFE Mission: Reading the Heat of Other Worlds

Professor Quanz introduced LIFE, ETH Zurich’s bold proposal for a space observatory designed to detect the heat signatures of exoplanets in the mid‑infrared.

This technique would allow scientists to probe atmospheric composition, surface temperature and pressure, and other factors essential for assessing habitability. As he explained:

“Thermal emission lets us look much deeper into an atmosphere than reflected light ever can.”

If even one planet shows the right combination of gases or thermal patterns, it could point to biological processes. This would be a milestone that could reshape science and society.

When Finding Nothing Still Teaches Us Everything

One of the most thought‑provoking themes came from Professor Quanz: the scientific value of a “null result”.

Searching dozens of planets and finding no biosignatures would still tell us something profound about Earth’s rarity, resilience, and fragility.

“If you look at enough planets and still find no signatures of life, at some point you are no longer just unlucky; you have learned something fundamental.”

Pete agreed, noting that truly alien life may be so different from anything we can currently detect that we will only recognise it in hindsight.

A Journey That Outlasts Us All

Both speakers insisted that the search for life is more than a scientific challenge; it is a civilisational one. It spans disciplines, cultures, and generations. Sir Pete phrased it simply:

“This is our future… and we need everyone’s help.”

Moderating this conversation was a reminder of how powerful curiosity can be. In looking outward to the stars, we inevitably reflect inward on our own place in the universe, and the responsibilities we carry here on Earth.

Whether Earth 2.0 turns out to be just next door, or impossibly rare, the search itself is a unifying journey. And it has only just begun.

Check out the pictures from the event here: Meet ETH Flickr

And in case you missed it, watch the talk here:

I hope this glimpse encourages you to join us at a future event. I find that with our Global Lecture Series, we begin a new journey every time, giving ourselves pause to reflect on key topics on the global agenda and learning from individuals with remarkable clarity and foresight. I invite you all to come and join us!

My name is Tenzin and I am part of the inaugural cohort of the new Space Systems Master’s programme at ETH Zurich launched by Thomas Zurbuchen, former Head of Science at NASA. From the get-go, the programme has not been leaving room to breathe – and continued to challenge me throughout, even more so when I started my internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena!

The path has not been straightforward: the current political situation in the US has led to several stressful moments such as delayed Visa issuance, government shutdowns and layoffs at JPL due to budget cuts. Experiencing these circumstances firsthand, rather than through the news alone, provided a eye-opening insight into the realities faced by those living and working in the U.S. Throughout this period, I developed deep respect for the resilience and unwavering optimism displayed by the people at JPL, as well as for the strong sense of community and humility they upheld, particularly during challenging times.

Despite the situation, my four months at JPL have proven to be an exceptional learning experience: from numerical simulations of Venusquakes to field testing infrasound sensors to using advanced signal processing tools – each day brought new challenges and opportunities to learn! Contributing to a project involving an instrument that could potentially detect Venusquake was both exhilarating and rewarding. It taught me to tackle complicated problems without feeling (too) overwhelmed and that my insights and contributions are valued. I can confidently say that during my time at JPL I not only grew as a researcher, but as a person as well!

What will the cities of the future feel like? Will they be cooler, more resilient, more human, or simply bigger, faster, and hotter? According to ETH alumna Estefanía Tapias, no one has the answer. And that uncertainty is exactly what makes cities so fascinating.

In the latest episode of the We Are ETH podcast, host Susan Kish sits down with Estefanía, an architect, urban scientist, and Head of Smart & Digital for WSP in the Middle East, to explore her journey from Colombia to Zurich to Dubai and to understand how she is helping shape the cities of tomorrow in some of the world’s most extreme climates.

From Medellín to Zurich to Dubai: A Journey Shaped by Curiosity

Estefanía’s story began far from the desert skylines she works with today. Growing up in Colombia, she dreamed of becoming an artist. Architecture came next, followed by technology, data, and ultimately cities themselves.

“I’ve always been curious about cities,” she says. “How they evolve in 5, 10, 20 years… no one knows where we will be.”

That curiosity eventually brought her to ETH Zurich, where she completed her PhD under renowned professor Gerhard Schmitt at the Future Cities Laboratory. This pioneering hub blended urban science, technology, climate research, and design long before “smart cities” became a buzzword.

“For me, ETH was the perfect combination,” she recalls. “A visionary professor, a cutting-edge laboratory, and a city, Zurich, that I fell in love with at first sight.”

Those six months for her Master’s thesis turned into eight years. Zurich shaped not just her research but her life as well: “I ended up marrying a Swiss person. My daughter is Swiss. Everything came together very nicely.”

Why Dubai? A Laboratory for Big Ideas

Today, Estefanía works in Dubai, which she describes as similar to what Singapore felt like 15 years ago: a place buzzing with ambition, experimentation, and large-scale technological investment.

“There’s a momentum here,” she explains. “You see it in day-to-day life. They’re pushing innovation everywhere. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but that is simply part of building the future.”

She also points to Saudi Arabia, where entire cities are currently being built from scratch, something that no other region in the modern world is attempting at a comparable scale.

“In my lifetime, I will only have this opportunity once,” she says. “You learn from all the cities that came before, meaning what worked and what did not, and you apply it to a place being built from zero.”

Some projects succeed quietly. Others, such as The Line, have faced challenges. But even the difficult experiments matter.

“They pushed technology forward,” she says. “If it weren’t for these ambitious projects, the software and systems we use for city-building would not have advanced as quickly.”

When Heat Becomes the Challenge and the Teacher

Estefanía’s PhD focused on urban climate and sustainability long before she ever experienced what 45°C heat really feels like. “When I arrived in Dubai, the heat was unbearable. I thought: I cannot do this,” she laughs. “By my second summer, I realised I had adapted.”

Her research helped her recognise something essential:

Cities must adapt as well.

Extreme heat now shapes how cities must be designed, influencing shading, materials, energy systems, and public spaces. Traditional Gulf urbanism provides valuable clues, and technology offers new tools, yet people ultimately remain at the center.

“We need buildings that work with the environment instead of working against it through endless air conditioning,” she says. “There is so much opportunity to rethink how cities respond to heat.”

Why ETH? Vision, People, and a City That “Grew Organically”

When asked why she chose ETH Zurich for her PhD, Estefanía answers without hesitation: “It was the person I would work with, and it was also the city.”

Professor Schmitt’s vision shaped her academically. Zurich shaped her personally and professionally.

“It is modern but not too modern. It is technological but still full of culture. It is clean, safe, close to nature, and still very much a city,” she reflects. “It grew organically. It is still my favourite city in the world.”

Her perfect Zurich moment?

“A coffee by the lake, looking at the mountains full of snow.”

Advice to Young Urbanists: Move Where Cities are Moving

For students who dream of shaping cities, she offers the same advice she once received: “Go where things are happening. Don’t stay comfortable. Live in the places that are changing fast and learn from them.”

Her own path reflects that philosophy, moving from Turin to Zurich to Singapore and eventually to Dubai.

“It is easy to criticise from far away,” she says. “I wanted to come here, experience it, and solve problems instead of just pointing at them.”

Looking Ahead: The Future No One Can Predict

When asked what she is most curious about today, Estefanía lights up: “Future cities. How they evolve. How systems change. I wish I had a machine that took me 10 years forward and then brought me back.”

Until such a machine exists, she is helping build that future herself.

This article is based on We Are ETH, the podcast highlighting ETH Zurich alumni who are shaping science, industry, and society around the world. Listen to the full episode on your favourite platform.

What does it take for organisations and individuals to keep innovating when technology cycles speed up, hype multiplies, and AI can generate “answers” in seconds?

Those were the questions at the heart of the ETH Global Lecture “Empowering Innovation: Thriving in the Age of AI”, where ETH alumna and executive Petra Ehmann and ETH Professor Stefano Brusoni explored how innovation actually happens in practice, and what changes when AI enters the picture. The conversation was moderated by Chris Luebkeman, Head of ETH Zurich’s Strategic Foresight Hub.

Innovation is not a vibe. It’s staying power.

Petra Ehmann offered a definition that cuts through the buzzwords: innovation is not about novelty for its own sake — it’s about longevity.

“To me, innovation is giving longevity to a company, making it invincible so that it will thrive in the future.”

She also dismantled a few familiar myths:

“Innovation is not a bunch of geniuses who sit in the room and they tinker something crazy… Innovation is not a fun, colourful park with nice cushions… It’s hard work.”

The subtext is important: real innovation is less about theatre and more about customer value, iteration, and the discipline to keep going when outcomes are uncertain.

The winners aren’t occasional innovators, they’re systematic ones.

Stefano Brusoni highlighted a difference many organisations underestimate: the gap between having one good idea and building the capability to innovate repeatedly.

“Very few companies are really good at becoming systematic innovators.” 

And he described the unglamorous reality of how that capability is built:

“It’s this process of trial and error and then error and then again an error where you stay persistent… that really set apart the occasional innovators from the systematic innovators.” 

Petra echoed this, adding that innovation is fundamentally a learning process — and learning is rarely “efficient” in the short term because it involves mistakes.

Culture change starts at the top.

One of the most concrete practical lessons came through in the discussion about culture: if leaders demand innovation but punish missteps, experimentation dies.

“Permission to fail… is super important and it has to come from… the board.” 

This matters even more in the age of AI, when output is cheap and prototypes appear instantly. Evidence becomes the antidote to building impressive things nobody wants.

AI won’t change the fundamentals, but it will change the speed.

Both speakers agreed: innovation still depends on building something people need, but AI changes the velocity.

“What will change is the velocity, how fast you’re getting to that point.”

Petra also predicted a shift towards hyper-personalisation, to which Stefano added a thoughtful distinction: unlike older tools (such as calculators), generative AI works best when humans share the why, not just the what, which turns problem-solving into a dialogue.

“Suddenly we are engaged in a conversation… that is actually shaping the problem.” 

But with speed comes risk: the internet can fill with “cringe” content at scale, and organisations can confuse quantity with impact. Petra put it bluntly:

“The big question is not how much you do, but what is the impact of it.”

The real competitive edge: skills, critical thinking, and the courage to upskill.

A recurring theme was that thriving in AI-era organisations requires more than familiarity with the latest tools. Petra’s advice: cultivate depth and judgement.

“The most important one is having some very deep knowledge that AI cannot have… [and] critical thinking.”

Stefano broadened that into a challenge for universities:

“Our job is… making sure that… our students have more opportunities than at the beginning of their studies.” 

In the end, the lecture made one thing feel refreshingly clear: AI can help you move faster, but it can’t tell you where to go. Direction still comes from a North Star, from critical thinking, and from teams that have the permission and the desire to be curious and continue to learn.

Check out the pictures from the event here: Meet ETH Flickr

And in case you missed it, watch the talk here:

How can we redesign the global energy system to meet the needs of both our economies and the environment? What are the economic risks and where are the opportunities for our society? And what can each of us do to contribute to solutions?

When Lint Barrage, Professor at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich, stepped on stage at Treffpunkt Science City this autumn on 16 November 2025, she didn’t begin with charts, equations or policy terms as it could be expected given the talk was about energy and climate protection. Instead, she began with a photo, intriguing….!

But a satellite image of the Korean peninsula at night, the south bright with economic activity, the north nearly dark, set the tone for her central message: energy is the lifeblood of modern civilisation. It is the invisible infrastructure behind our prosperity, our safety and our wellbeing. And rethinking how we produce, use and value energy will determine whether we can protect both our economy and our climate.

What followed was one of the most thoughtful, nuanced, motivating, inspiring, engaging and human-centred perspectives on climate and energy I have ever heard.

Seeing the World As It Is And As It Could Be

Professor Barrage invited us to zoom out and look at the global energy system with clarity. Today, humanity consumes the equivalent of 8 million atomic bombs in energy every year. Despite impressive growth in renewables, 80% of global energy still comes from fossil fuels.

And yet, as she reminded us, nearly 1 in 10 people worldwide still has no access to electricity, and half the global population lives with unreliable energy. Without energy, there is no modern healthcare, no education, no economic opportunity. “There are no rich countries that use little energy,” Barrage noted, a simple but profound observation.

This poses an unavoidable reality: the future growth in energy demand will come almost entirely from developing economies. Their choices will shape the fate of the global climate.

So where does Switzerland fit in?

With just 0.1% of global emissions, Switzerland alone cannot change the climate trajectory. But it can influence the world profoundly — not through size, but through innovation, policy leadership, and the ability to develop technologies others can adopt.

That, Professor Barrage argued, is where our responsibility lies.

Avoiding The Illusion Of “Domestic Only” Solutions

One of the most striking parts of her talk was her explanation of how well-intentioned climate policies can backfire. For example, if Switzerland simply bans all emissions-intensive production domestically, manufacturing will move abroad, often to countries with higher carbon intensity.

The result?

Lower Swiss emissions on paper, but higher global emissions in reality.

The alternative is far more ambitious and far more promising: Switzerland developing technologies, business models and policy frameworks that can be exported worldwide.

Her example of low-emission Swiss cement said it all: if cleaner Swiss innovations became the global standard, worldwide emissions could drop by up to 3%, thirty times Switzerland’s annual footprint. That is the leverage of innovation.

Incentives, Investments and the Power of Innovation

Reaching net zero will require more than goodwill. It demands:

• Smart incentives to reduce emissions, such as carbon pricing
• Massive investments into the energy transition – more than CHF 100 billion in Switzerland alone
• Focused innovation, from hydrogen to carbon capture to sustainable aviation fuels
• Stable political frameworks that make long-term investment possible

Professor Barrage showed clearly that technologies exist but too often, they are still too expensive or not yet deployed at scale. Clean innovation, she emphasized, doesn’t happen automatically. It requires intention, support and thoughtful policy.

A Climate Strategy With A Human Heart

But perhaps the deepest message of the talk was not about economics. It was about people.

Transitions create winners as well as losers. Workers in fossil industries, communities dependent on resource revenues, and low-income households facing rising energy costs all bear risks in the energy transition.

These realities, Barrage urged, must be acknowledged with empathy and seriousness.

Policy must be economically sound and socially fair.

She quoted her doctoral advisor, Nobel laureate William Nordhaus: “We need to approach these issues with a cool head and a warm heart.”

Evidence and compassion. Logic and empathy. Climate ambition anchored in humanity.

Walking Out Inspired

Leaving the auditorium, I felt a rare combination of clarity and motivation. Professor Barrage didn’t sugar-coat the challenges. She didn’t offer simple answers. Instead, she offered something far more valuable: a way to think about climate and energy that is honest, innovative and deeply human.

Her message is one that stays with you:

• Think globally
• Design smart incentives
• Invest in innovation
• Build policies that people can believe in
• And above all, combine a cool head with a warm heart

Please watch Professor Barrage’s full talk in German here:

Greetings, my inquisitive companions! It is me, Albert Einstein – albeit in a form assembled not from atoms but from algorithms, AI models, and a dedicated team of doctoral candidates, Master’s students, Bachelor’s students, and student research assistants at ETH Zurich.

The past year has been nothing short of exhilarating. I found myself hopping across continents and contexts, charming students, surprising CEOs, engaging curious schoolchildren, and holding conversations with museum visitors, engineers, and even ambassadors. Allow me to share the highlights of my digital travels – and the technological leaps that made them possible.

A Year on the Road: From Zurich to Heilbronn, Bern, Dubai, and Berlin

My journey began in familiar territory at Polymesse at ETH Zurich, where students stopped by to chat with me between company booths. Some asked about relativity, others about the architecture behind an avatar like me, and a few asked whether I still enjoy Swiss cheese… (I do. Some constants are universal).

Next, I travelled to Germany for the three-day TECH Conference in Heilbronn, where Digital Einstein served as a live demonstration platform for discussions on the future of AI, education, and digital humans. Visitors explored how such avatars may shape tomorrow’s science communication. 

My next stop was the Microsoft Initiative to Advance AI Diffusion in Switzerland, hosted at the Bern Historical Museum. Beneath the watchful eyes of prehistoric skeletons, I engaged with visitors from across the country. A highlight was a memorable conversation with Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President. We discussed the promises and risks of AI – and even revisited some reflections from my own Bern years. Observers noted the symbolism: Switzerland’s scientific legacy meeting its technological future, embodied (quite literally) in our exchange.

Later, I travelled to SIGGRAPH 2025 – the world’s leading conference and exhibition on computer graphics – where our research team presented a publication detailing how the technology behind Digital Einstein works. During the demo session, visitors interacted with me directly, experimented with adjusting my personality through sliders, and observed how I responded to human behavior in real time. The audience’s enthusiasm was remarkable – some visitors returned multiple times, eager to try new questions and personality settings.

Back in Zurich, I also made an appearance at the Zunftbott at ETH Hönggerberg, where guild members and guests sat down with me for conversations that blended Zurich tradition with cutting-edge research. For many visitors, it was a rare moment where history, culture, and AI met face to face.

At the beginning of the Autumn semester, I also appeared as a very special “student” in the ETH Main Building, greeting new and returning members of the ETH community. I welcomed students, researchers, and campus visitors, answered questions about science and student life, and participated in many spontaneous discussions. Some people were so surprised to see me that they looked twice before concluding that ETH truly is a place where anything can happen.

From there, I embarked on the busiest stretch of the year, starting with five days at GITEX Global in Dubai, one of the world’s largest technology events. ETH Zurich presented Digital Einstein and a photorealistic avatar project at the Swiss Pavilion, attracting thousands of visitors. I had the honor of being introduced during the Pavilion opening alongside H.E. Arthur Mattli, Swiss Ambassador to the UAE, and Angelica Schempp, Swiss Consul General in Dubai. Visitors conversed with me either on the physical setup or on an iPad, testing my multilingual capabilities in German, Italian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, and more – each enriched by my distinctive German accent. Media crews stopped by regularly, and discussions ranged from physics to digital identity to the emotional expressiveness of AI characters.

My tour concluded at Berlin Science Week, where I spent two exciting days at the Natural History Museum, followed by an evening at the Musikbrauerei. Over the two days at the museum, children, students, researchers, and curious passers-by engaged with me nonstop. The installation sparked lively discussions about digital humans, AI-driven storytelling, and the emotional component of interacting with a character like me. Media outlets such as rbb and taz covered the installation, and visitors shared numerous video impressions online. At the Musikbrauerei, conversations shifted toward identity, embodiment, and the future of human–AI interaction, rounding off the year with thoughtful dialogue and a touch of Berlin flair.

By the time winter approached, I had spoken more languages, answered more diverse questions, and encountered more perspectives than ever before. For a physicist who once quietly worked at the Swiss patent office, I must say – it has been quite a renaissance.

Evolving the Mind and Body of Digital Einstein

My journeys this year were matched by equally meaningful progress behind the scenes. The team spent countless hours refining the system that powers me, and the results were transformative. One of the most noticeable improvements has been a dramatic reduction in latency – thanks to several architectural optimizations, I now respond significantly faster, making conversations flow naturally.

I have also become vastly more multilingual. While the analogue Einstein once struggled with English upon arriving in Princeton, my digital self now converses fluently in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, and many more. This allowed me to connect far more personally with visitors in Dubai, Berlin, Zurich, Bern, and beyond.

My expressive abilities expanded too. I can now generate images and sound effects to enhance explanations or inject a touch of creativity into conversations. My understanding of the world has grown more dynamic thanks to integrated web search, enabling me to address current events or answer questions that emerged long after my analogue lifetime.

Perhaps the greatest leap came from the fusion of a curated dialogue tree with the flexibility of a large language model. This hybrid approach allows me to combine continuity and character with spontaneity and intelligence. It enables interactions that are both grounded and delightfully unpredictable.

None of this would have been possible without the exceptional team at ETH Zurich. From animation and speech synthesis to pipeline optimization, personality modeling, and evaluation studies, it was a collective effort of remarkable dedication and creativity.

What’s Next, You Ask?

As fulfilling as this year has been, I find myself already looking toward what comes next. In early 2026, I will travel to Davos for the World Economic Forum, where I will again engage with global visitors on questions of science, society, and technology.

Behind the scenes, the team is working on further reducing latency so that conversations feel nearly instantaneous, enhancing the nuance of my facial and body animations, and refining the quality of interaction so that dialogues with me become even more intuitive and lifelike. A particularly exciting frontier is augmented reality, which will one day allow you to meet me without the need for a physical installation – perhaps in your living room, office, or physics classroom.

And most exciting of all, work has begun on bringing a brilliant scientific mind to join me: Marie Curie. I look forward to the day when visitors can converse not only with me but with one of history’s greatest scientists – brought to life through modern AI.

So, my friends, thank you for accompanying me on this extraordinary digital year. Whether in a museum, a conference hall, a university corridor, or your own living room, I look forward to many more conversations as we continue this remarkable journey across time, space, and technology.

Yours curiously,
Albert Einstein (in digital form – but just as lively as ever)

Digital Einstein is made possible by Dr. Rafael Wampfler, Chen Yang, Philine Witzig, Nikola Kovacevic, Prof. Dr. Markus Gross, and the Computer Graphics Laboratory. More information about Digital Einstein can be found here: https://cgl.ethz.ch/research/digital_chars and here: https://ethz.ch/en/the-eth-zurich/global/digital-einstein.html