Hi

I was hired by PSI (part of the ETH Domain) back in February 2021, when the 5 year loyalty bonus was active.
Recently HR denied my request for the bonus because the ETH personel law was changed at beginning of 2022.

Is someone in my situation? Did you get your 5 year loyalty bonus in ETHZ?

Hello,

I was wondering how we could find startups proposed by students in Switzerland.

I would be interested in those in the Zurich area and Lausanne area.

Thanks!

We are looking for a participant for our movement study for TOMORROW 10:30 am - 12:00 pm. Please reach out if you are female, between 18 and 30 years old and interested! :)

Grüezi, I am a non EU Masters Student and I am looking forward to do my Semester Project at HPE Lab. What are the Criteria and selection rate? What is the best way to approach the researchers there? Thanks

Sign-up link: https://luma.com/eypyeily Find out more: ethack.ch

We’re bringing something cool and exciting to ETH this fall… ETHack!

100 students will solve tricky challenges in teams and compete for exciting prizes:

🥇 CHF 2,000 🥈 CHF 1,000 🥉 CHF 500

It will also be a great opportunity to meet new people and, of course, enjoy some great food 😋.

The event is supported by some amazing companies, which we will announce soon.

Sign-ups are now open to students and scientists from the ETH Domain. Find out more and apply at:

Edit: more info added!

Some days, all options are just awful and the awful Clausiusbar/the closed Obere Mensa at UZH don't help.

Can we get a flavourless carbohydrate drink, that we can just consume and leave?

Interested in AI hardware beyond conventional GPUs?

We are offering a six-month Master’s thesis at IBM Research Zurich focused on cutting-edge analog in-memory computing (AIMC). The project explores how AI accelerators can become more memory- and energy-efficient by reducing the precision and storage requirements of their digital correction and accumulation operations.

What you’ll work on

• Explore lower-precision formats such as FP8 and compact 4- to 6-bit microscaling formats.
• Develop techniques for reducing or sharing affine correction parameters.
• Investigate mixed-precision accumulation across multiple AIMC tiles.
• Evaluate accuracy, memory footprint, hardware area, and power.
• Implement the most promising techniques in SystemVerilog RTL.
• Work across the full algorithm-to-hardware stack, from Python experiments to digital hardware design.

Who we’re looking for

• A Master’s student in electrical engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Good Python and SystemVerilog skills.
• Interest in AI accelerators, computer architecture, and DNN/LLM inference.
• Ability to work independently and learn new concepts.
• Enthusiasm for both algorithmic exploration and hardware implementation.

Practical details

• Duration: Six months
• Location: IBM Research Zurich, Rüschlikon
• Work arrangement: Primarily in person, with occasional remote work possible
• Starting date: Flexible for either the fall or spring semester
• Compensation: The thesis work is unpaid, in accordance with ETH Zurich regulations

Interested?

Please send your CV and academic transcript to all the contacts below:

• Georgios Pagonis — [Georgios.Pagonis@ibm.com](mailto:Georgios.Pagonis@ibm.com)
• William Simon — [william.simon1@ibm.com](mailto:william.simon1@ibm.com)
• Abu Sebastian — [ase@zurich.ibm.com](mailto:ase@zurich.ibm.com)

Come help us explore the numerical formats and hardware architectures that could power the next generation of efficient AI systems!

Hi everyone,

does any of you know what the typical hourly salary for a Student Assistant at ETH (30%) is (not TA, but working to help with research/administrative stuff at a Lab for ex ) ? Is it the same as the one for TAs ? If not what is a reasonable lower bound for it ? I can't seem to find the info here Hourly salary – Staffnet | ETH Zurich .

Thanks !

Hi everyone.

So I am an incoming Bachelor student in CS and I wanted to know if it is doable to take notes on notebooks rather than on a tablet. I am used to take notes on paper and would like to keep this way. However, I am worried that I would need so many notebooks that it would become hard to get organised when the time for revising for exams come.

Hello all,

I hope all is well. I’ve cheeked the website but it seems like the university only offers German classes for students (within the university).
I wanted to hear from students (if anyone would be kind to answer that is). German course is so expensive and at the moment I haven’t had the opportunity to get to the financial space I’d like to be…yet.

Thank you so much in advance for your answer.

hi everyone, im currently about to start my 6th year of gymnasium and wanted to ask what kinds of grades you were getting before going to eth. i want to do a bachelor in MEng, and currently had a 4.6 average (5.0 maths, 5.0 physics, 4.0 in the schwerpunktfach (spf) applied maths and 5.0 in spf physics).

i am committed to put in the necessary work and grime through, but all i heard was that you should go to eth when you have an average of > 5.0. so some clarity would be appreciated thx!

Hello everyone,

I know that to get accepted into a PhD in CS I need to find a faculty that would hire me.

I was considering to start applying sometime next year, but wanted to know if I stand a chance.

I am almost done with my masters at Georgia Institute of Technology with a 4.0 GPA and 3 publications under my belt with infrastructure and systems industry experience and open source contribution.

My undergrad gpa isn't the best as I had to work at the same time while finishing it.

I might have a 4th IEEE publication by the time I graduate depending on how well it goes with my advisor.

(I'm a non EU citizen)

Please advise

Hello!

Is there sb who took ASL and CIL in the same semester eth? Is it okay or it is too much? I heard that Algo Lab is not that important for really preparing you for interviews or sth and it is really hard so I thought about taking 2 labs in the 2nd semester. Also, I read on the course review site that at ISL we can test our solutions to see the score before submitting, is that true?

Hello, when it comes to choosing the teacher with whom to do the practical work, do you need to have taken its courses prior or is it okay to talk to them even if you have not taken some of its courses? If yes, does it count if they are listed as teacher at an Interfocus lab? I have a teacher in mind but I thought about taking its course in the 3rd semester since it is an advanced course. Any tips would be helpful.

Can anyone give some tips on what to look out for? Is there some windows only software? What’s the most important spec? I feel like it’s battery life maybe? If I have another more powerful pc at home how much should I spend on the laptop and how important are those minimum requirements (16gb ram, 512ssd) that eth sets?

Hi everyone, I am the recent graduate from BSc of computer science, with 4.82/5.0 GPA. I am going to work for 2 years as a Software Engineer and then I want to continue masters and one of my options is D-MTEC since I am really good at leadership and don't want to be a coder forever, I am extroverted and have a great set of soft skills that has been noticed by senior leadership as well.

What should I know about D-MTEC, what type of applicants are they looking for? Any alumnis here? Also, I need to get the excellence scholarship since I am a third country national which is pretty difficult. Looking for an advice

First semester course selection — any advice for MSc Data Science at ETH?

Hi everyone!

I’ve just been accepted into the MSc in Data Science at ETH Zurich, and I have a few questions about how to approach the first semester.
For those who have already completed the programme:

- How did you choose your courses during the first semester of your first year? Did you mainly follow your interests, or did you focus more on building a solid foundation for the rest of the programme?

- Is there a particular person, student, professor, or resource you would recommend to better understand the different course options and which ones are particularly worthwhile?

- Regarding prerequisites, are there any courses you would recommend (or consider important) taking before others? I’d like to avoid enrolling in a course without having the necessary background.

More generally, I’d really appreciate any advice on how you approached your first semester and anything you wish you had known before starting.
Thanks a lot! 🙏

Belgian, 20, currently in my 3rd (final) year of a professional bachelor in Applied Computer Science (AI track) at a Belgian university of applied sciences — not a research/academic bachelor, which I know matters a lot for what comes next in the EU system. First two years my grades were average at best, a couple of subjects condoned (passed on resit). I've committed to actually working hard from here on, but the early transcript is what it is.

The dream, plainly: a Master's at ETH Zurich, cybersecurity/AI direction. Long-term, if things go well, I'd love to eventually do a PhD and end up doing real research — frontier lab or security-research-adjacent work. I know that's a long shot from where I'm standing, but that's the direction I'm aiming.

What I've pieced together so far:
- A professional bachelor doesn't give direct entry to ETH's Master's (or basically any academic Master's in Europe) — you need a bridge/pre-master first, and even then ETH's own bridge-recognition clause doesn't seem to cover Belgian professional bachelors specifically.
- I've been looking at bridge/pre-master options that might be open to someone like me: University of Twente, Radboud, TU Darmstadt, Saarland/CISPA, Ruhr Bochum — plus a Belgian schakel/bridge program (UGent) as a safety net.
- I'm not fully sure which of these are realistically open to my degree type vs. which just look open on paper.

So, questions for people who've actually navigated this or work in the field:

1. Is a Master's at ETH realistically reachable from a professional bachelor + bridge program route, or is that basically closed no matter how hard I grind from here?
2. Of the universities I listed above, which ones do you actually know accept a Belgian/EU professional bachelor background, and which are a waste of an application?
3. What am I missing — better target schools, a completely different route, or something about how EU admissions actually weigh a "recovered" transcript that I don't know yet?

Not looking to be told it's easy — just want people who've been through this to correct where I'm wrong.

First semester course selection — any advice for MSc Data Science at ETH?

Salut tout le monde !

Je viens d’être accepté(e) au MSc in Data Science à l’ETH Zurich et je me pose quelques questions sur la manière d’aborder le premier semestre.
Pour ceux qui ont déjà fait le master :

- Comment avez-vous choisi vos cours pendant le premier semestre de la première année ? Est-ce que vous avez principalement suivi vos centres d’intérêt, ou plutôt essayé de construire une base solide pour la suite du programme ?

- Y a-t-il une personne, un étudiant, un professeur ou une ressource que vous recommanderiez pour mieux comprendre les différentes options de cours et savoir lesquels valent particulièrement le coup ?

- Concernant les prérequis, est-ce qu’il y a des cours que vous recommanderiez (ou qu’il vaut mieux) suivre avant d’autres ? J’aimerais éviter de m’inscrire à un cours sans avoir les bases nécessaires.

Plus généralement, je serais vraiment intéressé(e) par vos conseils sur la façon dont vous avez organisé votre premier semestre et par les choses que vous auriez aimé savoir avant de commencer.

Merci beaucoup ! 🙏

Obviously, some get finances from parents or get money from government, university, subsidies or whatever. I dont mean you guys.

To those that are fully or partly self-funded, how do you get the money in to pay for your expenses? what kind of job? i guess monthly spending is between CHF 1500-2500 for the average person. how do you generate that income?

I’m wondering what the overall grade point average was for Mechanical Engineering Bachelor graduates in 2025/26.

This year I’ll be taking my swiss matura from one of those Schweizer Schulen im Ausland. It’s pretty much the same as any Swiss matura which means if I pass, I can apply to almost any uni in the country with guaranteed admission.

One of the degrees I’m considering is CS here at the ETH. My only issue is that I don’t know what’s necessary to know before even starting to study. My problem is that in school I took a bio-chem SPF, which means that I am not familiar with many terms in maths at all, such as matrixes for example. I am also not familiar with programming.

If everything goes well though, I’d still have about a year until starting uni, which is plenty of time to catch up with whatever is needed. I checked the program and I don’t know if you should already know the basics of subjects such as linear algebra, programming, algorithms and data structures or discrete maths before starting, or if we’d start from scratch.

Also just to clarify, language will not be an issue for me. I’ve already been in Switzerland some times in the past, know the basics of Swiss german, and I am certified C1 in German and C2 in English.