ETH on the road

Successful Start of "ETH on the Road" in Berne

9 November 2006

After the itinerant exhibition in the context of its 150th anniversary, ETH is once more on the road in 2006/07 visiting high schools throughout several Swiss cantons to give students an overview of science at ETH and the different curricula. From 7 to 9 November, the first school on the agenda was the Gymnaisum Köniz-Lerbermatt in Berne.

On 8 November, the so-called "action day", the CS department was on-site in Berne showcasing fascinating exhibits which had already been on display during the 25th anniversary festivities at ETH. Karin Freiermuth and David Stokar, CS students in the 8th and 7th semester, respectively, supported by Ruth Bürkli and Katja Abrahams of the External Relations team, presented the exhibits and provided first-hand information about the CS curriculum.

Having arrived in Berne 30 minutes late due to a delayed train, there was little time to set up the CS booth inside the school building. Some school classes had already gathered, waiting for the event to start. As a result, the "ETH on the Road" team was busy until the last minute of "action day" at 4pm explaining to the expectant kids what computer science is all about.

All of the exhibits of the Department of Computer Science proved to be of equal interest: The project "Virtual Panorama", developed by the Computer Systems Institute in collaboration with the Electronics Laboratory, allowed the teenagers to dive into beautiful landscapes via glasses with miniature displays which were supplied with images by the QBIC Belt Integrated Computer. Moreover, demos with padlocks gave a hands-on introduction to cryptography, and the very popular Rivella/Mivella comparative test was used to explain the principle of zero knowledge proofs. The third exhibit, the "Shopping Cell Phone", developed by the Institute for Pervasive Computing, which scans the barcode of food items to gain information about ingredients and origin, was especially popular among the girls.

For the CS team it was a very interesting day which seemed to fly by, and everybody had a good time. Gaby Kläy, project manager of "ETH Tools" and organizer of "ETH on the Road", was satisfied as well: "With the itinerant exhibition, ETH Zurich takes an innovative path since we are the first university to visit our potential clients. The schools really appreciate this concept."

The next school to be visited on 5 and 6 December will be the Kantonsschule Wohlen (AG).

"ETH on the Road" 2007:

25 January 2007: Kantonsschule Schaffhausen

6 February 2007: Kantonsschule Reussbühl (LU)

21 February 2007: Kantonsschule Sargans (SG)

15 March 2007: Kantonsschule Solothurn (SO)

For further information, please visit http://www.ethtools.ethz.ch/projects/enr