Synergies and projects: ETH Zurich visits Ticino

On Friday, August 25, 2017, Università della Svizzera italiana welcomed on its Lugano campus a delegation from ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The purpose of the visit was to share with the academic community the excellent relations connecting the scientific worlds on both sides of the Swiss Alps, which are particularly strong in different fields of great relevance, such as biomedical and computational sciences, and economics.  

The visit represented also an opportunity for ETH Zurich to provide further details on its overall strategy, such as the structure of its new Bachelor in medicine curriculum (in collaboration with the relevant Master at USI), and the joint projects in the fields of technology transfer, and those developed together with Cardiocentro Ticino in the field of biotechnology. ETH shared also its views on possible future areas of collaboration, such as the creation of a competence centre in the field of Emerging Computing, or establishing closer relations in the field of architecture.  

The conference, which is expected to be followed by other events aiming at extending the network of collaborations, was introduced by USI Rector Boas Erez, followed by the welcome address of Beatrice Fasana, member of the ETH-Board. Other keynote speeches were given, on behalf of USI, by the Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences Mario Bianchetti and, on behalf of ETH Zurich, by Rector Sarah Springman and Detlef Günther, Vice President Research and Corporate Relations. At the round table discussion that followed, the speakers were joined by USI Pro-Rectors Daniela Mondini and Michele Lanza, Professor Alain Kaelin of the USI Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, and Professor Benedetto Lepori, head of the USI/SUPSI Research Service, as well as by Stefanos Demertzis, Professor and head physician at Cardiocentro Ticino, and Federica Sallusto, Group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) and professor at ETH and USI.

The event saw also the participation of Paolo Beltraminelli, Councilor of State of the Canton Ticino, Paolo Sanvido, President of the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, and Professor Giambattista Ravano, Head of research at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI).