Project work is playing an increasingly important role in teaching at ETH Zurich. For example, focus projects – in which undergraduate students develop an innovative product in teams – have long been established in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering. From concept, design and production through to marketing, students acquire knowledge of all stages of product development. ETH Week provides another example: students from all departments familiarise themselves with a topic within a very short time and work in interdisciplinary teams to develop project ideas and prototypes of their proposed solutions.
Realising individual projects
But what if students want to continue working on a project idea like that, or to pursue their own ideas and test them with prototypes? That’s where the Student Project House comes in, a creative thinking and makerspace initiated by ETH President Lino Guzzella that has been operating as a pilot station at Hönggerberg since the autumn of 2016. “We have fantastic students at ETH who surprise us time and again with their creative ideas,” explains Lino Guzzella. “The Student Project House enables us to support them in following up these ideas further and developing concrete projects together with colleagues from other disciplines.”
The students can draft their ideas in the co-working area. If they need specific know-how from another area, they can find the right partners at events – other students looking to work as part of a team, or experienced coaches. Finally, the students can produce prototypes in the makerspace. In addition to traditional wood-and-metal workbenches and an electronics workshop, this space also provides students with CNC milling machines, 3D printers and laser cutters. The makerspace now also intends to offer purely digital technologies.
Failures allowed
“The Student Project House offers an infrastructure in which students can simply try out their ideas,” explains Rector Sarah Springman. “It’s a laboratory where projects are also allowed to fail.” Failure is, after all, part of every learning process, particularly with complex tasks. But even if it is not possible to put an idea into practice, Springman says, “students acquire personal and social skills in project work that are of central importance in the world of work.”
The pilot station of the Student Project House has got off to a good start: 30 projects have been developed in the past two years, 120 events were held and almost 800 students have so far registered to use the makerspace.
A Student Project House is currently under development at the former district heating plant on the Zentrum campus, to be opened in 2020, with the Student Project House at Hönggerberg scheduled to move into new premises around five years later.
Donation provides fresh boost
A donation of 4 million francs from Franke is already enabling ETH to raise the Student Project House to a new level today. The launch of this “ramp-up” was celebrated on Monday and a donor plaque was unveiled that will one day be placed in the building itself – together with the new instruments and programmes that are now being launched.
Student projects in three focus areas are to receive support: nutrition and agriculture, innovation for social change, and aerospace technology. A fourth area, known as the “open box”, will bundle student initiatives outside these areas.
Professionalisation stands at the heart of the expansion and each area will be managed by a coordinator. Experienced coaches will support the students with their projects, particularly with the production of prototypes. Experts from science and industry will provide them with feedback or give presentations to motivate other students to launch their own projects. Last but not least, successful projects are to receive more visibility by being presented to a larger audience.
“Thanks to the generous donation from Franke Holding, even more students will now have the opportunity to pursue their creative ideas,” says Rector Springman at the “next stage” event as she thanks Michael Pieper, owner of Franke and the man behind the donation. He explains below what motivated him.
