AI, art, biotechnology and more: 7 new fellowships
ZHAW digital congratulates the seven new fellows that will be funded via the DIZH fellowship program. Find out more about their future projects here.
For the fourth time the DIZH Fellowships are awarded to outstanding ZHAW researchers who will work in cross-university research clusters on interdisciplinary digital transformation projects . Since the first call in 2019, a total of 35 fellows have been selected so far. The seven new fellows will start their projects from January onwards in a broad array of topics:
Augmented reality and aesthetic impact
In her project on “zoom fatigue” during video conferences, Anne Catherine Gieshoff from the School of Applied Linguistics will explore if the use of augmented reality is a possible remedy. Part of the project is a pilot study with multilinguals and conference interpreters. In a different field, the project initiated by artist and lecturer Michael Mieskes from the School of Architecture grapples with the aesthetic effects of current digital applications. Through the design of physical objects and a theoretical approach, he wants to display the impact of digital processes.
Drug discovery and computational biology
Steffi Lehmann from the School of Life Sciences and Facility Management will address the urgent need for the discovery of novel fibrosis therapies by establishing a completely new in silico/ in cellulo screening platform to identify anti-fibrotic drugs. Thus, integrating digital tools into drug discovery. Jūlija Pečerska from the same department focuses on developing a novel software that combines the study of genomic analysis and phylogenetics (evolutionary relationships between different organisms and species). Her project tackles a fundamental issue of phylogenetic analysis and opens large genetic data sets to new analysis and discoveries. Also, at the intersection between life sciences and technology, Claus Horn proposes a new approach to enzyme engineering which leverages the power of artificial intelligence. The goal is to develop an AI model to optimize Halogenase enzymes, which for example are valuable tools to produce pharmaceuticals.
Artificial intelligence and aviation
Thilo Stadelmann from the School of Engineering also focuses on artificial intelligence. His approach is based on a novel theory involving a biological aspect of intelligence: self-organising neural connections. The goal of his fellowship is to transfers this biological concept to deep learning. Celina Vetter from the same department aims to improve flight safety. To do so, she applies a methodology to digitalise human performance with biometric data in training sessions.
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A complete list of all current and past DIZH fellows is available on the ZHAW digital website.
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Further information on the Digitalization Initiative of the Zurich Higher Education Institutions (DIZH) can be found here.