Think you know how full your battery is? Well actually, you don't. In our latest researcher blog, see why your minor irritation with your laptop is a massive headache when scaled up to the grid, and let Jan Brändle explain what he's doing about it. nccr-automation.ch/news/2026/ch...

Charging Into the Unknown

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

nccr-automation.ch

Congratulations to Lukas Ortmann for winning the IFAC Industry Committee Doctoral Thesis Award nccr-automation.ch/news/2026/lu...

Lukas Ortmann wins IFAC Industry Committee Doctoral Thesis Award

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

nccr-automation.ch

It's a perfect day to be up in the mountains ☀️ So join us back on the via Automation as Wouter Jongeneel shows us how we could use dynamic programming to plan the best route to the top. bit.ly/4eFWiZ5

Via Automation - a small tour of automatic control: Dynamic programming and shortest paths

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

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New episode! 🎙️Peter Caines takes us through six decades of control, from system identification and stochastic systems to adaptive control and the birth of mean field games, all infused with the restless spirit of the 1960s... Link: www.incontrolpodcast.com Thanks: @nccr-automation.bsky.social

Join us on 17th June for the workshop on local electricity communities - energy policy meets automation. Discuss with experts from policy, economics, market design, automation, and industry, and see how local electricity communities can be designed and implemented in practice. bit.ly/3QsWvFD

Join us as we head back to our trip up the mountain - only today we're learning how overthinking your morning coffee could make you a millionaire*... bit.ly/4uqWIqS *OK the chances are vanishingly unlikely, but Navier-Stokes equations are an interesting mathematical problem.

Are you thinking about applying for our fellowship programme? We are holding two online info events next week to help you to understand how the application process works Mon 18th May: 9:00-10:00am CEST: bit.ly/4v0AYmv Tues 19th May: 17:00-18:00 CEST: bit.ly/4dj8lcI (both events will be the same)

It's the spring bank holiday here in Zurich, but instead of heading to watch the Böög burn, we're off to the via automation with Wouter Jongeneel, and this time we're seeing what we can learn about feedback from a herd of cows nccr-automation.ch/news/2026/au...

Via Automation - a small tour of automatic control: Feedback

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

nccr-automation.ch

Thank you to our friends and colleagues at METAS for a wonderful visit to their labs yesterday. What an absolute treat to be walked through the spiritual home of Switzerland's reputation for precision, and to meet with a real life time lord ⌛

Stuck in some Friday afternoon doomscrolling? Have you ever wondered if there was a way for social media companies to keep us interested, but without polarising opinions? Let Sanjay Chandrasekhar tell you about his solution. bit.ly/4cyrZ5k

🚨 The application portal for our fellowship programme is now open! 🚨 Spend up to six months in an NCCR Automation lab. We particularly welcome applications from geographical regions and groups that are underrepresented in our research community. bit.ly/41H1Pag

Delighted to announce that the next IFAC Symposium on System Identification (SYSID 2027) will be in Lyon, France, on July 7–9, 2027. 🇫🇷 SYSID is the premier research event in system identification and related areas Participation details and deadlines: conferences.ifac-control.org/sysid2027/pa...

Join us on a virtual tour of Switzerland and see where we will be meeting automatic control. Over the next few months, led by Wouter Jongeneel, we'll be embarking on a journey in the Swiss Alps. We'll see how cows, coffee, gondolas and more all work with their own control systems. bit.ly/3Pyoine

Via Automation - a small tour of automatic control

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

bit.ly

The NCCR Automation fellowship is for Master's students, PhD students and Postdocs from abroad to visit our affiliated institutes for up to six months in the framework of their research projects. Take a look at what some of last year's participants had to say: bit.ly/3PtXmFh

"The fellowship was a wonderful experience for me, both professionally and personally"

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

bit.ly

What’s the point of studying computer science if #AI can write code? In a new Perspectives article from @ethz.ch, Professor Peter Müller argues this misses the bigger picture. Computer science is far more than coding and human expertise remains essential. bit.ly/4rE0NHG

Peter Müller, what’s the point of studying computer science if AI is better at coding?

As AI chatbots steadily improve their coding capabilities, many young people are wondering whether it still makes sense to study computer science. Their fears are unfounded, says ETH computer scientis...

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Last week, our co-director Gabriela Hug-Glanzmann spoke with SRF about how changing weather patterns are adjusting our energy needs www.srf.ch/news/wirtsch...

Winterstromlücke ade? Wenn früher im Winter mehr Wasser kommt

«Winterstromlücke» bald passé? Fachleute sind überzeugt, dass die Abhängigkeit von Stromimporten im Winter sinken wird.

srf.ch

When did optimal control begin? 🤔 From a bead sliding down a wire in 1696... to neural networks playing Go. The episode covers 300 years of optimal control, from Enlightenment puzzles to AI milestones 🚀 Link: www.incontrolpodcast.com

🧘Are you feeling balanced? In this week's post, Jethusan Jeyaruban teaches you how to walk the electricity slackline. Find out more here: www.real-lab.ch/how-to-walk-...

📝 When everything works seamlessly: algorithms in your daily life? With RADAR RP, we are launching a survey to better understand how people in Switzerland perceive automation and where they encounter it. Responses are anonymous. Take part in the survey and share your perspective! bit.ly/3Zh2xdg

Automation in everyday life

L’automazione nella vita quotidiana Automatisierung im Alltag L'automation dans la vie quotidienne

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🍺 It's Friday afternoon. How about a beer from the tap? 🍺 Samuel Renggli explains how the capacity of the electric power grid can be increased by reducing the foam in the pipes. Metaphorically speaking. Cheers! 🍻 www.real-lab.ch/power-on-tap

🚀 This week, we are flying to the moon. 🌕 With robots! 🤖 How cool is that? www.real-lab.ch/one-giant-le...

MPC. Three small letters, one big meaning. But have you ever wondered about what that meaning is? Let Claire Blackman, Dimitris Kouzoupis and Juxhino Kavaja tell you about how MPC actually works, by using the example of how nuorail helps trains to run smoothly. nccr-automation.ch/news/2026/wh...

What is MPC anyway?

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

nccr-automation.ch

🌊 🌊 🌊 Are you drowning in a stormy river? Marcell Bartos knows which combination of control tools and strategies keep you afloat in unpredictable environments. www.real-lab.ch/staying-afloat

🎙️ New episode! Jeff Shamma (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) on gain scheduling, robustness, game theory and multi-agent learning... and some advice from both control and jiu-jitsu: “Don’t get tired.” Unmissable! Thanks: @nccr-automation.bsky.social Links: www.incontrolpodcast.com

New episode out 🎙️ This one is a bit different: we look at female influencers in control — ideas, trajectories, some data, and why this conversation matters. Constructive feedback, criticism, and perspectives welcome 💬 Thanks: @nccr-automation.bsky.social Links: www.incontrolpodcast.com

❓ What do the Gotthard tunnel on a holiday weekend and the electric power grid on a sunny day have in common? Fabian Böhm knows. Read and learn. 😉 www.real-lab.ch/no-need-to-w...

Our researcher blogs are back! This time let Muhammad Zakwan tell you about how he's making machine learning safer. nccr-automation.ch/news/2025/so...

Sounding Smart Isn’t Enough: How We Can Make Machine Learning Safer

ETH Zurich Automatic Control Laboratory

nccr-automation.ch

Last week we welcomed back the companies and researchers from our previous industry-academia workshops for our industry open-house. Thank you to everyone who bought ideas, presented, asked questions and generally contributed to an enthusiastic and open space for sharing.

Last week we were happy to host 20 school children as part of the Nationaler Zukunftstag. Thank you to the NomadZ, @ethz.ch, @acupofmilkyway.bsky.social and Anamarija Zivkovic for their brilliant organisation.

What is feedback, really? In this episode, we retrace its prehistory, revisit Black’s invention of the negative-feedback amplifier, and look at why feedback keeps reappearing in biology, strategy, behaviour shaping machines, organisms, and decisions. Thanks: @nccr-automation.bsky.social