Closer ties between MIT and ETH
ETH Rector Lino Guzzella took the opportunity to cultivate the university’s good relationship with MIT during a recent trip to the US. He’s coming back with a student exchange agreement and some fresh ideas for energy research projects.
First Washington, then Boston: These were the two destinations visited by the Swiss delegation that Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard selected to travel with her to the US. ETH Rector Lino Guzzella and representatives from the Energy Science Centre (ESC) were among the participants. During their time on the East Coast, they took the opportunity to deepen the university’s good relationship with world-renowned technical university MIT, where ETH Zurich has more than 70 individual research contacts. In fact, ETH has closer ties to MIT than to any other US university. Nine ETH professors also taught or did research at MIT before coming to Zurich. And one other connection exists in the form of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), a community comprising the presidents of the world’s leading universities, including ETH and MIT.
Guzzella and MIT Vice President Claude Canizares signed a student exchange agreement during the visit. The agreement is currently limited to ETH students from the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, but should open to include other students in the future. Energy research plays a crucial role at ETH as well as at MIT. As the US and Switzerland prepare to transform their energy systems, they expect the universities to provide solutions and develop technologies that will enable sustainable and environmentally sound energy policy for the coming decades.
Collaborative effort in energy research
The trip to Boston set discussions in motion which could ultimately bring the ESC and the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) closer together. As Robert Stoner, Deputy Director of the MIT Energy Initiative, said: “The Energy Initiative is committed to working on key elements of the complex energy challenge through multidisciplinary research activities. We are exploring ways to collaborate more closely with ETH on these topics.” The topics of discussion range from building and storage technologies, to dismantling nuclear power plants and building intelligent, more powerful electricity grids.
Interest in closer collaboration exists on both sides of the Atlantic. “This is the right time to combine the expertise of ETH and MIT in joint research projects”, said Christian Schaffner, Executive Director of the ESC. Both universities have a rich history of excellence in the engineering sciences and can draw on the capabilities of interdisciplinary networks. The first move to strengthen ties between ETH and MIT has been made. More steps will have to follow if these good ideas are to turn into collaborative research projects.