Digital fabrication: totally real
Digital technologies are changing our everyday lives, and research at ETH Zurich is playing a major role in this transformation. Realistic film animation, houses built by robots and implants manufactured using 3D printers: the new issue of Globe showcases the vast range of possible applications.
Globe, the magazine of ETH Zurich and the ETH Alumni Association, iis getting an entirely new look this spring. The new layout incorporates striking images, contemporary design and a reader-friendly structure to draw readers into the exciting world of ETH Zurich and its alumni.
But it’s not just a new design that makes this issue of Globe such a milestone – it’s also the first time that the magazine’s print version will also be available in English. Free copies will be available at Zurich Airport in the departures area.
Film animation, construction and surgery
The first issue of 2015 will focus on everything to do with digital fabrication. Realistic animation technologies for the film industry, individually designed buildings that are made by robots, and tailor-made implants manufactured using 3D printers: ETH researchers are putting digital technologies to a wide range of uses as they develop forward-looking solutions.
The ETH Railway Operations Laboratory makes these issues very tangible. Globe follows a class of SBB apprentices as they work with the large-scale model railway set on ETH Zurich’s H?nggerberg campus. The future railway traffic managers learn how to get the trains safely to their destinations despite a tight timetable.
ETH alumnus Walter Fust can look back on a successful career as an entrepreneur. Today the founder of the discount retailer Dipl. Ing. Fust is not only a successful businessman in the area of machine tool manufacturing, but also one of the founders of Inspire, a technology transfer organisation established at the initiative of ETH Zurich and Swiss industry.