Robots, race cars and recycling - that was the Focus Rollout 2023

Thirteen teams, nine months, countless hours of work. With an exhibition and presentations on 30 May 2023, the third-year Bachelor’s students of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering presented their Focus Projects.

05.06.2023 by Inken De Wit, Jessica Stobaugh

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Dense crowds prevailed in the LEE building at ETH Zurich. Hundreds of visitors came to marvel at robots, racing cars, recycling technology and much more. A total of 13 different project were presented by Bachelor’s students of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at the Focus Rollout 2023.

Crowds at the exhibition — Numerous visitors wanted to experience the exhibition of the Focus Projects.

The students had a total of two semesters to develop innovative technological solutions for the so-called Focus Projects, divided into 13 teams. These were by no means only projects that are classically associated with mechanical engineering. In addition to solar and electric racing cars, a hydrogen fuel cell drive or an electric excavator, among other things, a novel contrast agent for medical imaging, an MRI-compatible heart-lung machine and a swimming robot for exploring marine ecosystems were presented.

Professor Wegener admires a single component at the booth, other guests are in the background — Team magnecko explains their technology to Professor Konrad Wegener and other guests.

Among the guests were parents, grandparents, friends and sponsors as well as numerous students - and even one or two passers-by stopped by on their way to lunch. They were interested to hear the teams explain the special features of their technical solutions and were even able to try out some innovations, including a suit that lets you experience virtual worlds by means of artificial muscles.

In addition to the exhibition, each team also presented their project to the public at ETH Zurich's Audi Max, where demonstrations sometimes even involved fire! The recordings of the presentations are available on the external pageD-MAVT YouTube channel. The complete list of Focus Projects and all previous Focus Projects can be found at Focus Rollout.

The presenter at the front of the stage before her presentation to the packed lecture hall — Team byPulse presents its MRI-compatible heart-lung machine to the audience at Audi Max.

Where do we go from here?

However, the Rollout does not mean that the projects are completed. The teams continue to tinker with their technologies, testing them and finalizing their Bachelor’s theses based on them over the next few weeks. Some of them will also participate in international student competitions, for example the electric racing car "Castor" at the external pageFormula Student or the solar racing car "aCentauri" at the external pageWorld Solar Challenge in Australia. Furthermore, it would not be the first time that a Focus Project becomes a spin-off company, such as external pageScewo, external pageWingtra or external pageVoliro.

True to the motto "After the rollout is before the rollout", the next Focus Projects are just around the corner! On 22, 23 and 24 May 2023, the information events of the Focus Projects 2023/2024 and the Focus Specializations took place. With more than 300 participants per event, this part of the Bachelor's program met with lively interest among the students. The presentations can be downloaded under Students’ Information Events.