My favorite class this semester is Technology Entrepreneurship taught at the ETH. Because of the Universität’s relationship with ETH, students of either university can take classes for credit at the other. Technology Entrepreneurship is a class hosted at ETH that uses the university’s emphasis on technological innovation to draw influential entrepreneurs to talk about start-ups and the growth process for products and companies. Each lecture is on a different topic designed to inspire the students to pursue entrepreneurship careers and teach basic concepts that will help them succeed. The first half of the lecture is taught by the professor and, for most of the classes, the second half of the lecture is taught by a guest lecturer who lectures on a topic of their choice. The professor doesn’t work full time at the university, but instead works in the industry and has a lot of professional experience in his background. I like this class as it is very practical and has a good focus on what is relevant in the real world. It is also free flowing meaning that the lecturer can make lectures interesting instead of having to fit a topic that he’s not passionate about. Many of my non-core classes at the Universität and ETH are similar in that they’re practical classes taught by industry professionals instead of faculty. I enjoy this one especially because of the guest lecturers. They’re always interesting and well respected in their industry, for example, the first guest lecturer was the founder of Dyson, who talked about innovating in a field filled with existing products. I feel like I’m learning a lot in the class and I love hearing from people in the field who practice the theory instead of just the theory without context.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my favorite place to study in warm weather is the ETH balcony. The view is gorgeous and it is conveniently located. As the weather gets worse, the balcony is becoming less ideal and I’ve switched to studying in the Infromatik’s department. The Infromatiks department is the Universität’s version of the computer science department at NEU.
The Universität has many different campuses outside the main one in the city. These campuses house different departments. For example, the campus hosting the biology department is located in a botanical garden on a hill near the lake. The Infromatik’s department is located at Oerlikon, a popular business region in Zürich. It is near the train station and close to my apartment, which is convenient for traveling. Because the Informatik’s department is small, and the Universität doesn’t have computer science, but instead information sciences. The department mainly houses classes for students from other majors looking to take a class or two in the department to supplement their degree and find the classes at ETH not suiting their needs. Because of this there is a lounge in the Infromatik’s department that goes mainly unused because there are so few students. It’s conveniently located and nice to use as my classes are next door. This is where I do my studying when the weather is bad. It’s also very close to Oerlikon which has a bunch of (relatively) cheap food options and amenities.
