Media corner

“DEAPSnow”, a project by the Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support avalanche forecasters in creating the avalanche bulletin. This product provides essential information about the prevailing snow and avalanche conditions in the Swiss Alps and the Jura.

With applications such as ChatGPT gaining traction, many questions are arising about Generative AI, the technology behind those tools, sometimes described as disruptive. How does it work, how can it support organizations today and what are the risks and opportunities associated with its use?

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss Data Science Center cooperate on a research project to better understand patterns of violence. This project is a concrete example of how data science can work out an effective model based on publicly available data, delivering a measurable humanitarian impact.

Data science helps deliver more precise and actionable information to policymakers and the population thanks to improved data quality. The Swiss Data Science Center collaborates with the Swiss Federal Office of Energy to push further digital innovation in the energy sector.

Ensuring compliance with privacy regulations can be a challenging task, requiring continuous monitoring and the ongoing collection of consent for data usage. The Swiss Data Custodian is an open-source framework that provides the necessary tools to govern data access and processing and enables secure and compliant data usage through contractual agreements.

A framework agreement was signed by the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, the CHUV, and UNIL to establish a common base of expertise in the area of data science and serve projects in the healthcare sector.

Another office for the Swiss Data Science Center will be established at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. To this end, the ETH Board has approved an increase of five million Swiss francs in the budget of the strategic focus area Data Science. The main aim of this expansion is to help improve the evaluation and processing of the growing amounts of data from large and complex research infrastructures, sensor networks, and databases at PSI and the other three federal research institutes, Empa, WSL, and Eawag. The resources and expertise will be available to all institutes in the ETH Domain.