Switzerland has been one of the leading countries in computer applications for a long time. Niklaus Wirth, one of the most brillant scientists of the early computer age and designer of several computer languages like Pascal, Modula or Oberon, is Swiss and has influenced remarkably the development of computer science in Switzerland. Nowadays, many IT applications are an important part of Switzerland’s key industries (e.g. banks, insurances, telecommunication, power systems, chemistry, watches, transportation, tourism etc.).

Research in Computer Science

• The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS develops and promotes technical and scientific services for the Swiss research community in the fields of high-performance computing.

• The Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull’Intelligenza Artificiale IDSIA is a research institute for artificial intelligence, affiliated with both the Faculty of Informatics of the University of Lugano and the Department of Innovative Technologies of SUPSI, the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland.

• European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics ERCIM aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and development in the fields of computer science and applied mathematics. Furthermore the consortium is committed to increase the cooperation with European industry. It is based on fourteen leading European research establishments from different European countries.

Computer Science at Universities

• Institut d’ingénierie informatique et des télécommunications of the University of Applied Sciences in Geneva. 

• Department of Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Applied Sciences Bern. 

• Faculty of Informatics of the University of Lugano. 

• Department of Innovative Technologies of SUPSI.

• School of engineering and architecture of the University of Applied Sciences of Lucerne.

Associations

• Sarit, the Swiss Association for Research in Information Technology, supports the scientific network between computer science departments at universities and industry labs. Their webpage provides access to all Swiss IT departments and IT research units in industry as well as to international organizations. Sarit also organises different events in the IT domain.
• ICT switzerland is the umbrella organisation of the most important Swiss associations and organisations in the IT and telecommunication sector. They are aiming at promoting information techonolgy and the business location Switzerland.
• The Swiss Informatics Societe IS (Schweizer Informatik Gesellschaft/Société suisse d’informatique) is the Swiss community of interest for all people interested in computer science.

Companies

• The International Federation of Information Processing IFIP is a multinational, apolitical organization in information and communications technologies and sciences. It represents IT Societies from 56 countries or regions and links more than 3500 scientists from Academia and Industry.
• IBM Research Zurich
• Disney Research Zurich