news 2021

Questions about finances, savings accounts, or retirement planning: More and more interactions with the bank are taking place via low-threshold, digital communication channels. Almost half of customers can imagine communicating with their bank via chat or chatbot. This is shown by the Conversational Banking study conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Autonomy is something people cherish. Those who long for independence in their daily working lives may decide to become self-employed. This step toward greater freedom should after all contribute to greater life satisfaction. But does self-employment actually live up to these high expectations? Researchers at the University of Basel have investigated the topic.

Fraudulent practices in food production, especially false claims of geographical origin, cause billions of dollars in economic damage every year. Botanists at the University of Basel have now developed a model that can be used to determine the origin of food in an efficient and low-cost manner. Strawberries from Switzerland or olive oil from Italy can be sold at much higher prices than the same products from other countries.

Enabled by Design is a joint EPFL-ECAL program that forges ties between researchers and designers to make it easier to bring new technology to market. Researchers are often the first to see a device's innovative potential. But investors, users and end customers will look not only at its functionality, but also its ergonomics and aesthetics.

Insulation webs are essential in aluminum window profiles and facades for good thermal insulation. researchers and their partners have been working for some time on a novel "sandwich" product with an environmentally friendly filling: recycled material from PET bottles. Now the market launch is approaching - with good prospects of success.

While studying two exoplanets in a bright nearby star system, the CHEOPS satellite has unexpectedly spotted the system's third known planet crossing the face of the star. This transit reveals exciting details about a rare planet -with no known equivalent-, as the scientific team led by the Universities of Geneva and Bern, and members of the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS, point out.

Since February 2021, the canton of Grisons is using saliva-based PCR mass testing within its mobile workforce as a potential means to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce infection rates. Empa researchers are now leading the analysis of data from the first eight weeks of the testing regime. They observed a reduction in the incidence rate between 20 and 50%, depending on the business sector, and a noticeable reduction in the test positivity rate among those who were regularly tested.

Catering to the future expectations of investors is inherent to the world of finance which, as such, plays an import role in fostering economic growth through it's ability to innovate. However, financial innovations are not always flawless. A recent study co-authored by USI finance professor Francesco Franzoni reveals the significant performance inefficiencies of the increasingly popular 'thematic' exchange traded funds (ETFs).

An interdisciplinary research team from ETH Zurich is developing the Nexus-e modelling platform in a project supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. The platform facilitates the analysis of how technological, economic and regulatory developments affect the energy system of the future. Switzerland's energy system will undergo a fundamental transformation in the coming years.

Better grades thanks to your fellow students? A study conducted by the University of Zurich's Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics has revealed that not only the grade point average, gender and nationality peers can influence your own academic achievement, but so can their personalities. Intensive contact and interaction with persistent fellow students improve your own performance, and this effect even endures in subsequent semesters.