News

A new semester, a new cohort of students, new hardware, a new programming language – but the same challenge to be tackled!
This year's Medical Engineering Hackathon once again brought together third-year BSc Human Medicine students at ETH Zurich. In a one-week sprint, the teams designed and built the mechanics, electronics, and software for an EMG-controlled gripper that can be attached to an educational elbow exoskeleton.

We are excited to welcome Dr. Giannouli and her group!Eleftheria will lead the Cognitive Rehabilitation line within RELab.

Two weeks ago, the First Workshop on Assistive Robotics in Switzerland took place at the Google Accessibility Discovery Center (ADC) in Zurich. The workshop, organized by Emmanuel Senft from the Idiap Research Institute, together with Roger Gassert and Jessica Gantenbein from RELab, brought together a diverse community interested in robotic technologies that support people in their daily lives and help translate assistive robotics from research prototypes to real-world solutions.

What is the best ETH invention of 2025? Join us at the innovation event ETH Zurich @ Open-i where we unveil the winner of the Spark Award. One of the finalists has invented an innovative hand exoskeleton that helps persons after stroke re-learn how to grasp.

The popular news portal 20 Minuten published a video featuring the doctoral work of Natalie Tanczak, on the development and clinical evaluation of the RELab tenoexo as a therapy support in stroke survivors. 

The new semester has begun, and next week we kick off Medical Engineering I! This course, designed for third-year medical students, blends lectures with hands-on sessions to foster a solid understanding of biomechanics, medical engineering, and human–machine interaction.

Over the past years, she has made remarkable contributions to the field through pioneering work on soft, wearable robotic hand orthoses for stroke rehabilitation, conducting innovative research and development during her time based at the Singapore-ETH Centre and Future Health Technologies (FHT), as well as with us here at RELab ETH Zürich, collectively advancing assistive and rehabilitative technologies. We’re proud to celebrate this milestone with her. Well done, Natalie!

Another fantastic edition of our Summer School “Towards a Continuum of Technology-assisted Therapy” organised by the Clinica Hildebrand Centro di riabilitazione Brissago and RELab ETH Zürich in beautiful and hot Brissago!  

This semester, the second edition of our challenge-based, hands-on course „Assistive Technology Challenge“ saw students from various backgrounds design and build technical solutions to support individuals with physical disabilities in overcoming daily life barriers. We’re thrilled with the achievements of the students and the challengers Hannes, Milena, Cla, and Luc!

We’re proud to look back on an inspiring and successful RehabWeek 2025 in Chicago, where RELab was prominently represented across multiple formats.

Cléo Perrin started her PhD at the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory in December 2024. Her research is focused on combining optical neuroimaging with non invasive brain stimulation to seamlessly include the brain in the neurorehabilitation therapy of stroke patients.

In the current issue of “at – Aktuelle Technik”, Roger Gassert and Desiree Beck from RESC discuss how the new Major in Rehabilitation and Inclusion in the Health Sciences and Technology curriculum at D-HEST prepares students for interdisciplinary work at the interface of technology, health sciences, rehabilitation and inclusion.

We are excited to be part of the rtFIN2024 in Heidelberg, where we’re gaining exciting insights about the latest neurofeedback research. Lena Salzmann and Manabu Rohr-Fukuma had the pleasure of presenting their work on DBS-based neurofeedback in Parkinson’s disease. Dominik Wyser is happy to showcase the latest developments from optohive. A big thank you to the organziers and fellow researchers for an inspiring event!

Here's to everyone who made CYBATHLON 2024 a success! We're proud of our RELab ETH Zürich team's contributions, from leading disciplines to organizing awards.

Last week, we were delighted to welcome a delegation from Singapore to RELab ETH Zürich, as part of their visit to attend the CYBATHLON event. This gathering provided a fantastic opportunity to discuss our vision for implementing rehabilitation technologies along the continuum of care and to celebrate the unique, impactful collaboration with Singapore through the Future Health Technologies Programme at the Singapore-ETH Centre. A big thank you to the entire delegation for an enriching exchange!

In the context of the GLC building’s recent opening celebrations, we not only had the pleasure to present our work to various visitors from the public, but Roger Gassert and Jessica Gantenbein also got to talk about the RELab tenoexo alongside three other nice projects from D-HEST and D-ITET. Find out how a robotic hand exoskeleton, a lower limb exoskeleton for children a steering-by-leaning wheelchair and a robotic guide dog can be innovative helpers for everyday life!

Last week, we had the honor of exhibiting at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva. This incredible event provided us with a platform to showcase our research and connect with leaders from the AI community. At our booth, we presented ReHandyBot, our portable upper-limb rehabilitation device, and RehabCoach, the smartphone application designed to assist patients with at-home unsupervised ReHandyBot therapy.  

With the end of the semester, also the first edition of our “Assistive Technology Challenge” course, inspired by the yearly HackaHealth hackathons, came to an end! The ATChallenge is a hands-​on, project-​based course introducing students of the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST), ETH Zürich to assistive technologies to the principles of user-​centered design and user evaluation, project management, as well as basic engineering tools.

Throughout an intensive one-week design sprint, students from the Bachelor in Human Medicine program at ETH Zurich learned and applied engineering skills to create a hand gripper for an exoskeleton. The week was filled with interactive workshops, insightful presentations, and collaborative group work, all aimed at fostering transdisciplinary skills and innovative problem-solving.

We are proud to announce that our submission, titled “Exploring Neural Biomarkers of Gait”, has received a jury distinction in the SNSF Image Competition! The awarded picture was presented in the category “Women and men of science,” and captures a moment from the gait laboratory within our StimuLOOP project, where we record neural activity in Parkinson’s patients.