Research Projects
Latest Open Projects from D-MTEC and Associated Labs on SiROP:
Masters Thesis: Urban Remote Sensing
We offer you the opportunity to use the fast resources of our chair not only to complete the last step of your Master's degree, but also to contribute to an existing field of research and possibly start your way to a PhD position with a high-ranking publication. Specifically, we offer supervision by a multidisciplinary team of data scientists and economists, the opportunity to integrate your research into a larger research project, and powerful computational resources. We have extensive in-house datasets and deep learning models that we are happy to share. Students should be trained in remote sensing, econometrics, GIS, data science or similar. Your specific academic background is less important than research interests that align with ours, a high level of motivation and the technical skills you bring to the table. If you are interested, please fill in the form at the bottom of the page.
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Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2024-12-12 , Earliest start: 2025-01-01 , Latest end: 2025-10-31
Organization Chair of Applied Economics: Innovation and Internationalisation
Hosts Papini Sebastiano
Topics Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology , Economics , Architecture, Urban Environment and Building
Master Thesis at ETH Zurich in Applied Computer Science: Development of an ML Algorithm for Drunk Driving Detection
Driver state detection systems will become mandatory in many countries in this decade. In this thesis, you will use a unique multi-sensor dataset with 55 drivers collected by us in a in a real car on a test track to develop a ML drunk driving detection algorithm.
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applied computer science; driver state detection; data analytics; explainable machine learning
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2024-12-11 , Earliest start: 2024-10-21 , Latest end: 2025-07-31
Organization Bosch IoT Lab
Hosts Deuber Robin
Topics Mathematical Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Master thesis: Crop protection in organic and non-organic pesticide-free arable farming
Pesticide-free (non-organic) crop production is currently gaining ground in European agriculture as a new alternative pathway between conventional and organic farming. To successfully produce crops without using pesticides, farmers must adopt sustainable crop protection measures, e.g., following the principles of integrated crop protection (IPM) or agroecological crop protection (ACP). Even though both production systems, i.e., pesticide-free non-organic and organic, work without pesticides, the alternative crop protection measures used may differ between organic and non-organic farms. To date, little is known about potential differences between farming systems without pesticides regarding the adoption of alternative crop protection strategies.
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crop protection, pesticide-free, organic, integrated pest management (IPM), wheat, maize, Switzerland
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2024-11-27 , Earliest start: 2025-02-02 , Latest end: 2026-01-22
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-MTEC
Hosts Akter Sharmin
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences
Economic impacts of heat stress in Swiss dairy production
The global increase in temperature and humidity amplifies local impacts on livestock husbandry. Climatic extreme events like heat waves negatively affect milk producers, especially because cows experiencing heat stress may imply lower milk and milk component yields in Switzerland. This thesis uses rich data from swissherdbook and MeteoSwiss and provides causal estimates of temperature humidity shocks on milk production using an econometric analysis. Based on this assessment, the thesis quantifies its economic relevance, considering both quantity and price effects. Knowledge about climate change impacts on milk production provides highly relevant information for farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector.
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Agricultural economics, dairy cows, heat stress, milk production
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2024-11-26 , Earliest start: 2022-05-18
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-MTEC
Hosts Kliestenec Katarina
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences
Betriebliche Optimierungsmodelle in der Schweizer Landwirtschaft
Basierend auf Ihren Kenntnissen aus der Vorlesung «Optimierung landwirtschaftlicher Produktionssysteme» erstellen Sie ein Optimierungsmodell in Excel oder R und beantworten damit eine von Ihnen erarbeitete Forschungsfrage.
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Optimierung, Schweizer Landwirtschaft, Lineare Programmierung
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Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2024-11-19 , Earliest start: 2019-11-01 , Latest end: 2020-12-31
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-USYS
Hosts Huber Robert
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences , Mathematical Sciences , Economics
Review of plant diversity policy for grassland agriculture in Europe
Grasslands play an essential role in food production worldwide, covering a large portion of agricultural lands (FAO, 2021). Grasslands provide a variety of ecosystem services, including marketable ecosystem services (e.g., feed production) and non-marketable ecosystem services (e.g., biodiversity-related services). This means that they carry great policy importance (Huber et al., 2022). Like other sectors of agriculture, grassland-based systems are threatened by climate change and uncertain weather conditions, resulting in potentially lower and more variable incomes for farmers (Arora et al., 2020; Orlowsky et al., 2012). To cope with these new conditions, farmers can use various risk management instruments, such as financial insurance or different on-site management practices. Increasing plant diversity in grasslands is an important management practice that brings economic benefits to farmers through higher yields and lower risk (Baumgärtner, 2007; Finger & Buchmann, 2015), and public benefits through a positive effect on biodiversity-related ecosystem services (Isbell et al., 2011; Paul et al., 2020). This win-win effect of increasing plant diversity makes it an extremely important practice. However, in many countries single species grasslands are still the norm whereas it has been proven that a relatively small increase in diversity (e.g. four species) for intensive grasslands, increases the mean and decreases the variability of production (Schaub et al., 2020). Therefore, a review of the current state of the government support of plant diversity use in European grasslands is needed to understand what are the barriers to a more widespread adoption.
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Grasslands, plant diversity, economic value, public policy
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Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2024-09-25 , Earliest start: 2024-09-26 , Latest end: 2025-09-30
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-MTEC
Hosts Alou Nicolas
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences , Economics
Analyse von Schweizer Agrarmärkten
Beschreibung und ökonomische Interpretation der Marktordnung eines Schweizer Agrarmarktes
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Agrarmärkte, Wertschöpfungskette, Marktordnung
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Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2024-08-15 , Earliest start: 2021-11-15 , Latest end: 2022-12-31
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-USYS
Hosts Huber Robert
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences
Evaluating the performance of Swiss crop production
Pesticide use in agricultural cropping systems is critical for food security but its adverse effects on human health and the environment have been repeatedly shown. Thus, promoting the efficient use of inputs in crop production, for reducing these adverse effects, is an urgent topic in the agricultural policy agendas globally (e.g Ahovi et al., 2024). In Switzerland, pesticide use is a highly debatable topic and the country has its own initiatives to mitigate the harmful impacts of pesticides (see Finger 2021). Consequently, understanding the factors that affect the performance of crop producers in terms of efficiency is necessary for promoting a more sustainable crop production (Devilliers et al., 2024).
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crop production, pesticides, sustainability, efficiency
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2024-07-21 , Earliest start: 2024-02-21 , Latest end: 2025-03-01
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-MTEC
Hosts Parikoglou Iordanis
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences , Economics
Heat Stress and efficiency in Swiss dairy production
How efficiently are dairy farmers using their inputs at higher levels of heat stress conditions? Heat stress is one of the main climatic risks in dairy production (Finger et al., 2018). Due to climate change, heat stress conditions are expected to be even more frequent and severe. Under these conditions, farmers need to be able to use their inputs efficiently. The efficient use of inputs is one of the key policies in Switzerland with important implications on resilience and sustainability, e.g. securing viable incomes, minimizing environmental pressures, improved animal welfare, preventing exit of farms etc.
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Heat Stress, dairy production, climate change, extreme weather events, resilience, sustainability, economics
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Master Thesis
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Published since: 2024-07-21 , Earliest start: 2024-02-21 , Latest end: 2024-03-01
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-MTEC
Hosts Parikoglou Iordanis
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences , Economics
Review of the state of agricultural insurances in dairy farming
Climate change is affecting agricultural production, lowering yields, increasing costs, increasing yield variability and thus causing financial losses for farmers (Webber et al., 2018). There are also negative implications for dairy production (e.g. Bucheli et al. 2022, Gisbert-Queral et al. 2021). Adopting suitable agricultural practices (e.g. cooling systems etc) is necessary for mitigating financial losses due to weather events (e.g. Vroege et al. 2023, Bucheli et al. 2022). Despite this, farmers may still experience financial losses due to weather conditions. In this regard, insurances are an essential complementary management practice for securing farmers’ viable income. Therefore, understanding the current state of the available agricultural insurance is essential for improving their effectiveness in compensating for farmers’ financial losses. Although the literature provides a though examination on the state of agricultural weather insurances offered in crop farming (e.g. Bucheli et al. 2023) and there are selected approaches documented in the literature (e.g. Deng et al. 2007), there is no overview research on and available insurances for heat and drought related damages in the dairy sector.
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Dairy production, extreme weather events, climate change, agricultural insurances
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Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2024-07-21 , Earliest start: 2024-02-21 , Latest end: 2025-03-01
Organization Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy D-MTEC
Hosts Parikoglou Iordanis
Topics Agricultural, Veterinary and Environmental Sciences , Economics