phd computer science eth zurich

Navigation auf uzh.ch

Department of Astrophysics

Quicklinks und sprachwechsel, main navigation, phd programme in computational science, graduate school for computational science.

The PhD programme in Computational Science is a joint initiative of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, which aims to:

• Foster sustained interactions between PhD students, faculty and staff
• Promote exchanges between academia, industry and society enabled by computational science

Computational Science (CS) integrates Information Technology and Mathematics to address scientific and societal challenges such as Energy, Health, Climate and Finance.

CS is a unique method of scientific inquiry, complementing theory and experiments, providing us with unprecedented potential for scientific discovery and innovation.

Application and enrollment

The Computational Sciences PhD programme is a 3-4year MSc to PhD program. Participating students can choose from a broad selection of research topics and classes. Enrollment into the program is decided by an admission committee. In order to graduate, students need to fulfill the following requirements:

• Acquisition of 12 credit points of advanced courses
• Deposition and defense of a Ph.D. thesis describing the student’s original research work,
• Additional requirements imposed by the host institution (University of Zurich or ETH Zurich) so as to comply fully with their regulations.

The final degree is conferred by either the University of Zurich or the ETH Zürich, depending on the academic affiliation of the host laboratory.

Official PhD regulations for the Computational Science Programme: PDF EN / PDF DE

Link to the Regulations Governing PhD Studies at the MNF

Link to the official page of the Graduate School for CS

Admissions to Promotion - Useful links and documents:

Admission to Doctoral Studies at the University of Zurich

Factsheet Admission to a PhD Program at the Department of Astrophysics (PDF, 621 KB) Checklist for PhD students

"Confirmation of Supervision for Doctoral Students" (PDF, 242 KB)

"Acceptance Confirmation Structured Doctoral Program" (PDF, 225 KB) Annual committee meeting minutes (PDF, 1 MB)

Confirmation Sheet - TA Hours (PDF, 224 KB)

Fact sheet PhD Defence (EN) / Merkblatt (DE)

Program Director Prof. Dr. Robert Feldmann [email protected]

ETH Workshop on Dependable & Secure Software Systems (Oct. 7-8, 2022) --> Fall 2023 teaching : Compiler Design , Software Engineering Seminar --> Spring 2024 teaching : Automated Software Testing , MSc SE Seminar Fall 2021 teaching : Compiler Design , Software Engineering Seminar --> Spring 2021 teaching : Automated Software Testing , MSc SE Seminar --> Fall 2020 teaching : Compiler Design , Research Topics in Software Engineering --> Spring 2019 teaching : Rigorous Software Engineering Fall 2018 teaching : Research Topics in Software Engineering --> ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award Keynote at ESEC/FSE 2018 ( slides , photo ) --> Open positions (PhD students, post-docs, research engineers, visitors) Available bachelor's and master's thesis topics ETH Workshop on Dependable & Secure Software Systems (Oct. 18-19, 2019) -->

DBMS Testing : 400+ bugs in widely-used DBMS (SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, and TiDB) Project Yin-Yang for SMT Solver Testing : [Z3/CVC4 bugs: 1,560 (total) / 1,061 (fixed)] [Reports: YinYang , OpFuzz , TypeFuzz ] EMI & SPE Compiler Testing : [GCC/LLVM bugs: 1,634 (total) / 1,076 (fixed)] [Reports: GCC ( link1 , link2 , link3 , link4 , link5 ), LLVM ( link1 , link2 , link3 , link4 , link5 )] Algot     Kodethon     XSat     Deckard     Ape --> Ape     Stoat --> Stoat     Themis     Genie     SetDroid RobustNLP     SQLancer     Yin-Yang     Graalphp     Atomu     Perses     SanRazor     DEAD TxCheck     CompDiff     PGE     UBGen     Artemis     Thalia

Zhendong Su (high-def photo ; short bio ; 2-page short CV ; full CV ) is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich since August 2018. He had been a full professor in Computer Science and a Chancellor's Fellow at UC Davis until June 2019. He joined the UC Davis faculty in January 2003 after receiving his Ph.D. in Computer Science (with minor in Mathematics ) from UC Berkeley . He received a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Mathematics from UT Austin in 1995. His research spans programming languages and compilers, software engineering, computer security, deep learning and education technologies. He is passionate about fundamental and practical innovations for building software. His work has received an ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award (2018), an ICSE Most Influential Paper (MIP) Award (2022), a Google Scholar Classic Paper Award (2017), best/distinguished paper awards at top venues (ASPLOS, SOSP, PLDI x 2, OOPSLA x 2, EAPLS, TACAS, ISSTA x 2, ICSE x 2), best/distinguished artifact awards at top venues (ASPLOS x 2, OSDI, OOPSLA, PLDI), an ACM CACM Research Highlight, an NSF CAREER Award , a UC Davis Outstanding Engineering Faculty Award , and multiple industrial faculty awards (Amazon, Cisco, Google x 3, Huawei, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla). He is a Member of the Academia Europaea , and a Fellow of the ACM and of the IEEE. He also participates in the ACM Distinguished Speaker program. He served on the steering committees of ISSTA and ESEC/FSE , served as an Associate Editor for ACM TOSEM , co-chaired SAS 2009 , program chaired ISSTA 2012 , and program co-chaired SIGSOFT FSE 2016 . He frequently serves on program committees of major venues (such as ICSE, FSE, ISSTA, PLDI, POPL, OOPSLA, and CAV). His PhD/postdoctoral students also received much recognition, including a SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award , an ICSE Most Influential Paper (MIP) Award , a SIGSOFT Outstanding Dissertation Award and a UC Davis Zuhair A. Munir Best Dissertation Award ; they assumed tenure-track positions at major research universities (e.g., SMU , UCL , GaTech , Waterloo , SUNY Korea , HKUST , ECNU , CUHKSZ , NUS , CityUHK , CUHK ), R&D positions at major companies (e.g., Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Tencent , and Visa Research ), and scientific/technical leadership positions at successful early-stage companies (e.g., Viv Labs ).

• Press Enter to activate screen reader mode.

ETH AI Center  

Fellowship programs.

Applications for the ETH AI Center PhD and Post-Doc Fellowships will open in October 2024

We are involved in three phd and post-doc programs.

Please see below a brief overview of the different types of PhD programs. Please note that while the programs are well coordinated, you need to apply for each of the programs separately and also ensure that your motivational letter fits with the corresponding program goals.

ETH AI Center PhD and Post-Doc Fellowships

Our flagship PhD & Post-Doc Program is focused on advancing interdisciplinary AI research . This can be inside the AI foundations or between AI foundations and application areas. The idea is that fellows work with two excellent PIs which carry both equal weights in the supervision. Fellows have their primary office at the physical space of the ETH AI Center and become part of a cohort. Key selection criteria are ability for research excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and impact-orientation.

CLS PhD Fellowships

The Center for Learning Systems (CLS) is a joint initiative between Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Tübingen/Stuttgart, Germany and ETH Zurich. The core idea is to benefit from a combination of advisors of these two AI hubs through a mobility phase where the fellows have spend one year at the institution of the co-advisor.

CLS PhD Fellowship application:  external page https://learning-systems.org/

ELLIS PhD Fellowships

We are a proud member of ELLIS - the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems - which is a pan-European AI network of excellence which focuses on fundamental science, technical innovation and societal impact. The ELLIS PhD Fellowships enable a single central application for PhD positions across Europe. A mobility component to spend at least 6 months at another ELLIS unit or choose an industry track is a must.

ELLIS PhD application: external page https://ellis.eu/phd-postdoc

• Press Enter to activate screen reader mode.

Dept. of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

Direct doctorate.

Students with outstanding performances during their bachelor's studies can seek direct admission to doctoral studies within the direct doctorate programme at D-ITET. The programme consists of two parts. The first part comprises a full master's degree programme in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (MSc EEIT, 120 credit points, 2 years) and the second part encompasses the actual doctoral studies (4 – 5 years of research and studies). During the master's studies, you receive a full merit-based scholarship and the tuition fees are waived, during doctoral studies a salary is paid. The direct doctorate programme features additional requirements. Students must: • earn a minimum of 42 CPs within two semesters, including     - three core courses (min. 18 credit points)     - two specialization courses (min. 12 credit points)     - a semester project (12 credit points)

• reach a minimum grade average of 5.00 in the three core courses

• conclude and request the MSc degree within 2 years after starting the programme. If these requirements are not fulfilled, students drop out of the direct doctorate and lose their funding – students dropping out of the direct doctorate may finish the MSc EEIT according to its regulations. The details regarding the direct doctorate are regulated in the Download rector's directive (PDF, 125 KB) and the Download Appendix 2 of the MSc EEIT degree regulations (PDF, 518 KB) . For a successful application, a confirmation of the future supervisor is needed, applications without it, will not be considered . In this confirmation, the professor has to state that he/she will provide financial support in the form of a merit-based scholarship for the master's programme and funding for the subsequent doctorate. Furthermore, an outstanding academic record is required in addition to the regular MSc application.  

Doctoral Administration

• Phone phone +41 44 632 33 36
• contacts vCard Download

ETZ Zurich D-ITET Gloriastrasse 35 ETZ H87 8092 Zurich

Get the Reddit app

WE. ARE. NOT. THE. ADMISSIONS. OFFICE. are you studying? no? then go study.

How hard is it to get accepted as a PhD student in Computer Science?

In little over a year i'm going to graduate with a master's in Computer Science at a little known university in northern Italy (university of Udine) hopefully with very good marks

How hard would it be for me to get into a PhD program considering i don't come from a prestigious university? Is it a very competitive and hard to get into kind of thing or should i have reasonable expectations to make it?

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue