Theses
Lower-level publication types
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Bachelor Thesis [157]
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Doctoral Thesis [29810]
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Habilitation Thesis [192]
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Master Thesis [2011]
Recent Submissions
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Trusted Computing on Modern Platforms: Analysis, Challenges, and Implications
(2024)Computing architectures come in all forms and shapes, and they impact our daily lives significantly. Smartphones are omnipresent, most jobs require daily interactions with computers, and leisure time is dominated by the availability of decades worth of TV shows at the tip of a finger. As computing architectures dominate many fields, they must also process confidential data, from medical data and e-voting to personal communications in ...Doctoral Thesis -
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UNRAVELLING CAUSES OF BIODIVERSITY GRADIENTS IN TETRAPODS VIA ECO-EVOLUTIONARY SIMULATIONS
(2024)Species and clades of tetrapods - amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles - are not distributed randomly across the globe but follow gradients of latitude, elevation as well as varying in space and time. These biodiversity gradients in tetrapods vary equally depending on which dimension of diversity - taxonomic, phylogenetic or functional - is studied and which metric is used to summarize that specific dimension. Different metrics quantifying ...Doctoral Thesis -
Impact-based forecast for critical infrastructure during Tropical Cyclones
(2024)Critical infrastructures, such as healthcare facilities or roads, play a vital role in society as they provide essential services for the functioning of communities. Disruptions to these infrastructures have far-reaching consequences, affecting public health, safety, security, wellbeing, and economic activities. Weather extremes, such as tropical cyclones or floods, can lead to widespread failures in lifeline services such as power, ...Master Thesis -
Accelerator mass spectrometry below 300 kV
(2024)A prototype of a compact, low-energy, multi-isotope accelerator mass spectrometer (MILEA) with a maximal terminal voltage of 0.3 MV was built at ETH Zurich in 2017. The presented work eval- uates the capabilities of the new system and thereby investigates ion beam physics at low energies. The findings of this work allowed to optimize the operational parameters for AMS measurements of 10Be, 26Al and uranium at low energies (<1 MeV). The ...Doctoral Thesis -
Tree planting: How new state strategies of forest governance, community ownership, and consultation lead to uneven outcomes for communities and places
(2024)With a forest cover of 18%, Scotland is one of the least forested countries in Europe. The loss of forest cover in Scotland took place throughout the Middle Ages up until the 19th century, due to iron works, demand for charcoal and tanbark, and industrialization. After the timber shortage of the first world war, the UK government established the Forestry Commission in 1919 with powers to acquire land throughout Britain for securing Timber ...Doctoral Thesis -
Resiliente Demokratie
(2024)This thesis analyses the normative relationship between the stability of a democratic system, its legitimacy, and political inclusion and exclusion. It starts from the premise that the ideal of equality of opportunity and the autonomous realisation of one's own concept of the good life can only be achieved within a stable democracy. The question is therefore (a) under what conditions people are able and willing to organise their lives ...Doctoral Thesis -
Explaining and Improving Communication in Graph Neural Networks
(2024)This thesis studies improvements for message-passing Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) from two angles. First, we tackle the problem of understanding how GNNs reason. We quantify how much GNN architectures achieve the combined reasoning over features and edges that GNNs uniquely offer. We then present two methods to explain GNN predictions. The first explanation method explains graphs by contrasting them to similar examples. The second explanation ...Doctoral Thesis -
Automatisierte Öffentlichkeit und künstliche Kommunikation
(2024)Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, talking to AI-based systems has become part of many people's everyday lives. In my thesis, I ask how this affects interpersonal communication and the political public sphere of democratic societies. Therefore, I examine empirical material from three applications of language-generating systems (Replika Chatbot, ChatGPT, and Fact Checking Algorithms). Based on the preconditions and characteristics of ...Doctoral Thesis -
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Cost-efficient Hyperspectral Imaging Methods with Deep Learning
(2024)Hyperspectral images (HSIs) are useful in numerous domains. The key obstacle to fully unleashing the potential of HSIs is the challenge of data acquisition -- acquiring HSIs of high spatial and high spectral resolution at a high frame rate is a grand challenge. This thesis addresses the challenge from two perspectives: 1) developing data-efficient HSI super-resolution (SR) methods and 2) developing a single-shot hyperspectral imaging ...Doctoral Thesis -
Waste Characterization & Quantification & Composting - Cape Maclear, Malawi
(2024)This study examines the challenges of waste management, soil quality and food security in Cape Maclear, Malawi. Rising waste volumes, inadequate waste treatment, as well as declining soil quality and rising fertiliser prices are putting pressure on villagers, their agricultural activities and threatening food security. The research questions aim to investigate the sizen and composition of waste streams, the current disposal routes of the ...Master Thesis -
Magnetically responsive bacteria as living therapeutics for cancer treatment
(2024)Doctoral Thesis -
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Construction of a Glass Crusher and Evaluation of Waste Valorization Pathways for Cape Maclear, Malawi
(2024)In Cape Maclear, Malawi, a nonprofit organization called Sustainable Cape Maclear has been working on the development and implementation of a solid waste management strategy to address the village’s struggle with waste build-up at informal dumpsites. The desired outcome is an improved quality of life for the community and the preservation of the village’s status quo as one of the country’s major tourist destinations. To support the effort, ...Master Thesis -
Willingness to Pay and Economic Feasibility for Waste Management in Cape Maclear, Malawi
(2024)Master Thesis -