Several years have passed since I last wrote an entry here. I stopped write for several reasons and no single one in particular. But now is a nice time to pick up the habit again.

I receive my Master’s in Computer Science and have now officially completed 6 years of education therein. I learned more than I write about in this tiny post but before I give an outlook on what comes next I would like to reminisce a bit.

On the outset of my studies I wanted to create video games. Things changed a little thanks to Professor Deussen who convinced me to study full-scale Computer Science and while games keep fascinating me I moved away from that goal of producing them. Nonetheless, I stuck close and went into Computer Graphics. There I even had the opportunity to develop a game – Evolution Party – which went on to win the audience award.

In the end I left the game-making behind and stumbled into Cognitive Science at ETH. At first, I was just maintaining the VR hardware and writing little programs to run their experiments. However, the engagement changed my outlook and I enjoyed the interdisciplinary work up to the point where I changed my focus. I still develop code for the Chair of Cognitive Sciene, but I also research with them and along the process I found my personal passion: The future of cities.

Cities are a pinnacle (and also an abyss) of mankind. But for better or worse, they are our best chance of inhabiting the planet as the number of people around grows. To make cities habitable we need to focus on making them better. While this is easy to say, it is hard to do anything about it. There are many opportunities, but also dangers. It is obvious, that a purely technical solution cannot be found and to equip myself with the skills and knowledge to tackle this interesting topic I decided to study a second Master degree in Science, Technology and Policy at ETH.

This brings this prologue to the end with the note that I hope to document my new studies here and to give a deeper insight into the studies.