Digitalization is more than just artificial intelligence.
At the Computational Life Sciences Day 2025, titled "Beyond Digitalization: Automation, Simulation, and Robotics in Life Sciences," experts in AI, digitalization, and life sciences exchanged insights into the latest developments. In addition to AI, digital twins and robotics were central to the discussions.
Thomas Ott, our Institute Director, emphasized that focusing solely on AI is too narrow, and that digitalization encompasses much more.
Lukas Hollenstein, Head of Centre for Digital Labs & Production, explained the role of digital twins and highlighted that models must be continuously maintained through human intelligence.
We also heard exciting insights from our industry partners:
Thomas Zaugg from Roche addressed the challenges in robotics, especially with increasing automation and the integration of intelligent labs.
Alexander Blass from NEURA Robotics discussed the benefits of cognitive robots for humans and raised the question of what we truly expect from AI.
Ahmad Asraf and Bruno Olivera from Bioengineering AG presented digital twins of bioreactors and their applications in production, supported by Muriel Margaux Zumbihl, who researched this topic in the context of her Master's thesis in Applied Computational Life Sciences.
Angela Botros from DataHow AG introduced the concept of hybrid modeling to handle the complexity of biological processes.
After a musical interlude from our house band, our students and alumni took the stage. Nóirín Graham (Bachelor), Bram Hofland (Master), Caterina Caccavella (PhD), Rebecca Höhener from Option 4.0 AG and Christopher Keim from Food Brewer presented their work, which included topics such as robotic lawn mowers, computational enzyme design, and event-based cameras.
The event was rounded off with presentations from our research groups and partners:
Maria Anisimova from our Centre for Bioinformatics, and Julien Duc from Nexco Analytics presented current research projects on biomarkers and data analytics.
For the Centre for Computational Health, Sven Hirsch handed the stage over to Sebastiano Caprara from Universitätsklinik Balgrist. He showed how digital twins can be used in clinical research in orthopaedics.
Yulia Sandamirskaya from our Centre for Cognitive Computing highlighted the current state of technology in assistive robots.
Robert Vorburger from our Centre for Digital Labs & Production and René Puls from PRORES Aerospace presented how agent-based AI systems can support the integration of generative AI into labs and production.
With over 150 guests, the event was a complete success and an inspiring exchange – Thank you!
A big thank you also goes to our sponsors and start-up partners Roche, NEURA Robotics, Bioengineering AG, Prognosix AG, PRORES Aerospace, DataHow AG, DeepMed Solutions, DATABIOMIX 👏
Ivo Kaelin Matthias Nyfeler Samuel Wehrli Anja Baum Natyra Ajvazi
ZHAW Life Sciences und Facility Management
