Focus Projects: Immersive Research Experience for Bachelor Students

Implementation of the Project/Course

The Focus Projects at D-HEST immerse third-year Bachelor students in real-world interdisciplinary challenges by embedding them directly into ETH research labs. Over two semesters, interdisciplinary teams of 3–10 students dedicate approximately 600 hours (20 CPs) to solving complex problems—from neurotechnology and AI-assisted analysis to biomechanics, smart implants, and clinical simulations. Students are fully integrated into lab environments, participating in meetings, accessing facilities, and collaborating with PhD students and postdocs. They define their own working schedules, iteratively navigating challenges, refining solutions, and learning through feedback loops.

Building on the D-MAVT Focus Project model, our approach introduces key innovations that enhance the program with mentorship, consistency, and community. These include a structured framework with a Kick-Off event, three cohort-wide touchpoints, grading rubrics for supervisors, and reflective check-in questionnaires. A central Moodle course ensures equitable support across all teams, regardless of lab variability.

The cohort-wide touchpoints are the pillars of our didactical concept. They equip students with transferable skills in team building, project management, and presentation, while fostering psychological safety and peer exchange. At the final symposium, students showcased remarkable growth in confidence, collaboration, and scientific thinking. In 2024, over 90% reported improved abilities in communication and project coordination.

The supervisors of the Projects are encouraged to join the “Coaching Student Teams” course offered by the PBLabs. This training empowers doctoral and postdoctoral students with leadership, feedback, and communication skills, enhancing the quality of supervision and contributing to their professional development.

Students are also supported by coaches external to the groups and projects, who monitor their well-being using feedback forms and offer if necessary individual tailored support.

The assessment structure consists of 4 presentations, the first being purely formative and the further graded. A grading rubric gives guidance to the supervisors for the grading criteria.

Students experience the complexity of science firsthand learning to troubleshoot, manage uncertainty, and reflect critically. As one student put it: “We learned to design and document experiments properly—something lectures can’t teach.” The impact is visible: two teams were invited to present their current project status at the D-HEST Research Day, becoming part of the departmental research community. Four labs proposed this year’s projects building on previous student results —demonstrating the value of this model for both education and research. The framework is scalable and adaptable across departments and disciplines.

Motivation, Project Mission, Vision Statement

The Focus Projects at the D-HEST Department show the power of the combined work between attentive professors and motivated students. They started from a student initiative and the need for more hands-on practical experiences during the bachelor. It bridges academic learning with real-world projects.

Our mission is to empower students as autonomous, responsible innovators by fostering their creative and critical thinking as well as their self-direction and self-management – core elements of the ETH Competence Framework. The touchpoints we created, around the work in the labs, form an important pillar for students to build transferable competences and to share their experience, their successes and challenges with their peers.

Supervisors, mostly doctoral and postdoctoral students, are given the opportunity to develop their coaching and leadership skills. This approach aligns with ETH’s strategy to prioritize competency-based education, preparing students for academic and professional paths.

From the very beginning the Focus Projects were designed and aligned with D-MAVT, with the idea of working towards interdisciplinary projects. Through strong collaboration with the D-MAVT team this could already be achieved after one iteration, resulting in 5 interdisciplinary projects across departments.

Innovative Elements

The Focus Projects shift teaching from instructor-led to student-driven. The learning space is not a classroom but an active research environment. The teaching role becomes that of a coach, not lecturer. This model empowers students with creativity, leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration, and responsibility. This also has an impact on the environment and the learning culture where students start to demonstrate strong initiative by creating their own project and getting professors to host them. The innovative approach is based on building a well-rounded framework that equips students with transferable competences, peer exchange and community while they do their personal experience of working in a lab. The format is designed to have students look for answers and seek solutions, to set clear achievable outcomes and define the necessary steps to achieve them.

Effects on Student Learning

Students describe the project as transformative. They report gains in confidence, time management skills, scientific reasoning, and teamwork. In 2024, 85% of students reported improved problem-solving and communication skills. Many want to pursue a Master theses or careers connected to their project. Student quotes illustrate this impact: “I started to enjoy troubleshooting,” or “Everything takes longer—time management is everything.” These Projects lead students to reflect critically, manage uncertainty, and navigate interdisciplinary complexity. Students’ presentations at the final symposium showed their steep learning curve and their scientific contributions, which is a result of their work and of the important investment of time and resources of the responsible professors and coaches. Our Students develop scientific literacy, leadership, and resilience—outcomes consistently highlighted in end-of-project evaluations and echoed by Coaches.

Which Elements of Your Project Would You Recommend to Others?

Project-based learning is a transformative teaching format that, while demanding a high level of commitment and engagement from educators, offers profound benefits for both students and teaching staff. It fosters a dynamic learning environment where motivation and ownership are central, enhancing teaching satisfaction through meaningful collaboration. It has the potential to create a well-rounded ecosystem for life-long learning in the department. A particularly transferable element of our concept is the implementation of structured touchpoints, designed to develop transferable competencies, support peer learning, and encourage interdisciplinary exchange. These components are adaptable across departments, as we are actively demonstrating through the collaboration with D-MAVT.