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!mpact Day 2024

Our activities in the framework of the 2030 Agenda  Selected programs, projects and initiatives

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development revolves around the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the associated 169 targets. In a bid to overcome the world's most urgent challenges together, all UN members states—including Switzerland—have committed to achieving these goals by 2030. The Agenda is the basis for Switzerland’s 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy that was adopted by the Federal Council along with the associated 2021–2023 Action Plan.

Among other things, the Sustainable Development Report identifies the specific actions required in each of the UN member states and offers an overview of projects and initiatives in Switzerland and abroad.

!mpact Day 2024

The Sustainable Development Goals at the School of Computer Science and Information Technology

As a school of Computer Science and Information Technology, we consider ourselves perfectly placed to contribute by combining sustainability in our education, research, and social activities with new information and communication technologies. Fields such as big data, statistical learning and immersive reality can play a role in shaping a sustainable society and in saving resources. We believe that we must use technologies in compliance with ethical and moral principles. Accordingly, “ethics” is more than just a buzzword in our programs and research projects: it is an integral part of our work. 

SDG 4 - Quality Education 

This UN goal encompasses the provision of inclusive, equitable and high-quality education and the promotion of life-long learning opportunities. This includes removing gender disparities in education and ensuring that all learners are given the necessary skills and qualifications to advance sustainable development. 

forschende augmented und virtual reality hslu

Specialized teaching skills for STEM teachers using digital resources

The project “Specialized teaching skills for STEM teachers using digital resources” investigates how teachers might use digital technologies to maximum effect in STEM subjects. It centers on the analysis of the teachers’ specialized teaching skills, their prior learning and their attitudes to using technologies in the classroom. The study focuses on the use of educational videos and augmented reality technologies.

STEM on the go

Every year, the Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology’s STEM experts visit up to ten schools in the Canton of Lucerne to spark enthusiasm for science and technology among children, teenagers and teachers. In their purpose-built tent, they present a range of exciting exhibits showcasing scientific phenomena and various themed boxes representing different fields within STEM. They also provide extensive information to teachers on how to use these boxes in STEM classes.

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Goal 16 promotes peaceful and inclusive societies. Achieving this goal entails reducing corruption and bribery, reducing the illegal weapons trade and illegal financial transactions, making information accessible to the public, and protecting fundamental freedoms by, for instance, enforcing the right to the protection of personal data.

Security concept for, and analysis of, a distributed computation system

Together with its partner SyntiFaim, the project team is working towards supplying analytical tools to financial institutions that enable collaboration without the need for a trusted third party. Their goal is to refine the security concept for, and the specifications of, this type of distributed computation system to help combat economic crime and money laundering.

What’s the story, internet? This bachelor’s thesis project is all about searching for traces on the internet.

The information we leave behind when we log in, order things, and generally spend time on the internet is constantly being collected and analyzed. This allows companies to learn a great deal about individuals and their way of life. The project aims to answer questions such as “What do users have to look out for nowadays?” and “Who knows what about me?” to help users to become more secure online. Point of contact: Ursula Uttinger

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Among other things, Goal 3 encompasses the fight against non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and the prevention of traffic accidents and substance abuse. Everyone should have access to high quality health services and pharmaceuticals and be protected from financial risks. 

Breath-controlled therapy games

People with chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis typically need daily chest physical therapy for their entire lives. Breath exercises to mobilize tough lung secretions involve exhaling into a device like the Pari PEP System at a certain pressure and for a certain amount of time. The project investigates ways to use serious games to make these exercises more appealing and therefore more motivating for patients.

Detecting hand eczema with machine learning

Hand eczema is the most common form of dermatosis, affecting some 9% of the population. They can cause high medical costs and long absences from work. In 2012, the Lucerne School of Information Technology teamed up with the University Hospital Zurich to develop a fully automated system that uses cutting-edge machine learning techniques to visually detect and assess eczema lesions on high-resolution images of the affected skin.

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities 

Goal 11 seeks to reduce the per capita environmental impact of cities, particularly in terms of air quality and waste management. Urban development must become more inclusive and sustainable. Participatory, integrated, and sustainable urban planning is one way to provide access to green spaces and affordable housing for everybody.

Digitization of energy board game “Zernez”

Do you know Zernez? In a board game developed by the ETH Zurich, players are tasked with modernizing the municipal energy supply. A project team at the Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology is now creating a digital version. In the game, the players must decide which buildings to renovate and how, and whether it makes sense to introduce new forms of energy supply like cogeneration plants or photovoltaic systems.

RECONNECT—an interactive installation to raise awareness for nature in cities

Nature is constantly being pushed back by sprawling cities and urbanization. But we cannot survive without nature—not even in cities. A student project developed in the framework of the Digital Ideation program centers on an interactive installation that makes you think about this—even as you walk past.

SDG 13 - Climate Action

Climate change is a key challenge for sustainable development. The heating of the atmosphere affects the global climate system and, with it, the livelihood of broad swathes of the global population. Infrastructures, certain industries, and the agricultural sector are all increasingly exposed to the effects of climate change. This goal focuses on reducing the greenhouse emissions that drive it.

Treeteam—reducing one’s personal CO2 footprint with a mobile application

This project is all about the development of a mobile application that helps its users to change their mobility behavior in a more sustainable direction. It visualizes the CO2 emissions caused by its users' mobility behavior and motivates them to stay within a CO2 budget of 2 kg per day.

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CO2 scoring system with IOTA

IOTA is a distributed ledger technology designed to facilitate secure data and value transactions, specifically for Internet of Things applications. Building on this technology’s existing framework, hardware devices, APIs and online services can be linked to form new processes. A new bachelor’s thesis is dedicated to the development of a CO2-based scoring system (loyalty program) and its realization as a prototype built on the IOTA test network. The project also aims to integrate a IOTA wallet. Point of contact: Tim Weingärtner