Computer science graduates Martin Oswald and Tenzin Langdun awarded the SDG Award
The SDG Award, presented annually by ZHAW Sustainable, honors ZHAW theses that are relevant to achieving the UN's global sustainability goals. This year, computer science graduates Martin Oswald and Tenzin Langdun won third place for their work on improving the detection of thyroid cancer.
Martin Oswald and Tenzin Langdun, who graduated from the ZHAW School of Engineering with a degree in computer science in 2023, had already won the Audience Award at the National Siemens Excellence Award. Now, another accolade has been added for their thesis: they secured third place in the SDG Award at the Swiss Green Economy Symposium. As part of their bachelor's thesis, the two developed an innovative deep learning model to improve the detection of thyroid cancer in individual cells. This novel approach was developed at the ZHAW Centre for Artificial Intelligence and has the potential to revolutionize thyroid cancer detection worldwide: their model reduces the time required for manual segmentation and significantly increases efficiency. This allows for more reliable and cost-effective diagnoses.
The release of the code and model could ease the burden on healthcare systems and strengthen cancer detection, particularly in developing countries, making it much more accessible to many regions. This work has already received multiple awards and will soon be published in the journal "Nature's Scientific Reports."
Special award for another thesis at the School of Engineering
In addition to the three podium finishes, four special awards were also given for other promising projects. Among them was the thesis by Lona Tulinski and Janis Preisi, which focused on optimizing the yield of HSAT systems and 90° bifacial photovoltaic installations.
About the SDG Award
The Swiss Green Economy Symposium (SGES) is one of the largest annual events for the green economy in Switzerland. Every September, over 1,000 participants from business, politics, and academia gather in Winterthur for this event. As part of the symposium, the SDG Award, with a total prize of CHF 4,500, is also presented. The award is part of the ZHAW’s Sustainable Impact Program. Student theses that focus on ecological, social, or economic sustainability are eligible to apply.