Please note! The UbiComp/ISWC 2013 Workshops will be held at the city centre: Clink here for the google maps link

About Zurich, Switzerland

With a population of some 370,000 inhabitants, Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland. It is surprisingly compact, though, with a wealth of old churches, fountains, and cobbled streets with buildings, some of them more than 700 years old, housing charming galleries and small shops. The city of Zurich was established as a Roman customs post (called "Turicum") in 15 B.C. It is situated some 400 metres (1,340 ft) above sea level at the northern end of the 27 km (17 miles) long Lake of Zurich. Its well-preserved Old Town is to be found on both banks of the River Limmat, which flows out of the lake in a northerly direction. In Mercer's annual "Quality of Living" survey, Zurich regularly claims one of the top spots, as it does on Monocle's "Most Liveable Cities Index".

Venue

About ETH

The Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, or - to give the university its German acronym - the ETH Zurich, was founded by the Swiss government in 1854 as a polytechnic and opened its doors in Zurich in 1855. Until 1969, when the EPFL has been established in Lausanne, ETH Zurich was the only national university in Switzerland. In its core areas of engineering, natural sciences, architecture, and mathematics it is one of the leading academic research institutions worldwide.

The ETH itself comprises 16 departments. Over 400 professors and a staff of almost 10'000 - with a 30% proportion of women - work in teaching, research and administration. Current statistics of the ETH show 16'350 regis-tered students. Each year about 2'500 receive a Bachelor or Master degree and a further 650 complete a doc-toral thesis. Current annual expenditure is 1.35 billion Swiss francs. ETH Zurich regularly appears at the top of international rankings as one of the best universities in the world. 21 Nobel Laureates have studied, taught or conducted research at ETH Zurich, underlining its excellent reputation.

The Computer Science department features more than 30 professors from over 10 countries, 200+ PhD students and research assistants, and over 50 postdocs and senior scientists. In research and education, the department covers a broad spectrum of thematic areas with focuses on Software Engineering, Networks and Distributed Systems, Algorithms and Theory, Information Security, Computer Graphics and Vision, and Computational Sciences. The strong links between the department and a wide range of industry and business foster a mutually beneficial climate of academic rigor and practical relevance. In particular, the department maintains a set of long-term research collaborations with such global high-tech players as IBM, Microsoft, Google, SAP and Disney.

The Science City Campus - Campus Hönggerberg in German - is located at the outskirts of the city, some two miles from the city center, and houses the departments of physics, biology, chemistry, architecture, and pharmacy. It is easily accessible from downtown, as well as the airport, with direct bus lines (lines 80, 69, and campus bus). Campus map is available here.

The physics building (HPH) offers a number of large amphitheater-style lecture halls, the largest (G1) seating 510 people and two smaller ones (G2 and G3) offering 372 seats each.

The back-to-back arrangement of the rooms allows for both plenary sessions with all attendees in G1 (potentially telecasting into G2 or G3 if necessary) and three parallel sessions in G1 through G3. In addition, a set of smaller rooms in the same building ranging from 25 to 225 seats offer numerous options for conference office space, workshops, etc. The entire Science City Campus offers even more variety, all within 2-3 minutes walking distance.

Getting there

Zurich is extremely easy to reach by train and air, as well as by car.

View ISWC/Ubicomp 2013 in a larger map

By plane

Zurich airport is a major European hub. It is served by over 80 different airlines that offer over 170 direct flights world-wide. The main carriers are Swiss International Airlines and German Lufthansa (through its hubs in Munich and Frankfurt), which through their "Star Alliance" network offer excellent world-wide connections.

By train

By rail, Zurich is just 4 hours away from major European hubs, such as Frankfurt, Paris, or Milan. Additionally, direct trains link it to Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, and Hamburg, making it possible to reach Zurich from most major European cities with only a single change of trains.

By car

Major European highways connect Zurich in 3.5 hours to Frankfurt or Munich, and in 3 hours to Milan. Cities in southern Germany (e.g, Karlsruhe or Stuttgart) are less than 2.5 hours away, eastern France (e.g., Grenoble) only 3 hours, and northern Italy (Genova, Torino, Bologna) only 5 hours.

To the conference venue

Google Maps offers great public transportation, pedestrian or biking navigation. Check it out!
There are number of stations from where it is easy to reach the Science City Campus:

Zurich main station
ETH Zentrum
Altstetten
Oerlikon
Zurich-Affoltern
Zurich Airport

If you are not located near any of the above stations SBB offers a gereat route finder/navigator service.