Hands-On Digital Transformation

The second Digital Day saw researchers of the University of Zurich present some of the many ways in which digitalization is changing our everyday lives. Media use, politics, language or even religion – digital technologies are opening up new possibilities across all spheres of life, while also posing new questions. “Is God online?” was the question that theologian Thomas Schlag asked the audience in Zurich’s largest train station. Meanwhile, media studies expert Linards Udris explained how Facebook and other media are increasingly replacing traditional mass media as the source of news.

How can we be a better person? How can we change our daily habits? UZH researchers presented a digital coach that can support people who wish to change their eating habits or reduce social anxiety.

A series of talks and guided lab tours at the University, ETH Zurich, the UniversityHospital and Balgrist University Hospital focused on how digitalization can be used in medicine, today as well as in the future. The Institute of Forensic Medicine, for example, demonstrated how forensic experts use virtually reconstructed crime scenes to investigate accidents and crimes. Last but not least, at UZH’s 100 Ways of Thinking exhibition in the Kunsthalle Zürich, students and other interested people took part in a hackathon on open data.