Lab Rotations / Industry Internship

Lab rotations are flexible short research/lab projects in which students gain an overview of different research areas by applying concepts taught in the core courses and advanced courses.

Students must acquire a total of 18 ECTS within the lab rotations category.

Options

Lab Rotation Short 1 and Lab Rotation Short 2 (6 weeks each)
Lab Rotation Short 1 and Industry Internship Short (6 weeks each)
Lab Rotation Long (12 weeks)
Industry Internship Long (12 weeks)

ETH Course Catalogue

At least one lab rotation/internship must be completed in a different group or company department - and supervised by a different professor - than the master’s thesis!

Students contact the research group they are interested in directly to agree on a project and the start date. Usually, the contact person for research projects is a senior assistant or post-doc in the group.

Registration of the stay in the research group must be done with some lead time - at least 2 weeks in advance - and in addition to the registration via myStudies.

A lab rotation is conducted in a research group at ETH/UZH/UNIBAS - the supervisor is a professor.

Registration

The lab rotation is registered in myStudies.
If the supervisor is a UZH/UNIBAS professor, the lab rotation is registered with the respective registration form (Documents & Templates)

Note: students completing a lab rotation at BSSE, please register via the external page registration form at least 2 weeks prior to the start (in addition to myStudies) to obtain server and group access.

Duration

Lab rotations have an allotted duration (6/12 weeks).
Students may voluntarily extend their stay in the research group. However, for reasons of fairness and comparability the lab rotation work and report, and consequently the assessment must only refer to the official allotted duration, i.e. the first 6/12 weeks. The exact dates of the official report period must be written on the first page of the report.

Report & Assessment

A written report (approx. 10 pages) is mandatory and is submitted to the supervising professor.
Details on the report are to be discussed and agreed upon with the supervising professor. There are no department specific rules or criteria regarding the written report. It is suggested to ask the supervising professor for a good sample report beforehand and afterwards for feedback to improve own writing skills for future reports/theses.
The supervising professor submits the assessment of the project and report via eDoz (ETH) or via the respective assessment form (UZH/UNIBAS). All forms can be found under Documents & Templates.
A signed Declaration of Originality is a component of every research project/master's thesis, semester paper, or other qualifying paper written during the course of studies (including the electronic versions) and must be submitted with the report.
The lab rotation is an ungraded semester performance. A failed performance can only be repeated once.

External project

Students who wish to carry out a lab rotation outside ETH/UZH/UNIBAS must find a professor from ETH/UZH/UNIAS to act as supervisor and assessor.

After organising with the external host institution and the supervising professor, the lab rotation is registered as follows:

Submit the respective registration form and project description to the (forms can be found under Documents & Templates)
Upon confirmation by the student administration, register the project in myStudies
After completion of the registration, in case of a project abroad, students may apply for a SEMP scholarship

The organisation of an external project lies within the student's responsibility and the project must be fully registered prior to the start date.

Students wishing to pursue an industry internship organise it independently. They are responsible for the timely organization and registration.

Students may complete an industry internship in a medical, bioinformatics, biotechnological or pharmaceutical company.

Students who wish to complete an industry internship must find an ETH/UZH/UNIBAS professor to act as supervisor and assessor.

Note

The organisation of an industry internship lies within the student's responsibility.
Completing an industry internship requires a work permit, to be obtained by the host company.
External institutions may request confidentiality agreements. Students are responsible for clarifying NDA/project agreement questions in advance and be aware that ETH professors may refuse to sign any agreement other than the standard ETH templates.
Further information is detailed on the BSSE intranet.

Duration

Students may complete a short industry internship of 6 weeks or a long industry internship of 12 weeks full-time.
Students may voluntarily extend the duration of the internship in agreement with the internship provider. However, for reasons of fairness and comparability, the internship work and report, and consequently the assessment must only refer to the official allotted duration, i.e. the first 6/12 weeks. The exact dates of the official report period must be written on the first page of the report.

Registration

After organising with the host company and the supervising professor, the internship is registered as follows:

Supervisor is an ETH professor
register on myStudies in section projects/papers/theses, and upload the one-page project description bearing the signature and stamp of your supervisor at the host company

Supervisor is a professor from UZH/UNIBAS
register the internship with the corresponding form available under Documents & Templates, including a one-page project description

The organisation of an industry internship lies within the student's responsibility and the project must be fully registered prior to the start date.

Report & Assessment

A written report (approx. 10 pages) is mandatory and must be submitted to the supervising professor.
The report must include information on the company (e.g. industry, size, products, organisation, competitors), departments visited, activities performed as well as acquired skills and competencies. The report must provide sufficient information on the research performed and the results obtained that the supervising professor can assess the internship.
The report must be signed by a responsible person of the host company.
A signed Declaration of Originality is a component of every research project/master's thesis, semester paper, or other qualifying paper written during the course of studies (including the electronic versions) and must be submitted with the report.
The industry internship is an ungraded semester performance. A failed performance can only be repeated once.