Innovation Project

Innovation Project 2025

This year’s theme is “Back to the roots” and was revealed at the start of the semester to over 550 students participating in this year's edition of the Innovations Project. The task consists of planting winter onions and harvesting both apples and plums from different trees in a small scale permaculture garden before delivering the produce into storage containers. Teams of 5-6 third semester students will develop an autonomous robot with maximum dimensions 21x21x21cm and weight limit of 1,5kg and compete for points in the qualification round.

Agile Development And PD|Z Principles

The Innovation Project enables students to implement agile product development principles in a creative, competitive, yet guided setting. By incorporating aspects of Scrum and Kanban methodologies, the teams operate in two-week sprint cycles and assess their interim outcomes at the end of each cycle.

Coaching Innovation Projects, a course specifically aimed at senior mechanical engineering students, provides guidance and support to coach engineering teams engaged in the Innovation Project. Using a range of product development principles, the coaches lead students through the sprints of the agile process for developing products. The foundation of these principles is a set carefully chosen practices arising from research conducted by pd|z.

Final Event

To determine the winners of this year's competition, student teams will showcase the performance and creativity of their innovative systems. The final will take place on Tuesday 16th December 2025 starting at 16:00 in ETH main building and feature 10 qualified teams competing against one another and ultimately well earned respect. Everyone is welcome, from all participants to friends and family to prospective students.

In the meantime, last year’s finale “Saving Christmas” is watch worthy.