Open Student Projects
If you are a student (Bachelors, Masters) and interested in working with us on a thesis or semester project, please send an email including:
- current CV, including language and country experience
- research interests including at least one well-defined research question
- the proposed timeline of your research project
Open positions for Bachelor and Master Thesis Projects are published on the SiROP platform. For a list of open opportunities, please see below. You can also apply directly through the platform including the details mentioned above.
The semester projects are most probably not listed below. If you are looking for one, don't hesitate to contact us:
Dr. Jakub Tkaczuk:
Prof. Elizabeth Tilley:
Even if we did not list any open position for semester projects, we will find a topic for you!
Development of an Emission Inventory for Blantyre, Malawi
Air pollution is a significant environmental issue impacting human health and ecosystems worldwide. In Blantyre, Malawi, various sources contribute to the city's air pollution, including industrial activities, vehicular emissions, solid biofuels for cooking, and waste burning. Developing a comprehensive emission inventory is crucial for understanding and managing air quality in the region. This thesis aims to create a detailed emission inventory for Blantyre, identifying and quantifying the pollutants emitted from various sources. Blantyre, Malawi's commercial and industrial hub, lacks detailed emissions data. Existing studies provide insights on ambient air concentration of pollutants but do not offer a comprehensive source emissions inventory. This gap hinders effective air quality management and policy development.
Keywords
air pollution, Python, R, Github, emission, black carbon, CO, NOx, SOx, PM
Labels
Master Thesis , ETH for Development (ETH4D) (ETHZ)
Description
Goal
Contact Details
More information
Published since: 2025-05-27 , Earliest start: 2025-02-01 , Latest end: 2025-12-21
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Global Health Engineering
Hosts Tkaczuk Jakub
Topics Engineering and Technology
Using BSFL frass as a growth substrate for mushroom production
Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are increasingly used for organic waste recycling and animal feed production. They can be used on a broad variety of organic waste products like market or food waste or faeces and manure. BSFL treatment produces two products, larvae which can be used as animal feed and frass which consists of insect excrements and indigestible organic residues. Frass is still rich in nitrogen and carbohydrates and is being composted before being used as a soil amendment. However; the frass might also be usable as a substrate for growing mushrooms and therefore used to create more value for the BSFL facility. The goal of this work is to test if BSFL frass is a good substrate for growing mushrooms or can help as an additive to another substrate increase mushroom yields. This work will take place in cooperation with EAWAG which is a leading institute working on BSFL waste treatment.
Keywords
Mushrooms, fungi, Black Soldier Fly, Organic waste management, Pleurotus
Labels
Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
Goal
Contact Details
More information
Published since: 2025-02-21 , Earliest start: 2025-06-02 , Latest end: 2026-01-01
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Global Health Engineering
Hosts Tkaczuk Jakub
Topics Engineering and Technology
Pre-treatment of Black Soldier Fly substrate with white rot fungi
Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), scientifically known as Hermetia illucens, have emerged as a promising solution for organic waste recycling and sustainable animal feed production. These remarkable insects possess the ability to convert a wide range of organic materials into valuable biomass, rich in proteins and lipids. However, their efficiency is somewhat limited when it comes to processing complex carbohydrates, particularly those found in lignocellulosic waste. In contrast to BSFL, white-rot fungi (WRF) possess a unique set of ligninolytic enzymes that enable them to degrade lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose effectively. The goal of this research is to explore how pretreatment of lignocellulosic waste using white-rot fungi can increase the availability of nutrients for BSFL in the pretreated substrates.
Keywords
Mushrooms, fungi, Black Soldier Fly, Organic waste management, Pleurotus
Labels
Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis , Master Thesis
Goal
Contact Details
More information
Published since: 2025-02-21 , Earliest start: 2025-06-02 , Latest end: 2026-02-01
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Global Health Engineering
Hosts Tkaczuk Jakub
Topics Engineering and Technology
Design, Construction, and Testing of an Anaerobic Baffled Reactor
Dark fermentation involves the hydrolysis and acidogenesis of carbon-rich substrates to produce hydrogen (energy) as the main product and volatile fatty acids (acetic acid, butyric acid and propionic acid) as byproducts. Reactor configuration is an important parameter that influences the production rate and yield. The Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) is a simple design with minimal costs and fosters the separation of different phases of the anaerobic process thus enhancing the resilience of the bacterial population to fluctuations of the organic loading rate. Additionally, the reactor can be designed in household modular settings and built underground to retain heat. The ABR has been evaluated for anaerobic digestion of high-strength wastewater (Sayedin et al., 2018, 2019) and to a lesser extent, for the anaerobic digestion of solid waste such as food waste. There are only a few studies on the use of ABR for dark fermentation (e.g. Jürgensen et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important to understand how ABR configuration can be modified for dark fermentation, particularly for processing solid waste.
Keywords
anaerobic digestion, dark fermentation, anaerobic baffled reactor, bioreactor design, phase separation
Labels
Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
Description
Goal
Contact Details
More information
Published since: 2025-02-05 , Earliest start: 2025-02-17 , Latest end: 2025-09-30
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Global Health Engineering
Hosts Tkaczuk Jakub
Topics Engineering and Technology
Developing citizen science methods to measure biogas usage in a Swiss carbon offset project in Malawi
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement promotes international cooperation, allowing high-income countries to meet carbon reduction goals affordably by funding projects in lower-income countries and claiming the resulting offsets. Under its CO₂ Act, Switzerland, through the KliK Foundation, aims to offset 40 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2030—10% of its national emissions—over half of which will occur abroad. One planned collaboration with Malawi involves distributing 10,000 household biogas digesters to dairy farmers2, expected to mitigate 436,000 tonnes of CO₂e. These digesters convert organic waste, primarily animal dung, into methane-rich biogas, replacing wood as a cooking fuel and reducing emissions from deforestation and biomass burning. Dr. Natalie Boyd Williams, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Global Health Engineering group at ETH Zurich, is seeking a student for an exciting Masters thesis project. Dr. Boyd Williams' fellowship focuses on assessing the efficacy of the Malawi biogas project's carbon savings, which hinge on households effectively and consistently using biogas as their primary cooking fuel over firewood. Accurately estimating biogas usage is critical to understanding the project's impact. Traditional methods, such as surveys, often rely on users recalling their cooking habits over long periods, introducing significant uncertainty and error. This thesis aims to address these limitations by developing and trialing a citizen science biogas usage estimation methodology that complements surveys, improving the accuracy of usage data.
Keywords
citizen science, cooking, carbon offsetting, biogas, Malawi, Switzerland
Labels
Semester Project , Master Thesis , ETH for Development (ETH4D) (ETHZ)
Description
Goal
Contact Details
More information
Published since: 2025-01-13 , Earliest start: 2025-01-13 , Latest end: 2025-12-31
Applications limited to ETH Zurich
Organization Global Health Engineering
Hosts Tkaczuk Jakub
Topics Engineering and Technology