ené Sigg has been with intep since 1988 and served as CEO from 1997 to 2024, playing a central role in developing the company into an internationally active consulting and research firm for sustainable development. He holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and completed postgraduate studies in Environmental Sciences at the University of Zurich. His executive education includes strategy, sustainability and artificial intelligence in management at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, as well as a CAS in Chinese Business Management at the University of Zurich. René has extensive consulting experience across Europe, North America and Asia, advising private and public organizations on sustainable management, strategy and transformation. He has also contributed to the development of models, norms and standards in sustainability, processes and digitalization.

Chief Architect of Atelier Li Yin, Chief Representative (China & Asia-Pacific) of ICI (International Climate Innovation), Switzerland, Local Lead Expert for the Sino-Swiss Zero-Emission-Building Project (2022-2025) and a Registered Architect with the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA).

In his professional practice, he focuses on the profound integration of architectural design with sustainability consulting. His expertise spans building renovation, urban renewal, low-carbon urban planning, and interior design. Representing ICI in China and the Asia-Pacific region, he facilitates international cooperation, academic initiatives, professional training, and consulting services for low-carbon sustainable architecture and district planning. He has led and completed numerous international architectural competitions in Shenzhen and Switzerland and is frequently invited as a guest lecturer to participate in teaching practices at various universities in China.

Julio Paulos is an interdisciplinary urban scholar working across research, policy and practice. As Associate Director Research at Future Cities Lab Global, ETH Zurich, he shapes the lab’s research strategy and connects expertise across disciplines, geographies and sectors. His work examines how cities are rethought and transformed amid technological, environmental and political change, with a particular interest in the interplay of knowledge, governance and urban futures. He asks how cities change and who gets to imagine, negotiate and shape what comes next.

Mr. Huang Yinwu graduated from Southeast University in Nanjing. After working at Southeast University and Nanjing University, he pursued postgraduate studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Hong Kong. Since 2003, he has been leading the Shaxi Rehabilitation Project and has worked and practiced in rural areas for many years. His work encompasses rural planning, architectural design, conservation design, landscape design, exhibition design, charitable fund management, and construction organization and management.

His major design works include the Shaxi Rehabilitation Project, the Administration and Dormitory Buildings of the Yulin Cave of Dunhuang Academy, the Shaxi Experience Center of the Tea and Horse Caravan Trail, and the Librairie Avant-Garde Shaxi Bai Ethnicity Bookstore. He has published dozens of articles in major professional journals in China and is the author of Reading Time in Shaxi.

Born near Toronto, Canada, Prof. Elizabeth Tilley studied Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo before moving to ETH Zurich to complete her PhD in Development Economics. Following her doctoral work, she spent five years as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malawi in Blantyre, before returning to ETH in 2021 as the new Professor in Global Health Engineering (GHE).

Thematically, her research centers on sanitation and waste management through a multi-disciplinary lens. Blending engineering, economics, and the social sciences, she is specifically interested in how open science acts as a tool for both liberation and oppression, and the role that information can play in the acceleration of equity and health.

Growing up in Canada, as a settler on unceded indigenous land, she has striven to embed her life, published work, and teaching within class consciousness and anti-colonial praxis. Moreover, as one of a small number of female professors within D-MAVT, she has served as a vocal advocate for women in Engineering and is committed to creating a transformative and inclusive workspace at ETH, and within the growing GHE group.

Jo Wei is an independent curator and researcher . Her recent interests lie in the intersections between art and emerging media including life sciences, environment, intelligence and digital

technologies, as well as histories of media art. Exhibitions and projects she has curated or co‑curated include The Natural Contract, Ars Electronica in Shenzhen, and Quasi‑Nature: Bio Art, Borderline, Laboratory, among others. Her recent publications consist of books: Telepresence and Bio Art(Chinese translation), A Brief History of Ars Electronica 1979-

2019(Chinese translation), as well as the essay volume If the Future Can Be Edited: The Paradoxes of Gene Editing in Technology, Philosophy and Art, produced in collaboration with the Berggruen Research Center at Peking University. She has served as international advisor / reviewer for renowned international programs and publications including the STARTS Prize, ISEA, and Leonardo. She is also an editorial‑board member of Annual of Contemporary Art of China. An active advocate for art‑science‑technology exchange, she has given lectures and workshops at Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Taipei National University of the Arts, Institute of Neuroscience (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Institute for the History of Natural Sciences (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and numerous art academies and universities across China.