Mobility Program
This year, Swissnex is hosting a total of three cohorts of ZHAW staff members visiting the San Francisco Bay Area for a two-week sabbatical. The goal of the program is to connect with the Bay Area ecosystem to advance their research project.
ZHAW staff members are given the opportunity to travel to a Swissnex location of their choice for a duration of two weeks. The idea is that ZHAW staff in all organizational units use the opportunity to expand their international and intercultural knowledge in connection with research projects, teaching assignments, advanced training, administration, information technology, finances, legal practice, communication, etc. for long-term impact.
Swissnex provides the ZHAW staff members with the necessary mindset, skillset, and network they need to connect with the local ecosystem successfully. The aim is to strengthen the international network and intercultural competencies of staff across ZHAW.
The disciplines and fields of expertise of the different ZHAW staff members joining this program are very diverse. Reach out to Swissnex in SF if you are interested in connecting with any of the ZHAW staff members listed below.
ZHAW Staff Members in the Mobility Program 2022
Cohort 1 | July 25th – August 5th, 2022
- Albena Björk (strategic management, strategic communication, marketing, design, new technologies & interdisciplinary skills for increased resilience of Businesses and Individuals)
- Christina Schulze (planning & building public play grounds, childhood development, child socialization, pediatrics, occupational therapy, effect of outdoor play, community environment on a child’s learning and everyday activities)
- Martin Schnauss (interconnections between complexity theory, blockchain, and the Real Estate market; How the use of Blockchain technology together w/ building information modeling can contribute to increasing efficiency in a globalized world)
- Michael Kauer (real estate and Infrastructure development, corresponding need for facility management & creating a sustainable life cycle of real estate)
Cohort 2 | August 29th – September, 9th 2022
- Andreas Buchs, Professor at Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Goals during the Staff Mobility Program: During his stay in San Francisco, Andy would like to exchange experiences with people and organizations on his current research, practice, and standards in Sustainability Reporting. He is looking forward to learning what other organizations are working on and how they view developments in the fields of non-financial reporting. - Marcel Sieber, Senior Research Associate at Zurich University of Applied Sciences – School of Management and Law
Goals during the Staff Mobility Program: Since he is fascinated by IT culture, Marcel is curious about how things are done in the Bay Area. In such an innovative environment, one expects an extraordinary mindset, attitude, and working habits. After all, you need to be open-minded, risk-taking, and decision-friendly, right? He would love to breathe the entrepreneurial air and have some real culture talks. Who is willing to let him catch an eye behind the curtain of organizational culture, which you normally do not see? - Markus Hackenfort, Professor of Human Factors Psychology at Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Goals during the Staff Mobility Program: Markus likes to get in touch with researchers and practitioners who are interested in Human Machine Interaction in Automated Driving. Based on his traffic psychology background, he also wants to share his knowledge with people who want to make traffic conditions safer by considering human behavior – and human errors.
Cohort 3 | October 10th – October 14th, 2022
- Gabriele Hasenberg, Co-Head BSc Program and Lecturer at the ZHAW School of Health Professions, Institute of Midwifery
Goals during the Staff Mobility Program: The main purpose of her sabbatical was to expand her network of professionals in midwifery and obstetrics at UCSF, to have exchanges on observations and lessons learned from the first implementation of the interprofessional module “Reproduction / BSc Medicine at ETHZ”, as well as to acquire knowledge about suitable methods and materials to teach the performance of pregnancy ultrasounds. - Marion Huber, Deputy Director, Head of Interprofessional Research Unit at the ZHAW School of Health Professions
Goals during the Staff Mobility Program: The main purpose of her sabbatical was the joint development of an international research proposal with an academic partner from the San Francisco Bay Area, and to gain insight into community-based care projects, long-term care educational concepts, programs, and models.
