Oracle welcomed 20 international students from ETH Zurich’s Student Summer Research Fellowship (SSRF) program to the Prime Tower office in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 20, 2026. The visit was part of an Oracle Volunteering initiative and brought together students and Oracle colleagues from across the business for an inspiring day of technology, questions, and career conversations.
ETH Zürich — short for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) — is one of Switzerland’s leading technical universities and an Oracle Academy member. Its SSRF program gives undergraduate and graduate students the chance to spend two summer months gaining early research experience in an area that interests them. Only around 20 students are selected each year, so it was a real and special pleasure to host this year’s group.
From research interests to Oracle technology
The students arrived with a broad mix of interests, including machine learning, information security, computer systems, robotics, programming languages and software engineering, bio/medical informatics, human-computer interaction, theory and visual computing. That made for plenty of lively conversations throughout the day.
The students learned more about Oracle Academy curriculum, workshops and Education Bytes. The Oracle team started by introducing the company, Oracle Academy, and the different ways that Oracle technology supports organizations, including the connection between data, infrastructure and open-source technology, and how that foundation helps teams build and run systems at enterprise scale. The discussion moved naturally from AI Database and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to Oracle Application Integration, with plenty of room for questions along the way.
We also gave the students a practical view of what it is like to work on real engineering challenges. One example was a simple but important lesson from project work: keeping every session forever eventually slows a system down. For instance, a better approach is to keep the metrics of active sessions available and use an aggregate for completed ones.
It was a good reminder that great technology is not only about big ideas, it is also about thoughtful decisions that keep things working well over time.
AI was, of course, part of the conversation
AI featured heavily during the visit. The group explored several Oracle integration highlights, from self-healing RPA robots that can adapt to user interface changes, to Model Context Protocol connectivity for AI-driven automation. The team also discussed AI agents, AI assistants, intelligent workflows, human oversight, agentic knowledge bases, autonomous RPA environments, managed disaster recovery, and compliance. Rather than treating AI as a standalone topic, the conversation focused on how it can be used responsibly and usefully in enterprise settings.
The program also made space for a tour of the office, refreshments, and an informal Q&A. For many students, the chance to ask direct questions and hear personal experiences from Oracle colleagues was just as valuable as the technology sessions.
Students urged to stay curious — and keep the conversation going
The main message to the students was simple: stay curious. Whether they continue with research, look for an internship, or start thinking about a future role in technology, curiosity is a great place to begin. Students interested in opportunities can explore the Oracle student and graduate careers site at oracle.com/careers/students-grads/.
A big thank you goes to Lucas Braun, Oracle Academy Ambassador, and to Oracle colleagues Maya Mohajerani, Guochao Xie, Ahmed Tlili, Hannes Guetlin, and Elif Kurtay, who made the day possible. Their energy and generosity helped turn a visit into a genuinely engaging experience.
Oracle Academy is proud to support the next generation of technology leaders by helping students build practical computing skills and connect classroom learning with real-world opportunities. We look forward to keeping the conversation going with the ETH SSRF community and with students around the world.
Not a member? Join now. Learn more at academy.oracle.com.