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Researchers at EPFL have developed a system that can be installed in a building to collect data on people's energy usage. The aim is then to send this data directly to a smart electric grid that will allocate resources optimally. A smart grid that decides how best to distribute energy based on availability, cost and customers' needs - that's the energy concept being developed by researchers in the School of Engineering's Electronics Laboratory.

The years of careful planning and construction have paid off: At the newest large-scale research facility of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI - the free-electron X-ray laser SwissFEL - the first experiment has been carried out successfully. With that, two goals have been achieved: First, a new scientific result is already expected.

EPFL researchers have successfully measured some of the quantum properties of electrons in two-dimensional semiconductors. This work in the field of spintronics could one day lead to chips that are not only smaller but that also generate less heat. A group of spintronics researchers at EPFL is using new materials to reveal more of the many capabilities of electrons.

It took EPFL researchers only three minutes to detect and locate a short circuit triggered intentionally in the power grid serving Fribourg Canton.

EPFL researchers have found a way around what was considered a fundamental limitation of physics for over 100 years. They were able to conceive resonant systems that can store electromagnetic waves over a long period of time while maintaining a broad bandwidth. At EPFL, researchers challenge a fundamental law and discover that more electromagnetic energy can be stored in wave-guiding systems than previously thought.

Flexible electronic parts could significantly improve medical implants. However, electroconductive gold atoms usually hardly bind to silicones.

EPFL researchers use a mechanical micrometer-size drum cooled close to the quantum ground state to amplify microwaves in a superconducting circuit. Image: Photograph of the chip used in the experiment to couple a microwave cavity to a micrometer-size drum (the sharp purple pencil tip is placed as a scale).

Gases in the environment can be spectroscopically probed fast and precisely using so-called dual frequency combs. Researchers at ETH have now developed a method by which such frequency combs can be created much more simply and cheaply than before. In contrast to the light emitted by a simple lamp, laser light has a very precisely defined frequency.

Light particles do not usually react to magnetic fields. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now shown how photons can still be influenced by electric and magnetic fields. In the future that method could be used to create strong artificial magnetic fields for photons. In modern information technology there is a rather clear division of labour between light particles (photons), used for transmitting data fast and reliably over large distances, and electrons, which are responsible for data processing in computer chips.

Switzerland's overhead power lines are showing signs of old age and can be damaged by power surges. But how long will they actually last? Empa researchers have developed a tool to keep tabs on the aging process.

Earth's magnetic field has reversed direction hundreds of times in the course of our planet's history.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have found a way of looking inside the iron core of transformers. Transformers are indispensable in regulating electricity both in industry and in domestic households. The better their iron cores are magnetized, the less energy they lose and the more efficiently they work.

05. Summer Series on Student Projects - For his Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, Karim Ziadé assessed the feasibility of putting data centers into residential buildings for heating purposes.

20. EPFL researchers have developed an innovative cardiac support system in the form of a small ring placed on the aorta.

02. EPFL researchers have developed a shoe sole with valves that electronically control the pressure applied to the arch of the foot.

29. EPFL researchers have developed conductive tracks that can be bent and stretched up to four times their original length. They could be used in artificial skin, connected clothing and on-body sensors. Conductive tracks are usually hard printed on a board. But those recently developed at EPFL are altogether different: they are almost as flexible as rubber and can be stretched up to four times their original length and in all directions.

A small device made from everyday materials can generate enough energy to power several diodes. This clever discovery by an EPFL researcher was presented yesterday at a global conference on microand nanosystems in Shanghai.

20. Electric cars will be competitive when they can be charged in the time it takes to fill the gas tank.

11. Upward lightning strikes initiate on the ground and head skyward. These discharges, which usually begin at the top of tall and slender structures, pose a real risk for wind turbines.

10. EPFL researchers have come up with a method to determine the exact location of short circuits in a power grid. This is an important step towards operating complex power grid topologies that enable the massive integration of renewable energy resources. When a high-voltage power line is damaged by wind, ice or a tree, electricity utilities must quickly find the fault location and repair it to meet the power quality requirements or avoid cascade blackout.