wire - news in brief

EPFL is contributing significant computing resources to the open science project [email protected] , which uses protein dynamics simulations to explore potential coronavirus drug targets.

Although Swiss internet users use online services where algorithms select search results, recommendations and information daily, they know little about their role and function.

Juraj Kardos, who recently earned his PhD at the USI Institute of Computational Science (ICS, Faculty of Informatics), is part of the winning team of the Grid Optimization (GO) Competition launched by the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) of the US Department of Energy.

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics  has elected Professor Olaf Schenk as a SIAM Fellow in the class of 2020 for his contributions to applied mathematics and extreme-scale High-performance computing (HPC).

Largo Films, an EPFL spin-off, unveiled its data-assisted movie-making software to producers and other movie-industry specialists today at the Berlin Film Festival.

Prosthetic hands restore only some of the function lost through amputation. But combining electrical signals from forearm muscles with other sources of information, such as eye tracking, promises better prostheses.

ETH Pioneer Fellow Marcel Schuck is developing a robotic gripper that can manipulate small and fragile objects without touching them. The technology is based on sound waves. The small installation that Marcel Schuck has assembled on his workbench is reminiscent of a school physics lesson: an arrangement, comprising two semi-spheres and resembling a pair of headphones, is connected to a circuit board carrying microchips.

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the EPFL Blue Brain Project have developed 'Neuron_Reduce', a new computational tool that provides the scientific community with a straightforward capability to simplify complex neuron models of any cell type and still faithfully preserve its input-output properties while significantly reducing simulation run-time.

Michael Stadler has been leading the FMI Computational Biology technology platform since 2008. In an interview, he explains how the platform is set up and how it supports the FMI research groups, he shares what he likes most about his job, and he talks about the future of computational biology.

Compiler Analysis for Hardware/Software Co-design and Optimization Faculty of Informatics Giornata di porte aperte alla mostra 'Koen Vanmechelen.

Yesterday evening, tiny robots developed by EPFL spin-off Foldaway Haptics were the center of attention at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Streaming consumes enormous amounts of energy and is at least as damaging to the climate as all civil aviation - according to a French study.

EPFL held a series of events to mark its 50th anniversary throughout 2019. The past year also saw a host of scientific breakthroughs, ground-breaking initiatives, stunning achievements and notable wins.

Compiler Analysis for Hardware/Software Co-design and Optimization Faculty of Informatics Giornata di porte aperte alla mostra 'Koen Vanmechelen.

An international team, including UNIGE, will analyse the African elephant's trunk, and its exceptional agility and versatility, to create a robot guided by touch.

Formazione continua e aggiornamento per giuristi: Legge sull'esecuzione e fallimenti (SchKG), Rodrigo Rodriguez Faculty of Economics Seminario IdEP "Dynamic Vertical Foreclosure" - Chiara Fumagalli F

Formazione continua e aggiornamento per giuristi: Legge sull'esecuzione e fallimenti (SchKG), Rodrigo Rodriguez Faculty of Economics Seminario IdEP "Dynamic Vertical Foreclosure" - Chiara Fumagalli F

Visiting Alumni: Ktimene Axetell, VP Insights, Arrivalist Visiting Alumni: Valeria Croce, Manager International Relations and Insights, Eurail BV Fall Semester Projects Presentations 2019 Faculty of

Computer scientist David Dao develops intelligent algorithms that use satellite and drone images of rainforests to predict where the next sites of deforestation will be.

The first-ever image of a black hole was unveiled to the public this past April. It was produced by a team of 200 scientists as part of the Event Horizon Telescope Project.

The series of talks "Quattro chiacchiere con l'esperto", organised by USI Ideatorio Cadro, continues with Luca Gambardella, Director of Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence USI-SUPSI. An informal chat with the expert about the human brain vs artificial intelligence. Computer scientist Luca Gambardella is the Director of Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (USI-SUPSI), for which he began working in 1988.

Hackers are increasingly exploiting weaknesses in IT system hardware rather than software. To close this gap, we are introducing a new open source project based on Google's Titan security technology and the "Ibex" open source processor from ETH. Luca Benini, Professor at the Institute for Integrated Systems, explains how.

Official statistics can benefit from new analysis methods arising from its data innovation strategy. The automation of certain tasks, especially data preparation, seems to be particularly promising. Although the first results from the FSO's pilot projects are encouraging, according to an initial assessment published on the "experimental statistics" microsite, they still need fine-tuning before they can be fully implemented in ongoing production.

EPFL-based startup Droople has developed a smart flow meter that can measure buildings' water consumption and identify potential savings in energy.

An aerodynamic bike that was designed using software from Neural Concept, a spin-off from the Computer Vision Laboratory (CVLab) in the EPFL School of Computer and Communication Sciences, has broken two world records for cycling speed.

Self-driving cars, the automatic detection of cancer cells, online translation: deep learning makes it all possible. The ETH spin-off Mirage Technologies has developed a deep learning platform that aims to help start-ups and companies more quickly develop and optimise their products. The name has a fairytale feel to it, with its reference to mirages and the suggestion of illusion.

These days, Microsoft officially opens a lab in Zurich dedicated to researching mixed reality technologies and artificial intelligence.

Four Swiss organisations, including UNIGE, receive funding from the European Union (EU) through OPENQKD, a secure quantum communication infrastructure.

Deepfakes - or fake videos produced to look real through the use of artificial intelligence - pose a growing challenge.

The ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research of the University of Bern is the recipient of a grant from JDRF, the leading global funder for type 1 diabetes research.

EPFL scientists have successfully tested new neuroprosthetic technology that combines robotic control with users' voluntary control, opening avenues in the new interdisciplinary field of shared control for neuroprosthetic technologies. EPFL scientists are developing new approaches for improved control of robotic hands - in particular for amputees - that combines individual finger control and automation for improved grasping and manipulation.

Universities play an increasingly important role in society creating an environment where talents, like graduate student David Yenicelik, thrive.

Until a few years ago, experts in Switzerland spoke of around 20 species. Now a major project by Eawag, the University of Zurich, the Swiss Centre for the Cartography of the Fauna (CSCF) and the Swiss Entomological Society (SEG) has researched over 40 clearly different species.

Are there limits to what computers are actually able to compute, and do quantum computers really solve more problems than conventional computers' Computer scientist Scott Aaronson will discuss these kinds of fundamental questions during the Paul Bernays Lectures 2019. In 2007, something unusual happened: an ad spot ran on Australian TV that involved two models in a dressing room discussing quantum mechanics.