wire - news in brief

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.

Over the next three years, researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of Cambridge, École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI-Paris) and Empa will be working together with the Dutch Polymer manufacturer SupraPolix on the next generation of robots: (soft) robots that 'feel pain' and heal themselves.

(Summer Series): Mathieu Clavel, a master's student in the College of Humanities (CDH) Digital Humanities Institute, is bringing musical heritage from Afghanistan to life using tools from data science and virtual reality.

Emmanuel Abbé is the new Chair of Mathematical Data Science at EPFL. His work answers fundamental questions in machine learning and information theory, and in particular on community detection. Sociologists study the patterns of everyday social interactions and relationships by structuring society in a network.

On May 28, the EPFL School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC) and Science Outreach Department (SPS) organized the final of the first Swiss edition of the Alkindi Competition, where more than 40 secondary school students from across the country put their code-cracking skills to the test.

The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointment of 7 professors at EPFL.

Empa CEO Gian-Luca Bona on the opportunities and risks of digitalization - and the question as to how a materials research institute needs to gear itself up for this future.

Researchers have identified a widespread computer security vulnerability affecting laptop, desktop and server hardware. Last year, the so-called Spectre and Meltdown security vulnerabilities made headlines when it was discovered that they affect the Intel central processing units (CPUs) in most laptop and desktop computers and servers.

A beekeeper teamed up with the Signal Processing Laboratory 5 and a group of EPFL students to develop an app that counts the number of Varroa mites in beehives.

A new EU regulation that went into effect in May has prompted consumers to pay more attention to how websites use the personal data they collect. With Polisis, an AI-based program developed at EPFL, consumers can get quick, easy-to-read summaries of websites' data protection policies. And the program is becoming highly popular - EPFL's Technology Transfer Office has received numerous license requests.

Last fall, EPFL introduced a new continuing education program whereby participants earn a Certificate of Open Studies (COS) - the only one of its kind in Switzerland. The first COSs were handed out at a ceremony this past Thursday. Switzerland's very first Certificates of Open Studies (COSs) were handed out this past Thursday at a ceremony at EPFL.

Creating and modifying a virtual reality environment just got a lot easier thanks to software being released today by Imverse, an EPFL spin-off.

EPFL scientists will soon be heading off to Antarctica, where they will spend four months collecting reams of meteorological data at Australia's Davis research station.

The Affinity Map showing cross-laboratory collaboration among faculty at EPFL's School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) is now available to the general public. One of its creators will soon be heading off to MIT on a grant to expand his idea to a global scale. Scientists around the world are excited about the new possibilities being offered by advanced data collection and processing methods.

Summer series - EPFL computer science student Hugo Hueber has developed a virtual reality game that can be used in any environment, allowing for the same level of interaction with virtual 3D objects as with a real table, for example.

Three scientists of the University of Zurich have been awarded the EU's coveted ERC Starting Grants.

AI is set to trigger a major transformation in society. As soon as algorithms influence our voting habits or design school curricula, it is up to politics to limit the damage. A new study on the opportunities and risks of AI is now being conducted on behalf of TA-Swiss. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just about the irritatingly charming face of a "humanoid robot" gazing inquisitively at us.

Thanks to software developed by Neural Concept, an EPFL spin-off, bicycle engineers can quickly calculate the most aerodynamic shape for a bike. The software - which is being presented in Stockholm today at the International Conference on Machine Learning - applies artificial intelligence to a set of user-defined specifications.

An e-voting system based on blockchain technology has just been tested at EPFL. The system serves as a digital guarantee, ensuring that competing sides have faith in the voting process. This open-source technology will soon be available on the Center for Digital Trust's software platform. E-voting is becoming increasingly popular both in Switzerland and further afield.

Researchers from ETH Zurich are using a new method for digital timber construction in a real project for the first time.

Knowledge sharing is an important driving force behind scientific progress. In an open-science approach, EPFL's Blue Brain Project has created and open sourced Blue Brain Nexus that allows the building of data integration platforms.

A dazzling victory at the Solar Decathlon, artificial intelligence generating melodies, virtual reality to reduce phantom pain, a robot-fish spy, 12 million francs for a Center of Artificial Muscles.. Some of the EPFL's research and milestones that marked the year 2017.

AI is set to trigger a major transformation in society. As soon as algorithms influence our voting habits or design school curricula, it is up to politics to limit the damage. A new study on the opportunities and risks of AI is now being conducted on behalf of TA-Swiss. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just about the irritatingly charming face of a "humanoid robot" gazing inquisitively at us.

Opened less than a year ago, the Swiss Data Science Center - a joint initiative between EPFL and ETH Zurich - has already launched eight research projects in fields ranging from personalized medicine and environmental protection to open science. Each project brings together experts from several disciplines to join forces in tackling some of society's biggest challenges.

EPFL researchers have developed a smartphone app for passengers to evaluate their experience in real time and view other users' ratings.

Given the growing number of users and the widening range of devices, streaming is no longer viable in its current form owing to the substantial amount of power and storage capacity it requires.

crowdAI, an EPFL-developed open data science challenge platform that hosts machine learning competitions, has been awarded over $100,000 from Amazon and Nvidia for its latest challenge, "Learning to Run" .

Researchers supported by the SNSF have set up a free and accessible integrated database of legal cases involving international economic law. Their work represents an important milestone for research and practice. The number of legal agreements and disputes is increasing rapidly. Analysing them using conventional scientific methods has become all but impossible, and legal academia is now turning to big data for answers.

A team of researchers has collected new data that shows a significant decrease in snow precipitation close to the ground in Antarctica, which has an impact on the ice sheet surface mass balance. Researchers have observed and characterized a weather process that was not previously known to occur in Antarctica's coastal regions.

Walking on two legs isn't as easy as it seems. Especially for robots, where a natural stride is a major challenge. Researchers at EPFL's Biorobotics Laboratory are testing novel systems to improve humanoids' ability to walk and interact. For humans, it comes perfectly naturally. But walking on two legs is actually a complicated task, requiring several muscles to perform delicate balancing acts.