wire - news in brief

EPFL officially joined the Multi Spectroscopic Telescope (MUST) project, led by China's Tsinghua University, as a founding member.

Rasmus Kyng has written the near-perfect algorithm. It computes the maximum transport flow at minimum cost for any kind of network - be it rail, road or electricity - at a speed that is, mathematically speaking, impossible to beat.

Machine learning helps researchers to use weather stations to investigate the consequences of climate change for the growth of alpine vegetation. This text was automatically translated. Six days earlier than in 1998, on June 14 instead of June 20, plants begin to grow on average at higher altitudes in the Alps.

ETH's outstanding reputation attracts top-flight researchers from all'over the world. This pool of talent makes Zurich a major draw for global companies such as Microsoft.

From devising forecasting models for the Federal Finance Administration and describing the latest trends in civil protection, researchers routinely supply vital support to the Swiss state and help drive innovation.

Questioning children in criminal proceedings is challenging. Carelessly asked questions distort the testimony and can harm the young interviewee.

As we get older, changes often happen gradually. One indicator of this is our electricity consumption.

EPFL engineers have developed new software called Pyxu that makes it easier and faster to reconstruct images taken at any scale. Their system employs reusable, and universally applicable, bricks of algorithms. Scientists use an array of imaging instruments to look inside living organisms, sometimes as they move, and to observe inert objects without altering their state.

Public cloud services employ special security technologies. Computer scientists at ETH Zurich have now discovered a gap in the latest security mechanisms used by AMD and Intel chips.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a smartphone app that can be used to check the authenticity of documents and other items.

Das ETH-Spin-off dAIgnose entwickelt einen Algorithmus, mit dem sich Ultraschallaufnahmen der Gebärmutter automatisiert auswerten lassen. Dieser sollte es Ärzten ermöglichen, Endometriose in Zukunft schneller zu diagnostizieren. Endometriosis is widespread. Around ten percent of all women of childbearing age throughout the world suffer from it.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and KUNO Klinik St. Hedwig in Regensburg have developed an algorithm that provides an automatic and reliable method of detecting a certain heart defect in newborns.

Physicists at EPFL explore different AI learning methods, which can lead to smarter and more efficient models. In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries from healthcare to finance, understanding how these digital brains learn is more crucial than ever. Now, two researchers from EPFL, Antonia Sclocchi and Matthieu Wyart, have shed light on this process, focusing on a popular method known as Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD).

Historically, the role of women in scientific discoveries and advances has often been downplayed, or even completely erased, to the detriment of their male colleagues.

With its secretariat hosted at EPFL, the Square Kilometer Array Switzerland (SKACH) consortium is celebrating two years' membership of a global project to develop the largest scientific facility ever built by humankind.

An EPFL Master's student in civil engineering has evaluated the effectiveness of new computer-based methods for inspecting potentially dangerous cracks in concrete. A crucial aspect of civil engineering is determining the exact condition of cracks in concrete bridges, dams, tunnels and other types of infrastructure.

In an era where algorithms operate at the core of many products, a new study involving the University of Lucerne has investigated consumer preferences in relation to AI-driven technologies. The study shows how adaptive and pre-programmed algorithms can influence product preferences and purchasing decisions.

ETH Zurich and EPFL are launching the "Swiss AI Initiative", whose purpose is to position Switzerland as a leading global hub for the development and implementation of transparent and reliable artificial intelligence (AI).

Warfare is increasingly spreading to the realm of cyberspace. In response, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) wants to protect its digital infrastructure and that of humanitarian organisations with a digital emblem.

Cut/Paste , a new exhibition at EPFL Pavilions , Pavilion A, delves into the history of comics and showcases how artificial intelligence is changing the art and adapting classic 1950s narratives for today's varied mediums.

Researchers from the UNIL-CHUV Department of Oncology and the Lausanne branch of the Ludwig Institute publish a new study in "Immunity", demonstrating that machine learning improves the prioritization of specific mutations in certain cancer candidates for immunotherapy treatment. Some forms of cancer contain numerous mutations, but only a restricted sub-population, usually a few dozen, can be incorporated into the immunotherapy strategy.

Technology has become critical in shaping our world today, especially in the digital age. It is integrated into almost every aspect of our lives, from smartphones to smart homes.

Researchers at EPFL have uncovered a fundamental flaw in the training of machine learning systems and elaborated a new formulation for strengthening them against adversarial attacks.

Two research studies carried out at USI by Professor Piotr Didyk from the Faculty of Informatics were presented at ACM SIGGRAPH, the world's largest computer graphics conference.

EPFL is collaborating with academic and industrial partners to develop a cardiac intervention simulator. This platform is designed to train interventionalists in much the same way as flight simulators are used to train pilots. More and more cardiac interventions are now performed by inserting a small tube called a catheter into a blood vessel in the arm or groin, and from there into the heart chambers.

Platforms like ChatGPT are already changing the world. From healthcare to the arts and the way we work, how we can ensure AI and Machine Learning benefit all of society? World renowned experts have gathered at EPFL today to explore this topic.

STUDENT PROJECT - As part of the Assistive Technologies Challenge, EPFL students developed two apps to help people with low or no vision: one app orally communicates the information contained in a box of medicine and the other helps them find empty seats on public transport.

Large language models such as GPT-3 are able to learn new concepts by interacting with their users. Researchers at ETH and Google may now have uncovered a key mechanism behind this capability. Despite their huge success, the inner workings of large language models such as OpenAI's GPT model family and Google Bard remain a mystery, even to their developers.

STUDENT PROJECT - Intelligent robots - for search and rescue, exploration and surveillance - are a new and challenging field. Unique and versatile, could robot snakes advance the abilities of machines in these fields? Serpentine robots are a ground-breaking innovation in robotics. These flexible and slithering machines excel at navigating complex and confined spaces, offering immense potential in various fields.

There are plenty of plant identification apps - but only few, that directly help research.

A new mobility app brings together public transport, micromobility solutions and private carpooling.