news

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung recently published a paper on the ethical challenges of digitisation written by Peter Seele, economist, philosopher and professor of business ethics at USI Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society and Dirk Helbing, professor of Computational Social Science at ETH Zurich.

The MedCo system aims to facilitate medical research on pathologies - such as cancer and infectious diseases - by enabling secure computations on decentralized data. The unique software has recently been deployed at three Swiss hospitals. MedCo was first released in 2019 as the first operational system to protect sensitive patient data so that it can be used collectively for medical research.

Using a novel type of cameras, researchers from the University of Zurich have demonstrated a flying robot that can detect and avoid fast-moving objects. A step towards drones that can fly faster in harsh environments, accomplishing more in less time. Drones can do many things, but avoiding obstacles is not their strongest suit yet - especially when they move quickly.

With the help of machine learning, ETH researchers have developed a novel yet low-cost tactile sensor. The sensor measures force distribution at high resolution and with great accuracy, enabling robot arms to grasp sensitive or fragile objects. We humans have no problem picking up fragile or slippery objects with our hands.

What do you get when you place a thin film of perovkite material used in solar cells on top of a magnetic substrate? More efficient hard drive technology. EPFL physicist László Forró and his team pave the way for the future of data storage. "The key was to get the technology to work at room temperature," explains László Forró, EPFL physicist.

An EPFL student has shown how deep learning can be used to analytically connect digital simulations and experimental results more quickly and reliably than conventional methods. This work, which the student carried out for his semester project, was recently published in Physical Review Letters. It's not unusual for scientists to compare experimental results with the predictions made by theoretical models.

Scientists from EPFL (Switzerland) have extended performance modelling techniques to the field of computational brain science. In a paper published in Neuroinformatics, they provide a quantitative appraisal of the performance landscape of brain tissue simulations, and analyze in detail the relationship between an in silico experiment, the underlying neuron and connectivity model, the simulation algorithm and the hardware platform being used.

Can buildings learn to save all by themselves? Empa researchers think so. In their experiments, they fed a new self-learning heat­ing control system with temperature data from the previous year and the current weather forecast. The "smart" control system was then able to assess the building's behavior and act with good anticipation.

Researchers from UNIL, UNIGE and SIB provide the researchers' community with an extremely powerful computer tool to facilitate the interpretation of the genome's Big Data Haplotypes are a set of genetic variations that, located side by side on the same chromosome, are transmitted in a single group to the next generation.

Researchers at EPFL and spin-off Nanolive have used a special microscope that combines two imaging technologies to observe and quantify new intracellular phenomena. In an article published today in the journal PLOS Biology, also reveals a range of computer tools that can be used in the future by other research laboratories.

In a collaboration with Swiss International Air Lines, NASA and other partners, researchers at ETH Zurich have developed eye-tracking software for use in pilot training. This allows instructors to analyse the gaze behaviour of student pilots in the cockpit. Anyone who has ever sat in a cockpit will know how mentally challenging it is to pilot an aircraft.

Two research groups from ETH Zurich have developed a method that can simulate nanoelectronics devices and their properties realistically, quickly and efficiently. This offers a ray of hope for the industry and data centre operators alike, both of which are struggling with the (over)heating that comes with increasingly small and powerful transistors.

Researchers at EPFL have developed a novel way of predicting lightning strikes to the nearest 10 to 30 minutes and within a radius of 30 kilometers. The system uses a combination of standard data from weather stations and artificial intelligence. Lightning is one of the most unpredictable phenomena in nature.

The Giotto project, launched by EPFL startup Learn to Forecast, intends to revolutionize the way we use artificial intelligence. Drawing on the science of shapes, Giotto pushes AI forward by making it more reliable and intuitive in areas such as materials science, neuroscience and biology. Giotto is open-source and available free of charge on GitHub, and it's already being used by some EPFL scientists.

Molecular dynamics simulations represent an increasingly important cornerstone of modern scientific research, thanks to their unparalleled ability to meticulously describe fundamental aspects of complex systems. It is not a coincidence that nowadays molecular simulations are considered a "virtual microscope" from which admire and examine biological processes, as well as confirm through "computational assays" innovative hypotheses which provide the basis for designing new experiments.

ETH researchers have developed a compact infrared spectrometer. It's small enough to fit on a computer chip but can still open up interesting possibilities - in space and in everyday life. Nowadays, a mobile phone can do almost anything: take photos or video, send messages, determine its present location, and of course transmit telephone conversations.

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is limited by its astronomical electricity consumption and outsized carbon footprint. A nearly zero-energy alternative sounds too good to be true, but as School of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC) Professor Rachid Guerraoui explains, it all comes down to our understanding of what makes transactions secure.

ETH researchers use artificial intelligence to improve quality of images recorded by a relatively new biomedical imaging method. This paves the way towards more accurate diagnosis and cost-effective devices. Scientists at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich have used machine learning methods to improve optoacoustic imaging.

EPFL scientists have developed a soft artificial skin that provides haptic feedback and - thanks to a sophisticated self-sensing mechanism - has the potential to instantaneously adapt to a wearer's movements. Applications for the new technology range from medical rehabilitation to virtual reality.Artificial skin could help rehabilitation and enhance virtual reality EPFL scientists have developed a soft artificial skin that provides haptic feedback and - thanks to a sophisticated self-sensing mechanism - has the potential to instantaneously adapt to a wearer's movements.

A team of physicists and computer scientists at ETH Zurich has developed a new approach to the problem of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. Using machine learning tools, they programmed computers to teach themselves how to extract the relevant information from maps of the universe. Understanding the how our universe came to be what it is today and what will be its final destiny is one of the biggest challenges in science.