wire - news in brief

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.

An EPFL engineer has developed a forecasting model that factors in not just our commuting habits, but also our activities during the day.

Every year at ETH Zurich, hundreds of students learn the fundamentals of mathematics through lectures and exercises.

Mathematician Siddhartha Mishra has been awarded this year's Rössler Prize for his research on solutions for highly complex flow and wave phenomena.

Using applied mathematics, Yunan Yang finds solutions to the inverse problems that arise in seismology, weather forecasts, and machine learning.

John von Neumann was one of the most important mathematicians and computer pioneers of the 20th century - and an ETH alumnus.

Researchers have developed a novel approach to network analysis that allows them to reveal and interpret, for the first time, interactions among multiple variables in data from neuroscience, economics, and epidemiology. Many phenomena - brain signals, stock prices, or COVID hospitalizations, for example - can be studied using time series data, which are collected as repeated measurements over a given time interval.

A new research project led by Luca Gambardella, professor at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence IDSIA (USI-SUPSI) and Pro-Rector for Innovation and Corporate Relations, has been approved by the  Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) . The study entitled 'Computational methods for integrality gaps analysis' approaches the optimisation of algorithms to deal with complex problems from an innovative and original perspective.

How does water seep through porous rock? Investigating this question with a mathematical model was the starting point for Barbara Dembin's research.

Oliver Janzer is a mathematician who specialises in graphs - that is, collections of nodes that may or may not be connected, such as Facebook users.

EPFL is introducing three new Master's programs to widen the offer of the School's cross-disciplinary study programs in basic sciences and engineering: the Master's in Neuro-X, the Master's in Quantum Science and Engineering and the Master's in Statistics.

The Bernese theoretical astrophysicist Kevin Heng has achieved a rare feat: On paper, he has derived novel solutions to an old mathematical problem needed to calculate light reflections from planets and moons.

Next week, the first European Girls' Olympiad in Informatics will take place in Zurich. The competition, which will have around 160 participants from 43 countries, is being organised by ETH students, who also came up with the original idea and are the driving force behind the event.

The fact that there are many different types of infinities is one of the big puzzles in mathematics.

Maryna Viazovska, who holds the Chair of Number Theory at EPFL, has resolved the problem of sphere packing in 8 and 24 dimensions.

Using the famous computer game Minecraft, Mathematicians at EPFL have developed a video game around Eulerian Cycles.

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).

Juhan Aru is a new professor in Mathematics at EPFL where he holds the Chair of Random Geometry. His work aims at understanding geometric properties of models where randomness and geometry meet.

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.

Three researchers at the University of Zurich have received an ERC Advanced Grant. A physicist, a mathematician and a theologian will each receive up to 2.5 million euros from the European Research Council to continue their research.

At the age of 29, Professor of Computer Science Mohsen Ghaffari is one of the youngest professors at ETH Zurich.

In a collaboration led by EPFLâ?'s Blue Brain, scientists discover patterns of brain activity â'' never before observed â?- with the help of mathematics, providing insight into how neurons collectively process information. Brains of healthy rats that are the same age share many features, such as similar numbers and types of neurons present in the six layers of the cortex.

EPFL mathematician Alfio Quarteroni and his team are building a virtual heart model based on personalized medical images that may one day help cardiologists and cardiac surgeons non-invasively diagnose pathological heart conditions.