News

Researchers at EPFL have developed a new way to predict a protein’s interactions with other proteins and biomolecules, and its biochemical activity, merely by observing its surface. The method, published in open-source format, opens up new possibilities for artificial protein design.

Professor Tobias Schneider from EPFL’s School of Engineering, has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant for his project “PERTURB”. These highly prestigious grants are designed to support outstanding researchers who have a solid track record and a top-notch research project.

Researchers at EPFL have discovered that the viscosity of solutions of electrically charged polymers dissolved in water is influenced by a quantum effect. This tiny quantum effect influences the way water molecules interact with one another. Yet, it can lead to drastic changes in large-scale observations. This effect could change the way scientists understand the properties and behavior of solutions of biomolecules in water, and lead to a better understanding of biological systems.

Congratulations to Postdoctoral researcher of the Microengineering Institute Jonathan Cottet who won the CENTRALP 2019 award in Lyon for his thesis titled “Développement de microsystèmes pour la formation contrôlée d’agrégats de cellules par diélectrophorèse”.

Four professors from the School of Engineering (STI) have earned the prestigious title of 2020 IEEE Fellows. IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation.

For EPFL’s 50th anniversary, the School of Engineering is publishing a series of portraits of its female professors. Today we meet Hatice Altug.

An EPFL Bachelor’s student has solved a mystery that has puzzled scientists for 100 years. He discovered why gas bubbles in narrow vertical tubes seem to remain stuck instead of rising upwards. According to his research and observations, an ultra-thin film of liquid forms around the bubble, preventing it from rising freely. And he found that, in fact, the bubbles are not stuck at all – they are just moving very, very slowly.

The crew of the International Space Station has taken delivery of a haptic interface designed by EPFL spin-off Force Dimension. Astronauts could one day use the device, based on the famous delta robot developed at EPFL by Reymond Clavel, to control unmanned Martian and lunar rovers from afar.

Crafty engineering can help solve many problems, including those we face in our own kitchens. At EPFL’s Institute of Mechanical Engineering, students from three laboratories tackled some of the most common kitchen challenges as part of the first Kitchen-Inspired Engineering contest.

Researchers at EPFL have developed a new laser 3D-printing technique to manufacture metal components with unprecedented resistance to high temperature, damage and corrosion. The method has applications in fields ranging from aerospace to power-generating turbines.

Five researchers from the School of Engineering appear on the Web of Science’s 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list 2019.

Daniela Zöller, guest PhD student at the Medical Image Processing Laboratory, received the EDEE best Doctoral Thesis Award in Electrical Engineering, for her thesis ”Dynamic Organization of Human Brain Function and its Relevance for Psychosis Vulnerability”.

Congratulations to PhD Student of the Electrical Engineering Institute Ezequiel González Debada who won the 1^st best Student Paper Award at the 2019 IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 19), held in Auckland, New Zealand.

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.

Frédéric Giraud, a doctoral assistant from the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL), won Best Poster Award at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2019) which was held in Macau, China.

EPFL’s student bioengineering team has won the Grand Prize of the 2019 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, as well as the Best Environment Project. Their winning project, ViTEST, is a diagnostic test for grapevine disease.

Maartje Bastings, head of the Programmable Biomaterials Laboratory at the School of Engineering appears in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B profiles: Contributors to the Emerging Investigators 2019 Issue, and in Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigators 2019.

Congratulations to PhD student, Francesca Criscuolo, who just won (as 2nd classified) the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Sensors Conference 2019, held in Montréal, Canada.

Meet some of our female professors who are making a difference in engineering. Learn about exciting possibilities for young female students interested in pursuing a career in the field.

For EPFL’s 50^th anniversary, the School of Engineering proposes a series of portraits of female professors working within the school. Today we meet Camille Brès, a laser expert.

The microorganisms in our intestines could be linked to certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Researchers from the AD-gut consortium have developed a novel method – combining optical DNA mapping and statistics – for accurately distinguishing and rapidly identifying the various species in the microbiota.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), is a US-led project that will measure the accelerated expansion of the Universe in order to reveal the nature of dark energy. The DESI project, which has received significant contributions from EPFL’s astrophysicists, is entering its final testing phase, gearing up to charter the skies.

The PhD Summit is a workshop for final year PhD students interested in a career in academia. Each year, we invite to campus, on a competitive basis, a group of exceptional graduating PhD students from institutions worldwide. In this 2ndedition, the Summit focused on the theme of «Intelligent systems».

The EPFL Excellence in Engineering Program offers an intensive research training opportunity to students interested in research careers in any field of engineering, science and technology.

EPFL School of Engineering has five prototyping workshops covering everything from advanced mechanical parts to complex printed circuit boards. The facility, known as the Technical Workshop Platform (PAT), meets the needs of the research labs and gives students an opportunity to rub shoulders with manufacturing professionals during their studies.

Bacterial cell division is controlled by both enzymatic activity and mechanical forces, which work together to control its timing and location, a new study from EPFL finds.

Excitons are quasiparticles made from the excited state of electrons and – according to research being carried out EPFL – have the potential to boost the energy efficiency of our everyday devices.

From 23-25 October, EPFL will host the first meeting of the European Consortium UltimateGaN, launched in May. This research project gathers 26 partners -including EPFL- from nine countries. Its funding of 48 million euros makes it one of the largest European research projects. The objective is to conduct research on the next generation of energy-saving chips based on the new semiconductor material gallium nitride (GaN).

Working with clinicians from Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, a team of EPFL researchers has developed a conformable electrode implant that will allow people with a dysfunctional inner ear to hear again. This new device could replace existing auditory brainstem implants, which have a number of shortcomings.

Two students from EPFL's School of Engineering have developed a smart speaker with voice-activation technology that connects patients directly to their loved ones as well as caregivers and emergency services. The system, designed to save time and provide greater peace of mind, has already been tested by several home-care providers.

Romain Fleury, a tenure-track assistant professor who heads the Laboratory of Wave Engineering, has been named best teacher in electrical and electronic engineering.

EPFL scientists have helped develop a microscopic glass device that doctors could use to inject medicine into retinal veins with unprecedented accuracy. Their instrument meets an important need in eye surgery, delivering exceptional stability and precision.

Researchers at EPFL have created a metallic microdevice in which they can define and tune patterns of superconductivity. Their discovery, which holds great promise for quantum technologies of the future, has just been published in Science.

Dominique Pioletti, an associate professor at EPFL’s School of Engineering, has won the Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching 2019. Students enrolled in his Master’s-level biomechanics class get to work directly on problems encountered by doctors.

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.

For EPFL’s 50^th anniversary, the School of Engineering proposes a series of portraits of female professors working within the school. Today we meet Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, who has just been appointed full professor.

he Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointement of several professors at EPFL School of Engineering.

Professor Pedro Reis of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering has been elected to be the next vice-president of the Society of Engineering Science (SES).

Professor Francois Gallaire of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering has been elected as Fellow of the American Physical Society for 2019.

Deepfakes – or fake videos produced to look real through the use of artificial intelligence – pose a growing challenge. That’s why an EPFL research group has been teaming up with the Swiss startup Quantum Integrity to develop a deepfake detection solution over the past two years. The team has been awarded an Innosuisse grant starting on 1 October, with deployment as early as next year.

Touradj Ebrahimi, head of the Multimedia Signal Processing Group (MMSPG) at the School of Engineering, is recipient of the first ever Multimedia Star Innovator Award organized by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

EPFL scientists have helped develop a microscopic glass device that doctors could use to inject medicine into retinal veins with unprecedented accuracy. Their instrument meets an important need in eye surgery, delivering exceptional stability and precision.

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. 

This weekend in Yverdon, the HydroContest EPFL Team took first place in the nautical competition with its lightweight boat, second place in endurance, and third place in speed with its heavyweight boat.

EPFL scientists have shown how light inside optical on-chip microresonators can be crystallized in a form of periodic pulse trains that can boost the performance of optical communication links or endow ultrafast LiDAR with sub-micron precision.

EPFL spin-offs Flyability and Lunaphore came in first and second place, respectively, in this year’s TOP 100 Swiss Startup Awards. The ranking is established every year by a panel of 100 startup experts from Switzerland. Two other EPFL spin-offs – Bestmile and Gamaya – also made it into the top ten.

Researchers at EPFL and the University of Bern have developed a groundbreaking method for studying the electrical signals of cardiac muscle cells. The technology has numerous potential applications in basic and applied research – such as improving the search for mechanisms underlying cardiac arrhythmias.

Two EPFL Master’s students, an EPFL PhD student, a UNIL PhD student and an EPFL alumnus have teamed up to develop a new alarm app called Wakeit. The app draws on users’ social-media contacts to make getting out of bed a little easier.

EPFL scientists have developed an algorithm that can determine whether a super-resolution microscope is operating at maximum resolution based on a single image. The method is compatible with all types of microscopes and could one day be a standard feature of automated models.

The 9^thInternational Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM conference) took place at EPFL.