News

Andras Kis and Dario Floreano have been elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for 2023, in recognition of their contributions to the development of 2D materials and electronic devices, and to bio-inspired drone development and evolutionary robotics, respectively.

The Commission of the Doctoral Program in Microsystems and Microelectronics (EDMI) has selected Luca Nela to receive the 2022 EPFL Doctoral Thesis Award in Microsystems and Microelectronics.

Francesco Mondada, head of the Center for Learning Science and of the Mobile Robotic Systems Group (MOBOTS) in the School of Engineering, has received the Polytechnik-Preis for his work on the educational robot Thymio II.

Scientists at EPFL have developed photonic integrated circuits that demonstrated a new principle of light amplification on a silicon chip. It can be employed for optical signals like those used in Lidar, trans-oceanic fiber amplifiers or in data center telecommunications.

EPFL’s Professor Giovanni De Micheli was recently recognized for his strong impact on the electronic system design industry, and he sees another decade of rapid design innovation ahead.

Borrowing from methods used to produce optical fibers, researchers from EPFL and Imperial College have created fiber-based soft robots with advanced motion control that integrate other functionalities, such as electric and optical sensing and targeted delivery of fluids.

The application portal for the 2023 edition of the E³ EPFL Excellence in Engineering Summer Internship Program is now open. The program is organized by the EPFL School of Engineering and offers an intensive research training opportunity to bachelor and master students from all around the world, with various scientific backgrounds.

In their new book, Dario Floreano, director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, and Nicola Nosengo describe new trends in robotics research and how they will impact our lives in a not-so-distant future.

Congratulations to Raphaël Liégeois, scientific collaborator in the School of Engineering's MIPLAB, for being selected as one of the six ESA career astronauts

The 2023 edition of the CROSS (Collaborative Research on Science and Society) program invited researchers from EPFL and the University of Lausanne to submit proposals for joint projects on the theme of crisis. Two projects selected for funding are co-led by School of Engineering researchers.

Eleven EPFL researchers, including three from the School of Engineering, are among the most highly cited scientists in 2022.

EPFL researchers have discovered that it is not just molecular density, but also pattern and structural rigidity, that control super-selective binding interactions between nanomaterials and protein surfaces. The breakthrough could help optimize existing approaches to virus prevention and cancer detection.

Discover the Institute of Mechanical Engineering @EPFL.

Angelos Katharopoulos has received the Electrical Engineering Doctoral program (EEDE) Thesis Award for his outstanding research on the efficiency of deep learning models. EEDE Thesis Distinctions have also been awarded to Lorenzo Bertoni, Michaël Defferrard, and Thanh-An Pham.

Thermal transport beyond Fourier, and beyond Boltzmann

EPFL thesis n°8158

Thesis director: Prof. N. Marzari

Learning approaches to high-fidelity optical diffraction tomography

EPFL thesis n°7954

Thesis director: Prof. D. Psaltis

Ultimate feature sizes in thermally drawn fibers: from fundamental analysis to functional fibers

EPFL thesis n°8455

Thesis director: Prof. F. Sorin

Biophysical applications of correlative scanning probe and super-resolution microscopy

Thesis director: Prof. A. Radenovic

With electronic waste on the rise, recent EPFL robotics graduate Ken Pillonel has turned to YouTube to make a statement about the repairability of our devices.

Bioengineering and sensory neuroscience researcher Naïg Chenais has been selected to receive the Prix Retina of the Swiss VitreoRetinal Group SVRG for her “exceptional” work on retinal implants.

Tenure-track assistant professor Giulia Tagliabue, head of the Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technologies (LNET) in the School of Engineering, has been awarded a Starting Grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). 

Scientists at EPFL and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), the University Federico II, and CEINGE-Biotecnologie avanzate in Naples, Italy, have developed a new method to screen individual cells quickly and reliably without fluorescence labeling. Their work, published in the journal Nature Photonics, opens new avenues in early tumor diagnosis and drug development.

A pair of patent-pending technologies from a joint research project in the School of Engineering has received funding from EPFL’s enable program, which will support the development of prototypes.

Professor Yves Bellouard, head of the Galatea Laboratory at EPFL’s School of Engineering, has been elected a Fellow Member of the Optical Society (Optica) at the Society’s recent Board of Directors meeting.

This year, three medical graduates with unique and diverse skill sets – acquired through intensive work and study – have joined EPFL under the Doctorate in Medicine and Sciences (MD-PhD) program.

Professor Kyojin Choo, head of the Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits Lab (MSIC-LAB) at the School of Engineering, has received a grant for his project “Circuit Scaling Through design: Charge-Injection-Based Analog-to-Digital Converter” from the Fond National Suisse (FNS).

School of Engineering (STI) professors Sophia Haussener, Esther Amstad, and Giulia Tagliabue have received the school’s first Engineering Discovery Grant for their interdisciplinary research project aimed at producing droplet- and bubble-based “mini refineries” for solar-driven electrochemical CO₂ reduction.

This year’s Swiss Robotics Day – an annual event run by the EPFL-led National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics – will be held at the Beaulieu convention center in Lausanne. For the first time, this annual event will take place over two days: the first day, on 4 November, will be reserved for industry professionals, while the second, on 5 November, will be open to the public.

Researchers at an EPFL lab have developed an ophthalmological device that can be used to diagnose some degenerative eye disorders long before the onset of the first symptoms. In early clinical trials, the prototype was shown to produce images with a sufficient degree of precision in just five seconds.

Tough stuff - that suits her. Karen Scrivener is a renowned expert on the world's most widely used building materials: concrete and cement. But cement as a binding agent has fallen into disrepute as a "climate killer". The professor disagrees. The head of the Laboratory for Building Materials at EPFL's School of Engineering in Lausanne can point to more than just pioneering research into more energy-efficient concrete production. She also has her eye on global construction activity - and has big plans.

At the School of Engineering, professors Cristina Benea-Chelmus, head of the Hybrid Photonics Laboratory (HYLAB) and Hatice Althug, head of the Bionanophonics Systems Laboratory (BIOS) raised 1.15 MCHF to push quantum sensing in the mid infrared through MIRAQLS by horizon Europe.

EPFL researchers, together with colleagues in Paris and the U.S., have applied artificial intelligence (AI) to a long-standing problem in materials science – identifying which structures within massive computer-generated databases are good candidates for actual fabrication. NCCR MARVEL’S Michele Ceriotti, professor at the School of Engineering, and coworkers focused their study on hypothetical zeolites, materials that show promise for capturing carbon dioxide emissions, as well as for catalysts for green chemistry.

Having come through a heatwave it is easy to forget that humans are not the only ones that need to shelter from oppressive heat. Animals suffer too, and huge mechanical infrastructures like railways, even major runways. But what about computers?

Touradj Ebrahimi, a professor of multimedia signal processing at EPFL's School of Engineering, has been selected for this year’s Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) Progress Medal – the most coveted award in the field of image processing. We spoke with this visionary engineer, who almost pursued a career in robotics.

Engineers from EPFL and the University of Strasbourg have developed an innovative surgical needle whose trajectory can be corrected on the fly, thanks to a flexible tip controlled with a simple button. Intended for use in image-guided surgery, the needle offers greater precision in surgeon’s movements and reduces the risk for patients.

Tiffany Abitbol was recently appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor and the head of the Sustainable Materials Laboratory at EPFL’s School of Engineering. Her research looks to create sustainable alternatives to materials derived from unsustainable resources or processes. 

William Curtin, head of the Laboratory for Multiscale Mechanics Modeling (LAMMM) at the School of Engineering, has been selected as the 2022 recipient of the MMM Distinguished Career Achievement Award by the MMM International Advisory Board. 

The EPFL School of Engineering’s Power and Wide-band-gap Electronics Research Laboratory (POWERlab), headed by professor Elison Matioli, has received the selective 2021 IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Prize Letter Award, for their paper entitled High-Accuracy Calibration-Free Calorimeter for the Measurement of Low Power Losses authored by Armin Jafari et al. and published on IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (TPEL).

On October 7th, 2022, more than 300 participants attended the official inauguration of the newly-formed Neuro-X Institute.

“I believe a great teacher can make you love a subject you hate – but the opposite is also true,” says Bastien Aymon, a Master’s student in mechanical engineering who counts himself lucky that he met the right teachers at the right time.

The composite containers developed by AELER, an EPFL startup, deliver better performance across the board: they’re stronger, have a bigger payload, are better insulated, allow for enhanced tracking and can help cut carbon emissions. More than 60 of the containers are currently crossing oceans around the world, and the firm hopes to grow this number substantially starting next year. 

This year at ‘La Magistrale’, EPFL’s annual graduation ceremony, 1245 students received their Master’s degrees. EPFL congratulates its new graduates and offers future perspectives – and hope – for a world in crisis.

The manufacturing industry is going through a period of profound change, driven in part by the advent of 3D printing and other advanced technologies. In order to support Swiss industry at this critical juncture, EPFL and CSEM have joined forces to create the Micromanufacturing Science & Engineering Center (M2C), a new focal point for pure research, technology transfer and everything in between.

EPFL School of Engineering's Microsystems Laboratory Director, Juergen Brugger, has been named the recipient of the 2022 MNE Fellow Award. This award recognizes outstanding researchers/engineers who made a significant advance in Micro- and Nanoengineering and related fields covered by the MNE conference.

The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointment of professors at EPFL's School of Engineering.

Engineers at EPFL’s Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory have developed a revolutionary method for detecting and locating partial discharges, which disrupt the functioning of power transformers.

Kazuhiro Morimoto has been named one of four “rising stars who are reshaping nanoscience” by Nature, for his work on the world’s first million-pixel camera. Interview.

SUMMER SERIES – Master’s project (11). EPFL student Antoine Madrona helped develop an algorithm that, after being trained on data from many different hospitals, can improve stroke diagnosis – all while protecting patient confidentiality.

Summer series – Master’s project (10). Jérémie Pochon has built a test bench for evaluating the type of motor that could one day drive the Hyperloop transportation system.

Researchers at the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering (LRESE) and the Group of Energy Materials (GEM), at EPFL’s School of Engineering, have demonstrated a high-temperature electrolysis reactor transforming concentrated solar light and water into hydrogen. By using high temperatures (> 700°C), the reactor requires no rare and expensive materials for the electrochemical reaction. This integrated approach has the potential to reach solar-to-fuel efficiencies larger than that of conventional non-concentrated, solar-driven electrolysis approaches.