news 2022

A project of the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio, UV-CSIC) researches genetically modified bacteria so that they learn to decode a message.

Popular stories this year covered the detection of radio signals from space, a new battery design, immigrants' entrepreneurial activity, and more. The dizzying pace of research and innovation at MIT can make it hard to keep up. To mark the end of the year, is looking back at 10 of the research stories that generated the most excitement in 2022.

MIT researchers are discovering which parts of the brain are engaged when a person evaluates a computer program. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures changes in blood flow throughout the brain, has been used over the past couple of decades for a variety of applications, including "functional anatomy" - a way of determining which brain areas are switched on when a person carries out a particular task.

Study suggests a robot levy - but only a modest one - could help combat the effects of automation on income inequality in the U.S. What if the U.S. placed a tax on robots? The concept has been publicly discussed by policy analysts, scholars, and Bill Gates (who favors the notion).

From biomedical engineering and quantum hardware through to wave modelling and computer science, here are seven times in 2022 that our researchers led impactful research. Spray coating developed to shield surfaces from viruses, bacteria A first-of-its-kind sprayable coating that can prevent the surface spread of infection from bacteria and viruses, including COVID-19, over a sustained period has been developed by a team of Australian researchers including Professor Antonio Tricoli from School of Biomedical Engineering.

Researchers from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and  Fujitsu  have developed a new way of searching through 'chemical space' for materials with desirable properties. The technique has resulted in a promising new catalyst material that could help lower the cost of producing clean hydrogen.

Research Award Winner at the University of Paderborn Presents Results In classical music, editions are considered the basis of scholarly study of music. Unlike classical music, however, pop music is not composed on music paper, but in audio data. The substance of pop music is its sound. Rebecca Grotjahn, professor at the Department of Musicology at the University of Paderborn and the Detmold University of Music, is investigating how this can be edited as so-called -phonographic- music.

Silvia Massini, Mabel Sanchez-Barrioluengo, Xiaoxiao Yu have published a report exploring the key findings from ADiTS survey, in collaboration with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. High costs and a lack of access to people with the relevant skills are significant barriers to businesses adopting digital technologies across Greater Manchester, according to a major new AMBS report.

A recent study by Western neuroscientists suggests that, unlike true reality, perception in virtual reality is more strongly influenced by our expectations than the visual information before our eyes. The researchers point to the challenge of online shopping, where customers sometimes mis-estimate the size of a product based on their expectations, discovering for example that a sweater purchased online is indeed lovely but sized for a doll not an adult.

TU Delft Dream Team Epoch has achieved ninth place in their first competition of the year, the CityLearn Challenge. Engaged in a battle with 110 other teams from around the world, including Microsoft, the TU Delft students developed a new AI algorithm that contributes to better and smarter energy systems.

Using smart algorithms, PhD researcher Lars Moormann has made the design of tunnel control systems much more efficient. It is hard to imagine modern traffic networks without tunnels. They help us bypass rivers and mountains, and make sure traffic doesn't interfere too much with our daily lives in urban areas.

A large-scale analysis of Madagascar's unique biodiversity has just been conducted with the participation of over 50 international organizations. Madagascar is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, with 82% of its plant species and 90% of its vertebrates found nowhere else on Earth. The results of the study, which rely on AI-based tools developed by Daniele Silvestro of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and his team at the University of Fribourg, were published in two papers in the journal Science.

Researchers from EPFL and ETH Zurich, working together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Bin Khalifa Unversity (Qatar), have developed a program that can generate population density estimates with unparalleled precision, and only needs a rough estimate at the regional level to learn.

FINDINGS A UCLA team has developed a technology for projecting high-resolution computer-generated images using one-sixteenth the number of pixels contained in their source images. The system compresses images based on an artificial intelligence algorithm, and then decodes them using an optical decoder — a thin, translucent sheet of plastic produced using a 3D printer — that is designed to interact with light in a specific way as part of the same algorithm.

A CEA-Leti tutorial presented at IEDM 2022 highlighted promising advantages that resistive random-access memory (RRAM) technologies hold for implementing novel neuromorphic/in-memory computing systems for massively parallel, low-power and low-latency computation. In a presentation titled "Resistive Memories-Based Concepts for Neuromorphic Computing" , Elisa Vianello, CEA-Leti's edge AI program manager, said RRAMs, aka memristors, offer advantages in energy efficiency and computing power when processing AI workloads.

Unconventional computing combines Brownian computing with reservoir computing / First prototype developed A large percentage of energy used today is consumed in the form of electrical power for processing and storing data and for running the relevant terminal equipment and devices. According to predictions, the level of energy used for these purposes will increase even further in the future.

A team of scientists at EPFL have built a new neural network system that can help understand how animals adapt their movement to changes in their own body and to create more powerful artificial intelligence systems. Deep learning has been fueled by artificial neural networks, which stack simple computational elements on top of each other, to create powerful learning systems.

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have developed a model that can accurately predict the current migration routes of migratory birds. This offers the possibility of taking adequate measures at the right time when birds are at risk from air traffic or infrastructure. The researchers published their work in the scientific journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution by the end of October.

Cambridge researchers have developed a method for measuring overall fitness accurately on wearable devices - and more robustly than current consumer smartwatches and fitness monitors - without the wearer needing to exercise.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our lives. It has given rise to smart assistants that take on tasks that would otherwise take humans a great deal of time and effort - in medicine, business and industry, for example. To do this, smart assistants require vast amounts of data.