science wire

The EPFL Spacecraft Team has set itself the ambitious goal of launching two satellites by 2023. With this bold initiative, this student team hopes to gain further insight into the chemical composition of the outermost layers of our atmosphere.

A mechanical system developed at EPFL's Instant-Lab halves the number of hospital staff needed to turn coma patients and makes the task less physically demanding.

Researchers from EPFL and ETH Zurich have conducted an original scientific study that puts forth a plausible explanation for the mysterious 1959 death of nine hikers in the Ural Mountains in the former Soviet Union.

Organic waste - whether from households, agriculture or agroforestry - can be used as energy resource, but is often underexploited.

For his thesis project at EPFL, Armel Kemajou studied the peri-urban areas of Lomé, Togo, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, where populations are expected to double in 20 years.

Jonathan Besomi, a Master's student at EPFL, has developed a program called Texthero that lets users generate representations of textual data with just a few lines of code, thereby simplifying the analysis of natural languages.

2020 was a year unlike any other. Here at EPFL, COVID-19 upended our plans in the areas of education, research and innovation. And while we will remember this past year for its pandemic-related headlines, our ten most-read news articles once again reflect the wide diversity of science. The fully transparent surgical mask, called HelloMasks , combine transparency, resistance and porosity.

EPFL computer science professor tells conference that AI has no legitimate roll in defining, implementing, or enforcing public policy.

EPFL spin-off Aica has developed AI-based software that makes industrial robots easier to program and more capable of adapting.

Scientists have developed a synthetic molecule capable of killing the virus that causes influenza. They hope their discovery will lead to an effective drug treatment.

The Engineering Humanitarian Aid initiative, officially launched on 10 December 2020, will harness the expertise of Switzerland's two federal institutes of technology to benefit humanitarian aid programs.

Roberto Gargiani, an architectural historian and professor at EPFL, has penned a new history of concrete in the United States from 1940 to 1970.

Three EPFL spin-offs - CompPair, Hydromea and Nanogence - have made it through to the finals of the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge, an international startup competition that is being held virtually this year.

Researchers from EPFL's Institute of Bioengineering and the University of Geneva have teamed up to develop new tools for studying water flow across cell membranes.

A comprehensive study by EPFL and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) has enabled researchers to map the geographical distribution of ticks in Switzerland for the first time, as well as to determine whether they are carriers of chlamydia. Little is known about these bacteria, but ticks can potentially pass them to humans.

Companies wanting to offer internships to EPFL Master's students can apply for a new sustainability certification to demonstrate that the goals of their internship or the technology being developed are environmentally friendly.

Algorithms developed at EPFL can help architects to design building structures that incorporate both new and reused components, thereby lowering their environmental impact.

A new software developed at EPFL can help architects to design building structures that incorporate both new and reused components, thereby lowering their environmental impact.

Researchers are at the forefront of developing some of the cutting-edge technology for the European Space Agency's first mission to remove space debris from orbit.

For his PhD thesis at EPFL, Kamil Hajji compared urban development projects in two major cities - each a business and financial hub, but in countries with very different societies and political systems.

EPFL engineers have developed a drone with a feathered wing and tail that give it unprecedented flight agility. The northern goshawk is a fast, powerful raptor that flies effortlessly through forests. This bird was the design inspiration for the next-generation drone developed by scientifics of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems of EPFL led by Dario Floreano.

Thanks to a new system developed at EPFL, building owners can detect the number of occupants and track their movement using sensors installed on floor slabs.

Joint CERN-EPFL doctoral research has led to the design of a new machine to deliver cutting edge hadron therapy to treat cancer. In 2017, Enrico Felcini began his PhD in Applied Superconductivity under the supervision of Bertrand Dutoit, the head of EPFL's Applied Superconductivity Group . His work was on a revolutionary hadron therapy gantry concept invented by Luca Bottura, who leads CERN's magnet group.

Digital technology is running up against its physical limits. One solution is to build more data centers - but that needs to go hand in hand with a reduction in their carbon footprint.

As part of his Master's project at EPFL's Urban Sociology Laboratory (LASUR) , Felix Boesch conducted a survey on the combined use of bicycles and trains in the Lausanne and Nyon urban agglomerations.

EPFL start-up Flybotix is showcasing its dual-propeller drone today at Xponential the world's largest tradeshow for unmanned and autonomous systems.

On 1 October EPFL will launch EPFLglobaLeaders, a new program that will provide research grants to PhD students working in sustainability-oriented fields.

Scientists have developed a digital pathology tool for quantifying bone marrow compartments in standard histological sections. Named "MarrowQuant", the software makes it possible to examine bone marrow biopsies as well as to re-examine historical collections of bone-marrow samples and even old clinical trials.

Scientists have developed a digital pathology workflow for quantifying bone marrow compartments in standard histological sections. Named "MarrowQuant", this workflow based on the open source software QuPath makes it possible to examine bone marrow biopsies as well as to re-examine historical collections of bone-marrow samples and even old clinical trials.

Xsensio, an EPFL spin-off, has just been awarded CHF 1.8 million in EU funding to adapt its Lab-on-Skin(TM) sensing patches so that they can detect when a viral illness like the flu or COVID-19 is about to get worse.

The Catalyst Fund - supported by the Bertarelli Foundation - has selected six research projects to fund this year. Led by professors from EPFL and other Swiss Universities, these projects all aim to develop new treatment options for neurological disorders. Created by the Bertarelli Foundation in 2017, the Catalyst Fund aims to invest in translational projects targeting innovative approaches for diseases affecting the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system and sensory organs.