News EPFL

Two teenagers earn special EPFL degrees

Published:21.06.13 — They’ve had a gift for math since they were little, and they’ve been following the Euler course since they were 12. This week, the first class of students is graduating from the course, receiving their degrees and in doing so earning admission into the second year of EPFL’s Bachelor’s program.

A breakthrough in plasmonics

Published:20.06.13 — EPFL scientists have discovered how optical signal transmission can be controlled, paving the way for the integration of plasmonics with conventional electronic circuits.

Mapping a room in a snap

Published:18.06.13 — An algorithm developed in EPFL’s School of Computer and Communications Sciences makes it possible to measure the dimensions of a room using just a few microphones and a snap of your fingers. Many promising applications are on the horizon.

A robot that runs like a cat

Published:17.06.13 — Thanks to its legs, whose design faithfully reproduces feline morphology, EPFL’s four-legged “cheetah-cub robot” has the same advantages as its model: it is small, light and fast. Still in its experimental stage, the robot will serve as a platform for research in locomotion and biomechanics.

Unraveling the genetic mystery of medieval leprosy

Published:14.06.13 — Why was there a sudden drop in the incidence of leprosy at the end of the Middle Ages? To answer this question, biologists and archeologists reconstructed the genome of medieval strains of the pathogen responsible for the disease, which they exhumed from centuries old human graves. Their results, published in the journal "Science", shed light on this obscure historical period and introduce new methods for understanding epidemics.

Neuroscience to Benefit from Hybrid Supercomputer Memory

Published:12.06.13 — To handle large amounts of data from detailed brain models, IBM, EPFL, and ETH Zürich are collaborating on a new hybrid memory strategy for supercomputers. This will help the Blue Brain Project and the Human Brain Project achieve their goals.

EPFL presents a modular aircraft at Le Bourget

Published:10.06.13 — The Clip-Air project envisions an airplane consisting of a single flying wing onto which capsules carrying passengers or freight can be attached. More than a new type of flying device, its innovative concept could revolutionize the airports of the future.