News EPFL

Illuminating the no-man's land of waters' surface

Published:28.11.12 — Sylvie Roke, scientist in EPFL’s Bioengineering Institute, is refuting previously held theories and offering a new explanation of electrochemical phenomena occurring at the interface between water and a hydrophobic matter. A new paradigm may be on the horizon.

Putting more cores to work in server farms

Published:26.11.12 — EPFL scientists have found that reorganizing the inner architecture of the processors used in massive data processing centers can yield significant energy savings. This is a research from EcoCloud research center, which was founded to pioneer technologies to make cloud computing scalable, cost-effective and sustainable.

Designers Reinvent the Remote

Published:23.11.12 — Sixty years after its creation under the name “Lazy Bones”, the remote control is poised to change our relationship with digital content. The EPFL+ECAL Lab, in collaboration with the Kudelski Group, announced today the project, “Lazy Bytes,” which thoroughly reconsiders this connection with the content now available on television. Lazy Bytes brings together creations from ECAL in Lausanne, ENSCI – Les Ateliers in Paris, the Royal College of Art in London, and Parsons The New School for Design in New York.

A Magic Formula to Predict Fracture in Steel

Published:22.11.12 — EPFL researchers have elucidated a century-old mystery: how hydrogen destroys steels. A new mathematical model predicts this failure in the presence of the destructive atoms.

Analyzing Lake Geneva from the air – a second wind for elemo

Published:20.11.12 — One year after the MIR submersibles dove into the depths of Lake Geneva, the elemo program is delivering its first scientific results. And with the support of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, the operation will be extended with a campaign to make observations above the lake surface from a sensor-packed ultralight aircraft. The same experiments are planned above Lake Baikal in Russia.

Software Enables Avatar to Reproduce Our Emotions in Real Time

Published:19.11.12 — A virtual character produces the same facial expressions as its user. It makes a video game, chat, or an animated film both fun and fast. Faceshift, an EPFL spin-off, launches its software on the market today.

Tracking facial features to make driving safer and more comfortable

Published:16.11.12 — For those familiar with its language, the face reflects much about an individual’s identity and emotional state. EPFL scientists are developing a tool that will be able to use facial information to make the cars of the future safer and more comfortable.