EPFL Open Days: Computer science, decoded

Visitors of all ages had the chance to see – and participate in – real-world applications of computer science research, from games and entertainment to education, medicine, and digital security.

The events offered, including robotics and reality (VR) demos and a roundtable debate on artificial intelligence (AI), underscored the “future of technology” theme of this year’s Open Days in honor of EPFL’s 50th anniversary. But the event also showcased the history of computer science, and the advancements that gave rise to the technologies we see all around us today.

Teaching with virtual reality

One demonstration from the Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction (CHILI) lab allowed visitors to move around in a virtual environment and “plant” a garden in three-dimensional space, and then see the results of their work in different seasons, or even years into the future.

“This application is for vocational education, especially for gardeners, so they can expand their experience from reality into digital space,” explained CHILI lab doctoral assistant Kevin Kim.

“I’ve seen some examples of this kind before in the context of architecture projects, but I find that this evolution over time, and the opportunity to see all the seasons, are really interesting developments,” said visitor Karine, who tried the VR experience with her daughter, Clara.

Visitors also got to see how VR can be used to help train emergency responders to perform CPR and cardiac massage, thanks to research in IC’s Immersive Interaction Research Group (IIG) led by Ronan Boulic. In this demonstration, gestures practiced on a mannequin were integrated into an immersive virtual scenario, requiring participants to perform a series of steps to save the “patient”.

Creating digital “walls”

At a workshop led by Carmela Troncoso, head of the Security and Privacy Engineering Lab (SPRING), participants learned about a current topic relevant to anyone with a smartphone or laptop: WiFi security. Equipped with their own computers connected to a network created for the workshop, each participant could “eavesdrop” on the communication channels between the devices and a WiFi access point.

“When we work in digital communication, we tend to forget that in the digital world, there are no walls, and everybody on the network can listen,” said Troncoso. She added that participants also learned how to maintain their privacy while surfing the web as part of the workshop.

“We are showing them how to hide information using the Tor network, which often gets bad press for being used to access the dark web, but its goal is actually to allow people work on the internet as we work in the real world: without anyone seeing what we’re doing.”

One participant, Christian, observed: “One doesn’t realize the information one exchanges over the internet, and how with a simple enough program, it’s relatively easy to see the websites we visit – and even the specific pages on these sites!”

Evolution of computing

The Musée Bolo gave visitors the chance to discover – or rediscover – computers, software and accessories of the past with its extensive collection. Pascal Gervais demonstrated one corner of the museum dedicated to computer games, which was especially popular with young visitors.

“The goal is to recreate the games of different eras, from the first very primitive games with just simple graphics, to those that are much more developed, with more graphics and speed,” he explained.

A special exhibition, “Scheduled Disappearance”, also showcased the paradoxical evolution of technology that has seen traditional computers “disappear”, even as computing devices become more and more ubiquitous.

Future of AI

At a Sunday round-table debate at the SwissTech Convention Center, organized by IC in cooperation with the College of Humanities, experts including EPFL president and IC professor Martin Vetterli held a public dialogue on the topic, “Humanity, machine and data: what’s the future of artificial intelligence?”

Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) head Jamie Paik lent her perspective as a developer of next-generation “soft” robots, while Digital Humanities Lab (DHLab) head Frédéric Kaplan talked about how AI is being applied to the humanities through initiatives like the Venice Time Machine project. Image and Visual Representation Lab (IVRL) head Sabine Süsstrunk brought her expertise on facial recognition and privacy to the debate, while Daniela Cerqui Ducret gave an external perspective as a senior lecturer in cultural anthropology at the University of Lausanne.

Moderator Anne Laure Gannac, a journalist for Swiss public radio RTS, asked questions about AI threats, such as job losses to automation, and regulatory and ethical issues. While the conversation remained optimistic in terms of the future of labor, the panelists voiced concern about the slow rate of regulation of these technologies compared to the speed at which they are being developed.

Finally, the audience was treated to a unique musical performance: the Ada String Quartet played several pieces, some written by humans and some created using an algorithmic composition tool called BachProp. The AI-generated music was part of a project by doctoral assistant Florian Colombo in IC/SV Computational Neuroscience Laboratory (LCN), led by Professor Wulfram Gerstner.