News EPFL

Uncertainty spurs scientific progress

Published:27.08.21 — SUMMER SERIES: HOW SCIENCE WORKS - Citizens and scientists have two very different ways of reasoning. While citizens find comfort in certainty, scientists need to continually challenge the facts. Is it possible for these two groups to find common ground?

Vaud elementary school teachers get training on digital education

Published:27.08.21 — Around 15 elementary-school teachers who received digital-education training from EPFL’s LEARN Center began training their peers this past spring. Through this initiative, the Canton of Vaud aims to begin equipping its schoolchildren with digital skills from their very first years.

Improving contact-tracing apps in the COVID-19 era

Published:26.08.21 — An international collaboration with EPFL has developed a method to improve the performance of COVID-19 contact-tracing apps by taking into account a user’s recent contacts, risk levels and shared information about tests and symptoms.

Light-matter interactions propel quantum technologies forward

Published:26.08.21 — Physicists at EPFL have found a way to get photons to interact with pairs of atoms for the first time. The breakthrough is important for the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), a cutting-edge field leading the way to quantum technologies.

Optical technology can slash the energy required by AI

Published:25.08.21 — EPFL engineers are pioneering an energy-saving technology that uses fiber optics to boost the performance of supercomputers.

Helping engineers better predict clay landslides

Published:24.08.21 — Norway experiences dangerous landslides due to its clay-rich soil. For her Master’s thesis in civil engineering at EPFL, Mathilde Metral outlined steps that the country’s geotechnical engineers can take to improve the predictive computer model they’re currently developing. 

Faulty regulation of an architect gene can lead to rare bone disease

Published:23.08.21 — EPFL researchers found that, if expressed too early during embryonic development, one of the genes that orchestrate the formation of limbs can lead to a rare disorder of bone growth.