News EPFL

2016 entering class: female enrollment up for the 15th year running

Published:14.09.16 — EPFL continues to draw more students – including more women. A symbolic threshold was crossed this year as 31% of first-year Bachelor’s students are women.

The motorcycle of the future won't need a rider

Published:12.09.16 — Microengineering student Eric Unnervik has developed a miniature self-balancing motorcycle. His aim is to one day produce an entirely autonomous motorcycle that can outperform human riders.

EPFL inaugurates the fueling station of the future

Published:09.09.16 — EPFL Valais/Wallis has built an experimental fueling station in Martigny that relies on clean energies, allowing users to fill their tank with hydrogen or charge their battery. On Saturday 10th of September, it is presented to the public.

An EPFL startup makes residential solar panels twice as efficient

Published:07.09.16 — With a 36% yield, the solar panels developed by startup Insolight could deliver up to twice as much energy as traditional panels. The company came up with a thin structure that directs the sun’s rays to the small surface area of very high performance solar cells. The result is a highly efficient flat photovoltaic system.

Stretching cells to learn more about them

Published:05.09.16 — A tool developed at EPFL can stretch and compress cells, mimicking what happens in the body. The aim: to study the role played by these mechanical forces in cases of cancer or lymphatic diseases.

How to get a satellite into a bottle

Published:31.08.16 — SUMMER SERIES on student projects – Five EPFL students participated in this year’s CanSat competition. Their mission: to fit all the components of a spacecraft into a 3.5-liter container, then release and fly the spacecraft at an altitude of 600 meters.

Train windows that combine mobile reception and thermal insulation

Published:29.08.16 — EPFL researchers have developed a type of glass that offers excellent energy efficiency and lets mobile telephone signals through. And by teaming up with Swiss manufacturers, they have produced innovative windows. Railway company BLS is about to install them on some of its trains in order to improve energy efficiency.