News EPFL

New York's reality augmented thanks to the EPFL + ECAL Lab

Published:22.02.13 — For the first time, EPFL is the guest of the renowned Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York. Throughout more than 500 square meters, the EPFL + ECAL Lab will display its new works in augmented reality, where physical objects and digital representations are combined.

A new light source for quantum computers

Published:20.02.13 — Researchers have discovered a new way of emitting photons one at a time. They have constructed semiconductor nanowires with "quantum dots" of unprecedented quality - a discovery with implications for the future of quantum computing.

PostBuses: increasing frequency? Increasing passengers too!

Published:18.02.13 — Under a mandate from Swiss PostBus, the Transportation Center of EPFL analyzed attendance data from this enterprise known for their yellow buses. The result? An increase in the frequency of lines can have double the impact on their use!

A New Super-Green Supercomputer

Published:15.02.13 — Since January 28, researchers from EPFL and the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne have benefitted from a new supercomputer, the BlueGene/Q. This computer is four times more powerful than its predecessor – it can perform 172,000 billion operations per second! With low energy consumption, it also is counted among the Top 10 greenest supercomputers in the world.

Simulation of a double impact reveals the heart of an asteroid

Published:14.02.13 — Models boost the significance of image and measurement data from space missions and help to understand our solar system. A simulation of a double impact that occurred on the proto-planet Vesta one billion years ago allowed scientists to describe precisely the inner structure of the asteroid. A joint research from EPFL, Bern University, France and the United States is on the cover of Nature this week.

New world record efficiency for thin film silicon solar cells

Published:12.02.13 — EPFL’s Institute of Microengineering has reached a remarkable 10.7% efficiency single-junction microcrystalline silicon solar cell, clearly surpassing the previous world record of 10.1% held by the Japanese company Kaneka Corporation since 1998. Such significant efficiency, independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE CalLab PV Cells), was achieved in addition with less than 2 micrometers of photovoltaic active material.

Peering into living cells

Published:11.02.13 — Two young EPFL scientists have developed a device that can create 3D images of living cells and track their reaction to various stimuli without the use of contrast dyes or fluorophores.