Research

A team of EPFL scientists has provided insight into the mechanisms at work in geothermal reservoirs located deep underground, known as supercritical reservoirs. Through a combination of computer simulations and lab experiments, they showed that rocks located between five and eight kilometers deep in the Earth’s crust are also permeable to fluids. 

Engineers at EPFL and ETH Zurich have come up with a new approach for reducing traffic congestion in large cities during rush hour. Their system is designed to be both fair and effective. 

ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne (EPFL) are intensifying their collaboration in artificial intelligence (AI). They have founded the Swiss National AI Institute (SNAI) with the aim of addressing challenges in AI by leveraging their broad scientific expertise. Funding for the related research programs has been secured.

Aquatic invertebrates are used as bioindicators to evaluate the quality of Swiss watercourses. However, climate change is also leading to changes in the species composition of these organisms. Eawag has now investigated the impacts of increasing temperatures on water body evaluations on behalf of the FOEN. The findings: the indicators are expected to remain relevant at least for the coming decades.

An AI research collaboration led by EPFL professor Alexander Mathis creates a model which provides deep insights into hand movement, which is an essential step for the development of neuroprosthetics and rehabilitation technologies.

An organism as a tenant in another - in biology, this often works quite well. ETH researchers have now shed light on how such a partnership of a cell in a cell can establish.

Results from a preclinical study in mice, led by EPFL, and a collaborative clinical study in patients show that the type 2 immune response – associated with parasitic infection and thought to play a negative role in cancer immunity – is positively correlated with long-term cancer remission.

Many people suffer from spinal defects, which are often associated with degenerative diseases. The causes are still largely unknown. To change this, Empa researchers from the Center for X-Ray Analytics are investigating a stabilizing ligament in the spine in collaboration with Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich. The project could recently be launched thanks to a number of private donations.

Thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), civil engineers can inspect large-scale infrastructure more efficiently and cost-effectively, while also monitoring the progression of damage severity over time. A team of EPFL researchers has demonstrated the feasibility of an AI-driven method for crack detection, growth and monitoring, and will soon test it on the railway section between Zermatt and Brig in Valais Canton.

Research areas at ETH Zurich span barriers in a wide variety of fields, including cell biology, drug delivery and spatial planning. Below, we look at examples from six different disciplines.

For many people, architectural norms create barriers to accessibility. How might we re-imagine our built environment to make it more inclusive?

Researchers at ETH Zurich have been working with researchers from Ukraine and Germany to investigate how to rebuild Ukraine’s destroyed energy infrastructure based on renewable energy. They have determined that solar and wind energy would quickly deliver a distributed power supply system and prevent corruption.

Researchers have found that AI large language models, like GPT-4, are better at predicting what comes next than what came before in a sentence. This “Arrow of Time” effect could reshape our understanding of the structure of natural language, and the way these models understand it.

EPFL scientist Sascha Nick has outlined a completely new scenario for what housing and neighborhoods might look like in Switzerland in the coming decades. His recommendations would put the country on track to meet its net-zero target while supporting the well-being of residents and communities. 

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new way to break down a dangerous subgroup of PFAS known as PFOS. With the help of nanoparticles and ultrasound, piezocatalysis could offer an effective alternative to existing processes in the future.