Annual Report 2020

Healthy newborns thanks to artifical intelligence

The ETH AI Center is becoming an interdisciplinary hotspot for artificial intelligence. A new generation of AI researchers will be trained there, says Professor Andreas Krause, but also AI entrepreneurs who bring research to the economy. Such application-oriented research is already being conducted there today. Professor Julia Vogt, for example, bridges the gap between data-driven computer science and applied medicine.

“We have to ask some uncomfortable questions”

All human activities affect the landscape and ecology, even if we stop using nuclear energy and rely on renewable energy. Astrid Björnsen led the joint Energy Change Impact research programme of WSL and Eawag. It provides accurate data on the potential and availability of renewable energy in the country.

Everything is interconnected – many losses are irreversible

Biodiversity on Earth is declining dramatically. Eawag has always had a great tradition of supporting research on biodiversity. With modern research approaches and a highly interdisciplinary environment, which is almost the only one of its kind worldwide, it also wants to contribute to ensuring that politics, economy and society have the necessary foundations to understand and preserve biodiversity.

“We are modelling the energy city of the future”

Buildings, districts and cities currently often have outdated energy systems. Homes must be made more energy-efficient and districts need to be supplied with renewable energy. In cities, the aim is to turn energy production and mobility into sustainable systems. This involves complex energy models that Kristina Orehounig is researching in her “Urban Energy Systems” department at Empa.

Master key against viruses

Francesco Stellacci sees the world through the eyes of a materials scientist who is breaking new ground in virus research. The EPFL professor is looking for the formula for a broad-spectrum virus killer. His aim is not to contain the pathogen but rather to destroy it permanently. Sugar molecules are the means he intends to use for this purpose.