D-INFK news channel

Professor Menna El-Assady shines a torch into the black box of generative AI and talks about how a model makes decisions and whether we can correct them.

Monitoring and treating a case of multiple sclerosis requires reliable and long-​term data on how the disease is progressing in the person in question. Fitness trackers and smartphones can supply this data, as a research team led by ETH Zurich has now shown.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way in which art is created and experienced. Are we at the beginning of a new artistic revolution? Or at the end of creativity as we know it? Adrian Christopher Notz from the ETH AI Center puts things in perspective.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) unveiled its 2024 World University Rankings by Subject. ETH Zurich landed with 3 subjects in the top spot. A further 14 placed within the top ten in the world, among them Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (rank 7) and Computer Science and Information Systems (rank 9).

ETH spin-​off dAIgnose is developing an algorithm that can be used to analyse ultrasound images of the womb on an automated basis. This should enable doctors to diagnose endometriosis more quickly in the future.

Researchers from the group led by Professor Julia Vogt, who runs the Medical Data Science Group at ETH Zurich, and KUNO Klinik St. Hedwig in Regensburg have developed an algorithm that provides an automatic and reliable method of detecting a certain heart defect in newborns.

The three D-INFK graduates Lukas Wolf, Dustin Klebe and Chris Aeberli, are the visionary minds behind "Sonia", a mental health app that provides mental health support to students. 

Three young computer scientists, including D-INFK alumnus Julian Schilliger, have achieved what researchers have been trying to do for 270 years: Using artificial intelligence, they have extracted text fragments from fragile papyri. This has been generously rewarded.

The seventh edition of the Informatiktage will take place from 18 to 23 March 2024. The Department of Computer Science and the IT Services of ETH Zurich are once again participating as partners this year. The carefully curated programme offers something for everyone – from curious beginners to experienced experts.

Professor Andreas Krause from the Department of Computer Science has been named ACM Fellow for his contributions to learning-based decision making under uncertainty. Big congratulations!

A broad survey of students at ETH Zurich shows: Language models are still rarely used in the classroom, but they are used frequently and creatively as learning aids.

IBM and ETH Zurich announce a Discovery Accelerator Hub within the ETH AI Center, as ETH joins the AI Alliance.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and ETH Zurich, with global partners, are unveiling the International Computation and AI Network (ICAIN) at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos. Its goal is to create inclusive, sustainable AI technologies, contributing to global equality.

Lindt & Sprüngli, a global leader in the premium chocolate sector, has partnered with EthonAI. The company is a spin-off from the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics and has Bernhard Kratzwald, an alumnus from the Department of Computer Science on board as a co-founder. Lindt & Sprüngli is leveraging EthonAI's tools to perfect the production of their chocolate and achieve best-in-class performance.

Studying Data Science at ETH Zurich means being part of one of the most exciting driving forces of today’s Information Age. To gain deeper insights into the field, we have talked to various students, professors, and an alumna. In these video conversations, the interviewees elaborate on the growing need and importance of data science – both now and in the future.

The new CAS ETH AIS helps managers with non-computer science backgrounds advance their careers by providing technical fundamentals in machine learning, AI and software development.

The United Nations has launched a global AI Advisory Body to work on risks, opportunities and international governance of the technology. Professor Andreas Krause, head of the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group and Chair of the ETH AI Center, is amongst the appointed experts. Congratulations!

The German Bundesverband Hochschulkommunikation has awarded its 2023 Digital Award to four outstanding digital communications projects. Among the winners is ETH Zurich (2nd place) with the game "Morph Tales", developed by D-INFK members.

From Sept. 1, 2023, Professor Torsten Hoefler will be affiliated with the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). CSCS, with its upcoming new “Alps” high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, and the ETH professor want to jointly test and advance methods and applications for machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Together with the Handelszeitung, PME and Digitalswitzerland, BILANZ has selected the 100 most important minds for the digitisation of Switzerland. Among them are several current and former D-INFK members and spin-offs.

With its ability to write text and generate images, artificial intelligence is making inroads into many areas of life. Perceived as threatening, enriching or just plain gimmicky, AI also raises a fundamental question: what is it that makes us human?

Large language models such as GPT-​3 are able to learn new concepts by interacting with their users. Doctoral student Johannes von Oswald reports in an interview on what lies behind this ability.

An AI-based 3D simulation technology developed in the Computer Graphics Lab of Professor Barbara Solenthaler brings life to the characters of Elemental, the latest animated film from Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation Studio. The movie was just released in Swiss cinemas.

Companies process dozens of customer orders, order confirmations, delivery notes, and invoices every day. Our spin-off BLP Digital is revolutionising resource planning with an application that saves costs and reduces the potential for errors.  

The Morphs are here! The smart, eager-​to-learn creatures are now waiting in the ETH main building for players to train them. "Morph Tales - Exploring Artificial Intelligence" is a new game from ETH Zurich that is fun to play and shows how humans and AI master tasks together.

Former computer science students David Niederberger and Philipp Hadjimina co-founded the ETH spin-off Quazel. The new AI-based language learning app acts as a tutor, adapting to the users' skills and correcting their mistakes.

Doctoral student Fabian Laumer and his colleagues are using machine learning to develop new personalised 3D models of the beating human heart. Their objective is to assist clinicians and improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, the most prevalent cause of deaths worldwide.

Two new projects from the Sensing, Interaction & Perception Lab of Professor Christian Holz advance the versatility of today’s Virtual Reality (VR) platforms, taking advantage of common devices such as a fitness watch or a smartphone. By developing novel AI frameworks, they allow VR users to freely interact in 3D space and grab objects that are out of sight, or even play in places as small as a car, a train or an airplane seat.

Luca Beurer-Kellner, Marc Fischer and Prof. Martin Vechev created a new open-source platform and programming language called LMQL that make it easier, cheaper, and safer to interact with large language models like ChatGPT.

ETH Professor Martin Vechev and his team won first place in phase 3: red teaming in global AI Privacy Prize Challenge. The competition inspired innovators on both sides of the Atlantic to build solutions that enable collaborative development of artificial intelligence (AI) models, while keeping sensitive information private.

In an open letter, tech luminaries from the worlds of science and industry are calling for a freeze on training new AI models that are more powerful than GPT-​4. ETH AI experts Andreas Krause and Alexander Ilic from the ETH Zurich AI Center consider this to be difficult to enforce and associated with risks.  

Prof. Gunnar Rätsch is part of the new platform created by The LOOP Zurich. The goal is to support the exchange of health data between the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the four university hospitals, allowing data to be utilised quickly and easily to the benefit of patients. 

Are we witnessing the rise of a different, adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) that works with humans and supports them with smart decisions? Computer scientist Niao He is investigating how this kind of AI can be theoretically underpinned so that it really does provide benefits.

ETH AI Center fellow Elvis Nava teaches robots to carry out oral and written commands. To this end, he sends them to “training camps” where they learn to combine image, text and motion data.

The mTORUS project, funded by The LOOP Zurich, will use AI to explore novel treatments for urinary tract infections. Professor Gunnar Rätsch and Senior Scientist Andre Kahles from the Biomedical Informatics Lab are among the researchers involved.

D-INFK students Jan Schnyder, Nicolas Muntwyler and Konstantin Wohlwend teamed up with UZH computer science student Kyrill Hux to launch "Generai", a platform that creates works of art from text prompts.

Theodoros Rekatsinas joined the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich in May 2022 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Get to know him in this short interview.

The new collaboration with professor Ryan Cotterell focuses on AI text prediction technology with a specialisation in advanced sentence prediction, grammar assistance, enterprise customisation, and voice support. The work is funded by the Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse.

ETH alumna Paulina Grnarova wants to use artificial intelligence to revolutionise the way the legal industry works. Her recent appearance on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has catapulted her into the spotlight.

Data contains much more than just the information on the surface. With statistics, deeper cause-​and-effect relationships can be brought to light. This is what Alexander Marx is researching as a Fellow at the ETH AI Center using artificial intelligence. One of his goals is to be able to make predictions regarding diabetes in children.

Today, in partnership with ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne, the Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology (INSAIT) has been launched in Sofia. Professor Martin Vechev from the Department of Computer Science has supported the initiative from the beginning.

Mennatallah El-​Assady develops explainable AI programs that explain their own workings – and let users provide input. Her speciality is interactive information visualisation, a skill she has brought to the AI Center of ETH Zurich, where she was recently appointed a Pioneer Fellow. Her work can help analysts take a deep dive into political debate.  

When working with neural networks, their training is the single most resource-​demanding and costly process. Two computer scientists from Torsten Hoefler's team have now developed a software that considerably speeds up training. This will be especially relevant for scientific applications of future users of “Alps” at CSCS.

When algorithms reinforce biases: doctoral student Afra Amini is studying automated human language processing and its pitfalls.

David Dao, a doctoral student in the DS3Lab at the Department of Computer Science, visited the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference and explains what computer science can do to help.

Collaboration between talented members of multidisciplinary teams provides the best foundation for innovative, useful and trustworthy applications of artificial intelligence. This has been demonstrated at a joint event by ETH Entrepreneur Club and the ETH AI Center.

How transparent are decisions that are based on artificial intelligence and machine learning? Professor Andreas Krause, Chair of the ETH AI Center and head of the Learning and Adaptive Systems group, shares his thoughts on trustworthy artificial intelligence.

In safety-​critical applications like railway inspection, the use of deep neural networks is limited today. SBB, Siemens Mobility, ETH AI Center and the spin-​off LatticeFlow from the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich joined forces to make artificial intelligence trustworthy.

Professor Andreas Krause, head of the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, Academic Co-Director of the Swiss Data Science Center and Chair of the ETH AI Center, has been honoured with the Rössler Prize.

The Center for Augmented Computational Design in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, commonly referred to as Design++, opens its doors on May 27. D-INFK professors Stelian Coros, Marc Pollefeys, and Siyu Tang will contribute to the keynote presentations.

Researchers from the Sensing, Interaction & Perception Lab have developed CapContact, an AI solution that enables touchscreens to sense with eight times higher resolution than currently existing devices.

How does one find what one is looking for among the numerous publications and research areas of ETH Zurich? To answer this question, ETH staff teamed up with students from the Master’s in Data Science.

The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) is joining forces with the Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) to encourage the use of data science and artificial intelligence within the administration.

In this interview with the European Research Council, Professor Martin Vechev of the Secure, Reliable, and Intelligent Systems Lab talks about his ERC-funded work, AI breakthroughs, and Europe’s future in the field of AI.

A group of scientists is creating a digital twin of our planet to simulate the Earth system in future. Professor Torsten Hoefler from the Institute for High Performance Computing Systems is one of the researchers showing how this can be achieved.

Theodoros Rekatsinas has been appointed Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. He researches databases, data processing and data science.

The newly opened ETH AI Center intensifies the dialogue with business, politics and society about an innovative and trust-​building advancement of artificial intelligence.

DeepCode, a spin-​off of the Secure, Reliable and Intelligent Systems Lab that built the first AI platform for code, is to be acquired by Snyk, a world leader in developer-​first security code analysis.

ETH Zurich promotes innovation in AI technology. This includes the extension of its partnership with the Max Planck Society, the launch of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) and the opening of the ETH AI Center. Professors Thomas Hofmann and Andreas Krause are at the forefront of these efforts.

The European AI network ELLIS celebrates its launch today, with ETH Zurich as a founding member. The ELLIS Unit is an integral part of the new ETH AI Center, which are both chaired by Prof. Andreas Krause.

Ana Klimovic officially joined the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich in August 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Due to the coronavirus crisis, her arrival was postponed until September. Get to know her in this short interview.

In the latest episode of the ETH podcast Professors Julia Vogt and Fanny Yang explain why machine learning is an important tool in medicine.

The Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems has just been renewed for another five years. Co-director Prof. Thomas Hofmann explains the role he sees for the center in Europe.

Doctoral student David Dao (D-​INFK) and postdoctoral researcher Lynn Kaack (D-​GESS) speak on the ETH Podcast about how we can use AI to help in the fight against climate change. 

In light of International Women's Day 2020, ETH Zurich puts successful women centre stage. Read about Prof. Julia Vogt, tenure track assistant professor of medical data science, in this article.

Ryan Cotterell officially joined ETH Zurich’s Department of Computer Science in February 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Get to know him in this short interview.

Siyu Tang officially joined the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich in January 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Vision. Get to know her in this short interview.

Fanny Yang officially joined the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich in January 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Get to know her in this short interview.

Initially, he wanted to be a particle physicist. Today, he helps protect the rainforest using artificial intelligence and blockchain. David Dao, a doctoral student at the DS3Lab at the Department of Computer Science, travelled to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid in December to present his research. In an interview, he explains how artificial intelligence can help the climate, but how it also poses risks.

For his interdisciplinary research on how to evacuate large cities, postdoctoral researcher Leonel Aguilar won a prize for "Innovators under 35 in Latin America".

Doctoral student David Dao develops intelligent algorithms that use satellite and drone images of rainforests to predict deforestation. Today, he will be presenting his research at the climate conference in Madrid.

A team of physicists and computer scientists at ETH Zurich have programmed computers to teach themselves how to extract relevant information from maps of the universe.

Dana Drachsler Cohen is an outstanding IT specialist at ETH Zurich. The Israeli researcher is working on the security of systems such as autonomous vehicles and cryptocurrencies.

D-INFK Professor Martin Vechev is automating the computer programming process: he is one of the first researchers ever to teach computers how to write their own software. This makes him one of the founders of a new field of research that is growing rapidly.

Big data, artificial intelligence, industry 4.0 – the new opportunities information technologies offer will change the world. Take a glimpse inside the world of researchers who teach machines how to think.

Machines will become not just more intelligent in the future, but also more capable of learning. To promote research in this field, ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Society officially open the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems today. The scientists want to understand the theoretical principles of learning and how these can be applied to real machines.