Olga FinkTeaching & PhD PhD Students Han Sun, Leandro Von Krannichfeldt, Keivan Faghih Niresi, Zepeng Zhang, Vinay Sharma, Chenghao Xu, Raffael Pascal Theiler, Kevin Antonio Steiner, Sergei Garmaev, Amaury Wei Past EPFL PhD Students Ismail Nejjar, Mengjie Zhao Courses Data Science for infrastructure condition monitoring CIVIL-332 The course will cover the relevant steps of data-driven infrastructure condition monitoring, starting from data acquisition, going through the steps pre-processing of real
Amir Roshan ZamirAmir Zamir is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Prior to EPFL, he spent time at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCF. His research interests are broadly in computer vision, machine learning, perception-for-robotics, and AI. He has been recognized with CVPR (2018) Best Paper Award, CVPR (2016) Best Student Paper Award, CVPR (2020) Best Paper Award Nomination, and NVIDIA Pioneering Research Award (2018), among others. His research has been covered by various press outlets, such as The New York Times or Forbes.
Francesco MondadaDr. Mondada received his M.Sc. in micro-engineering in 1991 and his Doctoral degree in 1997 at EPFL. During his thesis he co-founded the company K-Team, being both CEO and president of the company for about 5 years. He is one of the three main developers of the Khepera robot, considered as a standard in bio-inspired robotics and used by more than 1,000 universities and research centers worldwide. Fully back in research in 2000 and after a short period at CALTECH, he participated to the SWARM-BOTS project as the main developer of the s-bot robot platform, which was ranked on position 39 in the list of The 50 Best Robots Ever (fiction or real) by the Wired Journal in 2006. The SWARM-BOTS project was selected as FET-IST success story by the EU commission. He is author of more than 100 papers in the field of bio-inspired robotics and system level robot design. He is co-editor of several international conference proceedings. In November 2005 he received the EPFL Latsis University prize for his contributions to bio-inspired robotics. In 2011 he received the "Crédit Suisse Award for Best Teaching" from EPFL and in 2012 the "polysphère" award from the students as best teacher in the school of engineering. His interests include the development of innovative mechatronic solutions for mobile and modular robots, the creation of know-how for future embedded applications, and making robot platforms more accessible for education, research, and industrial development.
Emmanuel AbbéTeaching & PhD PhD Students Denys Pushkin, Ortal Yona Senouf, Vladyslav Shashkov Past EPFL PhD Students Elisabetta Cornacchia, Aryo Lotfi Courses Reasoning in artificial intelligence MATH-700 Large language models have raised the potential of artificial intelligence in various applications, including science and mathematics, but their reasoning capabilities remain under investigations. This class focuses on defining, measuring and improving the reasoning capabilities of such AI models.
Awa
Valerio ZerbiDr. Valerio Zerbi is a pioneer of preclinical magnetic resonance functional neuroimaging. At his lab at EPFL, Valerio and his team use functional MRI recordings in rodents in combination with neural modulation and computational approaches to study the mechanisms that link cellular activity to large-scale network (dys)function. His long-term ambition is to advance the development of personalised strategies based on imaging and artificial intelligence, for the diagnosis and prognosis of developmental brain disorders. Valerio is the recipient of the ETH Postdoctoral (2014), the Swiss National Science Foundation AMBIZIONE
(2017) and ECCELLENZA (2021) fellowships.
Pascal FrossardTeaching & PhD PhD Students Yiming Qin, Alba Carballo Castro, Elisa Messori, Ke Wang, Sevda Ögüt, Tuna Alikasifoglu, William Cappelletti, Manuel Madeira, Mahdi Amiri, Ortal Yona Senouf, Vasiliki Rizou, Cem Bilaloglu, Abdellah Rahmani, Amel Abdelraheem, Jérémy Jean Philippe Baffou, Adam Hazimeh, Vincent Jung, Yike Zhao Past EPFL PhD Students Dan Jurca, Jean-Paul Wagner, Ivana Radulovic, Ivana Tosic, Effrosyni Kokiopoulou, Zafer Arican, Vijayaraghavan Thirumalai, Tamara Tosic, Eirina Bourtsoulatze, Elif Vur
Aude BillardExpertise
RoboticsMachine LearningArtificial IntelligenceHuman-Robot InteractionMechatronicsDynamical Systems ControlComputational Neuroscience
Aude Billard is full professor and head of the LASA laboratory at the School of Engineering at the Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and the Director of the Swiss Innovation Booster on Robotics. Dr. Billard acts as the President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), after serving in several roles in the administrative and executive committe
Simon Elias BibriExpertise
• Sustainable cities• Smarter eco-cities• Sustainable smart cities• Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) • Generative Artificial Intelligence of Things (GAIoT)• Foundation Models (FMs) • Quantum Generative Artificial Intelligence (QGAI)• Urban Digital Twins (UDTs)• Urban Brain (UB) • Smart Circular Metabolism• Urban planning and design• Environmental sustainability and climate resilience• Sustainable smart energy• Sustainable smart transportation• Sustainable smart waste and water management•
Andrea CavallaroExpertise
I focus on machine learning for audio-visual sensing to enable systems to serve agreed purposes and improve their abilities through interactions with the environment, with other systems and with people. The goal of my research is to create the next-generation machine perception models for the effective use of sensory data, and the safe operation of autonomous systems that gain information about their environment and make decisions in partnership with humans or independently. These models are trans
Robert WestRobert West is a tenure-track assistant professor of computer science at EPFL, where he heads the Data Science Lab. In his research, he develops and applies techniques in machine learning, computational social science, natural language processing, social network analysis, and data mining. Bob also collaborates closely with the Wikimedia Foundation, in his role as a Wikimedia Research Fellow. Bob’s work has won several awards, including best/outstanding paper awards at ICWSM’21, ICWSM’19, and WWW’13, a best-paper runner-up award at WWW’16, a Google Faculty Research Award, a Facebook Research Award, a Hewlett-Packard Graduate Fellowship, and a Facebook Graduate Fellowship. He is actively involved in the research community, e.g., as an Associate Editor of ICWSM and EPJ Data Science and as a co-founder of the Wiki Workshop (held at WWW and ICWSM) and the Applied Machine Learning Days. Bob received his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, his MSc from McGill University, Canada, and his undergraduate degree from Technische Universität München, Germany.[Last updated: 25 Aug 2021]
François MaréchalPh D. in engineering Chemical process engineer
Researcher and lecturer in the field of computer aided process and energy systems engineering.
Lecturer in the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and environmental sciences engineering in EPFL.
I'm responsible for the Minor in Energy of EPFL and I'm involved in 3 projects of the Competence Center in Energy and Mobility (2nd generation biofuel, Wood SOFC, and gas turbine development with CO2 mitigation) in which i'm contributing to the energy conversion system design and optimisation.
Short summary of my scientific carrer
After a graduation in chemical engineering from the University of Liège, I have obtained a Ph. D. from the University of Liège in the LASSC laboratory of Prof. Kalitventzeff (former president of the European working party on computer aided process engineering). This laboratory was one of the pioneering laboratory in the field of Computer Aided Process Engineering.
In the group of Professor Kalitventzeff, I have worked on the development and the applications of data reconciliation, process modelling and optimisation techniques in the chemical process industry, my experience ranges from nuclear power stations to chemical plants. In the LASSC, I have been responsible from the developments in the field of rational use of energy in the industry. My first research topic has been the methodological development of process integration techniques, combining the use of pinch based methods and of mathematical programming: e.g. for the design of multiperiod heat exchanger networks or Mixed integer non linear programming techniques for the optimal management of utility systems. Fronted with applications in the industry, my work then mainly concentrated on the optimal integration of utility systems considering not only the energy requirements but the cost of the energy requirements and the energy conversion systems. I developed methods for analysing and integrating the utility system, the steam networks, combustion (including waste fuel), gas turbines or other advanced energy conversion systems (cogeneration, refrigeration and heat). The techniques applied uses operation research tools like mixed integer linear programming and exergy analysis. In order to evaluate the results of the utility integration, a new graphical method for representing the integration of the utility systems has been developed. By the use of MILP techniques, the method developed for the utility integration has been extended to handled site scale problems, to incorporate environmental constraints and reduce the water usage. This method (the Effect Modelling and Optimisation method) has been successfully applied to the chemical plants industry, the pulp and paper industry and the power plant. Instead of focusing on academic problems, I mainly developed my research based on industrial applications that lead to valuable and applicable patented results. Recently the methods developed have been extended to realise the thermoeconomic optimisation of integrated systems like fuel cells. My present R&D work concerns the application of multi-objective optimisation strategies in the design of processes and integrated energy conversion systems.
Since 2001, Im working in the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory (LENI) of Ecole Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where Im leading the R&D activities in the field of Computer Aided Analysis and Design of Industrial Energy Systems with a major focus on sustainable energy conversion system development using thermo-economic optimisation methodologies. A part from the application and the development of process integration techniques, that remains my major field of expertise, the applications concern :
Rational use of water and energy in Industrial processes and industrial production sites : projects with NESTLE, EDF, VEOLIA and Borregaard (pulp and paper).Energy conversion and process design : biofuels from waste biomass (with GASNAT, EGO and PSI), water dessalination and waste water treatment plant (VEOLIA), power plant design (ALSTOM), Energy conversion from geothermal sources (BFE). Integrated energy systems in urban areas : together with SCANE and SIG (GE) and IEA annexe 42 for micro-cogeneration systems.
I as well contributed to the definition of the 2000 Watt society and to studies concerning the emergence of green technologies on the market in the frame of the Alliance for Global Sustainability.
Eduardo Martin MoraudExpertise
The Moraud group develops closed-loop neuromodulation therapies for movement disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease, with a specific emphasis on gait and balance impairments. The group integrates multimodal monitoring of motor and neural biomarkers to enable real-time decoding of dysfunctional states and their underlying neural dynamics, advancing a circuit-level understanding of locomotor control and informing the design of state-dependent adaptive therapies.
Mission
The group aims to transl
Marcel SalathéTeaching & PhD PhD Students Laura Espinosa Montalbán, Marouane Toumi, Rohan Singh Past EPFL PhD Students Gianrocco Lazzari, Martin Mathias Müller, Sharada Prasanna Mohanty Courses Digital epidemiology BIO-512 Epidemiology is foundational to medicine and public health. This course starts with the key principles of classical epidemiology, progressing through computational modeling techniques, and concluding with the digital approaches of today. Students will also develop a digital epidemiolo
Michaël UnserExpertise
Image Processing, Medical Imaging, Biological Imaging, Wavelets, Splines, Multiresolution
Michael Unser is Full Professor with EPFL’s school of Engineering and the academic director of EPFL's Center for Imaging, Lausanne, Switzerland. His primary areas of investigation are signal processing, biomedical imaging and applied functional analysis. He is internationally recognized for his research contributions to sampling theory, wavelets, the use of splines for image processing, stochastic processes,
Sven Nicolas Yoann Najem-MeyerExpertise
Sven Najem-Meyer is a Doctoral Assistant at the Digital Humanities Laboratory, working at the frontier between machine learning and classics. His research interests mainly lie in natural language processing, with a focus on domain-specific transfer learning strategies. Before joining the DHLAB, he studied cognitive sciences, logic and philosophy. He gained experience in NLP at the Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble, working in patent classification.As part of the SNF-funded project Ajax MultiC
Christoph KochExpertise
knows everything ;-)
Publications
My publications in Google ScholarMy publications in DBLPMy papers on EPFL's publications server (InfoScience)Prospective PhD students and postdocs please read this before contacting me.
Christoph Koch is a professor of Computer Science at EPFL, specializing in data management. Until 2010, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. Previously to this, from 2005 to 2007, he was an Associate Professor of Computer Scienc
Henry MarkramHenry Markram started a dual scientific and medical career at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa. His scientific work in the 80s revealed the polymodal receptive fields of pontomedullary reticular formation neurons in vivo and how acetylcholine re-organized these sensory maps.
He moved to Israel in 1988 and obtained his PhD at the Weizmann Institute where he discovered a link between acetylcholine and memory mechanisms by being the first to show that acetylcholine modulates the NMDA receptor in vitro studies, and thereby gates which synapses can undergo synaptic plasticity. He was also the first to characterize the electrical and anatomical properties of the cholinergic neurons in the medial septum diagonal band.
He carried out a first postdoctoral study as a Fulbright Scholar at the NIH, on the biophysics of ion channels on synaptic vesicles using sub-fractionation methods to isolate synaptic vesicles and patch-clamp recordings to characterize the ion channels. He carried out a second postdoctoral study at the Max Planck Institute, as a Minerva Fellow, where he discovered that individual action potentials propagating back into dendrites also cause pulsed influx of Ca2 into the dendrites and found that sub-threshold activity could also activated a low threshold Ca2 channel. He developed a model to show how different types of electrical activities can divert Ca2 to activate different intracellular targets depending on the speed of Ca2 influx an insight that helps explain how Ca2 acts as a universal second messenger. His most well known discovery is that of the millisecond watershed to judge the relevance of communication between neurons marked by the back-propagating action potential. This phenomenon is now called Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP), which many laboratories around the world have subsequently found in multiple brain regions and many theoreticians have incorporated as a learning rule. At the Max-Planck he also started exploring the micro-anatomical and physiological principles of the different neurons of the neocortex and of the mono-synaptic connections that they form - the first step towards a systematic reverse engineering of the neocortical microcircuitry to derive the blue prints of the cortical column in a manner that would allow computer model reconstruction.
He received a tenure track position at the Weizmann Institute where he continued the reverse engineering studies and also discovered a number of core principles of the structural and functional organization such as differential signaling onto different neurons, models of dynamic synapses with Misha Tsodyks, the computational functions of dynamic synapses, and how GABAergic neurons map onto interneurons and pyramidal neurons. A major contribution during this period was his discovery of Redistribution of Synaptic Efficacy (RSE), where he showed that co-activation of neurons does not only alter synaptic strength, but also the dynamics of transmission. At the Weizmann, he also found the tabula rasa principle which governs the random structural connectivity between pyramidal neurons and a non-random functional connectivity due to target selection. Markram also developed a novel computation framework with Wolfgang Maass to account for the impact of multiple time constants in neurons and synapses on information processing called liquid computing or high entropy computing.
In 2002, he was appointed Full professor at the EPFL where he founded and directed the Brain Mind Institute. During this time Markram continued his reverse engineering approaches and developed a series of new technologies to allow large-scale multi-neuron patch-clamp studies. Markrams lab discovered a novel microcircuit plasticity phenomenon where connections are formed and eliminated in a Darwinian manner as apposed to where synapses are strengthening or weakened as found for LTP. This was the first demonstration that neural circuits are constantly being re-wired and excitation can boost the rate of re-wiring.
At the EPFL he also completed the much of the reverse engineering studies on the neocortical microcircuitry, revealing deeper insight into the circuit design and built databases of the blue-print of the cortical column. In 2005 he used these databases to launched the Blue Brain Project. The BBP used IBMs most advanced supercomputers to reconstruct a detailed computer model of the neocortical column composed of 10000 neurons, more than 340 different types of neurons distributed according to a layer-based recipe of composition and interconnected with 30 million synapses (6 different types) according to synaptic mapping recipes. The Blue Brain team built dozens of applications that now allow automated reconstruction, simulation, visualization, analysis and calibration of detailed microcircuits. This Proof of Concept completed, Markrams lab has now set the agenda towards whole brain and molecular modeling.
With an in depth understanding of the neocortical microcircuit, Markram set a path to determine how the neocortex changes in Autism. He found hyper-reactivity due to hyper-connectivity in the circuitry and hyper-plasticity due to hyper-NMDA expression. Similar findings in the Amygdala together with behavioral evidence that the animal model of autism expressed hyper-fear led to the novel theory of Autism called the Intense World Syndrome proposed by Henry and Kamila Markram. The Intense World Syndrome claims that the brain of an Autist is hyper-sensitive and hyper-plastic which renders the world painfully intense and the brain overly autonomous. The theory is acquiring rapid recognition and many new studies have extended the findings to other brain regions and to other models of autism.
Markram aims to eventually build detailed computer models of brains of mammals to pioneer simulation-based research in the neuroscience which could serve to aggregate, integrate, unify and validate our knowledge of the brain and to use such a facility as a new tool to explore the emergence of intelligence and higher cognitive functions in the brain, and explore hypotheses of diseases as well as treatments.
