Research

David Shaw is an ethicist in the midst of a consortium filled with electrical engineers, computer scientists and control theorists. In this interview, he explains why automation and ethics cannot be separated and what he plans to work on in the context of the NCCR Automation.

A team of researchers of the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Automation investigated how social media influencers arise and communities form around them. Their results may lead to measures that mitigate the polarization that occurs on these platforms.

Researchers of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Automation, led by Alessandro Zanardi of ETH Zurich, have investigated how autonomous vehicles could become better road users in an urban environment. The result is both surprisingly simple and complex at the same time.

Mahsa Rahimi-Siegrist is a doctoral student and research assistant at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems at ETH Zurich and a member of the NCCR Automation. She is interested in the behavior of public transport passengers and works on improving information strategies to increase the quality of transport services.

Swiss electricity generation has a very low carbon footprint. However, this is often not the case for imports. Researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Automation, led by Loris di Natale from EMPA, investigated how electric cars could help reduce the need for energy imports from fossil fuels.

NCCR Automation Seminar Series is a weekly seminar covering broad topics of interests for the NCCR Automation.

Pengbo Zhu is a first year PhD researcher who joined the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Automation last October. With the help of intelligent systems, she works on improving the spatial distribution of shared vehicles. In doing so, Zhu hopes to positively impact quality of life in cities around the world.

Mahrokh Ghoddousiboroujeni is a first year PhD researcher, who joined the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) on Automation last November. The algorithms she works on could one day help to keep an increasingly renewable electrical grid in balance.

NCCR Automation is opening its network to new members to address the social science dimension of automation and to strengthen its research on embedded systems, cyber-security and data science.

The NCCR Automation is a large-scale research network funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. John Lygeros, director of the program, explains why such an effort is needed and what the more than 40 researchers are working on.