news 2018

[ Florian Aigner At the TU Wien (Vienna), neural networks have been developed which make it much easier to create photorealistic pictures of a wide variety of materials. If computer-generated images are to look realistic, different materials have to be presented differently: The metallic sheen of a coin looks quite different from the dull gloss of a wooden plate or the slightly transparent skin of a grape.

The human brain has computing elements similar to the biggest supercomputers, but needs only a fraction of their energy. And it is constantly learning. Brain-inspired computing is for this reason an important topic of the future. 'Colleagues in neuroscience think that we basically know less today about how the human brain works than we did ten years ago,' says Wolfgang Maass.

String art is a technique for the creation of visual artwork where images emerge from a set of strings that are spanned between pins. Now, at TU Wien (Vienna) this work can be delegated to a robot - an example of a complex task that digital fabrication can solve. The basic idea of string art is simple: hooks distributed on a frame are connected by strings back and forth until they fuse to a perceptible image.

Researchers from TU Graz and their industry partners have unveiled a world first: the prototype of a robot-controlled, high-speed combined charging system (CCS) for electric vehicles. that enables series charging of cars in various parking positions. Pictures available for download at the end of the message.

How can quantum information be transferred from one atom to another? A team of researchers from TU Wien and Harvard University has proposed using phonons - the quanta of sound. Quantum physics is on the brink of a technological breakthrough: new types of sensors, secure data transmission methods and maybe even computers could be made possible thanks to quantum technologies.

In the new Christian Doppler Lab TU Graz develops methodologies for the quality assurance of cyber-physical systems. Together with corporate partner AVL List, this will be illustrated using autonomous vehicles as examples. From Smart Production and the Internet of Things to Robotics, cyber-physical systems combine electronics, software and mechanics and are linked together.

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are used for many computationally intensive tasks. Their aging process can be slowed by clever management, as TU Wien (Vienna) and University of California (Irvine) have now shown. Graphics processing units are not only used for displaying graphics. Today, they are frequently used for particularly challenging calculations - for example in scientific research or even Bitcoin-mining.

Quantum entanglement is a key feature of a quantum computer. Yet, how can we verify that a quantum computer indeed incorporates a large-scale entanglement? Using conventional methods is hard since they require a large number of repeated measurements. Aleksandra Dimić from the University of Belgrade and Borivoje Dakić from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna have developed a novel method where in many cases even a single experimental run suffices to prove the presence of entanglement.

An 10-strong international team of researchers - including researcher from TU Graz - has revealed two new vulnerabilities in computer processors: Meltdown and Spectre. PCs, server and cloud services are affected. A patch could help. Around the turn of the year speculation was rife about new, serious vulnerabilities that could affect all modern microprocessors.