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By Birgit Baustädter Alexander Bergmann and his team at TU Graz's Institute of Electronic Sensor Systems have made it their aim to improve our quality of air and life by means of sophisticated sensor systems. It's a radiantly beautiful day as Alexander Bergmann talks about his research area in his Graz Inffeldgasse office, which is bathed in light.

By Birgit Baustädter In the last four years, 14 young scientists worked in the field of advanced materials across Europe in the training network Thinface and are now completing their cross-border doctoral degrees. Joint research and international collaboration are the main cornerstones on which the work which is intensively promoted by TU Graz is built.

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.

TU Graz highlights new features in the Smart City project "STELA". Instead of relying on high tech for the thermal refurbishment of existing multi-storey buildings, social compatibility returns to the centre stage of the project. Anna has now got more room. A wheelchair user, she lives on the ground floor of an 11-storey house in Leoben.

Rowhammer attacks make use of hardware vulnerabilities in order to access computer systems. TU Graz researchers have discovered a new type of attack - and raise questions about protective mechanisms. "When a system is regarded as absolutely safe, our curiosity is awakened," explains Daniel Gruss from the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communication Technology working group, the researcher is occupied with the security of IT systems and in particular rowhammer attacks.

By Birgit Baustädter The research area of molecular electronics focuses on miniaturisation. It's a further development of microelectronics and deals with circuits at the molecular level. Electronic objects of daily life are becoming increasingly smaller - but at the same time more powerful and efficient.

Starting shot for Christian Doppler Laboratory for Model-Based Control of Complex Test Bed Systems. From vehicles to solar energy systems, practically all systems are becoming more and more complex, are being quickly further developed, and have to be comprehensively tested before use. This calls for suitable high-performance and flexible test beds; but developing them is extremely challenging.

Illnesses such as cancer and multiple sclerosis may also be associated with lipids. Disorders are difficult to assess due to the diversity of lipids. Graz scientists present a new tool for the analysis of lipids in Nature Methods. No lipids, no life. In all organisms, lipids form cell walls, store energy and release it when necessary, and play an important role in cell signalling.

Hatching eggs in large-scale hatcheries are currently treated with formaldehyde to eliminate germs. Researchers from TU Graz, acib and Roombiotic have now developed a natural alternative. There was a Europe-wide outcry in the summer of 2017 as it emerged that hatching eggs were being treated with the insecticide fipronil, which is harmful to health.

By Ulrike Keller In TU Graz's LightLab, an interdisciplinary team from the fields of architecture, light design and psychology are conducting research on the lighting systems of the future in close collaboration with the lighting industry. Light isn't just here so we can see things. Due to scientific findings of the last ten years, we know today that light controls our internal clock and thus also our cognitive and psychological functions, such as mood, performance and concentration by means of photosensitive receptors in the eye.

TU Graz researchers observe enzymes breaking down cellulose to aid the production of biofuels. The results are now published in Nature Communications. Biofuels obtained from biomass are becoming increasingly important. Apart from biomethane, however, they cannot be produced efficiently, cheaply and sustainably since the current technological complexity and costs are still too high.

Biomechanics from TU Graz are developing surgical screws from donated human bone material for foot and jaw surgery in a project together with surgebright, a start-up from Linz. To heal broken bones using medical help, the surgical method of choice for decades have been metal screws, mainly made of titanium or stainless steel.

TU Graz researchers develop new brain-computer interface application which allows music to be composed by the power of thought. How this works is shown in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE. Brain-computer interfaces, known as BCI, can replace bodily functions to a certain degree. Thanks to BCI, physically impaired persons can control special prostheses through the power of their minds, surf in internet and write emails.

By Ulrike Keller In the near future, orodispersible films could replace pills: scientists at the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering are developing printing technologies to create personalized dosage forms for individual patient needs on demand. "Would you print out this prescription?" In the future, pharmacists could hear this question more frequently and could react in a different way than we would expect today.

By Birgit Baustädter At the beginning of April, the COMET competence centre Pro²Future was established and shared between Linz and Graz. It will conduct research on products and production systems of the future. The key question is: what comes after Industry 4. Eight TU Graz-institutes of the In the future, machines should be able to recognise when humans and other machines are moving about in the room and adapt their work accordingly.

By Ulrike Keller From laptops to generators: plastics are an integral part of every electronic and electrical device. In the research project "PolyTherm" experts from chemistry, materials science, plastics and high-voltage engineering pool their expertise. They're developing and testing novel polymers to facilitate the manufacture of more powerful and compact high-tech products in the future.

By Ulrike Keller Nikolaus Schwaiger co-developed the BioCRACK process. High-grade and eco-friendly diesel fuel is produced from biomass such as wooden waste, straw and reeds. The findings are impressive. "In comparison with fossil fuels, the fuel generated in the bioCRACK plant saves 85 per cent of greenhouse gases," explains chemical engineer Nikolaus Schwaiger.

By Birgit Baustädter Cooperative, autonomous driving on the motorway is the main topic of a joint project between TU Graz and the "Virtual Vehicle" competence centre. Embedded in the Campus Inffeldgasse, researchers are collaborating on developing control algorithms which calculate the right path and the right speed for selfdriving vehicles.

By Martina Geier The pharma industry is in search of sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing processes for drugs. In the "CHEM21" project, project teams from TU Graz and acib developed genetic tools to provide tailored microorganisms for quick and straight forward drug production approaches. Classical drug production processes often require up to 100 kg of raw materials to manufacture 1 kg of the active ingredient of a drug.

By Andreas Wimmer In order to meet ambitious environmental goals, research around the world must rise to the challenge of developing innovative and sustainable solutions in the areas of mobility, transportation and power generation. The question often arises in connection with electric mobility whether there will be any need to conduct research on internal combustion engines in the future.