Project acronym ANGULON
Project Angulon: physics and applications of a new quasiparticle
Researcher (PI) Mikhail Lemeshko
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAUSTRIA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2018-STG
Summary This project aims to develop a universal approach to angular momentum in quantum many-body systems based on the angulon quasiparticle recently discovered by the PI. We will establish a general theory of angulons in and out of equilibrium, and apply it to a variety of experimentally studied problems, ranging from chemical dynamics in solvents to solid-state systems (e.g. angular momentum transfer in the Einstein-de Haas effect and ultrafast magnetism).
The concept of angular momentum is ubiquitous across physics, whether one deals with nuclear collisions, chemical reactions, or formation of galaxies. In the microscopic world, quantum rotations are described by non-commuting operators. This makes the angular momentum theory extremely involved, even for systems consisting of only a few interacting particles, such as gas-phase atoms or molecules.
Furthermore, in most experiments the behavior of quantum particles is inevitably altered by a many-body environment of some kind. For example, molecular rotation – and therefore reactivity – depends on the presence of a solvent, electronic angular momentum in solids is coupled to lattice phonons, highly excited atomic levels can be perturbed by a surrounding ultracold gas. If approached in a brute-force fashion, understanding angular momentum in such systems is an impossible task, since a macroscopic number of particles is involved.
Recently, the PI and his team have shown that this challenge can be met by introducing a new quasiparticle – the angulon. In 2017, the PI has demonstrated the existence of angulons by comparing his theory with 20 years of measurements on molecules rotating in superfluids. Most importantly, the angulon concept allows one to gain analytical insights inaccessible to the state-of-the-art techniques of condensed matter and chemical physics. The angulon approach holds the promise of opening up a new interdisciplinary research area with applications reaching far beyond what is proposed here.
Summary
This project aims to develop a universal approach to angular momentum in quantum many-body systems based on the angulon quasiparticle recently discovered by the PI. We will establish a general theory of angulons in and out of equilibrium, and apply it to a variety of experimentally studied problems, ranging from chemical dynamics in solvents to solid-state systems (e.g. angular momentum transfer in the Einstein-de Haas effect and ultrafast magnetism).
The concept of angular momentum is ubiquitous across physics, whether one deals with nuclear collisions, chemical reactions, or formation of galaxies. In the microscopic world, quantum rotations are described by non-commuting operators. This makes the angular momentum theory extremely involved, even for systems consisting of only a few interacting particles, such as gas-phase atoms or molecules.
Furthermore, in most experiments the behavior of quantum particles is inevitably altered by a many-body environment of some kind. For example, molecular rotation – and therefore reactivity – depends on the presence of a solvent, electronic angular momentum in solids is coupled to lattice phonons, highly excited atomic levels can be perturbed by a surrounding ultracold gas. If approached in a brute-force fashion, understanding angular momentum in such systems is an impossible task, since a macroscopic number of particles is involved.
Recently, the PI and his team have shown that this challenge can be met by introducing a new quasiparticle – the angulon. In 2017, the PI has demonstrated the existence of angulons by comparing his theory with 20 years of measurements on molecules rotating in superfluids. Most importantly, the angulon concept allows one to gain analytical insights inaccessible to the state-of-the-art techniques of condensed matter and chemical physics. The angulon approach holds the promise of opening up a new interdisciplinary research area with applications reaching far beyond what is proposed here.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 588 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym CapBed
Project Engineered Capillary Beds for Successful Prevascularization of Tissue Engineering Constructs
Researcher (PI) Rogério Pedro Lemos de Sousa Pirraco
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The demand for donated organs vastly outnumbers the supply, leading each year to the death of thousands of people and the suffering of millions more. Engineered tissues and organs following Tissue Engineering approaches are a possible solution to this problem. However, a prevascularization solution to irrigate complex engineered tissues and assure their survival after transplantation is currently elusive. In the human body, complex organs and tissues irrigation is achieved by a network of blood vessels termed capillary bed which suggests such a structure is needed in engineered tissues. Previous approaches to engineer capillary beds reached different levels of success but none yielded a fully functional one due to the inability in simultaneously addressing key elements such as correct angiogenic cell populations, a suitable matrix and dynamic conditions that mimic blood flow.
CapBed aims at proposing a new technology to fabricate in vitro capillary beds that include a vascular axis that can be anastomosed with a patient circulation. Such capillary beds could be used as prime tools to prevascularize in vitro engineered tissues and provide fast perfusion of those after transplantation to a patient. Cutting edge techniques will be for the first time integrated in a disruptive approach to address the requirements listed above. Angiogenic cell sheets of human Adipose-derived Stromal Vascular fraction cells will provide the cell populations that integrate the capillaries and manage its intricate formation, as well as the collagen required to build the matrix that will hold the capillary beds. Innovative fabrication technologies such as 3D printing and laser photoablation will be used for the fabrication of the micropatterned matrix that will allow fluid flow through microfluidics. The resulting functional capillary beds can be used with virtually every tissue engineering strategy rendering the proposed strategy with massive economical, scientific and medical potential
Summary
The demand for donated organs vastly outnumbers the supply, leading each year to the death of thousands of people and the suffering of millions more. Engineered tissues and organs following Tissue Engineering approaches are a possible solution to this problem. However, a prevascularization solution to irrigate complex engineered tissues and assure their survival after transplantation is currently elusive. In the human body, complex organs and tissues irrigation is achieved by a network of blood vessels termed capillary bed which suggests such a structure is needed in engineered tissues. Previous approaches to engineer capillary beds reached different levels of success but none yielded a fully functional one due to the inability in simultaneously addressing key elements such as correct angiogenic cell populations, a suitable matrix and dynamic conditions that mimic blood flow.
CapBed aims at proposing a new technology to fabricate in vitro capillary beds that include a vascular axis that can be anastomosed with a patient circulation. Such capillary beds could be used as prime tools to prevascularize in vitro engineered tissues and provide fast perfusion of those after transplantation to a patient. Cutting edge techniques will be for the first time integrated in a disruptive approach to address the requirements listed above. Angiogenic cell sheets of human Adipose-derived Stromal Vascular fraction cells will provide the cell populations that integrate the capillaries and manage its intricate formation, as well as the collagen required to build the matrix that will hold the capillary beds. Innovative fabrication technologies such as 3D printing and laser photoablation will be used for the fabrication of the micropatterned matrix that will allow fluid flow through microfluidics. The resulting functional capillary beds can be used with virtually every tissue engineering strategy rendering the proposed strategy with massive economical, scientific and medical potential
Max ERC Funding
1 499 940 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31
Project acronym CeraText
Project Tailoring Microstructure and Architecture to Build Ceramic Components with Unprecedented Damage Tolerance
Researcher (PI) Raul BERMEJO
Host Institution (HI) MONTANUNIVERSITAET LEOBEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Advanced ceramics are often combined with metals, polymers or other ceramics to produce structural and functional systems with exceptional properties. Examples are resistors and capacitors in microelectronics, piezo-ceramic actuators in car injection devices, and bio-implants for hip joint replacements. However, a critical issue affecting the functionality, lifetime and reliability of such systems is the initiation and uncontrolled propagation of cracks in the brittle ceramic parts, yielding in some cases rejection rates up to 70% of components production.
The remarkable “damage tolerance” found in natural materials such as wood, bone or mollusc, has yet to be achieved in technical ceramics, where incipient damage is synonymous with catastrophic failure. Novel “multilayer designs” combining microstructure and architecture could change this situation. Recent work of the PI has shown that tuning the location of “protective” layers within a 3D multilayer ceramic can increase its fracture resistance by five times (from ~3.5 to ~17 MPa∙m1/2) relative to constituent bulk ceramic layers, while retaining high strength (~500 MPa). By orienting the grain structure, similar to the textured and organized microstructure found in natural systems such as nacre, the PI has shown that crack propagation can be controlled within the textured ceramic layer. Thus, I believe tailored microstructures with controlled grain boundaries engineered in a layer-by-layer 3D architectural design hold the key to a new generation of “damage tolerant” ceramics.
This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the fabrication of innovative ceramic components that exhibit unprecedented damage tolerance. The successful implementation of microstructural features (e.g. texture degree, tailored internal stresses, second phases, interfaces) in a layer-by-layer architecture will provide outstanding lifetime and reliability in both structural and functional ceramic devices.
Summary
Advanced ceramics are often combined with metals, polymers or other ceramics to produce structural and functional systems with exceptional properties. Examples are resistors and capacitors in microelectronics, piezo-ceramic actuators in car injection devices, and bio-implants for hip joint replacements. However, a critical issue affecting the functionality, lifetime and reliability of such systems is the initiation and uncontrolled propagation of cracks in the brittle ceramic parts, yielding in some cases rejection rates up to 70% of components production.
The remarkable “damage tolerance” found in natural materials such as wood, bone or mollusc, has yet to be achieved in technical ceramics, where incipient damage is synonymous with catastrophic failure. Novel “multilayer designs” combining microstructure and architecture could change this situation. Recent work of the PI has shown that tuning the location of “protective” layers within a 3D multilayer ceramic can increase its fracture resistance by five times (from ~3.5 to ~17 MPa∙m1/2) relative to constituent bulk ceramic layers, while retaining high strength (~500 MPa). By orienting the grain structure, similar to the textured and organized microstructure found in natural systems such as nacre, the PI has shown that crack propagation can be controlled within the textured ceramic layer. Thus, I believe tailored microstructures with controlled grain boundaries engineered in a layer-by-layer 3D architectural design hold the key to a new generation of “damage tolerant” ceramics.
This proposal outlines a research program to establish new scientific principles for the fabrication of innovative ceramic components that exhibit unprecedented damage tolerance. The successful implementation of microstructural features (e.g. texture degree, tailored internal stresses, second phases, interfaces) in a layer-by-layer architecture will provide outstanding lifetime and reliability in both structural and functional ceramic devices.
Max ERC Funding
1 985 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym CerQuS
Project Certified Quantum Security
Researcher (PI) Dominique Peer Ghislain UNRUH
Host Institution (HI) TARTU ULIKOOL
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE6, ERC-2018-COG
Summary "Digital communication permeates all areas of today's daily life. Cryptographic protocols are used to secure that
communication. Quantum communication and the advent of quantum computers both threaten existing cryptographic
solutions, and create new opportunities for secure protocols. The security of cryptographic systems is normally ensured by
mathematical proofs. Due to human error, however, these proofs often contain errors, limiting the usefulness of said proofs.
This is especially true in the case of quantum protocols since human intuition is well-adapted to the classical world, but not
to quantum mechanics. To resolve this problem, methods for verifying cryptographic security proofs using computers (i.e.,
for ""certifying"" the security) have been developed. Yet, all existing verification approaches handle classical cryptography
only - for quantum protocols, no approaches exist.
This project will lay the foundations for the verification of quantum cryptography. We will design logics and software tools
for developing and verifying security proofs on the computer, both for classical protocols secure against quantum computer
(post-quantum security) and for protocols that use quantum communication.
Our main approach is the design of a logic (quantum relational Hoare logic, qRHL) for reasoning about the relationship
between pairs of quantum programs, together with an ecosystem of manual and automated reasoning tools, culminating in
fully certified security proofs for real-world quantum protocols.
As a final result, the project will improve the security of protocols in the quantum age, by removing one possible source of
human error. In addition, the project directly impacts the research community, by providing new foundations in program
verification, and by providing cryptographers with new tools for the verification of their protocols.
"
Summary
"Digital communication permeates all areas of today's daily life. Cryptographic protocols are used to secure that
communication. Quantum communication and the advent of quantum computers both threaten existing cryptographic
solutions, and create new opportunities for secure protocols. The security of cryptographic systems is normally ensured by
mathematical proofs. Due to human error, however, these proofs often contain errors, limiting the usefulness of said proofs.
This is especially true in the case of quantum protocols since human intuition is well-adapted to the classical world, but not
to quantum mechanics. To resolve this problem, methods for verifying cryptographic security proofs using computers (i.e.,
for ""certifying"" the security) have been developed. Yet, all existing verification approaches handle classical cryptography
only - for quantum protocols, no approaches exist.
This project will lay the foundations for the verification of quantum cryptography. We will design logics and software tools
for developing and verifying security proofs on the computer, both for classical protocols secure against quantum computer
(post-quantum security) and for protocols that use quantum communication.
Our main approach is the design of a logic (quantum relational Hoare logic, qRHL) for reasoning about the relationship
between pairs of quantum programs, together with an ecosystem of manual and automated reasoning tools, culminating in
fully certified security proofs for real-world quantum protocols.
As a final result, the project will improve the security of protocols in the quantum age, by removing one possible source of
human error. In addition, the project directly impacts the research community, by providing new foundations in program
verification, and by providing cryptographers with new tools for the verification of their protocols.
"
Max ERC Funding
1 716 475 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym CITRES
Project Chemistry and interface tailored lead-free relaxor thin films for energy storage capacitors
Researcher (PI) Marco Deluca
Host Institution (HI) MATERIALS CENTER LEOBEN FORSCHUNG GMBH
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The goal of CITRES is to provide new energy storage devices with high power and energy density by developing novel multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on relaxor thin films (RTF).
Energy storage units for energy autonomous sensor systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) must possess high power and energy density to allow quick charge/recharge and long-time energy supply. Current energy storage devices cannot meet those demands: Batteries have large capacity but long charging/discharging times due to slow chemical reactions and ion diffusion. Ceramic dielectric capacitors – being based on ionic and electronic polarisation mechanisms – can deliver and take up power quickly, but store much less energy due to low dielectric breakdown strength (DBS), high losses, and leakage currents.
RTF are ideal candidates: (i) Thin film processing allows obtaining low porosity and defects, thus enhancing the DBS; (ii) slim polarisation hysteresis loops, intrinsic to relaxors, allow reducing the losses. High energy density can be achieved in RTF by maximising the polarisation and minimising the leakage currents. Both aspects are controlled by the amount, type and local distribution of chemical substituents in the RTF lattice, whereas the latter depends also on the chemistry of the electrode metal.
In CITRES, we will identify the influence of substituents on electric polarisation from atomic to macroscopic scale by combining multiscale atomistic modelling with advanced structural, chemical and electrical characterizations on several length scales both in the RTF bulk and at interfaces with various electrodes. This will allow for the first time the design of energy storage properties of RTF by chemical substitution and electrode selection.
The ground-breaking nature of CITRES resides in the design and realisation of RTF-based dielectric MLCCs with better energy storage performances than supercapacitors and batteries, thus enabling energy autonomy for IoT sensor systems.
Summary
The goal of CITRES is to provide new energy storage devices with high power and energy density by developing novel multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) based on relaxor thin films (RTF).
Energy storage units for energy autonomous sensor systems for the Internet of Things (IoT) must possess high power and energy density to allow quick charge/recharge and long-time energy supply. Current energy storage devices cannot meet those demands: Batteries have large capacity but long charging/discharging times due to slow chemical reactions and ion diffusion. Ceramic dielectric capacitors – being based on ionic and electronic polarisation mechanisms – can deliver and take up power quickly, but store much less energy due to low dielectric breakdown strength (DBS), high losses, and leakage currents.
RTF are ideal candidates: (i) Thin film processing allows obtaining low porosity and defects, thus enhancing the DBS; (ii) slim polarisation hysteresis loops, intrinsic to relaxors, allow reducing the losses. High energy density can be achieved in RTF by maximising the polarisation and minimising the leakage currents. Both aspects are controlled by the amount, type and local distribution of chemical substituents in the RTF lattice, whereas the latter depends also on the chemistry of the electrode metal.
In CITRES, we will identify the influence of substituents on electric polarisation from atomic to macroscopic scale by combining multiscale atomistic modelling with advanced structural, chemical and electrical characterizations on several length scales both in the RTF bulk and at interfaces with various electrodes. This will allow for the first time the design of energy storage properties of RTF by chemical substitution and electrode selection.
The ground-breaking nature of CITRES resides in the design and realisation of RTF-based dielectric MLCCs with better energy storage performances than supercapacitors and batteries, thus enabling energy autonomy for IoT sensor systems.
Max ERC Funding
1 996 519 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym COYOTE
Project Coherent Optics Everywhere: a New Dawn for Photonic Networks
Researcher (PI) Bernhard SCHRENK
Host Institution (HI) AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The widespread adoption of the Internet and its influence on our daily life is unquestioned. Global Zettabyte traffic has rendered photonics as indispensable for the communication infrastructure. While direct signal detection has been dismissed in radio communications decades ago, it prevails in short- and medium-reach optics in virtue of its simplicity. In such an environment photonics can only rely on incremental improvements, whereas it desperately seeks for disruptive concepts.
COYOTE envisions a novel coherent homodyne transceiver concept for analogue signals and access to higher-order formats with efficiencies of 10 bits/symbol. On top of this, high-fidelity transport of multi-band 5G radio signals in the millimetre-wave range up to 100 GHz will be enabled by analogue coherent photonics while mitigating energy-hungry digital signal processing. COYOTE takes one more leap and dares the contradictory full-duplex data transmission in virtue of its novel reception engine to ultimately guarantee a lean solution with greatly simplified yet flexible “hardware”.
The key asset of COYOTE’s coherent engine will be a locked laser with improved coherence characteristics together with a flexible modulator-detector element, which is capable to emulate direct-detection systems in a transparent way while giving birth to novel networking concepts. Exploration of the 3D Stokes and 2D quadrature spaces through a segmented receiver architecture will boost the spectral efficiency to >10 bits/s/Hz.
It is the lean and yet efficient coherent transceiver methodology of COYOTE that will remove the currently existing boundary between direct-detection and coherent systems in the midst of network reaches. By coherently “reviving” these telecom segments of integrated wireline-wireless access networks, optical interconnects for intra-datacentre connectivity and even quantum communication, an order-of-magnitude improvement in terms of spectral efficiency x reach product will be gained.
Summary
The widespread adoption of the Internet and its influence on our daily life is unquestioned. Global Zettabyte traffic has rendered photonics as indispensable for the communication infrastructure. While direct signal detection has been dismissed in radio communications decades ago, it prevails in short- and medium-reach optics in virtue of its simplicity. In such an environment photonics can only rely on incremental improvements, whereas it desperately seeks for disruptive concepts.
COYOTE envisions a novel coherent homodyne transceiver concept for analogue signals and access to higher-order formats with efficiencies of 10 bits/symbol. On top of this, high-fidelity transport of multi-band 5G radio signals in the millimetre-wave range up to 100 GHz will be enabled by analogue coherent photonics while mitigating energy-hungry digital signal processing. COYOTE takes one more leap and dares the contradictory full-duplex data transmission in virtue of its novel reception engine to ultimately guarantee a lean solution with greatly simplified yet flexible “hardware”.
The key asset of COYOTE’s coherent engine will be a locked laser with improved coherence characteristics together with a flexible modulator-detector element, which is capable to emulate direct-detection systems in a transparent way while giving birth to novel networking concepts. Exploration of the 3D Stokes and 2D quadrature spaces through a segmented receiver architecture will boost the spectral efficiency to >10 bits/s/Hz.
It is the lean and yet efficient coherent transceiver methodology of COYOTE that will remove the currently existing boundary between direct-detection and coherent systems in the midst of network reaches. By coherently “reviving” these telecom segments of integrated wireline-wireless access networks, optical interconnects for intra-datacentre connectivity and even quantum communication, an order-of-magnitude improvement in terms of spectral efficiency x reach product will be gained.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym HYPROTIN
Project Hyperpolarized Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Time-Resolved Monitoring of Interactions of Intrinsically Disordered Breast-Cancer Proteins
Researcher (PI) Dennis Christian Benjamin Arthur KURZBACH
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2018-STG
Summary HYPROTIN proposes a pioneering research platform for hyperpolarized magnetic resonance of breast-cancer related proteins that will revolutionize our view on tumorigenesis at the atomic level, through bottom-up reconstitution of medicinal relevant interaction pathways involving the breast cancer susceptibility protein 1 (BRCA1).
The risk to develop a hereditary breast or ovarian cancer (HBOC) increases to 55-65 % upon mutation of the BRCA1 gene. Yet, little is known about the biochemistry of tumorigenesis, so that drugs directed towards molecular targets are not satisfactory. To date, mastectomy remains the only preventive treatment. This dramatic lack of knowledge is a consequence of BRCA1 being an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP). Recognizing the importance of IDPs has revolutionized structural biology in the last decade, but this also represents a huge experimental challenge. To date, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the only technique available to study IDPs at high resolution. However, several limits of the technique must be overcome. Its low sensitivity impedes investigations under biologically meaningful conditions, so that new approaches are required.
The HYPROTIN project aims to achieve two methodological goals: 1) Residue-resolved studies of the BRCA1 IDP under physiological conditions; and 2) real-time monitoring of BRCA1-ligand binding, thereby adding a time-resolved dimension to the NMR characterization of IDPs. This systematic approach will provide unprecedented insight into the BRCA1 interactome, provide medically relevant data and residue-resolved protein interaction kinetics. This will open a new knowledge base for rational drug design.
The project will employ cutting-edge equipment that is unique worldwide, and will represent the first facility in Europe suited for these ground-breaking experiments. The PI has unique interdisciplinary experience enabling the demanding hyperpolarization approach to IDPs.
Summary
HYPROTIN proposes a pioneering research platform for hyperpolarized magnetic resonance of breast-cancer related proteins that will revolutionize our view on tumorigenesis at the atomic level, through bottom-up reconstitution of medicinal relevant interaction pathways involving the breast cancer susceptibility protein 1 (BRCA1).
The risk to develop a hereditary breast or ovarian cancer (HBOC) increases to 55-65 % upon mutation of the BRCA1 gene. Yet, little is known about the biochemistry of tumorigenesis, so that drugs directed towards molecular targets are not satisfactory. To date, mastectomy remains the only preventive treatment. This dramatic lack of knowledge is a consequence of BRCA1 being an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP). Recognizing the importance of IDPs has revolutionized structural biology in the last decade, but this also represents a huge experimental challenge. To date, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the only technique available to study IDPs at high resolution. However, several limits of the technique must be overcome. Its low sensitivity impedes investigations under biologically meaningful conditions, so that new approaches are required.
The HYPROTIN project aims to achieve two methodological goals: 1) Residue-resolved studies of the BRCA1 IDP under physiological conditions; and 2) real-time monitoring of BRCA1-ligand binding, thereby adding a time-resolved dimension to the NMR characterization of IDPs. This systematic approach will provide unprecedented insight into the BRCA1 interactome, provide medically relevant data and residue-resolved protein interaction kinetics. This will open a new knowledge base for rational drug design.
The project will employ cutting-edge equipment that is unique worldwide, and will represent the first facility in Europe suited for these ground-breaking experiments. The PI has unique interdisciplinary experience enabling the demanding hyperpolarization approach to IDPs.
Max ERC Funding
1 990 728 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-03-01, End date: 2024-02-29
Project acronym PIX
Project The Process Improvement Explorer: Automated Discovery and Assessment of Business Process Improvement Opportunities
Researcher (PI) Marlon DUMAS
Host Institution (HI) TARTU ULIKOOL
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE6, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary Business processes are the operational backbone of modern organizations. Their continuous improvement is key to the achievement of business objectives, be it with respect to efficiency, quality, compliance, or agility. Accordingly, a common task for process analysts is to discover and assess process improvement opportunities, i.e. changes to one or more processes, which are likely to improve them with respect to one or more performance measures. Current approaches to discover process improvement opportunities are expert-driven. In these approaches, data are used to assess opportunities derived from experience and intuition rather than to discover them in the first place. Moreover, as the assessment of opportunities is manual, analysts can only explore a fraction thereof.
PIX will build the foundations of a new generation of process improvement methods that do not exclusively rely on guidelines and heuristics, but rather on a systematic exploration of a space of possible changes derived from process execution data. Specifically, PIX will develop conceptual frameworks and algorithms to analyze process execution data in order to discover process changes corresponding to possible improvement opportunities, including changes in the control-flow dependencies between activities, partial automation of activities, changes in resource allocation rules, or changes in decision rules that may reduce wastes or negative outcomes. Each change will be associated with a multi-dimensional utility, thus allowing us to map a process improvement problem to an optimization problem over a multidimensional space. Given this mapping, PIX will develop efficient and incremental methods to search through said spaces in order to find Pareto-optimal groups of changes. The outputs will be embodied in a first-of-its-kind tool for automated process improvement discovery, which will lift the focus in the field of process mining from analyzing as-is processes to designing to-be processes.
Summary
Business processes are the operational backbone of modern organizations. Their continuous improvement is key to the achievement of business objectives, be it with respect to efficiency, quality, compliance, or agility. Accordingly, a common task for process analysts is to discover and assess process improvement opportunities, i.e. changes to one or more processes, which are likely to improve them with respect to one or more performance measures. Current approaches to discover process improvement opportunities are expert-driven. In these approaches, data are used to assess opportunities derived from experience and intuition rather than to discover them in the first place. Moreover, as the assessment of opportunities is manual, analysts can only explore a fraction thereof.
PIX will build the foundations of a new generation of process improvement methods that do not exclusively rely on guidelines and heuristics, but rather on a systematic exploration of a space of possible changes derived from process execution data. Specifically, PIX will develop conceptual frameworks and algorithms to analyze process execution data in order to discover process changes corresponding to possible improvement opportunities, including changes in the control-flow dependencies between activities, partial automation of activities, changes in resource allocation rules, or changes in decision rules that may reduce wastes or negative outcomes. Each change will be associated with a multi-dimensional utility, thus allowing us to map a process improvement problem to an optimization problem over a multidimensional space. Given this mapping, PIX will develop efficient and incremental methods to search through said spaces in order to find Pareto-optimal groups of changes. The outputs will be embodied in a first-of-its-kind tool for automated process improvement discovery, which will lift the focus in the field of process mining from analyzing as-is processes to designing to-be processes.
Max ERC Funding
2 349 965 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym ScaleML
Project Elastic Coordination for Scalable Machine Learning
Researcher (PI) Dan ALISTARH
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYAUSTRIA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Machine learning and data science are areas of tremendous progress over the last decade, leading to exciting research developments, and significant practical impact. Broadly, progress in this area has been enabled by the rapidly increasing availability of data, by better algorithms, and by large-scale platforms enabling efficient computation on immense datasets. While it is reasonable to expect that the first two trends will continue for the foreseeable future, the same cannot be said of the third trend, of continually increasing computational performance. Increasing computational demands place immense pressure on algorithms and systems to scale, while the performance limits of traditional computing paradigms are becoming increasingly apparent. Thus, the question of building algorithms and systems for scalable machine learning is extremely pressing. The project will take a decisive step to answer this challenge, developing new abstractions, algorithms and system support for scalable machine learning. In a nutshell, the line of approach is elastic coordination: allowing machine learning algorithms to approximate and/or randomize their synchronization and communication semantics, in a structured, controlled fashion, to achieve scalability. The project exploits the insight that many such algorithms are inherently stochastic, and hence robust to inconsistencies. My thesis is that elastic coordination can lead to significant, consistent performance improvements across a wide range of applications, while guaranteeing provably correct answers. ScaleML will apply elastic coordination to two specific relevant scenarios: scalability inside a single multi-threaded machine, and scalability across networks of machines.
Conceptually, the project’s impact is in providing a set of new design principles and algorithms for scalable computation. It will develop these insights into a set of tools and working examples for scalable distributed machine learning.
Summary
Machine learning and data science are areas of tremendous progress over the last decade, leading to exciting research developments, and significant practical impact. Broadly, progress in this area has been enabled by the rapidly increasing availability of data, by better algorithms, and by large-scale platforms enabling efficient computation on immense datasets. While it is reasonable to expect that the first two trends will continue for the foreseeable future, the same cannot be said of the third trend, of continually increasing computational performance. Increasing computational demands place immense pressure on algorithms and systems to scale, while the performance limits of traditional computing paradigms are becoming increasingly apparent. Thus, the question of building algorithms and systems for scalable machine learning is extremely pressing. The project will take a decisive step to answer this challenge, developing new abstractions, algorithms and system support for scalable machine learning. In a nutshell, the line of approach is elastic coordination: allowing machine learning algorithms to approximate and/or randomize their synchronization and communication semantics, in a structured, controlled fashion, to achieve scalability. The project exploits the insight that many such algorithms are inherently stochastic, and hence robust to inconsistencies. My thesis is that elastic coordination can lead to significant, consistent performance improvements across a wide range of applications, while guaranteeing provably correct answers. ScaleML will apply elastic coordination to two specific relevant scenarios: scalability inside a single multi-threaded machine, and scalability across networks of machines.
Conceptually, the project’s impact is in providing a set of new design principles and algorithms for scalable computation. It will develop these insights into a set of tools and working examples for scalable distributed machine learning.
Max ERC Funding
1 494 121 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-03-01, End date: 2024-02-29
Project acronym STAND4HERITAGE
Project New STANDards for seismic assessment of built cultural HERITAGE
Researcher (PI) Paulo B. LOURENCO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDADE DO MINHO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE8, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary STAND4HERITAGE ambitiously engages in introducing new standards for safeguarding built cultural heritage for the next generations, which is a major societal demand. Due to its large diversity, the accurate description of the structural behaviour of heritage buildings is still an open issue, particularly when subjected to earthquake ground motions. Among the most frequently observed seismic damage mechanisms in these buildings, the out-of-plane of masonry walls is acknowledged as the main cause for building loss and injuries to people. There are many unresolved challenges to effectively assess the out-of-plane seismic behaviour of masonry structures. First, it is necessary to understand less known phenomena in masonry dynamics, which largely influence the out-of-plane behaviour and capacity of heritage buildings. A recent blind exercise to predict the capacity of a benchmark masonry structure to resist a dynamic excitation demonstrated that, although advanced simulation tools are available, leading international researchers are still unable to consistently provide a collapse estimate. STAND4HERITAGE will address the aspects for successful development of approaches for seismic response prediction of masonry structures, integrating the necessary stages for out-of-plane assessment. It will generate novel: integrated stochastic-based models to consider the seismic signal in the dynamic response and capacity; datasets of the dynamic response evaluated after an extensive shake table testing program; numerical approaches for simulation of the out-of-plane seismic behaviour; an integrated analytical approach for out-of-plane seismic assessment of heritage buildings. STAND4HERITAGE objectives are in line with the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable cities and communities. The project will be founded on the experience of the PI in the topic, and on the interdisciplinary expertise of his team in facing the challenges to provide optimal intervention solutions for heritage buildings.
Summary
STAND4HERITAGE ambitiously engages in introducing new standards for safeguarding built cultural heritage for the next generations, which is a major societal demand. Due to its large diversity, the accurate description of the structural behaviour of heritage buildings is still an open issue, particularly when subjected to earthquake ground motions. Among the most frequently observed seismic damage mechanisms in these buildings, the out-of-plane of masonry walls is acknowledged as the main cause for building loss and injuries to people. There are many unresolved challenges to effectively assess the out-of-plane seismic behaviour of masonry structures. First, it is necessary to understand less known phenomena in masonry dynamics, which largely influence the out-of-plane behaviour and capacity of heritage buildings. A recent blind exercise to predict the capacity of a benchmark masonry structure to resist a dynamic excitation demonstrated that, although advanced simulation tools are available, leading international researchers are still unable to consistently provide a collapse estimate. STAND4HERITAGE will address the aspects for successful development of approaches for seismic response prediction of masonry structures, integrating the necessary stages for out-of-plane assessment. It will generate novel: integrated stochastic-based models to consider the seismic signal in the dynamic response and capacity; datasets of the dynamic response evaluated after an extensive shake table testing program; numerical approaches for simulation of the out-of-plane seismic behaviour; an integrated analytical approach for out-of-plane seismic assessment of heritage buildings. STAND4HERITAGE objectives are in line with the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable cities and communities. The project will be founded on the experience of the PI in the topic, and on the interdisciplinary expertise of his team in facing the challenges to provide optimal intervention solutions for heritage buildings.
Max ERC Funding
2 968 755 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym TotipotentZygotChrom
Project Mechanisms of chromatin organization and reprogramming in totipotent mammalian zygotes
Researcher (PI) Kikue Tachibana
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUT FUER MOLEKULARE BIOTECHNOLOGIE GMBH
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Totipotency, the developmental potential of a cell to give rise to all cell types, is naturally achieved when differentiated egg and sperm fuse to form the one-cell zygote. How chromatin is epigenetically reprogrammed to totipotency within hours after fertilisation remains a central question in biology. We aim to address this by investigating the mechanisms of reprogramming and the spatial reorganisation of chromatin in mammalian zygotes. Our interdisciplinary approach combines mechanistic cell biology with genetics and genomics to understand how chromatin reorganisation promotes totipotency and to identify key regulators of this process in zygotes. Molecular insights into reprogramming to totipotency are crucial to understand the essential zygotic stage of sexually reproducing species. A better understanding of how cells naturally reprogram chromatin to totipotency, a state upstream of pluripotency, has the potential to improve induced reprogramming technology and revolutionize regenerative medicine.
Our aim is to understand how chromatin is reprogrammed to totipotency. To reach this ambitious goal: 1) We will discover new general concepts of genome organization, as well as reprogramming-specific aspects, by capitalising on our recently developed single-nucleus Hi-C method to dissect spatial reorganisation of chromatin in zygotes. We will investigate the relationship between chromatin reorganisation and transcription. 2) We will uncover mechanisms of zygotic reprogramming by elucidating the loci and factors that support active DNA demethylation during reprogramming of the paternal genome. 3) We will illuminate the origins and contributions of the oocyte since the factors responsible for reprogramming likely reside as proteins or RNA in the unfertilized egg. Overall, these studies will provide novel insights into how chromatin is reprogrammed and spatially reorganised towards a totipotent state that facilitates zygotic genome activation.
Summary
Totipotency, the developmental potential of a cell to give rise to all cell types, is naturally achieved when differentiated egg and sperm fuse to form the one-cell zygote. How chromatin is epigenetically reprogrammed to totipotency within hours after fertilisation remains a central question in biology. We aim to address this by investigating the mechanisms of reprogramming and the spatial reorganisation of chromatin in mammalian zygotes. Our interdisciplinary approach combines mechanistic cell biology with genetics and genomics to understand how chromatin reorganisation promotes totipotency and to identify key regulators of this process in zygotes. Molecular insights into reprogramming to totipotency are crucial to understand the essential zygotic stage of sexually reproducing species. A better understanding of how cells naturally reprogram chromatin to totipotency, a state upstream of pluripotency, has the potential to improve induced reprogramming technology and revolutionize regenerative medicine.
Our aim is to understand how chromatin is reprogrammed to totipotency. To reach this ambitious goal: 1) We will discover new general concepts of genome organization, as well as reprogramming-specific aspects, by capitalising on our recently developed single-nucleus Hi-C method to dissect spatial reorganisation of chromatin in zygotes. We will investigate the relationship between chromatin reorganisation and transcription. 2) We will uncover mechanisms of zygotic reprogramming by elucidating the loci and factors that support active DNA demethylation during reprogramming of the paternal genome. 3) We will illuminate the origins and contributions of the oocyte since the factors responsible for reprogramming likely reside as proteins or RNA in the unfertilized egg. Overall, these studies will provide novel insights into how chromatin is reprogrammed and spatially reorganised towards a totipotent state that facilitates zygotic genome activation.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-02-01, End date: 2025-01-31
