Over the past few decades, computer scientists have developed increasingly advanced technologies and tools to store large amounts of music and audio files in electronic devices. A particular milestone for music storage was the development of MP3 (i.e., MPEG-1 layer 3)...
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Bilayer tungsten diselenide transistors with ON-state current densities over 1.5 milliamperes per micrometer
2D semiconductors could have notable advantages over conventional bulk semiconductors, such as silicon. Most notably, their greater resistance to short-channel effects could make them particularly promising for the development of highly performing transistors, which...
A deep learning framework to enhance the capabilities of a robotic sketching agent
In recent years, deep learning algorithms have achieved remarkable results in a variety of fields, including artistic disciplines. In fact, many computer scientists worldwide have successfully developed models that can create artistic works, including poems, paintings...
Microscopic carrier loss mechanisms in kesterite-based solar cells with a 12% efficiency
Kesterite Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 is an emerging and promising green photovoltaic material, as it is abundant on Earth, does not harm the environment, and has a stable structure, a great tunability and advantageous optoelectronic properties. Despite their qualities, solar...
A strategy to improve perovskite absorbers for all-perovskite tandem solar cells
Tandem solar cells (TSCs), stacks of p-n junctions based on semiconductors with different bandgaps, are a highly promising energy solution that could help to reduce carbon emissions. Perovskites, earth-abundant materials with a tunable bandgap, high charge-carrier...
A neural network–based strategy to enhance near-term quantum simulations
Near-term quantum computers, quantum computers developed today or in the near future, could help to tackle some problems more effectively than classical computers. One potential application for these computers could be in physics, chemistry and materials science, to...
A reinforcement learning framework to improve the soccer shooting skills of quadruped robots
Researchers University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), Université de Montréal and Mila have recently developed a hierarchical reinforcement learning framework to improve the precision of quadrupedal robots in soccer shooting. This framework, introduced in a...
Aquabots: Ultrasoft liquid robots for biomedical and environmental applications
In recent years, roboticists have developed a wide variety of robotic systems with different body structures and capabilities. Most of these robots are either made of hard materials, such as metals, or soft materials, such as silicon and rubbery materials.
Using tactile sensors and machine learning to improve how robots manipulate fabrics
In recent years, roboticists have been trying to improve how robots interact with different objects found in real-world settings. While some of their efforts yielded promising results, the manipulation skills of most existing robotic systems still lag behinds those of...
The Wheelbot: A symmetric unicycle with jumping reaction wheels
Researchers at RWTH Aachen University in the team of Prof. Sebastian Trimpe and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) Stuttgart have recently developed the Wheelbot a symmetric reaction wheel unicycle that can autonomously jump onto its wheels from...