DeepTrack selected by Optics & Photonics News as one of the most exciting optics discoveries in 2019

Optics & Photonics News has picked Saga Helgadóttir and Aykut Argun’s work on deep learning for particle tracking (DeepTrack) as a top break-through of the year.

“This has been a really good year for me, research-wise. My publication, presenting a new AI method, garnered a lot of attention,” says Saga Helgadóttir, PhD at the Department of Physics.

The research article in question, which is now included in Optics & Photonics News’ best-of-2019 list, identifies a new way of implementing neural networks and machine learning in order to track particle motion and study surrounding microenvironments.

After the publication in mid-April, Saga Helgadóttir was contacted by both national and international press to talk about her discoveries. She has also been invited to visit research groups abroad and was a speaker at the AI in Health and Health in AI conference held in Gothenburg in August.

Currently, Saga Helgadottir is collaborating with a group of scientists at Sahlgrenska’s Wallenberg Laboratory. They are working on new ways of using deep learning in the medical field.

“I started my PhD research studying bio-hybrid microswimmers, but ended up more within the area of artificial intelligence and optics. I like this work a lot, and the positive response to my publication earlier this year has allowed me to establish myself in the AI-field.”

Text: Carolina Svensson

List of highlighted research from 2019: Optics in 2019

Saga Helgadottir’s featured summary: Deep Learning for Particle Tracking

Original press release about the research: She has discovered a new method of using AI

Saga Helgadottir interviewed by Curie, a magazine issued by the Swedish Research Council

Saga Helgadottir discussed her research with Curie, a magazine issued by the Swedish Research Council. The article gives examples of how AI is used in many research disciplines. Read the article on Curie’s webpage here.

Jalpa Soni and Falko Schmidt at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Jalpa Soni and Falko Schmidt have been nominated by the Marie-Curie association and the Ragnar-Söderbergs foundation to attend the 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting from the 30 June till 5 July 2019. Congratulations to both!

The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is an annual scientific conference that brings together Nobel laureates and young scientists to encourage scientific exchange among different generations and cultures.
The 69th meeting will be dedicated to Physics, where 580 young scientist from 88 countries will be present.

Jalpa Soni is MSCA Fellow of the Week

Our Marie-Curie postdoctoral researcher Jalpa Soni becomes the #MSCA Fellow of the Week, and gets her project highlighted on Tweeter and Facebook pages of the Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Jalpa is studying the behaviour of micro swimmers like bacteria in 3D complex environments. That will give us the understanding of how they propagate in living systems, which in turn will be used to manipulate them for medicinal advantages.One such example would be to create artificial swimmers (active particles) mimicking natural bacteria for more efficient and targeted drug-delivery applications.To monitor the movement of such micro swimmers in 3D, Jalpa has developed a customised light-sheet microscope that is capable of fast volumetric imaging. The long term goal of the project is to create active particle induced drug-delivery methods for organ-on-chip devices and to monitor the drug efficacy in real time.

This is Jalpa’s insight as a MSCA fellow:

“The unique opportunity to build a new collaborative network has been the most beneficial aspect of my MSCA fellowship. The travels for the project has allowed me to experience different research organisations and to meet experts of various fields which is very important for interdisciplinary research that I love doing.”

Project Name: ActiveMotion3D – Experimental study of three-dimensional dynamics of Active particles

Learn more about Jalpa and her project:
CORDIS: https://bit.ly/2Rz1rVD

Tweeter: https://twitter.com/MSCActions/status/1070985015754919936
FB: 

Giovanni Volpe on the Panel on the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, Stockholm, 7 Dec 2018

Panel on the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics
Friday, December 7, 15:00 – 18:00
Oscar Klein hall, Albanova, Roslagstullsbacken 21, Stockholm

Albanova, Stockholm’s center for Physics, Astronomy and Biotechnology cordially organizes a panel discussion about this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, followed by a social gathering with drinks and snacks.

Panel Members:
Felix Ritort, University of Barcelona
Cord Arnold, Lunds University
Giovanni Volpe, Göteborg University
Valdas Pasiskevicius, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Moderator:
Eva Lindroth, Stockholms University

https://www.fysik.su.se/om-oss/evenemang/the-2018-nobel-prize-in-physics-1.415146

Here is the direct videolink:
http://video.albanova.se/ALBANOVA20181207/video.mp4  (817MB)

The event web-page is at:
http://video.albanova.se/arc2018_32.html

Giovanni Volpe New Docent in Physics

From the article New Docent in Physics (English) and Ny docent i fysik (Swedish)

Three questions for Giovanni Volpe, appointed Docent in Physics at the Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg.

Interview by: Linnéa Magnusson
Photo by: Malin Arnesson

What is your research about?

“I am conducting research in several different areas. Part of my work concerns artificial micro swimmers. In simple terms, this is about biological and artificial objects of microscopic size that can get around by themselves and counteract microorganisms. Research on micro swimmers involves many possibilities within basic science, nanoscience and nanotechnology.

“I am collaborating with Karolinska Institutet on a project that deals with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). We have developed software that serves as a toolkit, helping us to detect these diseases at an early stage.

“Another project deals with optical trapping and optical manipulation. Using optical tweezers, I can measure microscopic forces, for example.

“Finally, I am also working on a project that involves managing the challenges of condensed matter physics – in other words, matter and processes at the atomic level. With the help of machine learning, we can handle complex algorithms.”

What can society learn from your research?

“I hope that our work with micro swimmers can become a foundation on which we can build, so that in the future we can use them in real life. For example, this could involve cleaning contaminated soil or developing what are known as chiral drugs – medications that are more selective and more controllable and that have fewer side effects. It is to be hoped that our work in neuroscience will lead us to quickly detect and treat neurodegenerative diseases.”

What do you think is most exciting about the future?

“What is most exciting is the possibility of using artificial intelligence to solve physical and medical problems. In the future we will go from people developing and testing ideas to have data and systems under investigation speak for themselves.

Tre frågor till Giovanni Volpe som antagits som oavlönad docent i fysik vid Naturvetenskapliga fakulteten, Göteborgs universitet.

Vad handlar din forskning om?

– Jag forskar inom flera olika områden. En del i mitt arbete handlar om konstgjorda ”micro swimmers”. Förenklat så handlar det om biologiska och artificiella föremål i mikroskopisk storlek som kan ta sig fram själva och motverka mikroorganismer. Forskning om ”Micro Swimmers” innebär en mängd möjligheter inom grundvetenskap, nanovetenskap och nanoteknik.

– Jag samarbetar med Karolinska Institutet inom ett projekt som handlar om neurodegenerativa sjukdomar, som Alzheimers sjukdom, Parkinsons sjukdom och ALS. Vi har utvecklat en programvara som fungerar som en verktygslåda, som hjälper oss att tidigt upptäckta dessa sjukdomar.

– Ett annat projekt handlar om optisk fångst och optisk manipulation. Med hjälp av optiska pincetten kan jag exempelvis mäta mikroskopiska krafter.

– Till sist arbetar jag även med ett projekt som handlar om att hantera utmaningar med den kondenserade materiens fysik, alltså materia och processer på atomär nivå. Till hjälp har vi inlärningsmaskiner som kan hantera komplexa algoritmer.

Vad kan samhället lära av din forskning?

– Jag hoppas att arbetet med ”Micro swimmers ” kan bli en grund att bygga vidare på. Så att vi i framtiden kan använda ”Micro swimmers ” i verkliga livet. Det kan exempelvis handla om att kunna rengöra förorenad jord eller utveckla så kallade kirala läkemedel, det vill säga mediciner som är både mer selektiva, mer styrbara och har mindre biverkningar. Arbetet inom neurovetenskap kommer förhoppningsvis leda till att vi snabbt kan upptäcka och behandla neurodegenerativa sjukdomar.

Vad tycker du är mest spännande i framtiden?

– Det som är mest spännande är möjligheten att använda artificiell intelligens för att lösa fysiska och medicinska problem. I framtiden kommer vi att gå från att det är människor som utvecklar och testar idéer till att det är datorer och system som kommer att undersöka och analysera varandra.

Microscopic Critical Engine featured in Phys.Org

Microscopic engine powered by critical demixing

Our recent article Microscopic engine powered by critical remixing
by Falko Schmidt, Alessandro Magazzù, Agnese Callegari, Luca Biancofiore, Frank Cichos & Giovanni Volpe, published in Physical Review Letters 120(6), 068004 (2018) has been featured in “Tiny engine powered by demixing fluid” Phys.Org (February 12, 2018)

Microscopic Critical Engine featured in Optics & Photonics News

Microscopic engine powered by critical demixing

Our recent article Microscopic engine powered by critical remixing
by Falko Schmidt, Alessandro Magazzù, Agnese Callegari, Luca Biancofiore, Frank Cichos & Giovanni Volpe, published in Physical Review Letters 120(6), 068004 (2018) has been featured in “Laser + Critical Liquid = Micro-Engine”, Optics & Photonics News (February 12, 2018)

Optics & Photonics News (OPN) is The Optical Society’s monthly news magazine. It provides in-depth coverage of recent developments in the field of optics and offers busy professionals the tools they need to succeed in the optics industry, as well as informative pieces on a variety of topics such as science and society, education, technology and business. OPN strives to make the various facets of this diverse field accessible to researchers, engineers, businesspeople and students. Contributors include scientists and journalists who specialize in the field of optics.

Microscopic Critical Engine featured in APS Physics

Microscopic engine powered by critical demixing

Our recent article Microscopic engine powered by critical remixing
by Falko Schmidt, Alessandro Magazzù, Agnese Callegari, Luca Biancofiore, Frank Cichos & Giovanni Volpe, published in Physical Review Letters 120(6), 068004 (2018) has been featured in “Focus: A Tiny Engine Powered by Light and Liquid Physics”, Physics 11, 16 (February 9, 2018)

Physics provides daily online-only news and commentary about a selection of papers from the APS journals collection. It is aimed at the reader who wants to keep up with highlights of physics research with explanations that don’t rely on complex technical detail.

The category Physics: focus stories features only a few number of articles each week selected among the set of articles published on all the APS journals.
Research articles that have an interdisciplinary character are usually selected, and their explanations are geared toward students and non-experts. Features are written by a journalist for an audience with a general interest in physics.