Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2022

Our lean ecosystem generation model, emphasises maximising the number of innovation ideas explored and researchers commercially upskilled while minimising costs to support this activity across a city or economic region. We believe that by raising the level commercial awareness and connecting generations of researchers to existing local innovation activity, this…

Imagine 50 or even 50,000 students, anywhere the world, using a VR device to stand together with the instructor virtually, in real time, at the famous Pyramids at Giza, Egypt. The Giza Project at Harvard University assembles information about all the archaeological activity at the Giza Pyramids. Using digital archaeology,…

The nominating institution Harvard Medical School on the project: If there is a worse disease than ALS, you should hope never to see it. Relentlessly progressive and 100% fatal, it has no treatment. By means of a clever genetic screen, the nominee and his colleagues identified a gene that, when…

Andrzej Zak’s project combines biology, medicine, and engineering. Its essence is to build a new device for observing previously not visualised and unknown bacteria-light interaction phenomena.

Nominated by: Australian National University Presented by: Mark Mattingley-Scott

This is a large, research university.   Tags: Diversity, Education, STEM Learning.

PRESENTED BY Sheana Yu NOMINATED BY International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics UK Tags: Posture Correction, Disability Support, Wheelchair

The nominating institute Nanyang Technological University on the breakthrough: Infectious agents, including viruses like SARS-CoV-2, can wreak havoc on societies. Frequent testing is essential to minimise their transmission. However, viruses can mutate, edit, or shuffle their genetic material, causing diagnostic assays to fail. To overcome the problem, Meng How Tan…

Algorithmic prediction is disrupting how society manages an uncertain future. Whereas traditional forecasts distribute risk over a population, algorithmic systems predict the riskiness of particular individuals. I explore this transformation in the fields of insurance, medicine, and policing. Giving up the principle of shared uncertainty may come with a heavy…

The nominating institution Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on the breakthrough: Puchta is a pioneer who demonstrates that CRISPR/Cas as a site-specific nuclease can be used for restructuring complete plant chromosomes. He elucidated major mechanisms of DNA double strand break repair, and he is one of the leading scientists adopting this…

How Astronomy Explores the Past, Present and Future of the Universe The universe is a mysterious place – we know it is some 13.8 billion years old with the part we can observe being about 90 billion light years in diameter, which means that the most distant edges we can…

Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions that exist in nature and is essential for understanding the behavior of the Universe. This research introduces the development of our understanding of gravity. Also the graviton is related to the geometry of the universe which therefore obviously controls the geometry of…

We have developed an open platform for remote control of scientific equipment with live video for desktop and mobile devices. Supporting material guides the students through the lab at various levels, up to graduate students. The platform currently focuses on plasma physics but can be easily adapted for other fields.…

Founded in 2016, Plastic Odyssey is a floating laboratory/recycling centre powered entirely by plastics. Their three-year mission will deliver and support low tech solutions in communities across three continents.

“Fermenting Futures” explores the significance of yeast biotechnology from a cultural, ethical and aesthetic perspective, engaging audiences in the history and future of this under-recognised field and its potential to offer environmental solutions. The art installation explores and physically contains a CRISPR modified Pichia pastoris yeast that is simultaneously able…

In this Falling Walls Breakthrough Conversation with Hemai Parthasarathy, digital participants had the chance to discuss and ask questions. The interview series provided an intense personal atmosphere, in which high-level guests, speakers and panelists of the Falling Walls Science Summit 2021 focused on their individual research, career paths and experiences.…

C-DELTA is a breakthrough in creating a platform for large scale training on digital education for students and teachers around the world for free. It is about how to make digital learning more efficient for individuals and the society by recognising digital identity and footprints online, creating and sharing digital…

Our group works on finding and improving these “magnetoelectric” materials which might power the next generation of computers, phones and hitherto unthought-of new devices. Tags: Digitalisation, Energy, Green Tech.

Carried out over 10 years by artist-economist duo Chow and Lin, The Poverty Line visually documents the type and amount of food a person living by the poverty line can buy per day in different case-study Countries. The photographic study is based on data analysis and socio-economic research on lowest-income…

Deep ocean extreme environments – sites of immense beauty, wonder and intrigue – harbor unique and unimagined microorganisms that thrive at radically different pressure, temperature, salinity, and pH regimes compared to those on land or in the surface ocean. State-of-the-art genomic and computational approaches will guide targeted discovery of unique…

The nominating institution The OutCast Agency on the breakthrough: Ada combines future-proof technology with front-line medical research to advance knowledge and improve outcomes. Andreas led the rapid development of Ada’s COVID-19 assessment and screener, a free digital tool to help people identify and understand COVID-19 symptoms and guide them on…

Christoph Lotz argues that the development of innovative systems for additive manufacturing techniques combined with in situ resource utilization are a promising solution for permanently going to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

McDade developed and validated a method for quantifying SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in finger stick dried blood spot samples. This approach allows people to self-collect samples from home, and then mail them to the lab for analysis. McDade’s scientific aim and public health goal is to expand understanding of predictors of…

The nominating institution DWIH SAO PAULO on the breakthrough: The German language is known for long words with many consonants. This makes many learners consider German an impossible language to learn let alone pronounce. How can we use our mobile phone to overcome the challenges of learning German? Through the…

How Planetary Boundaries Envision A Safe Operating Space for Humanity The Anthropocene is a term often used to describe the geological epoch we live in – an age where humans more than any other factor in nature shape the face of the planet. For centuries, humanity has effected change on its…

Discover the world of chemistry at home: Our digital chemistry workshops offer students of 10-18 years the chance to experiment with non-toxic chemicals in a safe environment. Under the guidance of chemistry students, their home is transformed into a laboratory. The participants assume the role of a chemist and are…

Using computational methods, Jiao Jiao Li optimises the conditions for growing stem cells. The cells respond to environmental changes and output the most effective biomolecules for treating a specific disease.

The nominating institution Austrian Academy of Sciences on the breakthrough: Cachexia is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in various cancers, chronic inflammation and infections. But our understanding of it is limited, especially infection-associated cachexia (IAC). In the present paper, Bergthaler and his colleagues describe a model of reversible…

We developed a new charging method that can counter Solid Electrolyte Interface growing, therefore faster charging and lower temperature rise, also can revive the cells. My research is on EVs battery cells.   Tags: Energy, Engineering, Mobility & Transportation.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in high-income countries. Over 9.6 million people die every year from cancer. This disease is also present in other species across the tree of life. I have mapped 1098 species on the map of Earth, according to their habitat and diet, and have…

Our rich sites, monuments and artefacts are talking, but we cannot understand their stories. By using innovative digital technologies and linking together their multimodal data available we can recover their memories. Therefore, with the EU’s financial support we are developing ground-breaking ICT solutions to analyse this complex data, retrieve, reconstruct,…

Drawing Operations 1&2 and Omnia per Omnia trace an evolving process of making with robotic units and AI technologies. The evolution forms the basis of human and machine collaboration. By working with machines as collaborators, the drawing and painting artifacts exist as both works of art and research.

The key principles are to promote data-driven, inter-disciplinary approaches to social sciences and the humanities, foster academic research that involves the genuine participation (through co-design) of local communities, industry and government, and to develop innovative courses at Undergraduate and Masters Level that attracts a wide spectrum of learners at key…

The nominating institution Creative Destruction Lab on the breakthrough: CDL operates 9 sites located in top-tier institutions that translate regional excellence in research and innovation into entrepreneurial and commercial success. The CDL program employs an objectives-based mentoring process to enhance the performance of technical founders who learn from the insights…

Capitalizing on smart thermobimetal’s natural tendency to curl as the temperature rises, DORIS SUNG’s refreshing aesthetic skillfully disguises its true purpose: to use no energy to save energy in buildings. With goals to self-shade, self-ventilate, self-assemble or self-propel, Sung’s projects defy standard categorization. With a keen understanding of computation, biology,…

The nominating institution Sophya on the breakthrough: The ENTIRE world is dearly missing the organic, face-to-face, synchronous interaction that was life before coronavirus. Today, schools, companies, teams, startups, and even families feel socially disconnected, isolated, lonely, and unproductive. Sophya solves these problems by combining breakthrough ‘social’ technology with the right…

Set the saponin extraction method, formulate the biofungicide product, evaluate its effectiveness against phytopathogen in different crops. Tags: Bio-Tech, Circular Economy, Environment & Nature, Food & Agriculture.

The nominating institution German Aerospace Center on the project: It is a challenge to provide adequate living for a rapidly growing urban population. To cope with population influx, demographic shifts and climate change requires functioning and resilient cities. Here, a combination of Big Earth Data, AI and modern ICT can…

What makes our e-Learning platform atingi so unique is its focus on local needs. All our learning content is developed in cooperation with a constantly growing partner network, including many African Partners who know the local markets. That’s how we make sure that we provide content that is truly relevant.…

Little Big, Science is a voluntary Registered NGO, that was founded to bridge the apparent gap between the scientific community and the general public in Israel in a direct way. Our goal is to expose our readers and followers in the social media platforms, to the exciting discoveries, the thrilling…

Dang Huyen Chau of the TU Dresden was the jury’s choice and the overall 1st place winner of the global Falling Walls Lab Finale 2016. Dang presented her research on recycling oil-rich coffee grounds in order to offer an alternative biofuel.

In this Falling Walls Breakthrough Conversation with Anne Lamp, digital participants had the chance to discuss and ask questions. The interview series provided an intense personal atmosphere, in which high-level guests, speakers and panelists of the Falling Walls Science Summit 2021 focused on their individual research, career paths and experiences.…

I built a web app that allows people to help survey the trees in the cities, identify their species, keep track of their growth and help scientists to understand how trees react to climate change. With a simple formula, we calculate an approximate value of their Carbon fixation and he…

Professor Kevan Shokat at UCSF has achieved a breakthrough in cancer drug discovery.  The protein K-Ras has been described as “undruggable” for almost 40 years since its discovery as the first human oncogene in 1982.  There has been a worldwide hunt for a drug to inhibit its role in cancer,…

PRESENTED BY James Nguyen NOMINATED BY The National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) Tags: Quantum Security, Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Computing, Quantum Communication, Cyber Security

EH!WOZA and its various programmes engage adolescents and young adults from areas with high rates of HIV and TB (and recently COVID-19) to participate in workshops with high-impact biomedical research. Participants are invited to reflect on the individual, social, and emotional cost of disease through creative workshops providing technical skills,…

Bohnhoff et al. develop an entirely new scale-invariant and process-oriented approach to unravel earthquake nucleation and rupture physics. This bears enormous potential for future generations of adaptive seismic hazard assessment at major tectonic plate-boundaries and associated risk at colocated population centers. This will also critically improve mitigation of man-made seismic…

SUN-to-LIQUID uses a solar thermochemical cycle to convert sunlight, water and CO2 into renewable kerosene. The key components of the process are a highly concentrating solar field, a receiver-reactor and a gas to liquid unit. By direct conversion of thermal energy into chemical energy the process has a high theoretical…

How Micro- and Optoelectronics Lead to Transparent and Paper Transistors If you are happy that your mobile phone does not weigh 1 kilogram and cost $4000 like the first handheld model from 1973, you will appreciate the efforts of Elvira Fortunato, who is working on making technology as cheap and…

Nanotechnology is a promising therapeutic tool, but present implementations suffer from poor efficacy. My team and I are developing ultrasound-based micro/nanorobots with precise navigation capabilities that can overcome major limitations of existing nanodrugs. Ultrasound is safe, noninvasive, penetrates tissue, and is widely used in medicine, thus ultrasound-based propulsion will provide…