Press release - January 28th, 2013
The Guardian Angels Quest for Zero Power Sensor Systems Continues
The Guardian Angels project, one of four finalists in the European FET Flagship initiative, will live on
thanks to continued support from the partner institutions. The Zero-power technologies it develops
will become a key innovation platform for European industry, large component manufacturers,
system integrators, service providers and SMEs. It will act as a generator of start-up companies and
new services for health, the environment, the ageing society, intelligent transportation, energy and
human interaction.
"The Guardian Angels Project is the most innovative and comprehensive project I have been in contact
with these past years. It is much more than continuing excellent research. It is indeed something
unique with great potential for a technical and social revolution" said Gerd Binnig, 1986 Nobel Prize in
Physics and inventor of the scanning tunneling microscope.
“The potential created by Guardian Angels to collect real-time, real-world data from the environment
and patients simultaneously has the power to revolutionize brain healthcare as we know it” stated
Magali Haas, Chief Science & Technology Officer at One Mind for Research, USA.
‘’The research towards the development of Guardian Angels as being the future zero-power intelligent
autonomous systems that will actively assist humans from their infancy to old age, will in my view
contribute to addressing grand challenges Europe will face in the coming years" said Luc Van den hove,
CEO of IMEC, Belgium.
As a candidate for the European FET Flagship Initiatives, the Guardian Angels project that encompasses
revolutionary self-powered smart devices for medical, transportation, and environmental use involved
66 partners: 29 universities, 16 research institutions and 21 companies. Now, 58 of these partners
have already confirmed their intention to move forward in the Guardian Angels Consortium and
pursue public-private partnerships involving national funding, the European Community, Universities,
and its partners IBM, Infineon, NXP, Philips, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Sanofi, Siemens, STMicroelectronics,
Texas Instruments, Thales and others (see full list below).
Guardian Angels for a Smarter Life congratulates the Human Brain Project and Graphene, two winning
finalists, for their success in the race for the European FET Flagship Initiative Prize. Guardian Angels is
proud to have been able to reach the ultimate rung of the competition, being nominated among the
"final four" places.
"This remarkable journey to the final-four alone shows the quality of our project and track record,”
said Professors Adrian Ionescu of EPFL (Lausanne) and Christofer Hierold of ETH (Zurich), coordinators
of Guardian Angels. “Everyone involved is so convinced that we must continue with the momentum,
the cohesion, and work together as the Guardian Angels Consortium that we are now moving forward
into a new chapter of research, development and technology transfer."
“This project addresses crucial social issues such as health, safety, security and mobility. As an
industrial partner, we strongly believe that Guardian Angels will promote the competitiveness of
European industrial players, by offering them the opportunity to develop a wide range of applications
for everyday life”, added Sylvain Allano, Scientific director of PSA Peugeot Citroën Group.
Press release - January 28th, 2013
Zero-power technologies and new frontiers of innovation
The Guardian Angels partners have joined forces to help develop the electronics of tomorrow, with an
ambition to create "Zero-Power" devices that are completely energy autonomous. This “Zero-Power”
technology will in turn help to devise solutions to improve quality of life through new prevention and
communication tools, medical devices focused on the human element and prophylactic environmental
sensors that monitor the quality of air, water and food, for example. Additionally, only through the
zero power concept could a comprehensive realization of the “internet of things” be materialized.
To achieve this, researchers are working simultaneously on two fronts. The first is to drastically reduce
the power consumption of electronic components, like microprocessors, memory, sensors and
wireless communication interfaces, among others. The second is to develop techniques to recover
small amounts of energy - solar radiation, vibration, movement, and temperature differences, coupled
with dramatically improved energy storage options - a considerable advantage, especially for
implantable medical devices, but also in everyday life.
The researchers did not wait for the end of the application process to progress in their work. They
have already achieved remarkable results, from energy efficient tunneling transistors (article in
Nature), world-record nanostructured solar-cells (article in Science), flexible environmental sensors
(article in Materials today), the use of carbon nanotubes and nanowires for integrated low power
sensors (Article in Journal of Material Resarch and Nature Nanotechnology) and ultra-low power
wireless communications (Article in IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits) to new biological sensors
(Article in Proceedings of Wireless Health'10). To translate such breakthroughs into new applications
the unifying effort proposed by the Guardian Angels FET Flagship is critically needed at European scale.
The Guardian Angels Consortium will also pursue its alliance with the One Mind for Research project
(www.1mind4research.org), uniting European and North American research efforts. The revolutionary
Zero Power Biosensors and its potential for analysis will be used for monitoring and treatment of
major brain diseases.
Renewed support
"The prospects, both in research and industry, are enormous,” said Ionescu. This project also has the
advantage of having partners at all stages of the value chain, which makes it very interesting from an
economic point of view. Guardian Angels therefore is beginning its search for new sources of funding
through funds dedicated to research in Switzerland and Europe, private support and investment from
the partner companies. The EPFL and ETH Zurich Board of Directors affirm their intention to support
the Consortium in their applications, making it a priority at the next ETH Board meeting.
Press release - January 28th, 2013
Media Contacts:
Prof. Adrian Ionescu, EPFL, +41 21 693 39 78, [email protected]
Prof. Christofer Hierold, ETH Zurich, +41 44 632 31 43, [email protected]
Guardian Angels supporting partners:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich, Aridhia
informatics, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux energies alternatives, Consiglio Nazionale delle
Ricerche, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Centre Suisse d’électronique et de
microtechnique, Agencia estatal consejo superior de investigaciones cientificas, Centre technologic de
telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Forschungszentrum Juelich GMBH,
Fraunhofer EMFT Munich and IIS-EAS Dresden, HiQScreen, IBM Research, Interuniversitair microelectronica centrum vzw, Stichting Imec Nederland, Imperial college of science, technology and
medicine, Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique, Instytut technologii
elektronowej, Consorzio nazionale interuniversitario per la nanoelettronica, Kungliga Tekniska
Hoegskolan, Katholieke universiteit Leuven, NXP Semiconductors Belgium, NXP Semiconductors
Netherlands, Philips electronics Nederland, Peugeot Citroen automobiles, Senarclens, Leu + partners,
Siemens, Institut Sinano Association, STmicroelectronics Crolles 2 SAS, THALES, University College
Cork, national university of Ireland, Cork, The chancellor, master and scholars of the university of
Cambridge, Universidad complutense de Madrid, Lunds Universitet, Universitat Politecnica de
Catalunya, Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT, Charité – Universitaetmedizin Berlin, Albert-LudwigsUniversitaet Freiburg, University of Glasgow, greenTEG, Fundacio privada institut catala de
nanotecnologia, Infineon Technologies AG, Institutul national de cercetare dezvoltare pentru
microtehnologie, University of Liverpool, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, National center for
scientific research “Demokritos”, Sanofi-Aventis Recherche et développement, STMicroelectronics SRL,
Stockholm Universitet, Slovenska Technicka univerzita bratislave, Texas Instruments France,
Technische universiteit Eindhoven, Technische universitaet Muenchen, Universitat autonoma de
Barcelona, Université catholique de Louvain, Universitaet Siegen, Universiteit Twente