Digitalization is more than just artificial intelligence

The Institute for Computational Life Sciences (ICLS) hosted the Computational Life Sciences Day on January 8, 2025. Among the more than 150 participants were representatives from the fields of healthcare, pharmacy, biotechnology, agro-food, the environment and hardware and software development. In his welcoming address, Institute Director Thomas Ott pointed out that the focus on AI - and Large Language Models LLM in particular - was far too narrow and called for a broader perspective. The title of the event should be seen in this light. In addition to AI, two topics played important roles in many of the presentations: Digital twins, i.e. digital representations of real objects or processes, and robots.

Models need care - through human intelligence

Lukas Hollenstein, Head of the Digital Labs & Production research focus area at the ZHAW, spoke in his keynote speech on "Modeling Lab & Production Systems with Human and Artificial Intelligence" and immediately took up the topic of digital twins. These are constantly evolving and are very useful, e.g. for predictive maintenance of production systems. Specifically, he used a digital twin of a bioreactor to show what the individual groups in his research focus are working on. He emphasized that a model is always involved and that this must be maintained. This requires human intelligence. In addition to the bioreactor example, Lukas Hollenstein also presented example projects from the food sector, such as the supply chain for cocoa mass or wheat.

Following the keynote speech, four representatives from the industry had their say. In the first presentation, Thomas Zaugg from Roche addressed the challenges facing robotics as automation progresses towards the intelligent laboratory. Today, he said, there are still too many isolated solutions that need to be connected. He also highlighted the interesting aspect that robots can be used in different ways in laboratories, whether in interaction with humans during the day or autonomously at night. Alexander Blass from Neura Robotics presented cognitive robots as a trump card for humans. In contrast to other robots, these would not treat people like machines, but as people.

He asked the crucial question of what we actually want from AI and answered it using the striking example of waste disposal. Generative AI only provides advice, he said. What is needed, however, are intelligent assistants that support people everywhere and at all times, i.e. that dispose of waste straight away. Ahmad Asraf and Bruno Olivera from Bioengineering took us into the world of bioreactors and their digital twins. They were supported in their presentation by Muriel Zumbihl, who worked on digital twins of bioreactors and the interface to the process that is to run in the bioreactor as part of her ZHAW Master's thesis. In the last presentation, Angela Botros from DataHow presented her approach to hybrid modeling. Biological processes are both too complex for pure simulations and too complex to use enough data for data-driven machine learning. That's why they combine the two to create hybrid modeling.

Presentation from the institute and its students

Presentations from the research groups of the Institute of Computational Life Sciences and their research partners formed the second part of the symposium. Two students (Bachelor's and Master's), a doctoral student and two alumni also had their say. The work presented showed the breadth of the study programs - from lawn mowing robots and computer-aided enzyme design to event-based cameras.

Maria Anisimova from the Center for Bioinformatics kicked off the research groups and presented current research projects on biomarkers. She was accompanied by Julien Duc from Nexco Analytics, which offers data analysis as a service. He presented possible joint projects for students. Sebastiano Caprara from Balgrist University Hospital Zurich spoke on behalf of the Center for Computational Health. He showed how an agile framework can be used to accelerate clinical research with digital twins in the field of orthopaedics. Yulia Sandamirskaya from the Centre for Cognitive Computing shed light on the questions of where we stand technologically today with assistance robots and what is still needed for a breakthrough. For the Centre for Digital Labs and Production, Robert Vorburger presented how agent-based AI systems can be used to successfully integrate generative AI into laboratories and production. Research partner PRORES concluded the event with René Puls. He pointed out the exciting developments in commercial space travel. Starlab Space will build one of three science parks worldwide in Dübendorf and develop it as a commercial platform for research and production in the life sciences sector, among other things.

Source: www.zhaw.ch