On 3 April 2024, a magnitude 7.4 quake--Taiwan's strongest in 25 years--shook the country's eastern coast. Stringent building codes spared most structures, but mountainous and remote villages were devastated by landslides. When disasters affect large and inaccessible areas, responders often turn to satellite images to pinpoint affected areas and prioritise relief efforts. But mapping landslides from satellite imagery by eye can be time-intensive, said Lorenzo Nava, who is jointly based at Cambridge's Departments of Earth Sciences and Geography. "In the aftermath of a disaster, time really matters," he said.

Elvis Nava is a fellow at ETH' Zurich's AI center as well as a doctoral student at the Institute of Neuroinformatics and in the Soft Robotics Lab. In ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab, a white robot hand reaches for a beer can, lifts it up and moves it to a glass at the other end of the table. There, the hand carefully tilts the can to the right and pours the sparkling, gold-coloured liquid into the glass without spilling it. Computer scientist Elvis Nava is the person controlling the robot hand developed by ETH start-up Faive Robotics. The 26-year-old doctoral student's own hand hovers over a surface equipped with sensors and a camera.

Elvis Nava is a fellow at ETH' Zurich's AI center as well as a doctoral student at the Institute of Neuroinformatics and in the Soft Robotics Lab. In ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab, a white robot hand reaches for a beer can, lifts it up and moves it to a glass at the other end of the table. There, the hand carefully tilts the can to the right and pours the sparkling, gold-coloured liquid into the glass without spilling it. Computer scientist Elvis Nava is the person controlling the robot hand developed by ETH start-up Faive Robotics. The 26-year-old doctoral student's own hand hovers over a surface equipped with sensors and a camera.