Earlier this year, the FVLLMONTI Project team unveiled major results from their pioneering research on a novel 3D chip architecture designed to enable real-time translation.
This collaborative European initiative — carried out over the past five years — brought together leading experts in nanotechnology, microelectronics, and artificial intelligence, all united by a common goal: to overcome language barriers through technology.
Together, they developed a new class of ultra-efficient artificial neural network accelerators capable of performing real-time translation within a compact, energy-efficient device, without the need for an Internet connection. This breakthrough paves the way for natural, seamless communication across languages, while ensuring complete data confidentiality.
The potential applications are vast, ranging from tourism, international trade, and diplomacy to any field where natural multilingual communication is essential.
Beyond translation, the project’s advances in 3D chip architectures could transform how AI runs on small, embedded systems — from medical wearables to autonomous drones.
To learn more about this technological milestone, watch the newly released outreach video on SciTube:
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The FVLLMONTI project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program.
It is coordinated by Prof. Cristell Maneux, Director of the IMS Laboratory at the University of Bordeaux, and supported by a core team consisting of:
- Dr. Jens Trommer, Senior Scientist at NaMLab gGmbH;
- Dr. Guilhem Larrieu, CNRS Director of Research at the LAAS-CNRS laboratory;
- Dr. Oskar Baumgartner, Chief Operating Officer of Global TCAD Solutions (GTS);
- Prof. Ian O’Connor, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Control Engineering at Ecole Centrale de Lyon;
- Dr. Giovanni Ansaloni, researcher and lecturer at the Embedded Systems Laboratory of EPFL Lausanne;
- Dr. Jean-Luc Rouas, CNRS Researcher and co-head of the Data Processing and Analysis team at the Bordeaux Computer Science Research Laboratory (LaBRI).
FVLLMONTI involves key collaborators from the IMS Laboratory, the University of Bordeaux, CNRS, École Centrale de Lyon, NaMLab, Global TCAD Solutions, LAAS-CNRS and EPFL.
