EnergyVille and employs 400 researchers whose work centers around six interdisciplinary domains: photovoltaics, electrical and thermal storage, power control and conversion, electrical and thermal networks, buildings and districts, strategies and markets. Artificial Intelligence Imec performs advanced research on artificial intelligence and was awarded 750.000 USD twice in 2019 by DARPA in a machine-learning competition . In a 2017 report, The Financial Times named imec’s self-learning neuromorphic chip one of the fifty ideas that will change the world and was described by the newspaper as having the potential to revolutionize computing. Smart Cities In 2017, the Flemish government commissioned imec to support the 13 leading Flemish cities and the Flemish community in Brussels in their transition to becoming smart cities. imec was also commissioned by the Flemish government and the City of Antwerp to create Europe’s largest lab for Internet of Things applications. Image Sensors and Vision Systems In 2019, the state of Florida declared a partnership with imec to develop hyperspectral technology that is able to better detect invasive Burmese and rock pythons, which have been permanently damaging the Everglades’ eco-systems. Smart Health Neuropixels Technology The performance of the Neuropixels probes and their potential for transformational neuroscience experiments was described in a November 9, 2017 paper published in Nature. In 2019, The New York Times reported that imec's Neuropixels technology is widely recognized as the most advanced method of gathering data from brain cells. Brain-On-Chip Research In 2018, imec announced the creation of a research venture together with KU Leuven, UZ Leuven and VIB, called Mission Lucidity. The venture’s aim is to decode dementia. imec is creating human-specific living brain models, so called 'brains-on-chips’ which automate and miniaturize human stem cell manipulations, and developing technology to generate programmable, instrumented 3D brain models with single-cell precision. The project was supported by a Collaborative Science Award of one million dollars by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Point of care blood test devices (Johns Hopkins University & miDiagnostics) Peter Peumans, in charge of imec’s life science technologies program, helped found miDiagnostics and was appointed CTO. In 2019, NASA awarded funding to miDiagnostics to test a technology for monitoring astronauts’ health status under zero gravity conditions, with the aim of advancing space health diagnostics. Wearables Imec develops wearable devices. Its technologies have gained several approvals by regulatory agencies such as the FDA and PMDA and have made contributions to studies published in Nature. Through its