Long before they reached the Duomo (do you remember them?), brought by an American coffee shop chain, the palms arrived in Milan, in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, almost a century earlier.
In 1915, the first stone of the Città Studi complex was laid, and shortly afterwards the first palm trees were also planted. Postcards from the past, which bring us greetings from that era, show us that the palm trees were there even in the 1930s and 1940s. In that “expanse of Lambrate fields”, as Carlo Emilio Gaddadescribed it, there rose an exotic landscape; an African panorama under which the first students began to write our story. In 1920, the author of Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana. graduated in Electronic Engineering at the Politecnico. A year earlier, Gio Pontigraduated in Architecture. In the shade of a palm tree, they prepared for their future.
The postcards reached us thanks to the great virtual archive project Milano Sparita e da Ricordare, (Milan Disappeared and to Remember), a Facebook page that collects images and photos of the Milan of the past. There are many comments and shares of the photos of the Politecnico at the time of the palm trees. Someone writes “My father would remember it like this” and another tells us “They were replaced immediately after the war with black locusts and holly bushes.” Behind this collection is the desire to rediscover together the wonders of the past and present “of a city that many think is just fog and smog,” say the administrators of the page. And instead, we add, it is also vintage palm trees.
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Research and technological innovation, on the one hand, to develop new-generation orthoses; on the social front, on the other hand, the research engaged families, primary school teachers and sports associations. The goal is to compensate for the functional deficit of children with hemiplegia, enabling them to get involved in sport together with their classmates.
This is theGIFT project (enGIneering For sporT for all)launched by the Politecnico di Milano, one of the winners of the2021 #BeInclusive EU Sport Awards, the competition promoted by theEuropean Commissionto celebrate organizations that use sport to improve the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups. GIFT took first place in the“Breaking barriers” category , rewarding projects that demonstrate the concept of resilience by providingexamples of how to overcome obstacles to participation in sport.
As a starting point, the research focused on 19 primary school children with hemiplegia, with the future ambition to extend the project over time to other motor, cognitive and sensory disabilities.
Organized by the E4Sport laboratory, an interdepartmental laboratory at the Politecnico di Milano dedicated to the world of sport, GIFT was launched in 2019 thanks to your "5 per mille" income tax donations and with the support of numerous partners: IRCCS Eugenio Medea - Associazione La Nostra Famiglia, Università Cattolica di Milano, the associations Edumoto Yuky ONLUS, Polha Varese and Polisportiva Milanese 1979 Sport Disabili Onlus, together with the companies ITOP, BTS and Math&Sport. The project also benefits from the support of Claudio Arrigoni (Gazzetta dello Sport).
Credits home: www.som.polimi.it Credits header: Photo by Anna Earl on Unsplash
Brembo serves the teams that compete in the Formula One world championship. One challenge after another at a very fast pace, as explained in Gazzetta Motori by Andrea Algeri, Brembo F1 Manager and Politecnico Alumnus in Mechanical Engineering.
There are 10 Formula One teams equipped with Brembo braking and clutch systems: “In the racing world, substance is still dominant,” says Algeri. “The story began almost 50 years ago, in 1975, with the first cast iron brakes.” Today, this story is more than a challenge; it is a total revolution, as the engineer defines the new change in regulations. Which is certainly not the first. Revolutions that have knock-on effects on everyone, because motorsport is the largest field of automotive experimentation; a collective laboratory and a place where, in addition to skill, you also need imagination and vision:
“We are slightly further ahead than you may think. We try to imagine the future and what it will be like. Now, it is electric; energy recovery is the focus of the attention of our technicians and designers.”
Brembo, azienda leader nel mondo del MotorsportPinza freno Brembo per DucatiCredits: Gazzetta Motori
Imagination unites all the Alumni who work in Formula One: like Lucia Conconi, Alumna Ingegneria Aerospaziale and Head of Vehicle Performance in the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, who described to the Alumni editorial staff the dual spirit—that in the laboratory and that on the track—of each F1 team; or Alberto Taraborrelli, Trackside Control Systems Engineer in the Alpine F1 Team, who described the days leading up to the start of the world championship: “They are among the toughest and most difficult of the year, especially because the cars are so different and therefore so unfamiliar". Taraborrelli has always dreamed of working in Formula One. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in mechatronics and robotics and his best memory of the Poli is the Dynamis PRC, Formula Student Team at the Politecnico di Milano.
The cover story in the April edition of Nature Photonics talks about at a study resulting from a partnership between the Politecnico di Milano, CNR (Italian National Research Council) and the University of Vienna. Cover stories don't happen every day; and indeed, it is all about the achievement of something never done before. The papers are calling it the first “artificial quantum neuron” Ansa and RaiNews). are writing about it, for example). It promises to become the missing link between quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Why is it so important? What can it be used for?
We asked Andrea Crespi, researcher at the Politecnico di Milano and Engineering Physics PhD alumna, and member of the team that developed it.
THE STATE OF THE ART UP TO NOW
Some of the more efficient “traditional” neural networks, on which modern artificial intelligence algorithms are based, are made up of connections between “artificial neurons” called memristors (memory-resistors). These are electronic components that change their electrical resistance on the basis of a memory of the current that has passed through them previously. Artificial neuron networks can be “taught” to learn thanks to this property, and this is how they learn to perform complex tasks, such as understanding speech, recognising a face, interpreting images (for diagnostic purposes, for example) or driving a car (including racing cars, as achieved by the Polimove team, which programmed the fastest autonomous racing car in the world). It is the technology behind artificial intelligence.
THEN CAME QUANTUM COMPUTING
Up to now, we have been talking about electronic devices. However, in the meantime, the scientific world has also developed a new generation of computing, namely quantum computing. The fundamental difference is that instead of using electronic impulses, quantum computing exploits individual particles to code information. For example, Optical impulses made up of individual photons, which behave differently from electric current. The result is a processing power that is potentially much higher than that of the best “traditional” (or electronic) supercomputers.
Since the advantage of quantum computing is that it proportionally increases the number of operations that can be performed, it is particularly efficient for problems that, with an electronic device, would require a vast number of operations (and therefore huge amounts of time and energy) to be solved. Examples of its application include cryptography, search algorithms and physical system simulations.
THE MISSING LINK
The concept of quantum computing is nothing new; however, to date, no true quantum neural network has been created. In fact, a fundamental link was missing: the quantum memristor, the artificial quantum neuron. “The idea has existed for several years, but it was only recently that a group of physicians from the University of Vienna demonstrated that it can be done,” says Crespi. His research group, led by professor Roberto Osellame, designed and engineered the first true prototype of a quantum memristor, an optical device with the same functional characteristics as a memristor, capable of operating on quantum states of light:
“The information is no longer coded in an electrical signal, as is the case with traditional memristors. It is the optical transmission that varies; that is, the amount of light that can pass through the device, based on the amount of light that passed through it before.”
Before now, a device of this nature had only been theorised. What the Politecnico has created is therefore the first prototype quantum memristor, and perhaps the first “neuron” in an artificial quantum network.
10 years on social media is a long time, and what we have noticed during all this time together with you Alumni is that there is no greater positive or negative trigger (none!) – above all positive! – than a beautiful trip down Poli memory lane!
So we decided to jot down places and situations that tickle your nostalgia, and the result was a a very long list. After a careful selection, we have managed to narrow it down to the ‘10 things you miss about the Politecnico’. There are certainly more, certainly some we have forgotten or that have failed to reach the Top 10: if so, let us know in the comments! Who knows, maybe there will be a second episode...
Are you ready? Let's get started!
1. The swimming pool in via Ponzio
Those who had lessons or exams in the Trifoglio (building 13) in the summer knew that their spirits would be tested not only by the study but also by the echo of the dives coming through the open windows. One thing is certain: you came out the other side both physically and morally tougher.
Blue, red and yellow are the colours that come to mind when you think about Bovisa, but for the youngest – also the numerous murals that have transformed it into a veritable open-air museum.
3. Study nights on the architecture patio
How can you forget the patio, which in the evening became a melting pot of faculties, the place of crazy and desperate study sessions and discussions (and even for getting together to watch Italy in international matches).
The winning projects from the 2020 edition of Polisocial began last spring, when the University’s energies were directed most notably towards supporting the social context during what was still a particularly difficult time in terms of the pandemic emergency. The Politecnico wanted to boost the efforts of research groups, dedicating €500,000 (5 per mille tax donations from 2018) to the issue of “Vulnerability and Innovation”, focussing on contexts of health-related vulnerability and the social consequences they suffer from.
Saving water and taking production techniques where there are none.
The Hands project, financed by 5 per mille donations, transfers the university’s expertise to Mozambique.
Departments: DASTU, DCMC, DABC, DENG, DICA Tags: health, urban spaces, slum upgrading Location: Maputo, Mozambique Partners: AICS Mozambique, AVSI, Architetti Senza Frontiere Italia, Arquitectos sin Fronteras España, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane.
Credits: Polisocial
The recent pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of the population that lives in the Chamanculo district in Maputo, although this vulnerability already existed due to the lack of healthcare services, the inadequacy of the urban infrastructure such as roads and public spaces, overcrowding and inadequate waste management.
The HANDS project saw researchers of the Politecnico open a “Social Laboratory” dedicated to the production of Polichina, a liquid sanitiser “Made in Politecnico”. In addition to its immediate practical use, this initiative also has the aim of transferring knowledge and expertise to local stakeholders, with a view to improving waste management and ensuring the adequacy of the energy production model on both an urban and a national scale.
"We envision an automated system not much larger than a coffee machine,” explained alumnus and researcher Mattia Sponchioni, “to which we connect four different tanks containing the materials for producing Polichina: water, ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerol. You set a specific amount and the system produces it.” The prototype will be tested at certain nerve centres in Chamanculo such as schools, squares and markets: supply stations that need to be integrated with an intelligent system for the management of the waste produced as a result of the pandemic, such as facemasks and liquid sanitiser dispensers.
The “Social Laboratory” will also experiment with methods of electricity production for powering the Polichina distributors and procuring the raw materials locally from renewable sources in situ. In this situation in particular, the use of Polichina also has a positive impact in terms of saving water“We can reduce consumption from a question of litres to a matter of millilitres,” Sponchioni remarked, “hand washing consumes litres of potable water: you only need to spray a few millilitres of Polichina saving more than 95% of water which is scarce, especially in the most deprived places and where there is the risk of other diseases such as tuberculosis.”
Can you connect several patients to the same respirator?
With common ventilators, it’s a gamble. The Poli has designed MakingMEV, a multiple ventilator for 10 patients at a time.
Departments: DEIB, DMEC, DIG Tags: respiratory ventilation, emergency assistance, clinical innovation Partners: Alberto Zanella, anaesthetist and resuscitator at Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico (Milan) and researcher at the Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan
Photo by Adhy Savala on Unsplash
The MEV (Multiple Emergency Ventilator) system s a reimagining of the emergency support system for respiratory ventilation: a ventilator capable of supporting the respiration of up to 10 patients at the same time which is intrinsically safe and personalised to each patient..
Its core is in a mixture of pressurised oxygen at peak inspiratory airway pressure (Ppeak) to prevent damage from mechanical ventilation. Ventilation is provided to a maximum of 10 patients, each assisted in a personalised way in terms of the controlled volume and the durations of the inspirations and expirations. The mechanical system comprises of a water-sealed bell jar which fixes the Ppeak on the basis of Archimedes’ principle. The stainless-steel bell, which has a diameter of 50cm and a height of 60/70cm, is inserted inside a cylinder which, due to the water cavity, maintains the oxygen at the desired pressure. The gas is distributed to the intubated patients through simple 2” stainless-steel tubes which are easily assembled, self-supporting and modular in order to be suitable for various environments such as triage, field hospitals and ordinary hospitals. The entire distribution system is compatible with high concentrations of oxygen.
he only “special piece” in the MEV design is the bell jarThe main line is made from industrial elements, while the inspiration attachments for each patient and the expiration line are adapted from common ventilators. All the mechanical parts can be stored in a warehouse indefinitely and sanitised for immediate use when needed unlike traditional ventilators which, if stored for too long, require maintenance that can last up to one month before they can be used, especially in large scale emergencies such as that which occurred during the Coronavirus pandemic. MEV could therefore avoid bottlenecks at maintenance businesses and provide emergency intubation for a large number of patients at the same time.
“The idea came about during the pandemic wave in Italy at the start of explained Beniamino Fiore, alumnus and researcher at the Politecnico di MilanoHowever, taking a broader view, we foresee a benefit for emergency situations in general and for less organised healthcare systems in developing countries,” and he added “MakingMEV was our response to the emergency, our way of saying: let’s do something real!.
New technologies from the Poli for the safety of respiratory support
The project of the Politecnico di Milano SAFER project, financed by your 5X1000 donations, is developing a portable respirator for low- and middle-income settings.
Departments: DEIB, DMEC, DCMC Tags: post-partum haemorrhage, access to care, CBT technique, Biomedical devices Location: Vietnam, West Africa, Italy Partners: MTTS Asia (social enterprise); ONG Day One Health; Italian Society of Neonatology; CUAMM ONG; ASST Bergamo - Department of Respiratory Medicine; other medical professionals
credits: Polisocial
Even before the pandemic, a lack of oxygen and ventilators for respiratory support in low-and middle-income countries caused thousands of deaths per year from conditions such as infant pneumonia, neonatal respiratory distress, post-partum haemorrhage and traumatic injuries - which would be preventable with widespread and equal availability of respiratory support resources. The SAFER project, which began last spring aims to develop a personal respiratory device that is simple, robust, portable and low-cost (a simple user interface that includes a pulse oximeter) for the administration of respiratory support outside of intensive care units and, above all, in limited-resource settings. The research group designed the device by integrating the subsystems and optimising the efficiency of the air compression, making the device robust and capable of operating in conditions that are less than ideal.
New production technologies and innovative materials are being considered, such as 3D printed replacement parts for consumables to facilitate their supply during emergencies and in low- and middle-income countries, in addition to intelligent control systems that adapt the production of oxygen to the patient’s needs, synchronising the supply of oxygen with the patient’s respiration. Such a solution could in fact be used in domiciliary care , ncluding in settings closer to our own, for example in the case of patients with chronic or mild respiratory diseases, saving intensive care resources for seriously unwell patients and alleviating pressure on intensive care centres. In limited-resource settings, the adoption of the proposed technology and the competencies acquired through the capacity building programme will lower the death rate associated with acute respiratory diseases by reducing the number of preventable deaths, even in ordinary times.
A simple idea for combatting post-partum deaths of mothers
Balloon Against Maternal Bleeding, codename "BAMBI": financed by your "5 per mille" donations.
Departments: DCMC, DMEC, DESIGN Tags: post-partum haemorrhage, access to care, CBT technique, Biomedical devices Location: Central Africa, South America, Southeast Asia Partners: Dr. Alberto Zanini; CUAMM – Medici con l’Africa; Soleterre Onlus
credits: Polisocial
.Post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) is a global obstetrics emergency: it is the main cause of maternal death in the world. Of approximately 140,000 deaths caused annually by PPH, 99% occur in developing countries, with devastating social consequences for communities that are already vulnerable due to precarious economic conditions. In the most serious cases of PPH, losses of half a litre of blood per minute can be reached, leading to the death of the patient within a few minutes. In countries where births take place predominantly in domestic settings without the presence of a doctors, it is often difficult (if not impossible) to reach a hospital in time in the event of PPH. While the standard tool for managing PPH in developed countries is the Bakri® device, it is not suitable for large-scale use in developing countries due to its very high cost. The main objective of the BAMBI project is to create a new device capable of a correct and effective management of PPH at a cost of less than 5 USD per unit.
The device must be easy and intuitive to use without the support of medical staff or in field hospitals in the most extreme cases. After the creation of the first prototype, thanks to the financing received through 5X1000 donations, in 2021 the researchers concentrated on resolving certain technical problems linked to the availability of materials, the assembly methods of the various components and the impossibility of carrying out the procedure in a sterile environment. The process of patenting and field testing are currently underway.
Cities and Health Centres for Resilient Communities
Putting a plan for community healthcare into action. A research project financed by "5 per mille" donations
Departments: DASTU, DABC, DIG, DESIGN, DMEC Tags: health and social care, health culture, urban innovation Location: Piacenza, Italy Partners: USL Piacenza Health Authority; Comune di Piacenza; Comitato Consultivo Misto delle Associazioni; Emilia-Romagna Region; Associazione Diabetici Piacenza; Comitato Sportivo Italiano (CSI) – Piacenza Local Committee
Credits: Polisocial
The Covid-19 emergency has highlighted the vulnerabilities of our national healthcare system, the facilities of which quickly became distressed due to the weak response of community services. The Coltivare_Salute.com project is specifically intended to strengthen the community network through the key role of Case della Salute della Comunità (Community Health Centres), also known as Centri Socio Sanitari Territoriali (Territorial Health and Social Care Centres) .It is a multidisciplinary project which brings together the medical expertise of the Piacenza Health Authority and the knowledge of other institutional and voluntary partners, including architecture, management engineering, design and communications knowledge.
“Even before the pandemic", explained the researcher Maddalena Buffoli, “we had carried out research and visited the best Health Centres, including across Europe, that represented a point of reference for community healthcare. These structures have the aim of being a reference point for the citizen for less serious conditions and injuries that don’t involve an emergency that needs to be handled in hospital: clinics, collection centres, preventative services, GP practices, basic diagnostics, minor injuries units, settings for chronic conditions".
Health is understood to be the psychological and physical wellbeing of a person and as such the Health Centres place the role of healthcare alongside the role of social care, aiming to care for the person as a whole with all of his or her problems: the role of community care. The aim of the research is to define the post-Covid planning, organisational, communications and location guidelines for Health Centres, particularly in the urban setting: not only centres providing healthcare services but opportunities for urban, social, architectural and environmental regeneration to “cultivate health” in the communities. In order to evaluate its community function, the research started a co-planning board with the Piacenza Health Authority, home to one of the University’s local campuses, which foresees the creation of a new facility which will become part of an operational and methodological experiment for a project applicable to all Community Health Centres nationally.
The Politecnico di Milano has obtained from the European Commission important funding for two research projects: one for the fight against breast cancer and the other for the fight against climate change..
This takes the form of two ERC Advanced Grants 2021, funding awarded by the European Research Council to researchers well-established in their field, in order to carry out innovative and high-risk projects. The selection for this type of funding is very competitive: this year, out of 1735 projects submitted, only 14.6% obtained the funds. With these two projects, the Politecnico di Milano has been awarded a total of 86 European Individual Grants ( ERC and Marie Curie).
SUPERCOMPUTERS THAT CONSUME 5000 TIMES LESS ENERGY
Daniele Ielmini, professor at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, will lead ANIMATE (ANalogue In-Memory computing with Advanced device TEchnology), a project that aims to develop a new computing concept to reduce energy consumption in machine learning. We don’t think about it when we use a computer, but the energy cost of the actions we perform on the internet, starting with the everyday things, is very high. Data centres, which currently meet most of the world's AI needs, now consume about 1% of global energy demand, with growth expected to reach up to 7% by 2030.
Apparently simple operations, such as searching for a consumer product or service (for example when we book holidays or choose a film on a streaming site) are based on data-intensive algorithms and have an significant impact on the production of greenhouse gases: it has been estimated that training a conventional neural network for artificial intelligence produces the same amount of carbon dioxide as 5 cars in their full cycle of use.
Professor Ielmini’s preliminary ANIMATE research has shown that computational energy requirements can be reduced by closed-loop in-memory computing (CL-IMC), which can solve linear algebra problems in a single computational step. In CL-IMC, the time to solve a given problem does not increase in proportion to the size of the problem, unlike other computing concepts, such as digital and quantum computers. Thanks to the reduction in calculation time, CL-IMC requires 5,000 times less energy than digital computers with the same precision in terms of number of bits. Ielmini's project will develop the device and circuit technology, system architectures and set of applications to fully validate the CL-IMC concept.
A PROTOCOL TO NEUTRALIZE THE NATURAL BARRIER IN BREAST CANCER
Manuela Raimondi, Professor in the ‘Giulio Natta’ Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, combines mechanobiology, bioengineering, oncology, genetics, microtechnology, biophysics and pharmacology to develop a new method for the treatment of breast cancer.
In this type of cancer, the aggressiveness is related to the fibrotic stiffening of the tumour tissue. Fibrosis progressively prevents drugs from reaching the tumour cells, due to the formation of a matrix with mechanical properties that stabilise the tumour's vascular network. Professor Raimondi's BEACONSANDEGG research Professor Raimondi is developing a platform capable of recapitulating tumour fibrosis by exploiting the vascularisation of a living organism.
The project is called BEACONSANDEGG (Mechanobiology of cancer progression): it will model microtumours at various levels of fibrosis, bypassing the fact that some characteristics of the tumour are not reproducible in vitro. Human breast cancer cells adhered to 3D polymeric microplates will be used. The microtumours will be implanted in vivo in the respiratory membrane of embryonated avian eggs in order to elicit a fibrotic foreign body reaction in the microtumours. The geometry of the 3D microsupports will be manipulated to condition the infiltration of the microtumours by the vessels and cells of the embryo. This study model will be validated with anticancer drugs whose clinical outcome is known to depend on the level of tumour fibrosis.
It will also provide a standardisable and ethical platform to promote the clinical translation of new therapeutic products in oncology. This is a key issue for Professor Raimondi: some of the research and modelling tools she has developed over the last ten years have precisely this goal: to reduce drastically or replace the pre-clinical experimental phases in vivo, for example, with the use of 3D supports for cell cultures and microfluidic chambers for tissue and organoid culture (we talked about this in Issue 6 of MAP).
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