On the occasion of Expo2020, the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano and the Regione Lombardia will join forces under the (metaphorical) roof of Innovation House : located a few steps from the site of the universal exhibition in Dubai, it will be the place to be with a polytechnic matrix, a sort of "Fuori Expo", in the footsteps of the Fuori Salone, where companies from all over the world are invited to become partners to organize events, business, cultural and convivial meetings, new connections, generate new business ideas in a context with a target of millions of international visitors.
In particular, even if not only, all Alumni and all Alumnae will be welcome together with the companies they represent and in which they work : the Innovation House is designed to be a point of support for all the realities that share the DNA and polytechnic values. An opportunity to create a system and continue to cultivate a unique ecosystem in terms of excellence and innovative capabilities , together with companies and institutions.
We asked Professor Andrea Sianesi , President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, to tell us about the initiative and to explain what unique opportunities it reserves for Alumni and Alumnae.
Entrepreneurs, managers, teachers, researchers, consultants, and representatives of institutions: these are the "magnificent 50", the Inspiring Fifty Italian women who distinguished themselves in the world of innovation in 2021. Fifty women in the STEM field, which is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, bringing together research and industrial fields from digital , artificial intelligence, robotics, life sciences and so on.
Credits: www.italy.inspiringfifty.org
AN EUROPEAN MODEL AROUND THE WORLD
Inspiring Fifty was created in the Netherlands to highlight women at the top of their fields in the technological world . An annual appointment in Europe since 2015, it has spread all over the world and this year took place in Italy the second edition of the event, which received over 200 applications of the highest profile . The Italian edition is held in collaboration with Eni, Dazn and Klecha & Co. Media partner on Corriere della Sera, which dedicates an in-depth analysis to the topic and underlines the motto of the initiative, “If she can see it, she can be it” . That is: if he can see her, he can also become like her, a message to girls looking for new role models to inspire themselves.
The 50 selected professionals work in IT, digital media, e-commerce, physics, aerospace, artificial intelligence, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, finance and so on. They were selected by a jury made up of prominent personalities from the world of business, business and academia.
In the 2021 list, also 5 experts in technology at Politecnico at an international level . Let's see them.
INNOVATORS AT POLITECNICO
Cristina Canavesi , Alumna in telecommunications engineering, is Co- founder & President at LighTop Tech Corp. Elena Bottinelli, Alumna in electronic engineering is Head of Innovation, Digitalization and Sustainability of the San Donato Group.
Guendalina Cobianchi , SVP Business Development & Partnerships in V-Nova and Alumna in management engineering, comments her nomination with a message to girls: «For me " success" means having followed the intuition and the desire to venture into something that had never been done before , undertaking a path of radical innovation ».
By supporting the GIRLS @ POLIMI project you can contribute together with other donors to create scholarships to support girls enrolling in engineering degree courses with low female attendance. Donate now .
Credits header e home: www.italy.inspiringfifty.org
Project DESOLINATION , Code name of "Demonstration of concentrated SOLar power coupled wIth advaNced desAlinaTion system in the gulf regION", was funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program.
With a total investment of over 12 million euros, over a period of 48 months and with the coperation of 19 academic and business partners around the world , of which the Politecnico is the lead partner, the research group will experiment with innovative solutions for concentrated solar energy and for water desalination . The researchers will work on integrating these two technologies with potential applications of unprecedented levels of efficiency.
Credits: AZoCleantech.com
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region has been identified as the experimentation area for the project: a pilot plant will be put into operation in Saudi Arabia which for the first time will combine the two technologies and which will offer electricity at the same time. and desalinated water at affordable prices, while ensuring a substantial reduction in the level of CO2 emissions compared to the currently most popular desalination systems. Find out more about the European project DESOLINATION at this link .
The project will involve 19 partners in 9 European Union countries and 3 GCC countries, including universities and research centers (Politecnico di Milano, Fraunhofer Institute, Lund University, Cranfield University, Tekniker, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, University of Brescia , Technical University of Eindhoven, University of Maribor, Luleå University of Technology, King Saud University, University of Bahrain and German University of Technology), industrial companies (Baker Hughes, Cobra and ACSP), and Small and medium-sized enterprises (Protarget, Temisth and Euroquality).
Credits: Robotics & Automation News
The coordinator of the project is Alumnus and teacher of the Department of Energy of the Politecnico di Milano Giampaolo Manzolini, who recently participated in another European project: FReSMe (From residual steel gasses to methanol).
According to the researchers' estimates, the system developed during the 4 years of work could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Italian steel mills by at least 61% compared to the current situation.
"Venetia with the Cinema Festival and Milan with Design will show the world that Italy is at the forefront of the opening post-pandemic: our country is the only one that at the moment is able to react and challenge the future. We mush be very proud as it is an unique moment in time."
Speaking to Corriere della Sera Stefano Boeri , architect and Alumnus of Politecnico di Milano describes Supersalone , the new edition of the Salone del Mobile of Milan, of which he is the curator, which for this exceptional return will be presented with a new name and a new look.
Credits: Laila Pozzo
"The "Supersalone" will be the first major Italian trade fair event after the outbreak of the pandemic. Is called Super because it will be so good that cannot be missed and because it will show together for the first time the great design brands, young makers, international schools, great design icons, the greatest Italian chefs and many main characters of the art and architecture scene. […]. “Supersalone” is the bright response of a SuperItalia to the long night of the pandemic ».
The event, which will continue until 10 September 2021 at Fiera Milano in Rho, hosts 425 brands, 170 creatives, 39 makers for a total of 1900 projects exhibited in a continuous gallery of more than 68,000 square meters. To these are added a large exhibition at the Compasso d'Oro Museum ( learn more about the museum here) and meetings and talks with the protagonists of architecture and design, ready to testify what Boeri defines" the symbol of a new Renaissance".
Credits: agi.it
Among the many novelties of this year, there is the transformation of the event into something usable by all and not only by professionals and the integration between physical and digital, which allows visitors to view the products displayed by simply framing a QR code . A special mention also for the green aspect of the event: all the fittings and materials will be disassembled and reused.
«We expect to reach at the Fair 30 thousand tickets: - continue Boeri - yes he said this would be a good starting point, reaching 50,000 a success. We have already sold more than 30 thousand, and we are only on the first day, so we are already beyond what we hoped for. And above all, 50% of bookings come from abroad. We have already reached the minimum threshold for which to say: "We did it" ".
Paralympics and more: the fourth edition of the Fight Camp was held in a hot summer in Milan. The intensive rehabilitation camp through sport organized by the foundation FightTheStroke is dedicated to children with cerebral palsy.
Politecnico di Milano joined the camp with ACCEPT (Adaptive Climbing for CErebral Palsy Training) , an adapted and sensorized climbing wall designed to assist in the rehabilitation and analyze the rehabilitation progress of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and more generally of children with motor problems.
The project has allowed children at Fight Camp to use climbing as a tool for training, inclusion and analysis of rehabilitation progress, combining sport with a recreational and inclusive activity .
Together with ACCEPT, the boys and girls also joined the project of accessible video games through Playable, supported by the Cariplo Foundation and in collaboration with the Policlinico di Milano, La Nostra Famiglia by Bosisio Parini, Fifth Ingenium, CNR; Other activities at Fight Camp were the “Magic club” program in collaboration with Dido Green, UK; fencing training adapted in wheelchair, in collaboration with Federscherma .
MORE ABOUT PROJECT ACCEPT
ACCEPT, in prototype version, will remain in use at FightTheStroke, and will be hosted in the PlayMore spaces (sports center in Milan, Moscova area) even after the end of the project.
Sport climbing is a physically demanding activity that requires, among other skills, concentration, motor planning and sequential thinking. ACCEPT responds to the need to rehabilitate but also to practice sports in an inclusive manner , in routes with difficulty adaptable to participants: from able-bodied subjects to a possible replicability even in children with autism, where climbing allows independent movements and which therefore do not involve physical contact.
Credits: www.accept.polimi.it/
Credits: www.accept.polimi.it/
In the future, this tool can be developed as a scalable product and installed in gyms and schools in other neighborhoods, hospitals and rehabilitation centers, also thanks to its modular structure and low implementation costs.
The goal is to encourage the spread of this sport in an inclusive way and to be able to create meeting places open to all (eg inclusive playgrounds).
Their names are Francesca De Finis , Alumna in Chemical Engineering, and Elena Dicorato , Alumna in Architecture, and they are among the creators of Stendhapp , the app that aims at mapping and cataloging all the sites of interest of the Italian artistic heritage.
An ambitious goal, but one that the all-female team that created Stendhapp wants to achieve thanks to the open data mode: anyone who downloads the app (available on App Store and Google Play Store) and creates a profile has in fact the chance to add its contribution, whether by adding information or even by taking a picture.
At the moment the app has 55.000 places of interest of the artistic, cultural, historic and landscape kind.
"The philosophy on which the project is based is to encourage people to go and visit places, to explore interesting places" , says Francesca De Finis , "for this reason we have decided not to rely on augmented reality, as it could overpower the actual attraction, and instead we want users users to be actively involved ”.
credits: stendhapp.com
STENDHAPP TO DISCOVER ART NEAR YOU
The app, with a name that reference the famous Stendhal Syndrome, geolocates the user and shows places of interest nearby, both of physical- such as museums, monuments, theaters and natural attractions - and digital nature- like events and places made famous by literary quotations.
“We are committed to giving visibility to the lesser known artistic and cultural heritage, - this is the statement of the app's founders - through a digital platform dedicated exclusively to what is beautiful, encouraging you to visit places, participate in events, discover the history and stories of the place where we are. We want to help the myriad of small cultural realities to be discovered, to find an audience. ”
credits: stendhapp.com
HELPING THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE AFTER THE PANDEMIC
The initiative aims to help relaunch local tourism , to revitalize the tourist-cultural sectors that have experienced a period of great crisis over the last year due to pandemics and lockdowns.
Thanks to the involvement of local communities and associations in the area, Stendhapp wants to create new synergies to increase the sense of belonging to the community.
“ A lot of information comes from the Public Administration, we have looked for others, - continues the statement on the website - but we count on collective intelligence to bring out the knowledge spread across the territory. We are idealists and are convinced that with everyone's help we can improve things a little. "
ACS Photonics magazine featured a dual-band infrared detector with applications in many fields, such as vision in adverse weather conditions (fog, mist, presence of smoke), analysis of paint layers, recognition of materials and identification of counterfeit banknotes.
It was developed by researchers from the Physics Department of the Politecnico of Milan, under the guidance of professor Giovanni Isella, with the collaboration of researchers from the German center Forschungszentrum Jülich.
This compact miniaturized spectrometer has a double advantage compared to the instruments already existing on the market, which allows to maintain lower costs: it can be built with cheaper materials (such as germanium and tin) and can be achieved through processes compatible with techniques already existing in the microelectronics field.
Credits: finanza.repubblica.it
HOW DOES THE INFRARED DETECTOR WORKS?
The detector is integrated on a silicon chip and is able to show, without using filters or other additional optical elements, two spectrally different but complementary images of the same object .
This process is possible thanks to the ability, as the sign of the applied bias voltage varies, to provide a switchable spectral response between the two bands of near infrared (NIR) and short wave infrared (SWIR).
The study thus introduces new applications of infrared technology in various fields, such as automotive, home security and machine vision.
After almost ten years of neglect, the first operations to secure the building in piazza Ferrara in Milan have started, which will become a student residence for 213 students of our University.
The building, situated in the corner between via Mincio and via Polesine, in the Corvetto area, is a concrete structure that should already have housed a residence for children. The project, due to a series of bureaucratic problems, had never seen the light of day.
The structure was abandoned for almost ten years, until the Region, Aler and the Municipality entrusted the completion of the work to Politecnico di Milano, which will have a thirty-year concession on the building. After the safety works of the construction site are completed, in the autumn the other half of the redevelopment will stard - financed by the Ministry of Education and the University, for a total of 8 million euros - which will be completed in July 2023 .
Credits: Mi-Tomorrow
"The ground floor of the student residence is intended for public interest activities on the nature of which we are discussing together with Politecnico", comments the Councilor for Social and Housing Policies of the Municipality of Milan Gabriele Rabaiotti.
Together with the student residence in Piazza Ferrara, over the next few years another 250 students will be welcomed in the building in via Baldinucci in Bovisa , increasing by 500 places about the residential offer of Politecnico which its currently houses 1700 students in seven buildings.
Passo della Cisa has a new structure dedicated to slow tourism : the first TWIN hut , a hospitality structure that finds space between two major walking routes, the Via Francigena and the Sentiero Italia CAI.
Created under the coordination of the Politecnico di Milano and co-financed by the Italian Alpine Club (CAI), the development of the TWIN project was made possible thanks to the 2019 edition of Polisocial, the social responsibility program of the Politecnico di Milano funded by donations of 5 per mille ( we talked about it on MAP # 7, page 38 ).
Credits: www.twin.polimi.it/
The Cisa Pass is a very important crossroads crossed every year by pilgrims, walkers, cyclists and trekking lovers, but which nevertheless recorded a scarcity of accommodation facilities for tourists: hence the idea of choosing this place to promote the hospitality of travelers and create sustainable development, work and social inclusion.
"The project stems from the observation of the territory and the lack of reception facilities aimed at 'slow' tourists (walkers and cyclists) who tread the Francigena and the Sentiero Italia every year, in addition to the many itineraries that cross our country in the footsteps of saints, abbots, along ancient roads and high streets - declares to Altra Economia Paolo Pileri, professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Politecnico di Milano -“ We asked ourselves, 'How to welcome pilgrims ? '. We decided that the best way to do it was to get into the spirit of slow travel ”.
HOW IS THE TWIN HUT SHAPED?
The first TWIN hut was built at the carpentry of the Monza Prison using timber obtained from trees felled by the Vaia storm which, in 2018, had hit the Dolomites and the Venetian Pre-Alps.
The structure looks like a modern mountain bivouac, and is designed as a meeting place between hikers, the territory and its inhabitants. The hospitality is organized by the Cooperative of Berceto Nova which will welcome fragile people into the work field.
Credits: rivistanatura.com
SLOW TURISM AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Slow tourism within the TWIN project is intrinsically linked to social inclusion, the recovery of underutilized spaces, infrastructures and services .
The goal is to create modular structures and that can be placed along the great paths and cycle paths of the country, to promote the regeneration of marginal and fragile territories crossed by slow lines . In this way, local economies will be launched, giving work to socially weak categories (disabled people, abused women, but also tourist hospitality professionals who have found themselves unemployed as a result of seismic phenomena), through itinerant tourism along cycle paths and paths.
Travelers, by stopping in the TWIN modules and paying the accommodation fee, will thus make a vital contribution to a 'circular economy', which aims to link the regeneration of territories to the strengthening of the social fabric.
Credits: rivistanatura.com
The TWIN project was conceived by a research group that unites engineers, architects and urban planners from the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) of the Politecnico di Milano. For more than ten years, the team has been committed to designing a slow tourist vision for the regeneration of fragile territories and they are also working with VENTO, the longest tourist cycle path in Northern Italy. TWIN involves, in addition to the DAStU, also the Department of Electronic Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA).
To find effective solutions, you must first ask yourself the right questions. It is a lesson that the Polytechnic has handed down from generation to generation and it is particularly important today that we are facing the challenges of climate change, an unprecedented crisis that involves the whole world and whose urgency cannot be postponed.
Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash
We are the last generation to be able to do something to save the planet: the United Nations will talk about it , together with young people from all over the world, during COP26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference , to be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021 under the presidency of United Kingdom, in collaboration with Italy.
ITALY'S ROLE
Our country, and in particular Milan, will host the preparatory events for the Conference, namely the Pre-COP summit , a fundamental event to discuss the most critical political aspects in view of the COP negotiations, and the Youth4Climate 2020: Driving Ambition , an opportunity for all young people to propose concrete ideas and proposals on the hot topics of the climate change agenda.
In preparation for these important events, the Ministry for Ecological Transition has launched the All4Climate initiative, which will give rise to events and discussions throughout Italy on the topic of climate change from 28 September to 2 October.
Politecnico di Milano is a key partner of this project through the Italy Goes Green initiative, which has the aim of identifying stimulating themes and questions for the reflections and discussions of politicians and decision makers on climate change issues , directing them towards sustainable and inclusive reflections and the promotion of tangible actions that give life to the radical change necessary to realize all the "potential" of the Paris Agreement .
ITALY GOES GREEN
The initiative Italy Goes Green fits into this context and is the result of the collaboration between Officine Italia, Vodafone Italy and Milan Polytechnic. It has the ambition to involve all Italian citizens in the discussion on the fight against climate change, with the aim of formulating 10 transformative questions to be delivered to the Italian delegation that will take part in COP26 .
Anyone can ask decision makers questions about sustainability challenges simply by logging on to the site www.italygoesgreen.com . The ideas thus collected will be at the center of the event scheduled for 1 October at the Vodafone Theater in Milan, during which 50 young people will be asked to summarize the ten questions confronting the institutional and business world .
Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash
THE APPEAL TO OUR ALUMNI
The challenges of sustainability touch on issues closely intertwined with the work of Alumni: land use and agriculture, smart cities and buildings, mobility infrastructures, manufacturing industry and industry 4.0, biodiversity, energy, circular economy and waste management, health and well-being, education, green finance and investments.
It is important that the Alumni of the Politecnico actively participate in the formulation of the questions, presenting them on the website www.italygoesgreen.com by September 15th , to bring your technical, scientific, cultural and managerial experience to the table on strategic issues in the fight against change climatic.
The challenge of climate change and a just transition to new patterns of production and consumption is as urgent as it is extremely complex. Only by asking challenging questions to ourselves and to decision makers we can find the right paths together to tackle the issue. I believe that the Polytechnic and its Alumni have a moral duty to contribute to this challenge to ensure a sustainable future for the next generations. The skills that the Politecnico and its Alumni can put into play are fundamental to participate in the dialogue on climate change in a scientific and proactive way.
Prof. Raffaella Cagliano, Deputy Director of the Department of Management Engineering, coordinator of the project for Politecnico di Milano.
The new technology, conceived by the researchers of the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano, of the institutes of Nanosciences (Nano) and Photonics and Nanotechnologies (Ifn) of the National Research Council (CNR), together with the University of Brescia and Université de Paris, is based on the study of optical nanoantennas . These are very thin cylinders of semiconductor material, 100 times thinner than a hair, designed to absorb wavelengths of visible light.
When the nanoantenna is illuminated, it concentrates the light energy in an extremely small volume. Under these conditions, the color of the light can be changed by a phenomenon known as non-linear generation of light. "This process is of great interest in various application sectors, from telecommunications, where it is used to transfer information from one transmission channel to another, to night vision devices based on the conversion of infrared thermal radiation into visible light, to laser sources "- says Eva Pogna, Alumna PhD in Physics at the Politecnico di Milano and young researcher of the CNR-Nano.
Photo by Erfan Afshari on Unsplash
INNOVATION
Until now so-called static nanoantennas had been demonstrated, that is, such that once manufactured it was not possible to modify their properties, that is to reconfigure them to change the characteristics of the light that they can emit.
The new study is pioneering because it demonstrates for the first time the possibility of controlling the behavior of these optical nanoantennas very quickly using the light itself as a control signal: when a light pulse is absorbed in a nanoantenna it in fact it modifies the resonant characteristics. The change induced by the pulse of light is reversible and lasts a time equal to a few tens of picoseconds, allowing the signal generated by the antenna to be modulated at an unprecedented speed .
AN INTERNATIONAL PROJECT LED BY ITALY
"This discovery could open to the development of a new class of ultra-fast miniaturized photonic devices based on non-linear effects, of application interest in various fields, from optical fiber telecommunications to quantum computers" - says Giuseppe Della Valle , Alumnus, professor of the Department of Physics and coordinator of European Project Horizon 2020 METAFAST (“ METAsurfaces for ultraFAst light STructuring ”).
The discovery is the result of an Italian-led international consortium which sees the collaboration between the nanophotonics and ultra-fast spectroscopy groups of CNR and Politecnico di Milano (Prof. Giuseppe Della Valle, Dr. Eva Arianna Aurelia Pogna , Prof. Michele Celebrano, Prof. Marco Finazzi, Prof. Giulio Cerullo), of the University of Brescia (Prof. Costantino De Angelis) and of the Universitè de Paris (Prof. Giuseppe Leo).
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