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2023: a year of celebrations and award-winning politechnic alumni and projects worldwide

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2023 was a year of achievements for Made in Italy by Politecnico di Milano. On this page we have compiled a list of awards and recognitions. Please let us know if we are missing any!

FEBRUARY

  • Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli — born in Italy, Californian by adoption (he teaches at the University of California, Berkeley), and an alumnus of Politecnico — is among the world's leading experts in computer science. We only mention Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli's recent achievements, including the prestigious BBVA Foundation “Frontiers of Knowledge Award”.
  • Professor Amalia Ercoli Finzi, the “comet lady”, was officially awarded the prestigious Hubert Curien Prize.
Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli
Donatella Sciuto e Amalia Ercoli Finzi

MARCH

Chiara Giovannini e Fedele Cavaliere, con il loro team di studenti dell’ASP_crediti Michele d’Ottavio – Politecnico di Torino

APRIL

  • 7 Alumni in the Forbes 30 Under 30 ranking: 7 Alumni nella classifica Forbes 30under30: Leonardo Bertelli — 26 years old — Science category; Camilla Cecilia Conti — 28 years old — Manufacturing & Industry category; Rachele Didero — 26 years old — Consumer Technology category; Alessandro Fanni — 29 years old — Science category; Lisa Iannello — 26 years old — Healthcare category; Francesca Madonini — 27 years old — Science category; Guido Putignano — 20 years old — Science category
  • A project submitted by professors Massimo Ferrari and Claudia Tinazzi from the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and the Built Environment were awarded the top prize at the Piranesi Prix de Rome et d'Athènes 2022-23.

MAY

  • Professor Andrea Castelletti, from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, has been named the national winner for Italy in the first edition of the Frontiers Planet Prize. This prize was created to recognise the best research published in the last two years in the field of sustainability science.

JUNE

PoliMove a Monza 2023
La “1000-MAD”

JULY

Giulio Cerullo
Margherita Maiuri

AUGUST

  • The Italian team won the prestigious Hack a-Sat competition, organised by the US Department of Defence. The (achieved) objective: to breach the computer security of a satellite. Congratulations to the Mhackers, led by professor Mario Polino from the Department of Electronics Information and Bioengineering
  • Gaia Letizia Civardi, PhD student at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, was awarded a prestigious Amelia Earhart Scholarship

SEPTEMBER

  • Professor Alfio Quarteroni, from the Department of Mathematics, accepted the prestigious ICIAM Lagrange Prize in Tokyo. This prize is awarded every four years by the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics to mathematicians who have made exceptional contributions to the field of applied mathematics throughout their careers. Professor Quarteroni was awarded for his “groundbreaking contributions that have had a significant impact on the field of mathematics”.
  • Subrata Ghosh, from the Department of Energy, was awarded the Diamond and Carbon Materials Early Career Research Award
  • Francesco Pierri, researcher at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering won the SIGKDD 2023 Outstanding Dissertation Award – Runner Up
Bazzicalupo e Mangiarotti
Alfio Quarteroni

OCTOBER

Marzia Bolpagni
Lucia Chierchia
Bianca Maria Colosimo
Massimo Roj
Grazia Vittadini

NOVEMBER

Budd-e
Alberto Guadagnini
Patricia Viel

DECEMBER

  • Professor Enrico Tronconi from the Energy Department at Politecnico di Milano has won one of the three prizes of the Air Liquide Scientific Challenge with his innovative proposal to use electricity to produce hydrogen. He will now be able to develop his project and turn it into a market-ready technology
  • Sofia Scataglini, a former student of Biomedical Engineering and who now works as a lecturer at the University of Antwerp, was presented the Premio del Presidente per la Giornata delle Marche. Her research work focuses on design for health and human care; she collaborates with a number of institutions and founded the group Digital Human Modeling by Women, which is dedicated to supporting women working on STEM subjects.
  • Ddpstudio, founded by Alumni Lorenzo de Bartolomeis, Gabriele Diamanti and Filippo Poli, receives the 13th National Innovation Award Prize of Prizes for Hannes, the "bionic hand"
  • The year begins and ends with professor Amalia Ercoli Finzi being awarded the Ambrogino d'oro 2023 by the mayor of Milan.
Sofia Scataglini
Enrico Tronconi

Professor Alberto Guadagnini wins the prestigious Darcy Medal 2024

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«Ho sognato tante volte di ricevere questo premio, uno tra i più prestigiosi a livello internazionale nel campo dell’idrologia. Anzi, a essere sincero non l’ho solo sognato, ci ho anche pensato spesso, in particolare mentre assistevo alle lecture plenarie di coloro che sono stati premiati prima di me». Alberto Guadagnini, vicerettore per la ricerca al Politecnico di Milano e docente di Idraulica presso il Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, ammette che aggiudicarsi la Medaglia Henry Darcy 2024 dell’European Geosciences Union era una delle sue massime ambizioni. «Parliamo dell’organizzazione leader in Europa nel settore delle scienze della terra, planetarie e spaziali», dice il professore, che riceverà fisicamente l’importante riconoscimento durante l’Assemblea Generale dell’EGU, in programma dal 14 al 19 aprile prossimi a Vienna – anche se la notizia è già ufficiale. «Quando mi è stato comunicato che mi avrebbero assegnato la Darcy Medal, credevo fosse uno scherzo. Poi ho capito che era tutto vero e mi sono emozionato tantissimo: sono molte le tappe del percorso ultratrentennale – iniziato nel 1991 – che mi ha condotto sin qui, eppure mi sono reso conto di quanto il mio mestiere, lungi dal venirmi a noia, non abbia smesso di appassionarmi. Questo premio, oltre a essere un grande riconoscimento, è una grandissima responsabilità: ora mi sento ancora più motivato a portare avanti le linee di ricerca avviate negli ultimi anni».


THE PHYSICAL LAWS OF THE UNDERGROUND
Themes range from stochastic hydrology to multiphase flow and transport, from underground water and energy resources to reactive transport. "Basically, I deal with groundwater and, in this case, with the qualitative status of aquifers at large scales, that is, at the scale of individual cities or regions, and with the use of energy resources in the subsurface. Conventional and unconventional resources, where by unconventional I mean, for example, hydraulic fracturing and gas extraction. In this context, one of the underlying questions is: how much impact can an intervention related to energy resources in the subsurface - from geothermal to gas to hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide storage - have on the quality of aquifers whose water can be used for drinking purposes, that is, for drinking, or for agricultural irrigation or industrial purposes?" It is easy to see how relevant such studies are to environmental policies and to the desired ecological transition, since responsible resource use and preservation of water quality are key to ensuring a healthy and sustainable environment. "One of the points of emphasis," Guadagnini explains, "is to quantify the possible risks associated with groundwater contamination and, if a contamination event occurs, to seek remediation, that is, to figure out what to do to restore good groundwater status. But how? I personally


COSA ACCADE NEL CUORE DELLA TERRA? CE LO DICE LA PROBABILITÀ
L’idea è che la ricerca di base sia essenziale alla ricerca applicata, ragion per cui Guadagnini si è approcciato alla seconda senza tralasciare la prima, ossia quella da cui era partito a inizio carriera. Se non si portasse avanti la ricerca di base, quella applicata non avrebbe più idee e concetti nuovi da sfruttare per le proprie indagini mirate, in ultima istanza, alla risoluzione di problemi concreti e reali. E vale anche il contrario, visto che a sua volta la ricerca applicata può favorire la scoperta di nuovi fenomeni e stimolare ulteriormente quella di base. È un ciclo virtuoso. Entrando nel dettaglio degli studi specifici del professore originario di Verona, classe ’64, questo ha significato, in primis, partire dalla conoscenza della fisica di base sui mezzi porosi, vale a dire suoli o sistemi artificiali quali, per esempio, membrane e affini, concepiti ad hoc grazie alle tecnologie più avanzate. «Anche la nostra pelle è un mezzo poroso, sia chiaro, semplicemente io mi occupo di altre tipologie di mezzi porosi», precisa lui, che si è successivamente focalizzato sullo sviluppo di schemi teorici di tipo probabilistico. «Uno degli aspetti affascinanti dei sistemi idrici sotterranei è che sono ricchi di processi fisici, dal flusso di fluidi – non importa si tratti di sola acqua, di mix di acqua e gas, di acqua e idrocarburi o altro – all’interazione del terreno con i composti chimici disciolti all’interno di questi fluidi, composti che provocando tutta una serie di reazioni geochimiche possono finire per trasformare completamente la natura del sistema. A me interessava studiare non solo la natura di quei processi fisici, ho anche cercato di identificare questi ultimi mediante un’appropriata formulazione matematica e di comprendere come impiegare i dati così raccolti nella realtà all’interno di modelli previsionali. È qui che, visto che non si possono avere così tanti dati su ciò che accade a mille o duemila metri di profondità, interviene lo sviluppo di modelli teorici costruiti considerando il concetto di probabilità, che ci fornisce una misura della possibilità che un evento si verifichi».
RICERCA PER LA SOSTENIBILITÀ E LA TRANSIZIONE ECOLOGICA
Nel concreto, si potrebbe avere bisogno di calcolare la probabilità che in un terreno la concentrazione di una data sostanza superi un determinato livello, provocando effetti nocivi sull’ambiente. Oppure, in caso di contaminazione intorno a un pozzo da cui si estrae acqua potabile da distribuire alla popolazione, potremmo dover verificare dopo quanto tempo l’effetto contaminante potrebbe ripercuotersi sulla qualità dell’acqua estratta dal pozzo stesso. Sono solo due esempi, i progetti di ricerca che ha coordinato Guadagnini sono numerosi: si va dall’analisi delle aree di influenza dei pozzi di emungimento sotterraneo all’identificazione di modalità di protezione delle sorgenti idriche naturali, dallo studio dell’effetto combinato dei cambiamenti climatici e delle attività antropiche sulle risorse idriche sotterranee all’indagine relativa al modo in cui l’anidride carbonica immagazzinata nel sottosuolo possa influenzare quest’ultimo e la preservazione dell’acqua. «Le applicazioni della ricerca sono potenzialmente infinite. Parlando di transizione ecologica, stiamo anche studiando alcuni contaminanti emergenti che sono di fatto prodotti farmaceutici: attualmente sono alla guida di un progetto europeo connesso alla propagazione nelle acque sotterranee di particolari fluidi di contrasto usati nelle risonanze magnetiche. Questo perché tali contrast media agents, pur essendo innocui per l’organismo, quando vengono espulsi e finiscono nell’ambiente possono dare luogo a prodotti il cui effetto non è ancora chiaro».
Diplomato al liceo classico e poi iscrittosi a Ingegneria Civile «perché ho sempre provato una forte attrazione per la matematica e le scienze applicate», Guadagnini afferma che per far fronte alla forte competizione nel suo settore servono «il talento individuale, tanto impegno e un ecosistema che sostenga le attività di ricerca». Da questo punto di vista «le infrastrutture e le opportunità che offre il Politecnico di Milano sono eccezionali – osserva –, a partire dalla vitalità dell’ambiente per arrivare alla possibilità di sviluppare ricerche in completa autonomia, anche creando laboratori sperimentali supportati dall’Ateneo». E aggiunge: «Non c’è intervento dell’uomo sull’ambiente che non comporti rischi. Per come la vedo io, è importante essere consapevoli di quei rischi e saperli quantificare includendo l’incertezza associata al nostro livello di comprensione. Così che poi si possa procedere con lo sviluppo di nuove tecnologie ed eventualmente, a livello politico, compiere valutazioni informate per affrontare le sfide che di volta in volta ci si presentano davanti nel mondo reale».

New sensors to be mounted on trains to safeguard bridges and railways

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Politecnico is at the top of the world rankings of universities also thanks to the frontier scientific research it carries out in its laboratories. The protagonists of this Italian record are the approximately 3,500 scientists and researchers of Politecnico. Among the hottest topics are obviously those related to the systemic transformation towards climate neutrality; and then, the world of digital, space exploration, life sciences, the movements embraced by the New European Bauhaus, the new frontiers in the study of matter... In particular, young researchers inject new life into the research system and grow innovative scientific strands. Politecnico invests in activities aimed precisely at encouraging young scientists of excellence to join in. Among many, this year we welcome twelve new young researchers who are among the best of their generation. They are here at Politecnico di Milano thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship programme. Let us introduce them... in alphabetical order.

CHARIKLEIA STOURA deals with the characterisation of roughness in railway tracks on the basis of vibration data from trains in service. Currently, in order to monitor the structural condition of bridges, visual inspections are carried out or measuring devices are installed directly on the bridges, and this system that involves high costs and a large number of man-hours. Stoura aims to develop a methodology using low-cost sensors to be installed on trains in service, which travel over all the bridges of the railway network at frequent intervals, collecting data in a continuous and systemic manner. This is a type of monitoring that aims at complete digitisation and digitalisation of railway infrastructure maintenance. This, in turn, can provide valuable information and promote informed decisions regarding the regular maintenance of railway systems and optimal operating conditions (e.g., train speed).

Read more: all Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) researchers in 2023 on MAP 12

Three Polimi designers win the 13th National Innovation Award

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The Hannes artificial hand is part of a robotic-derived prosthetic system conceived and developed by the joint IIT - INAIL Rehab Technologies laboratory. Today, Politecnico di Milano’s Alumni Lorenzo de Bartolomeis, Gabriele Diamanti and Filippo Poli have received the ‘Premio dei Premi’ (Prize of the Prizes) for Hannes, which is the result of their industrial design work. The team had already won the ADI Innovation Award and the 27th Compasso d'Oro award for industrial design for this same device, which stands out not only for its high level of innovation but also for the beauty and formal balance of its design. Find out more at this link

Through study and hybridisation between various disciplines, the prosthetic hand is characterised by a mix of proportions, postures and ergonomics that make it extremely functional and harmonious with the patient's body. The final design was achieved thanks to a continuous iteration with the technical, clinical and robotic expertise of researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) and Centro Protesi; the trial process involved clinicians and patients from the early stages of the project.

The prize giving ceremony was held on 19 December 2023 at CNR (National Research Centre) in Rome, in the presence of Minister for Public Administration Paolo Zangrillo and Minister for Universities and Research Anna Maria Bernini. The National Innovation Award 'Prize of the Prizes' was established by the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 7 April 2008, by concession of the President of the Italian Republic, at Fondazione COTEC, to celebrate the National Innovation Day. The aim of the Prize is to recognise and highlight each year the innovative capacity of companies, universities, public administrations and individual inventors, also in order to foster the growth of the culture of innovation in Italy.

The best of italian design, made in Polimi.

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The ADI DESIGN INDEX 2023 brings together the best products and services from all sectors of Italian design, selected each year by ADI as a pre-selection for the Compasso d'Oro Award, the oldest and most prestigious industrial design award in the world, held every two years.

This year, 238 projects "made it" and entered the INDEX 2023. Together with the selection for 2022, they will complete a particularly important series of events: the preparation for the XXVIII edition of the Compasso d'Oro, which will be held in 2024 to mark the 70th anniversary of the award, which was born in 1954 from an idea by Politecnico alumnus Gio Ponti, thanks to the support of Rinascente.

STUDENTS’ PROJECTS

Design is a special discipline. There are big names, stars and masters who populate this Olympus, but creativity is unpredictable and it is not uncommon for even the very young to be admitted to this pantheon. In particular, the Targa Giovani is the prize that the Compasso D'Oro jury reserves for young designers who enter projects, self-productions, studies or research that are the subject of a thesis or final examination. Of the 19 projects selected for the 2023 edition, eight come from the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano.

Discover them here https://dipartimentodesign.polimi.it/it/news/219

In an interview with Interni Magazine, Professor Francesco Zurlo notes: "Among the 19 selections for Targa Giovani there are few traditional associated products and a lot of research and experimentation. Professor Zurlo is Dean of the School of Design at the Politecnico di Milano and a member of the Scientific Committee of the ADI Permanent Design Observatory, the body responsible for selecting product candidates for the INDEX. In the interview, he highlights two particular elements of this edition: sustainability and inclusiveness, leitmotifs of contemporary Italian design and polytechnic thinking.

DOZENS OF POLITECNICO ALUMNI AMONG DESIGN EXCELLENCE

The School and Department of Design are also represented in the overall selection with projects, products and research. They were joined by many alumni, designers and planners who presented individual or, more often, collaborative works. Increasingly, design is tackling complexity in a collaborative and interdisciplinary way. Not just beautiful objects, as we are often used to thinking of design: a beautiful lamp, a chair or a dress; there are also designer objects, but among the selections of the ADI Design Index 2023 are many service design projects, for social and communication, editorial projects, online platforms and applications. It is a snapshot of a growing trend that highlights the role of design as a discipline that reforms and innovates processes and interprets the classic combination of form and function.

We tried to track down all the designers, alumni of the Politecnico di Milano, involved in the ADI Design Index 2023. We sifted through all the projects and found more than 50 of them, some as protagonists and some as sidekicks. But surely we must have missed some of them. We are counting on the Alumni Community, as always, to fill this gap. We should also remember that design is a collaborative discipline par excellence, which is why the objects and projects we present are often the work of several hands.

With that necessary disclaimer, let's see what this snapshot of contemporary design has to offer.

Design for Living is traditionally the largest category.

  • ALINE⠀a series of high-tech but hand-finished taps designed by designer Marco (Architecture alumnus 1976)
  • CABANON, which interprets the original spirit of the sauna, designed by Rodolfo Dordoni (Architecture alumnus 1979), who died in August 2023.
  • Dordoni also made GHISAㅤa collection of aluminium radiators.
  • Ilaria Marelli (Architecture alumnus 1997) presents COMO, a collection based on the theme of outdoor fire, developed on the basis of single-material products that are easy to dispose of at the end of their useful life.
  • Designed by Antonio Citterio (Architecture alumnus 1975) ESOSOFTis a collection of modular seating.
  • ICON⠀by Marcello Ziliani (Architecture alumnus 1988), is a collection of adaptable and enveloping seating.
  • INGIRO, by Lorenzo Damiani (Architecture alumnus 1999), is a shower system that can be positioned anywhere and operated with the touch of a foot; ⠀
  • LEVA, a handle with minimal visual and environmental impact, is by Park Associati, a studio founded by Filippo Pagliani (Engineering PhD alumnus 2008) and Michele Rossi (Architecture alumnus 1991).
  • Piero Lissoni (Architecture alumnus 1985) takes up the theme of seating with⠀ MJNA,
  • As does Alessandro Stabile (younger, 2007 graduate of Poli in Industrial Design) with OTO CHAIR and TACO.
  • Lissoni also brings us POCHETTE, an armchair designed for adaptability.
  • The REEF armchair, by Michele Menescardi (Industrial Design alumnus 2004), has been designed with an eco-sustainable and circular approach in every component.
  • OPTICAL TRIPS, is a collection of tiles by Meneghello Paolelli Studio, founded by 2004 alumni Marco Paolelli (Product Design) and Sandro Meneghello (Industrial Design).
  • Patricia Urquiola (Architecture alumnus 1989) presents the SIMOON⠀collection of tables made from recycled Murano glass.
  • Designed by Paolo Belloni (Architecture alumnus 1993), the WALL BOX BE-T is a home charging station and its sister WALL BOX BE-D (in the Design for Work category).
  • A place of honour goes to Lighting Design, which we open with CHIAROSCURA, a floor lamp that experiments with the functional enhancement of the luminator to emit only indirect light upwards. It was designed by Alberto Meda, a designer born in 1945 who graduated in mechanical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1969.
  • Paolo Rizzatto (born in 1941 and graduated in Architecture in 1965) presents FIGAROQUA FIGAROLÀan unconstrained lighting system inspired by the traditional candle lamp.
  • MINI GEEN-A, by Ferruccio Laviani (Architecture alumnus 1986) reinterprets the reading lamp.
  • Also by Dordoni, NILE is a lamp-sculpture whose composition of volumes explores the balance between opposites.
  • In the field of Design for Mobility, we can mention THEFALCON, a 3D-printed bicycle by Romolo Stanco (Architecture alumnus 2000);
  • SP110by Lissoni, a boat born from research into technologies with low environmental impact (SP stands for Smart Performance);
  • V100 MANDELLO, a motorcycle designed for Piaggio's 100th anniversary, equipped with adaptive aerodynamics and bearing the stamp of Marco Lambri (Architecture alumnus 1998).

We open the Design for Work category

  • JOVENA® by Studio Volpi, whose many alumni include Patrizio Cionfoli (Industrial Design alumnus 1999): it is a medical device made up of a trolley with a unit that, through special handpieces, allows different treatments: non-invasive microsurgery, diathermy and contraction combined in a single radio frequency source to reach the muscles and deepest layers.
  • KSA is a family of high-volume industrial systems using Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) technology to replace more polluting electroplating processes in sectors such as automotive. It was designed by Lorenzo De Bartolomeis (Industrial Design 2005).
  • ⠀ PERFECT BREATH, a contribution by Giuseppe Modeo (Architecture alumnus 2006), is an air filtration device that prevents the accumulation of bacteria and mould.
  • CANCELLATO UNIFORM by Diletta Cancellato (Fashion Design alumnus 2012) in the Design for the Person category, is a clothing line for young and old that combines craftsmanship with new 3D knitting technologies: clothes that can adapt to any physique, age, gender and physical ability.
  • ECO+ RACE CAR, a range of toy cars for children aged 12 months and over, is the result of a collaboration with Bice Dantona (Communication Design alumnus 2011).
  • Lorenzo Palmieri (Architecture alumnus 1993) presents NEMO, an upright piano with a curved front.
  • VENUSIA is a jewellery collection designed by Elena Salmistraro (Industrial Design alumnus 2008).
  • For food design, we have FARFALLA, a nutcracker designed in 1998 by Enzo Mari and as yet unreleased (Enzo Mari);
  • LAVAZZA TINY ECO, for which we mention Angelica Rella (2015 Product Design alumnus)
  • PIETRO GRINDERS, a coffee grinder by Valerio Cometti (2001 Mechanical Engineering alumnus).
  • In the category Design of Materials and Technological Systems: IDRO ROYALE, a single-component water-based finish by Raffaella Mangiarotti (Alumna Architettura 1991);
  • MATHERA, a panel produced using only end-of-life wood, by Diego Grandi (Architecture alumnus 1999);

Let's get out of the tangible with the Service Design:

  • ESPERTO RISPONDE, created with the help of Giacomo Flaim (Communication Design alumnus 2019), is a service of the Il Sole 24 Ore that allows readers of the newspaper to ask questions on tax and legal matters directly to experts in the field.
  • The Dotdotdot studio, founded by Laura Dellamotta and Giovanna Gardi, 2002 architecture graduates, 2003 industrial design graduate Fabrizio Pignoloni and researcher Alessandro Masserdotti, has produced the FONDAZIONE LUIGI ROVATI PLATFORM, a digital system designed for the Foundation's new art museum.
  • NEXI PLANET CARE NEXI PLANET CARE is a service available through the Nexi Pay app that helps raise awareness of sustainable purchasing choices: we mention it because Nexi's CEO is Paolo Bertoluzzo, Management Engineering alumnus of 1990, and given the times, it seemed important.
  • Speaking of SOSTENIBILITÀ 10 E LODE is a deck of 96 cards designed as a team building tool on corporate sustainability by Nicoletta Crisponi (Industrial Design alumnus 2011)..
  • In Design for Social, SHERLOCK, CONCIERGE INCLUSIVOis an object intended for the severely visually impaired, which allows them to acquire information about tourist sites through audio descriptions: how a room is organised, where the sockets are, how the bathroom is laid out, etc. It is the work of the Hackability collective, which we mention because its founder is an alumnus. Francesco Rodighiero, Industrial Design 2003.
  • In the category Ricerca per l’Impresa we can find the BESTIARIO DI INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALEa book for adults and children that tells the story of artificial intelligence through the stories of eight imaginary creatures, by Francesca Fiocchi (Industrial Design alumnus 2008)
  • CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE HUB, a personnel selection process based on design thinking, by Amploom (company founded by Serena Leonardi, Product Service System Design alumnus 2013);
  • COLLABORATION MAXIMIZER, a collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières by Roberta Tassi (Communication Design alumnus 2008): a new working model for a humanitarian NGO;
  • And finally POLARIS®, an infographic creation designed by Lorenzo De Bartolomeis to define the continuous search for a working method in a group.

202 SCIENTISTS AT POLI IN THE WORLD'S TOP RANKINGS

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This has been established by a list of the World's Top 2% Scientists, a global ranking of the most productive scientists prepared by Stanford University in collaboration with Elsevier and the "Scopus” database of the world's scientific research. The ranking is the result of a bibliometric analysis, a discipline that uses mathematical and statistical techniques to analyse the quantity, quality and diffusion of publications within scientific communities. The authors analysed data relating to around 8 million researchers from universities and research centres throughout the world.

Among them, approximately 204,000 scientists stood out for their scientific authority and currently represent the best 2%. Approximately 5,700 of these work (or have worked for the majority of their careers) in Italy, 202 of whom at Politecnico di Milano. Compare the downloadable data using this link

Calculations were performed using all Scopus author profiles as of 1 October 2023. Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields, from acoustics to zoology. The citations and the relative h-index, an index that measures the productivity and scientific impact of an author, based on both the number of publications and the number of citations received are evaluated for each researcher. A composite indicator is then calculated for each researcher that focuses on relevance, rather than simply the number of publications, and includes information on co-p authorship and author positions (single, first, last author). Finally, each profile is analysed and compared with the others using advanced machine learning techniques to produce comparable results across scientific areas.

THE 203 POLITECNICO SCIENTISTS IN THE TOP 2% IN THE WORLD

Aerospace and aeronautics, analytical, organic and inorganic chemistry, nuclear and chemical engineering, materials, mechanical engineering and transportation, applied and general mathematics, applied physics, artificial intelligence, automotive engineering, biomedical engineering, building and construction, business and management, civil engineering, hardware and computer architecture, design, electrical and electronic engineering, energy, environmental engineering, geology and geomatics, industrial engineering and automation, telecommunications, optics, optoelectronics and photonics, polymers, software engineering, strategic, defence & security studies, urban and territorial planning. These are the fields in which Politecnico di Milano researchers are among the best in the world. They are:

Tommaso Agasisti, Economics | Andrea Aliverti, Respiratory System | Edoardo Amaldi, Nuclear & Particle Physics | Francesco Amigoni, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Gianfranco Angelino, Energy | Danilo Ardagna, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | M. Astolfi, Energy | Sara Bagherifard, Materials | Piero Baraldi, Strategic, Defence & Security Studies | Luigi Barazzetti, Geological & Geomatics Engineering | Luciano Baresi, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Giuseppe Baselli, Biomedical Engineering | Stefano Beretta, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Alberto Berizzi, Energy | Andrea Bernasconi, Materials | Luca Bertolini, Building & Construction | Giorgio Besagni, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Luigi Biolzi, Building & Construction | Fabio Biondini, Civil Engineering | Sergio Bittanti, Industrial Engineering & Automation | Daniele Bocchiola, Environmental Engineering | Cristiana Bolchini, Computer Hardware & Architecture | Gabriella Bolzon, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Andrea Bonarini, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Benedetto Bozzini, Energy | Francesco Braghin, Automobile Design & Engineering | Marco Brambilla, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Angelo M. Brambilla, Electrical & Electronic Engineering | Elisabetta Brenna, Organic Chemistry | Matteo Bruggi, Applied Mathematics | S. Bruni, Automobile Design & Engineering | Enrico Cagno, Energy | Roberto Camagni, Urban & Regional Planning | Stefano Campanari, Energy | Roberta Capello, Urban & Regional Planning | Edoardo Capello, Materials | Antonio Capone, Networking & Telecommunications | Valter Carvelli, Materials | Siro Casolo, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Carlo Cercignani, Fluids & Plasmas | Stefano Ceri, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Giulio Cerullo, Optics | Sergio Cerutti, Biomedical Engineering | Federico Cheli, Automobile Design & Engineering | Vittorio Chiesa, Business & Management | Paolo Chiesa, Energy | Pasquale Ciarletta, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Lorenzo Codecasa, Electrical & Electronic Engineering | Patrizio Colaneri, Industrial Engineering & Automation | Marcello Colledani, Industrial Engineering & Automation | Pierluigi Colombi, Materials | Massimo G. Colombo, Business & Management | F. Colombo, General Mathematics | Bianca Maria Colosimo, Industrial Engineering & Automation | Claudia Comi, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Stefano Consonni, Energy | Alberto Corigliano, Mechanical Engineering & Transports | Dario Coronelli, Civil Engineering | Sergio Cova, Optoelectronics & Photonics | Loredana Cristaldi, Electrical & Electronic Engineering | Rinaldo Cubeddu, Optics | Gianpaolo Cugola, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | A. Cuoci, Energy | Gabriele D’antona, Electrical & Electronic Engineering | Gianluca D’Errico, Energy | Florian Daniel, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Carlo De Michele, Environmental Engineering | Sandro De Silvestri, Optoelectronics & Photonics | Giuseppe Della Valle, Optics | Luigi T. DeLuca, Aerospace & Aeronautics | Ali Gökhan Demir, Materials | Marco di Prisco, Building & Construction | Giorgio Diana, Civil Engineering | L. Dozio, Materials | Lorenzo Fagiano, Industrial Engineering & Automation | Roberto Sebastiano Faranda, Energy | Tiziano Faravelli, Energy | Liberato Ferrara, Building & Construction | Alessandro Ferrero, Electrical & Electronic Engineering | Giancarlo Ferrigno, Biomedical Engineering | Marco Finazzi, Applied Physics | Pio Forzatti, Physical Chemistry | A. Frassoldati, Energy | Piero Fraternali, Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing | Carlo Albino Frigo, Biomedical Engineering | Alfonso Fuggetta, Software Engineering | Maurizio Stefano Galimberti, Polymers | Pietro G. 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Sensors and 'self-healing' materials to protect cultural heritage

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Politecnico is at the top of the world rankings of universities also thanks to the frontier scientific research it carries out in its laboratories. The protagonists of this Italian record are the approximately 3,500 scientists and researchers of Politecnico. Among the hottest topics are obviously those related to the systemic transformation towards climate neutrality; and then, the world of digital, space exploration, life sciences, the movements embraced by the New European Bauhaus, the new frontiers in the study of matter... In particular, young researchers inject new life into the research system and grow innovative scientific strands. Politecnico invests in activities aimed precisely at encouraging young scientists of excellence to join in. Among many, this year we welcome twelve new young researchers who are among the best of their generation. They are here at Politecnico di Milano thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship programme. Let us introduce them... in alphabetical order.

NIKI TROCHOUTSOU deals with cultural heritage at risk. She tells us: "Earthquakes, armed conflicts and climate change threaten the structural integrity of cultural heritage and, consequently, our identity. Structural modernisation is crucial for protecting the built heritage and ensuring its resilience. Current repair systems may fail prematurely and their long-term performance is not guaranteed, thus continuous and costly monitoring is needed to prevent jeopardising safety. My project will develop new-generation fabric-reinforced mortar and self-sensing systems that can 'feel' the damage and heal the cracks with no human intervention”.

Read more: all Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) researchers in 2023 on MAP 12

Mhackeroni winning in Las Vegas (it's hacking... for fun!)

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Mario Polino is 33 years old and has a lot of black, curly hair hinting at an originality expressed through knowing how to be a hacker: that is, knowing how to hack a computer system in order to protect it. He is a Cyber security researcher at the Department of Electronics Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milanoand captain of the team Mhackeroni, , an inter-university group of about 60 people where Politecnico, with its internal team 'Tower of Hanoi', is the most represented.

Polino told us about an Italian victory in a very prestigious competition open to everyone, not just universities, held in August 2023 in Las Vegas: Hack a-Sat (ie ‘hack a satellite’). It was organised by the US Department of Defence, which launched a real satellite into space, and took place during the DEF CON 31 conference (10-13 August 2023) in Las Vegas. To have an idea of the level of this competition, the organising body (Air Force Research Laboratory) is the same one that devised the GPS system.

Over 300 teams from all over the world took part in the competition, but only five made it to the final in Las Vegas: one Italian, one German, one Polish and two mixed US-UK teams.

‘These competitions are not just about attack-violation, they are often also about defence, namely protecting systems by identifying and strengthening vulnerable areas. It is, in practice, a matter of seeking or protecting sensitive data'.

In the case of the Las Vegas competition, the situation was one of attack. This is what the five teams had to do: ‘We had to violate the security of the satellite in orbit; in other words we had to be able to control it and make it take pictures in the various Red Zones’.

'Technically,' Polino added, 'it was a matter of writing programmes to make the satellite think it was flying over a free zone instead of one of the red zones.

Want to read this and many other news items in print format? From January for members will be available the new MAP, the Alumni magazine -> to receive it at home donate here!

Who is Federica Fragapane, the italian designer exhibiting at MoMa in New York

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In the era of Big Data, disciplines such as information design and data visualisation are crucial to make the enormous amount of information we have in every area of human knowledge understandable and exploitable. Federica Fragapane sure knows that. After graduating in Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano, she succeeded in building a fascinating career in this field, becoming a reference point for the design of infographics for La Lettura, the cultural insert of Corriere della Sera, and going on to collect collaborations with other newspapers, from Scientific American to BBC Science Focus, and with a wide range of organisations, associations and companies ranging from Google to the UN. Never, however, would the 35-year-old have expected that three of her data visualisations would be acquired by the Department of Architecture and Design of New York's MoMa as part of the museum's permanent collection. A great satisfaction, thanks to a creative and experimental approach based on the representation of complexity through visual interfaces other than traditional bar, pie, Cartesian or histogram graphs, and on the idea that aesthetics count as much as content.

The idea is to graphically suggest aspects that tend to be excluded from purely statistical analysis - which, despite its scientific rigour, risks concealing the many facets of the complexity of reality in which we are immersed and the relativity of our gaze. Meaningful, in this regard, is Federica's choice to draw autumn-hued leaves in one of the projects selected by MoMa, ‘Land Defenders’, published in the magazine Atmos to accompany an investigation by journalist Yessenia Funes and dedicated to the environmentalists killed in Brazil between 2015 and 2019. Or again, to draw a sort of red snake to visualise the levels of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. It is a matter of focusing on what Fragapane defines as ‘visual words, no less important than textual ones and able, with their evocative power, to give life to a visual tale that is also open to emotion’.

‘After attending university I worked for a few years at Accurat, an information design studio based in Milan and New York, and already there I breathed the air of experimentation,’ says Fragapane. ‘When I became a freelancer, following my instincts and spending a lot of time at the PC and among books looking for visual inspirations, but without necessarily wanting to define a precise style, I found myself attracted above all by what had to do with nature and the world of living organisms. From that moment on, I started to use organic, soft figures, far removed from those that usually populate infographics, and over time this became a conscious and meaningful practice. For me, not only are those forms beautiful, but they also recall two concepts: on the one hand, the life behind the data themselves, the fact that behind the numbers and percentages I outline there are often stories of people or ecosystems, humanity, a “living being”, and I believe it is essential to render this graphically; on the other hand, the relativity, non-neutrality and imperfection of those data, which, beyond the reliability of the sources I use, are inevitably the result of human research.’

Some will object that this approach may undermine the user's perception of scientific merit, but for Fragapane this is a false problem. ‘I think intellectual honesty is needed to state that there is always someone behind the collection and processing of data - which for me does not undermine a study’s authority. On the contrary, that very honesty can strongly contribute to building trust in numbers and science'. Underlying this is the belief that in every information design project clarity and display beauty must be intertwined while adapting to the target audience. ‘It deals with caring about what you do and caring about the group of people you address. Also, when the purpose of a survey is informative, I like to think that an aesthetically pleasing infographic can become an invitation to read and explore. Aesthetics is not a fad, a finishing touch: it is an integral part of the communication process'

Want to read this and many other news stories in full in print format? From January for members will be available the new MAP, the Alumni magazine -> to receive it donate here!

Photo Credit: Wild Mazzini

Here are the italian scientists behind the Nobel prize in physics 2023

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The attoseconds one is among the most relevant scientific stories of the last 100 years - one of those stories where something seems impossible... until it is done. It is also one of those stories that perfectly tell how a scientific discovery is the result of collective efforts by a community of scientists working together, for decades, even at a distance (and they did it even when it was not mainstream).

And it is a story that culminates (but does not end) in 2023 with the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics to three scientists: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier, 'for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter'. Following this assignment, other scientists have emerged who have strongly contributed to the recent discoveries - and in particular one that concerns us very closely.

At the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano, Mauro Nisoli is Professor of Physics of Matter and Director of the Attosecond Research Centre laboratory. He is a pioneer of attosecond physics and the work of his research group is behind the experiments that led to the generation and characterisation of 'extremely short' light pulses, lasting a billionth of a billionth of a second, used to study the motion of electrons within atoms and molecules.

We asked him to tell us this story: here is how it went.

A GROUP OF PHYSICISTS WANT TO 'SEE' HOW ELECTRONS MOVE WITHIN MATTER AFTER INTERACTION WITH LIGHT

The story of this Nobel Prize - and of attoseconds - begins in the 1980s, when some scientists set out to look at what happens inside molecules - and atoms - when hit by a short, high-energy light pulse. But there’s a problem: electrons move faster than our instruments can pick up at the time. While the motion of atoms takes place on the femtosecond time scale (one femtosecond is equal to one millionth of a billionth of a second, namely 10-15 seconds), electrons move much faster, on the attosecond time scale, namely 10-18 seconds. Therefore, if we want to be able to follow (and measure) the motion of electrons, we must use laser pulses with durations of less than a femtosecond.

💡WHAT IS AN ATTOSECOND?💡

It is a unit of time and represents the time scale suitable for tracking the motion of electrons in atoms and molecules. One attosecond is equal to one millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second. No comparisons exist that allow us to understand how small this unit of time is: we sometimes read that the number of attoseconds in a second is comparable to the number of seconds that have elapsed from the beginning of the Universe, 13.8 billion years ago, to today.

The point is... you cannot produce light pulses lasting shorter than one optical cycle, which is determined by the wavelength of light. Typically, a femtosecond laser produces pulses in the visible or near-infrared region. In order to generate attosecond pulses, the wavelength of light must first be shortened. In the 1980s this seemed an impossible feat. But still...

Want to read this and many other news stories in full in print? From January for members will be available the new MAP, the Alumni magazine -> to receive it at home dona here!

Fighting cancer: photonics in the operating room

Posted on | by admin

Politecnico is at the top of the world rankings of universities also thanks to the frontier scientific research it carries out in its laboratories. The protagonists of this Italian record are the approximately 3,500 scientists and researchers of Politecnico. Among the hottest topics are obviously those related to the systemic transformation towards climate neutrality; and then, the world of digital, space exploration, life sciences, the movements embraced by the New European Bauhaus, the new frontiers in the study of matter... In particular, young researchers inject new life into the research system and grow innovative scientific strands. Politecnico invests in activities aimed precisely at encouraging young scientists of excellence to join in. Among many, this year we welcome twelve new young researchers who are among the best of their generation. They are here at Politecnico di Milano thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship programme. Let us introduce them... in alphabetical order.

ANDREA LILIANA PACHECO TOBO aims to pioneer the development of photonics-based spectroscopy and thermometry methods for clinical solutions, to distinguish tissue undergoing coagulative necrosis and/or hyperthermia from normal healthy tissue during tumour removal by thermal ablation. To achieve this goal, she tells us, " 1(1) I will study endogenous concentrations of optical biomarkers useful for differentiating ablation margins; (2) I will develop a tissue phantom to recreate the thermal gradients and optical properties of the main tissue ablation zones; (3) I will conduct observational studies to collect data in-situ from animals undergoing cancer treatment with laser ablation; and (4) I will develop data acquisition and processing algorithms for detecting the ablation margin based on the results of spectrometric and thermometric measurements acquired with both phantoms and animal studies”. The technology to be developed can minimise the destruction of healthy tissue surrounding the lesions while obtaining a complete section of the tumour.

Read more: all Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) researchers in 2023 on MAP 12