A great achievement for Polimi students in the latest SCORE (Student Contest on Software Engineering) competition, the final of which was held in May in Melbourne, Australia.
Four groups of students were admitted to the finals, all four of which had Polimi students within them.
HOW IT WORKS
"Within the Distributed software development course, which is a course in the Computer Sciences Master’s degree programme," explained Professor Raffaella Mirandola, "projects are undertaken. This course is structured in collaboration between three universities: Politecnico di Milano, University of Zagreb and University of Malardalen (Sweden)".
Prof. Mirandola again: "There are a few lectures, then the students work on a project. The groups of people working on a project are mixed, i.e. chosen from two universities: either Poli-Zagreb or Poli-Malardalen or Malardalen-Zagreb. This project is chosen from a set of projects proposed by the international SCORE competition. In this competition, sponsors propose topics for projects and a committee selects the most suitable ones."
POLIMI PROJECTS
The project by Lorenzo Poletti's group was the winner. The group was asked to develop a project that would secure a stage in the creation of an app: "That is why we created a web platform that allows user-developers to upload their own source code. Through tools supporting various languages and security aspects, the code is automatically analysed and any issues and vulnerabilities in the source code are highlighted. Our tool is for developers, not for the end user.”
To give an example: during the development of an app, take Shazam for example, which recognises the titles and artists of the songs you're listening to, developers could use Lorenzo’s group's tool to check that the code they are creating is secure and has no issues or vulnerabilities.
Matteo Visotto's project made it to the finals and was very well received, although it did not win.
It is perhapseasier to understand for those who are not familiar with the subject: “We focused on scientific papers, i.e. work on papers for doctoral students, undergraduate students or lecturers. We modified Mozilla's PDF reader (which is an implementation based on a free, editable web app) and redesigned its interface. Thinking about the classic actions of people who read papers, we created a graphic that creates the citations within the paper and a tool that automatically generates the summary of the PDF. We decided to implement the summary algorithm so that a user can select a paragraph or chapter and get the summary immediately. It came out pretty well, I must say. "
"The various student groups participating," added Prof. Mirandola, "are made up of master's level students, and we are participating with students from two different universities. The students select one of the proposed projects, then undertake the project during the course. The course has the same time frame as the competition, which is biennial”.
Semifinalists are selected through the submission of a PDF document explaining how they did the work to bring their project to life. Matteo Visotto: "The PDF explains how the project was done, but more than just the coding. We clarify how we worked as a team and how tasks were divided.
The committee that organises SCORE then selects the semi-finalists. Eligible groups must then send in the code they created to develop the project.
To sum up: in the first stage, competitors submit a document detailing the work and how team members divided tasks. Semi-finalists must submit the code.
In 2023, nine projects were chosen for the semifinals, six of them from Polimi.
The four finalist groups participated in the final, which is held as part of a week of events, workshops and conferences. In 2023 it was in Australia, in Melbourne. In 2025 it will be in Canada.
SCORE partially financed the students' trip, the other part was financed by Polimi.
“We attended the conference,” Lorenzo Poletti further explained, “workshops and interesting meetings with experts in the field. Most of the time we participated in these events. The final was on Thursday and we presented our projects. Each group had 10 minutes. An explanation, live demo and jury questions. On Friday there was the award ceremony and my team won. All four projects and products were good but we nailed the presentation. It was a good opportunity to get to know people in the industry.”
Milan, June 28, 2023 - Politecnico di Milano achieves its highest ever position in the QS World University Ranking. The university is ranked 123rd this year out of a total of 1,500 global universities, registering a significant improvement of 16 positions from last year. Thus, the climb in the world's most important university ranking continues. For the first time, Politecnico di Milano enters the top 9% of global universities of excellence.
An achievement made possible thanks to important factors, which contributed to the achievement of this position. Politecnico di Milano ranks among the top 100 universities in the world for academic and business reputation. In fact, the university achieved an improvement in its Academic Reputation score, moving from 96th to 94th position.
Internationalization indicators, such as the number of international faculty and students (International Faculty Staff and International Students), also reward the Politecnico. Of particular note is the high score obtained in the indicator included this year International Research Network, which evaluates the level of international collaboration in scientific research.
These data confirm the excellent results of Politecnico di Milano, which ranks among the top 20 universities in the world in Design, Architecture and Engineering, according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 published last March. In Design and Architecture, Politecnico is ranked 8th and 10th. In Engineering it ranks in the top 20 worldwide, coming in 18th.
“Questo importante posizionamento nel World University Ranking di QS rappresenta un traguardo significativo per il Politecnico di Milano, testimoniando il costante impegno dell’ateneo verso l’eccellenza accademica e la promozione della ricerca scientifica di livello internazionale – commented Donatella Sciuto, Rettrice del Politecnico di Milano. L’attrattività internazionale è uno dei punti chiave del Piano Strategico triennale del Politecnico di Milano. Con un solido posizionamento già acquisito, ci impegniamo a offrire maggiori opportunità di studio e di ricerca per i giovani, ponendo particolare attenzione anche alla responsabilità sociale. Vogliamo promuovere un approccio inclusivo anche a livello internazionale, rendendo il nostro ateneo un ambiente accogliente per tutti coloro che desiderano intraprendere al Politecnico di Milano percorsi formativi e di ricerca di eccellenza.
The RITESSERE (Silk Sericin materials from textile industry by-products) project has kicked off, funded by the Fondazione Cariplo. It aims to use the by-product from the treatment of raw silk, sericin, for the production of new materials and devices in the field of life sciences.
RITESSERE will evaluate new technologies which, starting from the sericin obtained from raw material of Italian origin with traceability certification (cocoon or raw silk), will lead to the obtainment of both two-dimensional electrospun matrices composed only of sericin, and new materials based on specifically modified sericin. These products will be characterized from a chemical-physical and morphological point of view, and the impact of their introduction on the textile industry market and on other high-tech sectors will be analysed.
In particular, the advantages of the circular approach will be demonstrated through three actions:
• sericin-based facial masks for the cosmetic industry
• three-dimensional scaffolds of sericin for cell culture
• modified sericin-based film for the packaging industry.
RITESSERE aims to demonstrate how sericin can be systematically recovered and used to produce high-tech materials. Starting from silk of Italian origin, RITESSERE will define and optimize a technological process aimed at giving nobility to this waste product, proposing a new sustainable and circular method for the silk production cycle.
The results of the project will also be conveyed and made available through continuous interaction with the Advisory Board, made up of players with a driving role in the silk industry, in the definition of new circular economy practices and in the involvement of civil society (Associazione Costruttori Italiani di Macchinario per l’Industria Tessile, Donne in Campo, Ufficio Italiano Seta, MADE-Competence Center Industria 4.0, Rigano Laboratories, Associazione per il Museo della Seta di Como).
The three-year project RITESSERE is a project funded by Fondazione Cariplo with the Economia Circolare - Promuovere ricerca per un futuro sostenibile program, and is led by Professor Simone Vesentini of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and by professors Paolo Rosa and Sergio Terzi of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano.
Partners in the project, coordinated by our university, are Università degli Studi Milano Bicocca and Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis).
Federica Fragapane is an independent information designer. Born in Vercelli in 1988, she graduated in Communication Design from the Milan Polytechnic. Over the years she has done projects for Google, the United Nations, the Publications Office of the European Union, BBC Science Focus, and collaborates periodically with La Lettura - Corriere della Sera. She is coauthor of the Geopolitical Atlas of Water (Hoepli, 2019).
Federica Fragapane
She has lectured as a guest lecturer at Harvard University - Design Lab and the Royal College of Art in London, among others, and was a guest speaker at TEDx Verona.
In October 2021 she was awarded at the Serpentine Galleries with the Pierre Keller Award during the Hublot Design Prize.
The three visualizations-made between 2019 and 2021-were acquired by MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design.
Space Junk, a data visualization published in BBC Science Focus in 2019, tells about the waste we are leaving in space: the visualization shows space debris, classified according to its distance from Earth and the type of object.
Noise Pollution, published in The Reading in 2020, shows data on noise pollution and hearing loss in 50 different cities.
Land Defenders is a data visualization of environmental activists killed in Brazil between 2015 and 2019. The project was produced to accompany an investigative piece written by Yessenia Funes on the death of environmental defender Fernando dos Santos Araújo. It was published in 2021 by Atmos magazine.
Space Junk. Credits: MoMA
Noise Pollution. Credits: MoMA
Land Defenders. Credits: MoMA
Federica Fragapane's projects aim to narrate issues in their complexity and multidimensionality, allowing them to be read and explored through the creation of static and interactive visualizations. Over the years she has visualized data related to environmental issues, migration and human rights.
"I strongly believe in the communicative potential of data visualization and try to use it to help the telling and reading of complex topics".
Many of his works are characterized by an experimental approach and an ongoing search for forms and languages with which to shape numbers and information. He often uses soft visual elements, reminiscent of organic worlds, to bring to light the human side behind the data.
He also believes that data visualization can be used not only to communicate to people, but also to give them a voice and to provide a tool for those without platforms. In 2016, she created the project The Stories Behind a Line, a visual narrative of the journeys of six asylum seekers who arrived in Italy and stayed at a reception center.
Federica Fragapane writes, "The projects acquired by MoMA are part of my process of searching for visual languages with which to communicate numbers, information and - above all - stories. Shaping data helps to read and understand them. I often talk about how for me drawing visualizations is like writing. I write in visual words to tell about issues that are close to my heart, to bring urgent and little-known information to light, or even simply to make readers discover something new.These are the reasons that drove the design process behind the three visualizations that are now part of MoMA's collection.
Data visualization for me is not the end, but it is a medium whose purpose is to communicate and narrate. The form of that medium is itself part of the communication process. The words we use are important and important to me are the visual words I draw. Experimenting visually, attending to aesthetics and combining attention to content with a deep study of the forms used are fundamental steps in my design process. With my work-and with its forms-I try (and hope!) to invite people to approach my visualizations and read and discover data and stories.
I sincerely thank the people who have so far approached my projects and read them, I thank BBC Science Focus, La Lettura and Atmos for giving me the space to experiment and communicate, and I thank the Museum of Modern Art for this great honor".
The international Cybathlon competition, in which a Politecnico team also participates, involves people with disabilities competing over everyday activities using state-of-the-art "assistive technologies" . It takes place every four years and is organised by ETH Zurich. The Polimi team participates in the FES-bike (Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike) discipline, in which a rider with complete paraplegia competes using a three-wheeled wheelchair (technically called a ‘passive trike’) activated via an electrical muscle stimulator capable of sending coordinated impulses through surface electrodes that induce the contraction of paralysed muscles. The working group, consisting of 6-10 students, deals with optimising the trike’s mechanics and seating.
The next edition of the tournament will be held in 2024. In the meantime, however, there are also other FES-bike competitions, such as the one held last year in Lyon: "In Lyon we covered 100 metres in 39 seconds and 500 metres in 4 minutes 18 seconds. We ranked 4th out of seven", comments Professor Emilia Ambrosini from the Department of Electronics, Information Science and Bioengineering, coach of the team. "In 2020, on the other hand, we covered 860 metres in eight minutes and placed 7th out of nine. It’s no brilliant placing, of course, but we had done very little training".
It's not just the podium that counts, as the students in the team tell us: it's also being confronted with an experience like this, which is enriching both from an academic and a human perspective. "It was the most exciting academic experience ever", said Federico Cavallini, student in the Biomedical Engineering Laurea Magistrale programme. "Realising that one's work - albeit a small part of a much bigger project - really helps people and patients in need was what actually left a mark on me and made me passionate about this world. And in the end, I can't hide the satisfaction of seeing the riders, people with paraplegia, pedalling and moving around independently with the trike I worked on with my group".
Although it is a learning experience, the emotional aspect of feeling useful for a person in need is a central aspect of Cybathlon: "Interfacing directly with the patients and understanding their needs helped me broaden the way I approached the problem", noted Rachele Mariotti, also a student in the Biomedical Engineering Laurea Magistrale programme. "I think that such projects are very enriching for the students and their journey. And the fact that I involved students from different engineering backgrounds - I was in a team with two Mechanical Engineering students - taught me how to deal with people from different backgrounds and how to understand and make each one’s strengths stand out". Participating in these competitions is also a testing ground, some sort of possible prospective real work: "I decided to participate in the competition in Lyon to see the theoretical lessons learnt during the academic course put into practice. I could experience first-hand the complexity that the development of an FES-bike requires. It was thus stimulating from a problem solving point of view, thanks to a more practical approach to the hardware and software solutions one comes into contact with during one's academic training".
Milanese by birth, Californian by adoption (he teaches at the University of California, Berkeley) Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, an Alumnus of the Politecnico, is among the world's leading experts in computer science. However, it would be mistaken to believe that his interests and knowledge only cover this area, as he is also a great lover of philosophy, literature and economics. “In my life I had to choose which roads not to take, rather than which ones to take”, he told us during a long conversation between Italy and California.
YET ANOTHER AWARD: THE BBVA FOUNDATION'S FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE
The occasion of the interview is yet another award he has received for Computer Science, the prestigious BBVA Foundation's “Frontiers of Knowledge Award”, which is a sort of lifetime achievement award, similar to the Nobel in both the procedure and the way the victory is announced. "They called me in the middle of the night!" says Vincentelli. This very prestigious awards is assigned for eight different sectors: Vincentelli's one is Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
ELECTRONIC DESIGN AUTOMATION: WHAT IS THAT?
In the words of the Committee’s citation, Vincentelli was assigned the award for his “radically transforming the design of the chips that power today’s electronic devices, giving rise to the modern semiconductor industry”. How did he do that? By creating new Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools, which means he devised algorithms and programmes that optimise the design of integrated circuits (known as chips).
Let us go into detail to understand more. "In chips there are many elements, called transistors, that have to be placed on a planar structure", Vincentelli explains. "These transistors must then be connected to each other via electrical wires which carry a delay: the goals, therefore, are to make connections as fast as possible and to use as little space as possible to accommodate transistors and interconnections”. Once the transistors are in place, one must ensure that the chip works. To do this, there are simulation tools, which are used prior to manufacture: "Today we call them digital twins, i.e., mathematical models that digitally simulate what will happen physically to let us know whether the system works", Vincentelli explains. "Simulation was one of the first things I was involved in, in the early 1970s: it made it possible to speed up projects a lot. Another milestone in the development of the semiconductor industry was the automation of the production of the photolithography masks used to direct beams of light onto the chip to create connections and transistors. In the early days of this industry, in the early 1970s, the masks cut out by hand, but at the end of the same decade, the exponential increase in the number of transistors theorised by Moore's law made it no longer physically possible to do so. Over the years, EDA has enabled an individual chip to shift from having a few hundred of transistors to having millions”.
A LIFETIME OF SUCCESS
In his life, Professor Vincentelli has done so many things that a book would not be enough to list them all. In the next hour, our conversation is an immersion in the past amidst establishment of EDA companies - such as Cadence Design Systems and Synopyis, which together are listed on the Nasdaq at around 120 billion dollars -, collaborations with the likes of BMW, General Motors and Magneti Marelli, and success in the academia. While he was teaching at the Politecnico under a contract equivalent to today’s Associate Professor’s, he embarked on a semester-long experience at the University of California at Berkeley, encouraged by his senior colleagues from the Poli. He was young at that time, only 27. At the and of this experience, the request comes for him to remain in the USA. He was hesitating (in Milan I had a great contract, my life, my friends, he explains), but Berkeley did not let up, and after an official request and the granting of permission by the Politecnico, he left for California. And there he remained.
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN THE LAST YEAR
We are in front of guru of ICT, so we take the opportunity to ask him what his opinions are on the latest technology: “EDA is constantly improving, but recently, there has been no breakthrough development in the field: the most innovative thing over recent years is the extension of EDA algorithms and methods to other fields, for example, the targeted design of drugs”, Vincentelli explains.
In the field of semiconductor utilisation, a trend is underway whereby companies that have employed chips bought from specialised semiconductor design companies such as Intel, are jumping into the adventure of designing chips optimised for their own purposes. Apple was the first, but Tesla truly revolutionised the car industry with its project. In essence, Tesla "took everyone in the automotive world by surprise: its car is an electronic system dressed up as a car. This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest innovations of recent times: the fact that a car company has designed a chip”. Does this mean that a new revolution is on the horizon which is not only technological but also industrial, with Amazon, Google and Microsoft designing chips optimised for cloud servers?
“Well, of course, there is also Artificial Intelligence: but I'm not really a big fan of it”, he admits. Why?
THE INSCRUTABILITY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
"First of all, we should understand the difference between Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, which are not the same thing: Machine Learning is a part of Artificial Intelligence. It is using mathematical models to approximate, based on a large amount of data, the functioning of a system the functioning of which we do not know or is too complex to describe. The parameters of this model, which usually takes the form of a many-layered neural network (Deep Learning), are many and must be chosen in such a way as to minimise the approximation error (training). This process is very expensive in terms of calculation (among other things, the energy consumed to carry it out is very high...), and in addition, it does not allow us to understand the reason of certain answers. Well, I don't like this: I want to understand!". What Vincentelli just cannot swallow is the failure to find the reason why Machine Learning gives certain answers: "I have to get to the bottom of why things happen, and with a certain kind of Artificial Intelligence I can't do that," he explains. "The introduction of large language models (immense neural networks used to synthesise and process human language) has made headlines everywhere. ChatGPT, introduced by OpenAI, has raised debate at all levels. The ability to interact with humans with natural language is indeed a revolution. However, when ChatGPT is used to answer questions posed by a user, it answers based on information available on the Web. Given the size of the model, it is practically able to summarise any information on the net. But on the Web there is misinformation (fake news), racial hatred messages, texts against disadvantaged groups or against women, and therefore that ChatGPT (or equivalent) has the potential to influence a large number of people in a negative way”. Many people, including Machine Learning pioneers such as Geoff Hinton, have expressed great concern about the future use of technology! And what about Artificial Intelligence becoming aware? Will it be possible, in the future, for a new, artificial 'species' to appear? "I don't think so: sometimes we may have the impression that Artificial Intelligence understands everything and is sentient, but that can't be, it is still the expression of a machine! It’s us who built it.
THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON? THAT ENGINEERING HAS ETHICS TO FOLLOW
What are the most important lessons you have received in your career? "The first one was from a professor of mine at the Politecnico, Giuseppe Grandori, who taught construction science: it was he who made me think about the ethics of engineering. He explained us that the calculations made during the construction of a civil engineering building (at least in the 1960s when I attended the Poli) even took into account a possible collapse of the building and estimated related costs: between an inexpensive building that would resist earthquakes in 80% of cases and collapse in 20%, killing a certain number of people, and a stronger but more expensive building the collapse of which would cause fewer dead, the former could be chosen when its overall cost, including compensation for damage, and the probability of collapsing are lower. And GPT, to tie in with what we said before”.
"The second lesson I learnt was when I arrived in the US, where an engineer is considered in the same way as the technician you call to solve your hotel room toilet flushing problems... or for running a train. Just the contrary of countries like France, Japan and Italy, where engineers are at the top of the social ladder. And not only that, in the scientific world engineering was ranked well below 'noble' sciences like physics. In spite of this, I believed and still believe that engineering is a real science, on a par with all others! This conviction comes from my readings of St Augustine and Kant who spoke of the fact that God or the 'real' is outside the concept of time and space, which are human categories. We engineers also create systems from an idea that comes from outside of time and space, and only after that, at the very end of our creative work, we come to face space and time in the physical world”. Are you saying that engineers are God? "Well, at least in the creative part of our work, we are!", Vincentelli laughs.
ADVICES, REGRETS AND REMORSE
If you could choose to be the inventor of anything, what would you like to have invented (or designed)? "I would say the mRNA, because it is a real revolution with immense social impacts: it has an incalculable potential in healthcare, now they even talk of a possible anti-cancer vaccine based on mRNA. And also the CRISPR-Cas-9 gene editing technique, which has been perfected at my University, as it will enable us to cure genetic diseases in the future”.
Any regrets? Any remorse? “On the spur of the moment I would say no, everything went too well for me”, Vincentelli admits. "My regrets are more on doors I closed: I would have liked to study philosophy at University, but also economy or physics, and maybe even to be a bit of a scholar. There was a time when I used to write poems!". "Remorse, only one: not being with my family enough. I must say, however, that I have a very good relationship with my two children, from whom I hear and whom I see very often, and my wife has always supported me in difficult times: definitely, I cannot complain”.
Straddling Europe, the Americas, Oceania and Asia, physics students meet to battle it out on the field of the International Physicists Tournament (IPT), an experimental physics competition organised and run by university students.
The problems to be solved are practical and difficult, fun and a little absurd. A few examples:
– Building the tallest Lego brick tower... But beware: the bricks are made of food jelly
– Understanding when honey is completely dissolved in hot tea
– Building models of maple seeds out of paper, ie the ones that fall in a spiral flight thanks to a special propeller
– Recreating the Northern Lights in a glass ball
– Placing graphite in a microwave and bringing it to the right temperature for it to glow
– Building a lighter out of things a Bronze Age man had at his disposal
The Politecnico team has existed for five years thanks to a French Erasmus student in Milan. As Professor Giacomo Ghiringhelli of the Department of Physics explained, it was said student who introduced this competition to Politecnico. After all, this tournament originated in France. At the moment, the Politecnico team is the only Italian team taking part in the IPT. Professor Ghiringhelli put us in touch with three 23-year-old students who participated last year: Sophie Cavallini, Luca Perego and Dario Ventura.
The three explained how the competition works: "It lasts from October until spring, there are various stages to go through. The final is usually held in a different city: last year we were in Colombia, whereas this year it was held in Paris from 23 to 29 April", Sophie explained. The team in which Luca, Sophie and Dario were last year ranked 7th out of 15 participants worldwide. This year the Politecnico team ranked sixth: "The best result ever" - commented Professor Ghiringhelli. There is still a long way to go!
Each competition presents around fifteen different problems, proposed by the students themselves or by PhD students. Each team is composed of about 10-15 members. The teams have 10 minutes to present the solution to the problem and one hour to discuss it with the opposing team, while a third team (called the 'reviewer') monitors the situation and decides on conflicts, like a kind of referee. A committee of doctoral students assigns marks to the various teams. At the beginning the teams are divided into two groups. The best ones advance to the semifinals and from there the best two to the final.
Summing up why it is a must-do experience was an excellent statement from Dario: "Stimulating the scientific debate". "Participating" - added Luca - "proves useful because you do practical things and also learn how to make presentations". And what’s the prize to be won? "Nothing... Or rather, honour and glory!" - said Sophie, laughing. "However, this is a wonderful experience that allows us to get to know peers from all over the world who have the same interests as us".
Alessandro Garatti and Riccardo Ferrari are students of the Flight Mechanics course taught by Professor Lorenzo Trainelli at Politecnico di Milano. Both participate with Politecnico teams in various international aircraft design competitions: Garatti was captain of Colibr-e - Project Sapphire and Ferrari was captain of Poli-e Verse - Project Kairos.
Garatti's team ranked 1st in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) graduate student design competition 2021-22. This was the goal: ‘Design an electrically piloted aircraft capable of carrying vaccines, medicines and food supplies by landing on dirt airstrips in remote areas of the world and capable of being recharged by solar panels’. Ferrari's team ranked 2nd in the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) International Light Aircraft Design Competition 2021-22. The request was: 'Designing a hybrid-electric air taxi. Entry into service (EIS) is planned for 2031. It must have four seats and a minimum autonomy of 300 nmi'.
Team Colibr-e
Team Pol-e Verse
The teams consist of a minimum of four to eight members, the optimum number to allow for the best coordination. 'We are only given the technical requirements,' Ferrari explained, 'ours was about a fully electric, ultralight aircraft - ie less than 600 kilos - to carry medicines to the equatorial zone. An aircraft that could be recharged on the ground with solar panels. This was clearly a challenge that took its cue from the current post-pandemic situation'.
‘Our project, said Garatti, ‘was about an air taxi that could fly 300 nautical miles with landing and take-off within 300 feet (100 metres, ie very little, ed.), have a water/electric component in addition to the heat engine and carry three people plus the pilot’.
‘This is a first step towards urban air mobility, ie the possibility of moving people over medium distances but without the use of airports’, Garatti added. ‘Theoretically, this aircraft could also land on a football pitch’.
Render progetto Sapphire
Colibr-e won the international competition. The competition was conducted electronically and the prize, a $750 cheque, also arrived by post. Poli-e Verse, on the other hand, ranked second and was again conducted via the web: ‘We could have gone to London to collect a certificate of participation, but we didn't’, explained the captain. What’s the main reason of taking part in these competitions? "These are challenging projects and inventiveness is needed", explained the two captains. And it is precisely the chance to try their hand at designing an airplane the main reason why the two chose this competition: ‘Maybe that's the reason why I enrolled in the Flight Mechanics course,’ said Garatti, "because during theory lessons you don't get to design something of your own.’ ‘In addition,' Ferrari added, 'this is an international challenge and the work you do is assessed by a team of experts.’
Render progetto Kairos
'In the past,' Professor Trainelli concluded, 'two patents relating to projects carried out by students have also been filed by Politecnico di Milano. In 2019, an innovative aircraft was designed for pilot training, an aircraft that had the characteristic of being both single-engine and multi-engine. In 2016, on the other hand, an aircraft with structural batteries was patented, ie 60-70% of the aircraft's components were also batteries for the power supply.
the university is a place where knowledge is sought, as an engine of positive progress. The PhD. is the last step in the path of preparing young people for research, and Politecnico di Milano has been investing heavily in this for years, with its Doctoral School (www.polimi.it/phd).
Perhaps not all of you know that we are experiencing a period of strong promotion of the doctoral program here in Italy: in fact, the government has decided to invest part of the PNRR funds to finance 22,700 new doctoral scholarships in the period 2022-24. This is a great opportunity for growth in the national context, considering that there are currently a total of about 30,000 doctoral students in Italian universities.
This initiative can also be an additional opportunity for collaboration between our University and its Alumni. There are many forms of collaboration that can be pursued together:
enrollment in competitions for admission to doctoral programs is open to all: if you are interested, apply, and if you know someone who is interested, advise them to apply (especially if you are a key player in the academic world, you can share the PhD opportunity at Politecnico di Milano with your students and your network of acquaintances);
co-funding of doctoral fellowships to develop research in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano is encouraged, with the candidate staying at the company for at least 6 months;
initiatives to host doctoral students in Public Administration institutions to carry out research activities in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano are also incentivized.
Let us therefore seize this unique opportunity, of great investment of resources, to build new collaborative initiatives and renew existing ones.
Anyone who would like to learn more about the topic or have more details about the initiative can write to internationalphd@polimi.it.
Politecnico di Milano ranks 2nd in Italy and 91st among world universities in the overall THE Impact Ranking 2023, improving its global position by seven places from 2022. The ranking, active since 2019, measures the contribution of universities to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and involves a total of 1591 universities worldwide.
Politecnico di Milano's best ranking is in SDG 9 Enterprises, Innovation and Infrastructures, in which the university ranks 16th globally (18th last year) thanks to the university's network of laboratories, consisting of 6 major infrastructures used both for research and by businesses, 245 research laboratories and 34 interdepartmental laboratories, plus 28 spin-offs and 2925 individual patents.
In addition, the Politecnico achieved prominent placements in SDG 8 Lavoro Dignitoso e Crescita Economica (Decent Work and Economic Growth), placing 37th (up from 59th last year), and SDG 10 Riduzione delle disuguaglianze (Reducing Inequalities), placing 28th (up from 45th in 2022). The university also conducts strategic programs such as POP Pari Opportunità Politecniche (Equal Politecnico Opportunities), which aims to ensure a study and work environment that respects gender identity, disability, culture and background, and SCHOLARSHIPS@POLIMI, several scholarship programs to ensure equal rights to education for all and promote the enrollment of underrepresented groups.
“Our commitment to promoting the culture of sustainable development in all institutional activities, teaching and research is total and the first results prove it. It is a journey that has just begun but involves all the energies of the Politecnico's community on at least four fronts: environmental sustainability, promotion of responsible research, international cooperation and equal opportunities.“.
THE Impact Ranking 2023 requires each university to choose for itself at least four sustainable development goals on which it wants to compete. The ranking assesses the impact of research and teaching related to the SDGs, the responsible management of the university's resources by staff, faculty and students, and the active involvement of national stakeholders, using quantitative indicators such as citations and publications but also information on the university's active programs.
Politecnico di Milano has as an integral part of its university mission collaboration with society to help it achieve the Sustainable Development Goals at global, national and local levels, demonstrating the importance of the university community context and in the international academic arena.
The five research projects on the theme of 'Equality and Recovery', selected by the Polisocial Award 2021 and funded by 5 per mille donations to the Politecnico, are coming to an end. The public health emergency caused by the pandemic intensified imbalances and marginalisation and led to the concrete risk of an increase in social inequality; the projects funded acted according to a logic of economic, social and cultural recovery, promoting the development of methods, strategies, tools and technologies to reduce inequalities and facilitate access to resources and opportunities for particularly vulnerable people, social groups or communities.
The Co-WIN project has developed two pilot experiments to recover and enhance properties confiscated from criminal organisations. Andrea Campioli, Dean of the School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering at Politecnico di Milano and scientific co-ordinator of the project, tells us all about it: "We have been restoring properties confiscated from the mafia, to return them to society in a reconstructed state. As part of this process, we set up worksite-school experiences, getting both a quota of vulnerable individuals (for example, immigrants or unemployed people), to whom we offered a vocational retraining course before starting work, and a quota of university students, guaranteeing them “on-the-job” experience, involved in work at the construction site".
HOW REAL ESTATE CONFISCATION WORKS
The legal procedure is as follows: following a judicial process, real estate is confiscated (the whole process usually takes eight years) and an agency (Agenzia Nazionale per i Beni Sequestrati e Confiscati - ANBSC) allocates it to various municipalities. Municipalities in Lombardy (the area on which the research focused) can apply for regional funding for the redevelopment of real estate received in ownership: “Regione Lombardia will bear 50% of the renovation costs, within a pre-established budget and subject to a plan being presented", Campioli explains. Properties confiscated from the mafia are generally small-scale: garages, parking, flats and semi-detached and detached houses. In Lombardy alone there are more than 3,200 such properties, 1,242 of which have been allocated to municipalities for redevelopment.
This is where Co-WIN comes in, proposing the development of a 'win-win' collaborative relationship between the different parties involved: the public administration, trainees, training providers, construction companies and the community. "In our two ongoing pilot projects, a row of terraced houses in Gerenzago (Pavia) and a farmhouse in Cisliano (Milan), students from Politecnico di Milano were involved as trainees, responsible for following the required procedure for the redevelopment of the assets, directly within the municipal offices, and learning the profession onsite, working alongside the works supervisor". Once redeveloped, the assets are returned to the community: "They are generally sold to third sector entities with a social vocation, such as associations and NGOs, or are granted for use by families in need", Campioli explains.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR VULNERABLE INDIVIDUALS
Un importante aspetto sociale del progetto è quello del coinvolgimento di soggetti fragili nei lavori in cantiere: “La nostra idea è dare loro la possibilità di qualificarsi professionalmente per poi entrare nel mercato del lavoro”, ci dice Campioli. “Abbiamo stipulato una convenzione con ESEM-Cpt (Ente Scuola Edile Milanese) per garantire a queste persone di seguire a titolo gratuito corsi di formazione abilitanti e professionalizzati al lavoro nei cantieri edili”. Ma trovare soggetti disponibili non è stato così semplice come previsto: “In questa fase abbiamo coinvolto il Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità di Accoglienza (CNCA), un’associazione che si occupa della accoglienza e dell’inserimento lavorativo di soggetti fragili, e l’ENAIP (enti di formazione professionale),ma forse abbiamo sbagliato la modalità di veicolazione delle proposte di tirocinio: ad esempio abbiamo proposto sei mesi di tirocinio, ma molti immigrati hanno la possibilità di vivere nei centri di accoglienza per soli tre mesi prima di trovarsi a dover essere economicamente indipendenti, per cui non possono permettersi di partecipare a programmi di formazione così lunghi e per esigenza si rivolgono al mercato del lavoro in nero. Ora abbiamo riformulato i termini del percorso di tirocinio extra-curriculare in modo diverso e abbiamo ricevuto diverse candidature”.
A MODEL TO ADMIRE AND REPLICATE
The project is in its final stretch: the research team has been granted a four-month extension on the official deadline (set for 15 June), so that they can continue the work at the two pilot worksites. By October, everything should be completed.
The aim of the Co-WIN project is to produce a model that can then be replicated throughout Italy, so that further worksite-school experiences can be set up systematically: "We want this to go on regardless of whether Politecnico is there: we are trying to get the documentation Regione Lombardia needs, so that our project is not just a one-off".
One of the partners involved in this is an industrial entity which has donated building materials to the companies doing the work: for the businesses, it offers an image payback in terms of social sustainability. 'The plan for the future is to also set up a register of businesses willing to give up materials for free'. The project will be presented on 21 and 22 April in Naples, as part of the Second Exhibition Forum on Confiscated Assets.
DONATE YOUR "5 X 1000" TO THE POLITECNICO DI MILANO AND SUPPORT RESEARCH: FIND OUT HOW AT THIS LINK https://www.dona.polimi.it/il-5-x-mille/
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