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Good news for children and parents: Politecnico di Milano is studying kindergartens

Posted on 25 May 2023 | by admin

The five research projects on the theme of 'Equality and Recovery', selected by the Polisocial Award 2021 and financed thanks to '5 per mille' pre-tax donations to Politecnico di Milano, are coming to an end. The public health emergency resulting from the pandemic contributed to intensifying inequality and marginalisation and actualising the risk of an increase in disparity; therefore, the funded projects work towards economic, social and cultural recovery by promoting the development of methods, strategies, tools and technologies aimed at reducing inequalities and facilitating access to resources and opportunities for particularly vulnerable people, social groups or communities.

TRANSLATED FROM BUREAUCRATIC LANGUAGE, THERE IS A GAP IN CHILDCARE SERVICES

The starting point of the Equi06 project is the Italian Legislative Decree no 65/2017, which proposed the creation of an "integrated 0-6 system" combining the two nursery-school segments (what used to be called 'kindergartens'), historically developed separately with different educational approaches, managers and institutional bodies. ‘The level of development of the two segments is also uneven,’ emphasises Stefania Sabatinelli, the project's scientific manager. "In Italy, kindergartens are attended by almost all children between the ages of 3 and 5, as opposed to nurseries addressed to 0-2 year-old children".

The integrated 0-6 system is still a work in progress: at the pedagogical level, some ministerial guidelines have been issued and the NRRP provides funding for the creation of 0-6 poles, ie facilities dedicated to educating children from zero to six years old. Why is it necessary to integrate these two educational segments? "Comparative literature tells us that in countries where services are organised in a single cycle (those in northern Europe) the quality levels of supply are higher and more homogeneous", explains Sabatinelli. "Such single cycle could also favour earlier access by children: at the moment, the costs of enrolment in crèches are often very high, unlike those in kindergartens, and this is a barrier for many families". Early access to high quality services is important because children learn to learn and to be with others in their first years: it is at this stage that the inequalities that lead to children having unequal starting points already at the beginning of compulsory schooling can be countered more effectively.

THE IMPACT OF AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM

The Equi06 project has three main research objectives, ie mapping the existing 0-6 services in Milan, investigating the conditions of a specific territorial context and experimenting the transformation of an existing space to foster 0-6 integration.

"Mapping the existing 0-6 services in Milan has been a useful research action in itself. We could locate them on a map and such operation had never been done before", Sabatinelli emphasises. "Now we also know the relationships between crèches and kindergartens, public and private services, municipal and state services, continuous and supplementary services".

With this information, the researchers identified an area on which to focus their study: "We chose the Comasina district because there we found a high potential demand for 0-6 services, along with several indicators of social fragility", explains Sabatinelli. Narrowing the field of research even further, the team selected a 1.5x1.5-kilometre box in the district, within which there are public, private, municipal and state services, as well as a multi-service municipal day-care centre where the two educational cycles are offered in the same building though operating separately.

The last objective, coordinated by the Department of Design and still in progress, consists in working on the Merloni multi-service building with the coordinator of services in the area, some educators and some parents, in order to ponder on how to improve the spaces inside and outside the building and the routes to get there, as well as to understand how the educational environment can be transformed and improved with minimal interventions.

The pedagogical aspect is not neglected: although it does not fall within the competence of the Politecnico departments being involved, it is supplemented by external partners - Comune di Milano, the National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research (INDIRE), Save the Children, Gruppo Nazionale Nidi e Infanzia, Legacoop Lombardia.

The final objective is to define a guidance document on the learning achieved: ‘Our ambition is to draw general lessons, guidelines that can be useful beyond this specific context. It will be interesting to replicate the project in other contexts - and perhaps even on other scales,' Sabatinelli concludes.

Results presented of Project 5A - Autonomie per l’Autismo

Posted on 23 May 2023 | by admin

The final presentation event of Project 5A - Autonomie per l’Autismo, Attraverso realtà virtuale, realtà Aumentata e Agenti conversazionali (Autonomy for Autism Across virtual reality, Augmented reality and Conversational Agents), took place on Friday 31 March.

At the end of two years of intense and exciting work, it was possible to find out about and test the innovative solutions developed as part of this research project, which was set up to strengthen the autonomy of people with ASDs (Autistic Spectrum Disorders), promote their social inclusion and improve their quality of life.

The 5A project involves the use of interactive applications usable anywhere and anytime via smartphones, tablets and wearable headsets, which integrate Immersive Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Conversational Agents and, by creating a continuum between training in the virtual world and experiences in the real world, help people with ASDs to understand the environmental and socio-organisational characteristics of everyday environments and to correctly perform the related activities. Benefits include not only improved abilities, but also emotional-psychological reinforcement and general well-being.

Research efforts focused on mobility in city spaces: the underground, trains, supermarkets, museums, libraries, hospitals, etc. The 5A Virtual Reality applications allow people to practise using public transport by 'immersing' themselves, using a headset, in a digital environment that simulates spaces and activities typically found when using trains and the underground. The 5A Augmented Reality applications support users while using public transport in the real world by generating, on tablets or smartphones, visual information that is superimposed over the view of the surroundings and helps people understand how to get around and what to do. Both applications involve a Conversational Agent which acts as a virtual companion and proactively converses with the user to guide them during both the simulation of public transport use and the real-world experience.

The 5A applications were co-designed by a multidisciplinary team consisting of engineers and interaction designers from Politecnico di Milano and autism specialists from the two clinical partners – Fondazione Sacra Famiglia and IRCCS E. Medea - Associazione La Nostra Famiglia.

The 5A project was carried out with the contribution of Fondazione TIM (Research call 'Free to communicate. Smart Technologies and Innovation for Autism') and the NRRP project MUSA (Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action/Spoke6 - Innovation for Sustainable and Inclusive Societies).

Working in a joint research lab: Smart Eyewear Lab

Posted on 19 May 2023 | by admin

Working as a PhD

The Industrial PhD in SEL is a three-year, high-level research course launched by the University and funded with the contribution of EssilorLuxottica that participates in defining the research theme. The PhD is a recent graduate who acts as a driver of change and brings to the organization, after three years of training on a shared research topic, a young point of view and new methods. He or she will work in the research line group and generate results and publications. The doctoral student will then be able to pursue both academic and professional careers.

Ask here for more information: smarteyewearlab@polimi.it

See more:

Information for Prospective PhD Candidates

Working as Researcher after your PhD

You can pursue postdoctoral studies at SEL. As researcher, you help SEL professors, researchers and pm in the progress of research lines. To be a senior researcher, you must be supervised by one of our affiliated professors or Project Managers.

Ask here for more information: smarteyewearlab@polimi.it

Are you a Polimi Student?

As a Politecnico di Milano student in the lab you will be involved in teaching and project work activities related to your curriculum, but concretely connected to lab activities. As a student, you can bring your contribution to Smart Eyewear Lab supervised by one of its affiliated professors.

Ask here for more information: smarteyewearlab@polimi.it

The problem of the exchange between the electricity grid and photovoltaic panels

Posted on 18 May 2023 | by admin

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 RESTARTHealth project (short for Renewable Energy Systems To Activate Recovery Through the Health sector) aims to optimise the energy efficiency of Uganda's second largest hospital, St Mary's Lacor Hospital, which is located in Gulu District. "We have been working for some time with Lacor Hospital, whose technical manager for the past few years has been Jacopo Barbieri, an alumnus of the Politecnico di Milano," explains Riccardo Mereu, RESTARTHealth project manager and researcher in the Energy department. With more than 600 workers, many of whom live in the hospital complex, energy efficiency at Lacor is not only a question of medical equipment: "The hospital complex includes guesthouses, canteens and employee accommodation," explains Mereu. It is like a small town of two thousand people (the families of employees also live 'on campus', in addition, of course, to the patients); so, we also have to think about the energy used for cooking (at the moment, almost always wood fires), for washing with hot water, for lighting the houses and for transport.

AN IMPROVABLE HYBRID ELECTRIC SYSTEM

Currently, the complex is already equipped with a good number of photovoltaic panels, which produce hundreds of kilowatt-hours of energy. "Photovoltaic panels are undoubtedly the most suitable energy source for the location," says Mereu. "The resources in the area certainly do not allow us to consider hydropower or wind power, while we have looked into the possibility of producing biogas from hospital waste. We have to work out if there is sufficient waste to produce enough biogas”.

One of the main limitations is the fact that the energy produced by photovoltaic panels cannot be fed into the national grid: "There is a lack of bi-directional exchange, which means that a lot of energy is lost and efficiency is impacted," explains Mereu. "The system already is, and has to be, hybrid: there are currently photovoltaic panels, the electricity grid and some diesel generators for when the power goes out completely. The idea is that, in future, these three sources will be exploited in an optimised way compared to now, with reduced energy losses and improved management of power peaks, which could put pressure on the hospital's internal network". The exchange between renewable electricity grids and conventional grids is a very topical issue on our continent too, which is looking for a way for them to be fully integrated in terms of both infrastructure and administration.

THE CREATION OF GUIDELINES

The long-term goal, in addition to the energy efficiency of the hospital, is to create guidelines that can be useful in other contexts. St Mary's Lacor hospital is a special case, because it is not state-run but private, and is run by an Italian foundation: however, the researchers also looked at other case studies, such as some state hospitals and those run by private entities such as Emergency, to get a more comprehensive overview of the situation.

In addition to the main hospital site, tests were also conducted in three other outpatient clinics located in rural areas 30-40 miles away. "The project ends at the end of May 2023: we are currently analysing the data collected, from which we will derive the information necessary to draw up specific and general energy guidelines. We will evaluate the potential impact of certain energy improvements in the hospital complex, such as the possibility of a bi-directional exchange between the national grid and photovoltaic panels, the installation of electric stoves, the introduction of additional solar panels for water heating, and the possibility of electrifying the internal transport of medical waste. For the time being, we are stopping at the feasibility study: implementation will depend on the hospital obtaining private funding and donations, or winning public or private calls,” Mereu concludes.

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Guido Crepax: how to design stories

Posted on 16 May 2023 | by admin

Night Watchman, Doorman, Travel Agency, Telephone. These are some of the handwritten notes, in the rounded letters of a comic book, found not in a speech bubble but in the geometric lines of the floor plan of a building in Via Laghetto in Milan. A page in the same series reads: "Architectural Composition Course 2, 1956-1957, Guido Crepas, Degree Theme".

The characters and directions included in the plan show us that the 24-year-old Guido Crepax was already thinking about who exactly would live between those precise lines: it is a preview of his nature as an author, the nature of someone who wants above all to be the architect of stories. "About five years ago we found these plans in the loft of our mother's house," says Caterina, the daughter of the great illustrator and Politecnico Alumnus, "and it is always a thrill when we find something that shows us a new aspect of our father”.

Giacomo, who curates and promotes the Crepax archive along with Caterina and their other brother Antonio, gives a summary of his father’s life after graduation: "After finishing his studies at the Politecnico, as well as already working as an illustrator in the advertising and record industry, our father started working for architects, creating illustrations for them, which is now done by computers. We could say that he was the 'render-hand'”. In recent years, Crepax, the illustrator and the man, has reappeared at the Politecnico in a series of exhibitions, the latest of which is entitled "Guido Crepax, Architetto del Fumetto" (Guido Crepax, Architect of Comic Strips) and is a recognition of the works of an entire career, searching for the hand of the architect in contrast to that of the illustrator. "Celebrating him in the place where he studied is very valuable," explains Giacomo, "because it was here that he began to experiment, and here that he learnt many of the historical fundamentals of architecture and design which entered directly into his work. We therefore think the period of his education has to be retold. And besides, my sister and I are also Alumni, both architecture graduates”.

Switching thus into his professional role, he comments on another of his father’s drawings, which shows the view of the building: "The starting point was a kind of shopping centre that later developed into a residential tower. The design is interesting: it features curved side elements, very soft, that seem to evoke the architecture of Sant'Elia. I would describe it as a project that fully captures the futurist idea of the 1950s, made up of transparencies that also emphasise the structural part of the building: the voids, typical of the rationalist architecture of that period, the modern parts visible through the glass windows and the solid structure of the reinforced concrete pillars”. Elements of the comics to come can also be seen in this drawing: an American car, the clothes being worn, the Hotel Sforza sign and the glimpse of the Duomo in the background, squeezed in between two other buildings.

La laurea conseguita al Politecnico di Milano

His academic background emerges here and there: in a drawing of Valentina strolling in the Missori area, behind her is Torre Velasca, built by Crepax’s thesis advisor, the Alumnus Ernesto Nathan Rogers. A frame of a man at a drafting machine brings us another scrap of biography, “His grandfather was an engineer. In fact, before enrolling in architecture, our father had taken a year of engineering, but was very unhappy with it,” Caterina reveals. "However, his whole life he made his drawings at his grandfather's actual desk, which is now in the architecture studio where I work," says Giacomo. In this stream of memories and references, Caterina says: "In the library at home we always found books on architecture, which we then used in turn. For him, design books were the best source of inspiration, because he was interested in drawing interiors and people in their environments, to also tell stories through design objects, wallpapers and lamps. Many of them were design pieces from our house, which we used to find in the comics”. The Arco lamp, the Le Corbusier sofas, the Brionvega television and the Magistretti bed were references that are mixed with more personal inspirations, as Caterina recounts: "There was an armchair with a footstool on which our mother used to read, opposite the table on which our father used to draw, and so that prompted a dialogue between reality and paper". Showing a drawing with the city of Prague, Giacomo explains: “Since he hardly ever left his studio, he would ask for photos of our trips abroad, which then became the locations of Valentina's adventures”.

Two other drawings help us to place him: portraits of Gropius and of Frank Lloyd Wright, the latter pictured next to Fallingwater. The tools of his trade were those of the architect's trade: ink, sheets of tracing paper and the razor blades with which he would scratch them, a compass and technical pens. "He used to lay out the very edges of the frames in straight lines with the corners flat,” observes Giacomo. “His drawings are almost like sections, floor plans where things happen in the individual frames. For example, there is a drawing with a bed at the centre, with Valentina and her companion on it, and from underneath come other side views of the bed. Or the choice to insert a drawing of a spiral staircase by fitting it into a long, narrow panel tells us about the architectural care he took in composing an image. On one sheet of paper there is a proper orthogonal projection of Valentina, which in this way becomes a device for moving, by turning it around, onto the next panel and the next episode.

He had an eye for detail, as Caterina explains well: "His stories take place mostly indoors and rarely outdoors, but when we are outside he always shows us places in fragments. There is no panorama of Milan cathedral, just the framing of a spire. He loved doors with handles, because they always had mystery behind them. He had invented underground people, who lived underground and emerged through gaps in the wallpaper and cracks in the wall or from the furniture, figures hidden in the floral patterns of a wallpaper”. What kind of architect would he have been? "His architecture would probably have been very rigorous but at the same time very imaginative, because he was very precise in his documentation but within his work he threw in things that were more of the future than of the present. Let’s say, maybe it would have been similar to the works of Oscar Niemeyer, like Brasilia,” Giacomo replies. Caterina adds: "He was always a member of the architects' association and he had signed the project for a house of his mother's in a small village in Versilia. But he had made a mistake in the design and put the main façade at the back and vice versa, he had reversed them”.

What lesson did he teach you?

«To perceive the whole, to get wrapped up in a reality that is composed of many things: architecture, politics and design, just like his stories. To bring this out, when we set up exhibitions we always try to physically bring the visitor into his world, almost as if they are entering the drawings, because he had no limits. Perhaps that is the greatest lesson: life is about sensing everything».

At Politecnico di Milano, a project does the grocery shopping for those who can’t

Posted on 11 May 2023 | by admin

Co-ordinated by Prof. Davide Fassi at the Department of Design, the SOSpesa project takes its cue from a grassroots neighbourhood initiative which started in a Facebook group - NoLo Social District. During the first lockdown in 2020, it was a meeting point for those who wanted to donate food, those who needed it, and those who could make themselves available to deliver groceries door-to-door. With the end of the lockdown period, Off Campus NoLo at Politecnico di Milano has decided to adopt this initiative, starting to experiment with various methods to offer a service that was previously left to individual initiative. The Off Campus spaces at the neighbourhood market at Viale Monza 54 were chosen for this. Researchers Valentina Ferreri from the Department of Design and Stefano Quaglia from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering explain the details of this project, moving from the desire to help families in need.

BREAD, MEAT, FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

'We wanted to provide a different service compared to the classic "spesa sospesa" offered by supermarket chains, in order to avoid the "first come, first served" crowd,' Ferreri explains. The food being given away is fresh and high-quality, and the distribution system is managed in an orderly manner: the recipients (currently around 200 families) are contacted to organise the delivery of the groceries, which takes place a couple of times a month. Each family is entitled to pick up two types of groceries, alternating between them: first a packet of surplus food, rescued thanks to the collaboration with RECUP and various neighbourhood shops that donate their unsold food, and then a bag of products worth 30 euros, bought by Off Campus.

THE POWER OF WORD OF MOUTH

How are recipient families identified? "Initially, they had to register on an online platform, then in 2021, with the arrival of our Polisocial project, a selection of recipient families and a methodology of distribution on a rotational basis were defined", Ferreri explains. "We do not ask for proof of financial status, we trust people's good faith: we have neither the means nor the ability to check. It works: we are notified of many people by Rete Qubì in Loreto, others are referred by families who already benefit from the service; some have even removed themselves from the list, because they no longer need help."

TRANSFORMING UNSOLD GOODS

Another aspect of the SOSpesa project is the 'transformation' (yes, this is what it’s called) of unsold goods: "Many shopkeepers wanted to support our initiative with unsold goods, but they had an insufficient amount of surplus. So we decided to donate a small part of the boxes we rescue thanks to the work of the Recup association to the restaurant ‘Cunza’ and the delicatessen ‘Fola’, which reprocess and cook the products to make dishes and preserves to sell. For every dish sold, the project receives one euro", explains Ferreri.

Among the most critical issues encountered, especially with an eye to the future, is the need to continuously raise funds for the project: 'We are always in need of money to buy quality food,' explains Ferreri. 'At the moment, those who wish can donate in three ways: with Satispay, by bank transfer or in cash at the collection points. In the future, however, if the model expands to other neighbourhoods, fundraising will be an aspect to be taken into account.' According to Quaglia, the added value of SOSpesa is that, by getting the real neighbourhood involved, they can better see to the social aspect and create a network of people willing to work with them.

THE ROLE OF STUDENTS

The project involved many students as volunteers: "Some student associations, such as Social Innovation Teams (SIT), took care of the relationship with the recipients, contacting them when it was time to pick up the groceries", says Ferreri. Another active collaboration is with the Muslim Students Association, which assists the volunteers delivering groceries at the Off Campus NoLo site, talking with recipients who do not understand Italian.

A SHARED REFRIGERATOR

The researchers are now ready to wrap up the project, which is in its closing phase: one of the ideas for the future, in addition to taking the model to other neighbourhoods (starting perhaps with other Off Campus sites), is to develop a neighbourhood refrigerator project. 'It would be interesting to share a cold store with other organisations and services involved in food rescue and redistribution. Rete Qubì participated in a municipal call for projects with this idea, now we just have to wait for the results,' Ferreri concludes.

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Piazzale Loreto: a square open to the future

Posted on 9 May 2023 | by admin

Milan, 2026. Exiting the Loreto underground station, you are almost delivered into the embrace of the square, which - excavated in the form of a hypogeum, in natural stone - descends to the mezzanine level to carry you up to the open sky, where, looking up, you discover the green rooftops of three buildings: prismatic structures equipped with solar panels and discreet containers for shops, while outside a network of pedestrians and cyclists moves among three hundred trees, a place of passage and meeting. This urban regeneration covers more than nine thousand square metres, including almost four thousand square metres of public green space and more than one kilometre of cycle paths in the entire project. Back to Milan, 2023. This vision is - in short - the design of the new Piazzale Loreto, winner of the international competition Reinventing Cities. Entitled LOC - Loreto Open Community, it is scheduled to start construction by autumn 2023 with the aim of completion for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, and is based on the idea of a piazza that is open to people and ideas. We spoke to Alumnus Carlo Masseroli, Development&Strategy Director of Nhood, an international real estate solutions company specialising in commercial real estate and urban regeneration - the leader of a multidisciplinary team that includes some of the best in the fields of planning, design and landscape.

THE PROJECT IS CALLED LOC - LORETO OPEN COMMUNITY: HOW DOES THE PROJECT OPEN UP TO THE COMMUNITY?

The project is divided into four stages, which over time and in various ways foresee dialogue with the community. For us, it was essential to start by listening to the local community, which does not mean neutralising potential neighbourhood committees or being careful not to touch on issues that could have generated opposition. We needed to present the project and understand with the local people themselves whether it was consistent. So, in the first listening stage it immediately emerged that there this square still retains a strong legacy of the boom in the car industry, when a different notion of the city transformed it not into a meeting place but a place of division. So much so that Piazzale Loreto separates parts of the city that are profoundly distant from one another. There is no other place in the city where, standing at the centre and looking around, you can see so many different Milans: there is NoLo, which is enjoying a new vitality generated thanks to the local residents, but which, compared to Corso Buenos Aires, for example, began with fewer services. On the opposite side we have Corso Buenos Aires, the wealthiest part, the shopping area. Continuing in line from here, we have Viale Monza and the multicultural Via Padova. And then there is Città Studi, the university district. In short, it is a road junction that from a social point of view has created a barrier to sharing the city. We want to tear down this barrier. Hence the idea for a project that is not monumental and architectural in nature - which it was originally - but which transforms the square into a place that reunites many different parts of the city. An agora, a meeting point.

THE CURRENT MEETING POINT IS LOC 2026, A PHYSICAL SPACE ON VIA PORPORA, OPEN TO ANYONE FROM THE COMMUNITY WHO WANTS TO LEARN ABOUT THE PROJECT AND ITS EVOLUTION.

Yes, and this is the stage we are in now. LOC 2026 will start hosting initiatives and events that will anticipate what we would like to see in the square. We will also organise a series of meetings for students at the Politecnico di Milano, to explain the various stages and also hear their point of view on the project. Likewise, we will meet with other local schools and actors to explain the many aspects of the project, from mobility to the environment. Regarding the environment, during my tenure as councillor for spatial development (2006-2011, ed.) we had envisaged the theme of ‘green spokes’ in the city, that is an orbital park made up of cycle paths and nature that would encircle the city, running from the centre to the suburbs. Piazzale Loreto will represent one of these green spokes. Returning to the origin of the core of this idea, I would like to add that the first milestone of this square was the construction of the working team. When the Reinventing Cities call was launched, I was at Arcadis, a design and engineering consultancy, and I wanted to build a team capable of meeting a major challenge: a private entity that for the first time transforms a public square, an emblem of regeneration that combines public interest and private viability. So we engaged Nhood, which specialises in transforming spaces into living places, the Metrogramma team of architects and MIC-HUB for public and private infrastructure mobility.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO RETHINK AND RECONSTRUCT A SQUARE THAT HAS LITERALLY WITNESSED THE PASSAGE OF HISTORY?

On the one hand, there is enormous fear because the expectation is high. And we could envisage meetings dedicated precisely to discussing and preserving the history of this square. No one from my generation has ever set foot in the centre of this square and this will be a great new element: in the square of the future, the entire area will be open to pedestrians. From a mobility point of view, the impact is very low because we create order but without restrictions. We will reduce traffic by 5 %, but we believe that the construction period - which will be the third stage - will naturally lead to a new way of using this part of the city. Finally, and we come to the fourth stage, our ambition is that this square, like the large squares in other capital cities, becomes one of the places on Milan’s tourist tours.

AND IF YOU WERE TO LOOK BACK TO YOUR YEARS AS A STUDENT AT THE POLITECNICO DI MILANO, WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON YOU FEEL YOU LEARNED HERE AND WHICH IS STILL VALUABLE IN YOUR WORK TODAY?

After graduating in management engineering, I opened a company dealing with management control information systems. Subsequently, I was councillor for urban planning in Milan for five years, playing a public role focused on urban regeneration. Then, as general manager of MilanoSesto, I have played the role of a private individual and today part of my job is precisely to make sure that public interests match and dialogue with private interests and viability. This preamble serves to emphasise how I started working using the management skills I learnt at university but then did something else. More than vertical skills, what remained was a learned method, the ability to tackle any complex issue, to process any kind of problem. In a dramatically changing world, I have the toolbox I created at the Poli. The other lesson learned is the tendency always to provide a quantification. To maintain a pragmatic approach. Especially in the world of urban regeneration, where all kinds of very complex competences are combined and you need to be able to condense things: quantify the process, give a sense of concreteness to the things you are managing. In a nutshell: put things into numbers.

LET'S GO BACK TO THE FUTURE: HOW DO YOU IMAGINE A WALK IN PIAZZALE LORETO ON A DAY IN 2026?

For me, the centre of Piazzale Loreto is the most unreachable place for the people of Milan, almost a utopia. Being able to walk in that place and making it usable for everyone is, I think, a good symbolic goal. There, in the shade of a sunny day, I would like to toast the new square.

Can’t you see anything? Budd-e, the robot-guide for the blind, can help you

Posted on 4 May 2023 | by admin

The BUDD-e (Blind-assistive aUtonomous Droid Device) project is part of this framework: the team, made up of researchers from various Politecnico departments (DEIB, DIG, DESIGN and DABC), worked to develop a robot that could offer more independence to blind and visually impaired people, guiding them in everyday activities such as a run in the park or a trip to the shopping centre. "The initial idea was to provide blind and visually impaired people with a tool that would give them independence while running, but then the project was extended to other areas when we realised, together with our partners, that there are various accessibility difficulties in public spaces", explains Prof. Marcello Farina (Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering), the project's scientific co-ordinator.

TRIALS UNDERWAY

Before starting, the researchers presented various blind and visually impaired consumers with a series of questionnaires to find out what their habits and needs were: it turned out that most of them (75%) only moved around when accompanied by friends, relatives or volunteers, and that 1% did not even leave the house for fear of hurting themselves.

Budd-e aims to replace carers in order to give more freedom to blind and visually impaired people: "The idea is to make it a public service, an aid you can use when you go to the supermarket, the park or the station", Farina explains. "The two places where we will carry out the first trials are the Niguarda Hospital and the Centro Sportivo Giurati at Politecnico: at the Niguarda the test will probably be in June, while we have not yet fixed the date at the Centro Sportivo; however, project will be concluded by September and a closing event will take place.

ROBOTS AND RADARS FOR EVERYDAY LIFE

Budd-e has the same size and mobility as a wheelchair, and is a 2.0 version of Yape, a robot already on the market used for last-mile distribution (i.e., the last step in the supply chain, which takes place with the delivery of the product to the customer).

Find out more about Yape at this link

Compared to Yape, the most visible change in Budd-e is the addition of the 'hand strap' that serves to guide the user: "The wrist strap is active, it gives a tension of 0.6 kilograms force to the user, who thus knows where to go: Budd-e does not pull their arm, and only moves when the user moves, adapting to their speed and always maintaining the same distance", Farina explains. Powered by electric batteries, in order to function Budd-e must first map the place where it will move: in closed places (such as hospitals or shopping centres) it requires LIDAR technology (Light Detection and Ranging, an aerial remote sensing system), while for parks and open spaces, GPS mapping is sufficient.

"Budd-e is a work in progress", Farina clarifies: "Even the version we will test in June will not be the final one, as we will continue to improve it: the most important changes we want to make are the optimisation of the wrist strap pull system and the addition of an acoustic signal".

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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Launch of the JUICE mission to Jupiter

Posted on 3 May 2023 | by admin

On 14 April, at 14:14 Italian time, JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), was launched from the Kourou base in French Guiana, the European Space Agency probe that will reach the Jupiter system in 2031 to make detailed observations of the gaseous planet and three of its moons: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.

The Politecnico di Milano is also involved in the mission: researchers at the MetroSpace Lab in the Department of Mechanics, on the Lecco Campus, helped to design of one of the main instruments on board the probe: MAJIS (Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer), an imaging spectrometer that operates on two different spectral channels, near infrared and infrared. The instrument was built by a French and Italian consortium, (French Principal Investigator, Francois Poulet from the IAS in Paris, with Italian Co-Principal Investigator, Giuseppe Piccioni from the INAF in Rome) with Belgian support; the optical head of the instrument is the Italian contribution.

In particular, the team from the Politecnico led the initial phase of the thermomechanical project, studying a passive cooling system capable of maintaining the infrared sensor at temperatures below 90 K (-183.15 °C) and the entire optical system at temperatures below 140 K (-133.15 °C), even though the satellite will operate at close to Earth temperatures.

The executive design and construction of the instrument were conducted by Leonardo, funded by the Italian Space Agency, under the supervision of the scientific team, within which the Politecnico group will remain active during the flight and operational phase of the mission, first to refine the thermal model of the instrument, using the data collected during the cruise phase, and then to support the planning of the observations.

For further information: Space @polimi

A new digital record for Italy: a chat with Giuseppe Di Franco

Posted on 2 May 2023 | by admin

“This is a time of great development in the Italian market in terms of digital technology, driven by two fundamental trends: European investments (such as those of the NRRP) and digital transformative processes. At the head of these two trends are the large industrial groups, as one of the issues to consider is the sheer size required to make an impact in the digital sector”.

Speaking is Giuseppe Di Franco, Managing Director of the Lutech Group, CEO of Lutech Advanced Solutions and an Alumnus of the Politecnico in management engineering. He explains that in this context, one can do very little alone, and this is, as we know, a critical issue in the Italian industrial fabric, characterised by various small- and medium-sized (albeit excellent) companies. “One of the major efficiency issues of the Italian economic system lies in the low productivity of labour compared to the main European partners. The way to improve productivity, national security, data sovereignty, is linked to important digital investments. This must be done consistently with national objectives". 

This was one of the considerations that led to the negotiations for the acquisition of Atos Italia by Lutech, in partnership with the Apax funds and the Atos Group. "We have worked to create a digital champion in Italy; we aim to exceed one billion euros in turnover in approximately a year and a half with a workforce of over 5,000 people. This is a player of paramount significance internationally”.

ITALIAN INVESTMENTS TO MULTIPLY OUR COMPUTING CAPACITY

The issue is important because it points towards a dominance of Italy over innovation and design capacity"I don't think we will ever compete with China on labour costs, will we? So, you have to focus on computing capacity to design and escape the trap of competing on labour costs. That is mortifying, and has always led to devastating effects”. We ask Mr Di Franco what the next steps are in this process.

"At the end of 2022, the most significant computing project of recent years was launched by the President of the Republic. I am referring to the Leonardo supercomputer, which doubles the national computing capacity. It is the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world and is devoted to scientific and technological research. Powered by Atos technology and managed by the Cineca university consortium, thanks also to the expertise of the then Atos Italy team, it is accessible to universities and companies throughout Italy. Leonardo is one of the examples of the fact that our country is investing in equipping itself with a first-class processing capacity at both European and international level. Which, I would say, is a basic element to be able to talk about digital development”.

DIGITAL TWINS, FROM LIGHT METERS TO THE ENTIRE PLANET

Directly related to computing power, the other element of growth is our modelling capacity. “From an unrefined model of the human body, for instance, I cannot possibly be expected to be able to study DNA. The more the model of the body can be broken down into parts increasingly faithful to their physical twins AND with higher resolution, the more effective scientific research can be in terms of predictability”. We speak, of course, of the Digital Twin, a relatively new term to define a millenary ambition of our species: that of being able, whilst having all the information available, to predict the development (i.e., obtain a model) of any phenomenon. 

"And here we touch on two important issues. First of all, as we said, the exponentially growing computing capacity. We are changing the order of magnitude of what can be simulated, of what we have simulated and thought up to now, which is fortunately in danger of becoming obsolete very soon. Starting with the concrete: think, for example, of the use of the Digital Twin for city management, for the design of complex technological elements, for the treatment of organs in the body with revolutionary drugs, for meteorological studies, for predictive technologies... the sky is the limit, so the saying goes”.

FISHING IN DATA LAKES IS NO CHILD'S PLAY

The critical aspect of all this lies in the complexity and number of variables in the information we can collect a priori; error is just around the corner, and it brings with it the risk of a drift effect. "In technology parlance we talk about building data lakes; in general, however, we are talking about an end point that does not turn on with an on/off switch. It is a path that has intermediate steps; all the big companies are working very seriously on building these datasets with data collection as a prerequisite (e.g., with IoT). To cite a domestic case, Enel is one of the largest data lakes in the world with readings and data from meters. This gives information, for example on energy consumption, the possibility of balancing the grid, the correct use of existing infrastructure, etc.”

Another bit of good news is that this is only the beginning. "Scientific and technological research is leading us towards quantum computing, which will change orders of magnitude further when we move to applications that use quantum capacity instead of parallel capacity”.

IF MACHINES DESIGN OTHER MACHINES AND THEY MAKE MISTAKES, WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT?

Let's assume that we are driving. At some point, the brake mechanism jams: there was a design error in the car, which was not designed well enough to withstand a certain use. Who is to blame? Today, we are at the point where we can design a car using Digital Twin: in practice, it is machines that design other machines, based on our preferences. This way of designing should further reduce the (already low) margin of error. But errors can never be completely eliminated, and when they occur, we ask ourselves who is to blame. We are under the impression, however, that the human user demands more from digital security than he/she does from his/her fellow human beings. In the same way we have legitimate doubts on the question of autonomous driving. Then there is an issue of opacity of choices. The question is this: can we trust a machine in the same way that we can trust a human?

“Novelty always induces concern,” replies Di Franco. “If you go from horses to cars, you worry about cars. Today, we are dealing with self-driving cars, who knows what other questions we will ask ourselves in the future. Novelty introduces uncertainty: we are attracted to it, but also frightened of it. And this is another cultural element: an evolved country must have an evolved school and university system capable of preparing the population for change”.

THIS IS WHERE CYBERSECURITY COMES IN...

"Digitisation and cybersecurity must grow in parallel, as must the skills required to manage them, otherwise we may run into the same problems that we have seen in the news from time to time. This is a cultural issue and one of the many that highlight the important role of institutions such as the Politecnico di Milano: universities such as the Poli are a driving force for the development of skills (and I cite the study programme in High Performance Computing as an example) as well as a driving force for cultural transformation. Another crucial issue is resistance to innovation. How many times do we find ourselves in companies talking about these topics and we hear the answer, especially from medium- and small-sized companies: “we don't need it”; “we have never used it”; “we have always done without it”... but digitisation requires its own supply chain: if a manufacturing company wants to digitally design a car, they need suppliers who are themselves digitised. This is the major issue of involving of small and medium-sized companies as an essential element of the country's development. Not least because it is these that represent our economic backbone”. Also in this transformation, collaboration between the industrial system and universities is key. In this sense, Lutech Advances Solutions (formerly Atos Italia) and the Politecnico di Milano have recently signed a three-year agreement to develop shared teaching, technology transfer and research projects applied to frontier areas: precisely those we have talked about here, in the field of digitisation, such as Digital Twin, High Performance Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Internet of Things. "It is an agreement that naturally emerges from a very long relationship, which has also seen the Politecnico involved in training our managers to know how to manage this path of change. The relationship with the Politecnico di Milano is an essential part of our strategic path and represents an exemplary case for Italy. Intensive cooperation with the university system means bringing innovation to industries and also being able to think up new models of action”.

Water wars: is water the new oil? No, it’s even worse

Posted on 28 April 2023 | by admin

We are used to turning on the tap and seeing plenty of water gush out, without worrying that it might run out. We take it for granted that we will have enough to quench our thirst and wash ourselves, but also to produce primary goods such as food and electricity. Although this attitude is changing in our country because of drought, in some developing countries water is a commodity for which people even kill: a study conducted by a group of Politecnico researchers and published in the prestigious journal Nature Sustainability investigated how water is linked to violent conflicts in the Lake Chad basin in Africa, trying to specifically understand what role this resource plays in triggering the conflict itself. We spoke to two of the authors, researchers Nikolas Galli and Maria Cristina Rulli, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: here is what they told us.

CONFLICTS, NOT WARS

Although the phrase commonly used in English is water wars, in this case, Galli and Rulli explain, the expression is wrong: "So far, we have never had evidence of water wars in history, except perhaps one in the time of the Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC", Rulli points out. "The term war in international law has the meaning of aggression by one state against another; in the cases we investigated, it is therefore more correct to speak of conflicts, not wars".

WATER IS ONLY ONE OF THE FACTORS INVOLVED

"We chose to focus on the area of the Lake Chad basin because it is a region that suffers from serious institutional and environmental fragility", Galli explains. "It is also often misrepresented, which is why we decided to analyse the issue of conflicts in the area in a more scientific way". One of the conclusions reached by the analysis is that water is only one of the factors at play in triggering conflicts: "There are typical socio-economic drivers behind the emergence of conflicts, such as religious or political reasons that often interact with each other and with hydrological dynamics", Galli explains. Very often, moreover, the areas most prone to conflict are those that already have a history of conflict behind them. And climate change, which brings with it the threat of desertification, is an accelerator of these drivers.

CONFLICTS OVER WATER IN EUROPE

As the problems of water scarcity and droughts become increasingly serious in the Old Continent too, will it be our turn to be involved in water wars in the future? "I hope not", commented Rulli. 'We are in a somewhat different historical phase and I hope we will not have violent conflicts like we see in Central Africa, but if we are talking about conflicts over resources, those already exist. When the resource is scarce and there are multiple users (such as the agricultural, energy or domestic sectors), managing the water resource incorrectly can lead to conflict situations'. We are talking about a social and economic conflict, of course, which does not escalate to violence, but can still have important consequences on our way of life. In this regard, Rulli cites an episode that occurred in Texas and New Mexico during a severe drought: 'Farmers were selling the water they had in concession for agricultural use to energy producers, who paid huge amounts for it: the result was that energy was being produced instead of food'.

Is thus water the new oil? 'Water is more valuable than oil and we have finally realised that now. Access to water and sanitation are in fact recognised by the United Nations as human rights. As such, it should be given a value but not a price”, says Rulli.

BEYOND WATER: A NEW STUDY ON ITS WAY

On 6 April, a new article came out that expanded on the topic covered in the Nature Sustainability study: "We deepened the water-conflict link to also include food", explains Rulli. "We focused on urban conflicts in Central America, analysing the role of water not only as a strategic resource in its own right, but also as a resource for food production".

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSDISCIPLINARITY

We conclude with a question: what has this research taught you? "The importance of transdisciplinarity", replies Rulli. "Having a solid scientific basis is essential, but not sufficient: one has to be modest and open to collaboration with other colleagues who are experts in other fields, especially when dealing with global social issues, as in this case". Galli responded along the same lines, stating: "The most important moment in our research was when we realised that we could see better what we were looking for when we accepted the complexity of the problem, without trying to simplify it. When analysing such important and at the same time complex phenomena, one must be modest, and study them with the awareness that, more often than not, we lack the tools to understand them completely".