The genius of Gianfranco Ferré on displayin Los Angeles 

From February 8 until May 15, a piece of Italianfashion history will be on display at the Italian Cultural Institute in LosAngeles in the exhibition ‘Gianfranco Ferré. Design Principles’, curated by the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre at the Politecnico di Milano.

Read more: https://alumni.polimi.it/en/2021/12/07/al-politecnico-di-milano-nasce-il-centro-di-ricerca-gianfranco-ferre/  

The exhibition explores Gianfranco Ferré's unique approach to fashion designthrough a selection of drawings and iconic garments, offering visitors animmersive experience enriched by a digital connection with the Ferré archivethrough images and videos that provide a closer look at thecreation/development of the exhibition. 

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The DRAWINGS WALLis a journey into Ferré's vision of fashion design,understood as a dynamic process, a continuous search for a synthesisbetween art and science, inspiration and compositional rigor, cultural contentand technical innovation. 

The garments on display take visitors on an experiential journey into Ferré'sstylistic research, in which the principles of design materialize in the infinitevariations of the archetypal white shirt, a true icon of the designer's creativework.

“‘Design Principles’ is the first exhibition since the Research Centre wasestablished at the Politecnico, which made it an opportunity for reflection on thedesign principles underlying the work of Gianfranco Ferré, so representative of thepolytechnic culture and the continuous trend towards harmonizing the culture oftechnology and science with that of art. This exhibition also gives us the opportunity toshare some of the very first research experiments that will lead to thedevelopment of an ambitious ‘augmented archive’ project over the next threeyears." 

says Paola Bertola, professor of Designat the Politecnico di Milano. 

The drawings and shirts on display are part of the designer's archive –recognized as a heritage ‘of particular cultural interest’ by the Italian Ministryof Cultural Heritage and Activities – Archive Supervisory Authority forLombardy - and today part of the Historical Archives at the Politecnico di Milano. 


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It's no joke: flying taxis in Milan within 3 years

To quote a great scientist (not from Politecnico, unfortunately), “Where we're going, we don't need roads”. We do need vertiports, however, which are the facilities necessary for the take-off and landing of flying taxis - for the time being, we are talking about small aircraft, suitable for transporting a maximum of two people and one piece of luggage, but in the near future they will be real flying buses, with vertical take-off and landing.

In Milan, plans are already ongoing to build two vertiports within the city, at Citylife and Porta Romana, and two more at the major airports, namely Linate and Malpensa. Work to build them will start in 2024 and the first flights are expected in 2026, by the time of the Winter Olympics. On behalf of SEA, the major newco shareholder responsible for the design, construction and management of vertiports, Politecnico di Milano conducted a feasibility study to analyse the areas in Lombardy that are suitable for accommodating them. 9 urban areas and 6 more areas across the region have been identified, giving priority to provincial capitals.

In 2026 reaching the centre of Milan by air from Malpensa could cost around 120 euros per person. Afterwards, the price should settle around 80 euros, which sounds competitive with a car rental with driver. We are moving towards a consolidation of the service within the next 10-20 years: according to the Politecnico researchers' estimation, 2,000 passengers per day will be travelling in flying taxis by 2030.

With regard to proper vehicles, however, this is it, explains Alex Zanotti, a researcher from the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology:

'From a technological point of view I don’t see any particular difficulties, because we start from a well known knowledge base in the aeronautic field. These machines (known as eVTOL, acronym for electric vertical take-off and landing, ed.) will fly soon. Efforts are being made towards the goal of the Paris 2024 Olympics and the Cortina and Milan 2026 Winter Olympics to create air taxis connecting airport hubs to the places where sports competitions will be held, such as stadiums'.

Today, researchers focus on the issues of the satellite activities around this new reality, on the software part (some of the aircraft will be controlled automatically, Zanotti explains), on certifications, on city air traffic regulatory plans and on the psychological aspect, that should never be underestimated, especially in the context of autonomous driving. Applications range from tourism to supply chain up to social purposes, for instance flying ambulance city services.

Credits header: Corriere della Sera

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MIT and Politecnico together for the Rocca project

The project has come to life “Towards the Smart Villages of Italy” finanziato da MIT – Italy Roberto Rocca Project-Politecnico di Milano.

MIT students and professors conducted ten days of fieldwork, travelling to some of the most economically disadvantaged and poorest areas of Europe in  inland Sicily (Favara, Vizzini and Centuripe), exploring the role of cultural heritage, digitization and WFH as tools to promote new forms of sustainable development. From this perspective, the digital transition is an opportunity that cannot be missed. The class also compared similar conditions of marginalisation in the Alps (Valtellina, Tirano and Teglio). Gli studenti stanno ora lavorando ai loro progetti finali, concentrandosi su alcuni temi come: metriche spaziali dell’abbandono in Sicilia, proposta per un piano regionale del lavoro a distanza in Valtellina, sensibilizzazione digitale delle piccole imprese, opportunità della Valtellina in vista delle imminenti Olimpiadi invernali e linee guida di progettazione su turismo e produzione alimentare in Sicilia.

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https://dusp.mit.edu/news/smart-villages-italy

The project was developed by Prof. Giovanna Fossa (Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment) together with Prof. Brent Ryan (MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning) who says:

It is the first time that MIT has organised an urban planning course in Italy on the subject of depopulation and widespread historical heritage. The students were exposed to new and unique situations that bear witness to the cultural richness of the Italian hinterland, but also to the fragility of an economically and demographically impoverished territory.

The research group of this MIT-Politecnico collaboration includes Carmelo Ignaccolo, researcher in urban planning at MIT,  Cristina Boniotti , researcher in restoration at the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment of the Politecnico di Milano, and  Andrea Pimpinella , researcher in telecommunications at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano.

Credits home: https://www.caldana.it/

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Encubator: the Politecnico rewards the startups fighting climate change 

7 startups, €280,000 of funding and one project, Encubator, which was created to reward the innovation of businesses that focus on sustainable development. 

The winning businesses, from Italy and abroad (with the usual quota of Politecnico alumni), were announced on 11 January 2023, from among as many as 168 applications submitted from across the world by university spinoffs and early-stage startups capable of providing solutions to the biggest challenges in the fields of Climate Tech and sustainability, to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-free model of development , to make urban environments and transport more sustainable and to reduce waste, moving towards a circular economy model. 

encubator
Credits: Polihub

The task of selecting the best projects for the first edition of Encubator fell to a jury made up of representatives from the Politecnico di Milano, PoliHub, the Chamber of Commerce and each of the programme's partners and sponsors, in addition to various experts from the worlds of industry, venture capital and intellectual property protection. 

“Every day we hear worrying news about the climate crisis but few people are proposing solutions. We have decided set to work in order to find them. Almost 170 startups have responded to our appeal with practical solutions. The seven winners were adjudged to be the best prepared to implement them. With this first edition of Encubator, we are embarking on a journey of identifying the brightest people who are capable of creating the technologies needed to fight the climate crisis,”

remarked PoliHub CEO Enrico Deluchi. 

THE 7 WINNING STARTUPS

The Milan, Monza and Brianza Chamber of Commerce has awarded grants to: 

  • AraBat – transforming spent lithium-ion batteries into new products, using citrus waste (PNI) 
  • Gaia Turbine – has developed a plug and play hydroelectric microturbine which is ideal for aqueducts and environmental flows, with an efficiency of greater than 90%. 
  • Kinsect – intends to save the planet by producing proteins from the circular economy by farming insects with innovative and proprietary technological solutions. 
  • Reco2 – comprising alumni Désirée Farletti, Luca Spiridigliozzi and Daniele Nora - transforms industrial waste into innovative materials for sustainable architecture. 
  • Volta Structural Energy – developing the new generation of structural batteries for aerospace and automotive solutions, guaranteeing safety and savings in terms of mass and volume. 

A grant from BCC Milano, an Encubator Partner, has been awarded to ReHouseit, a startup which is remodelling the nature of spaces by adapting materials and advanced technologies in the construction sector, while H2go Technology, a startup that manufactures solid oxide fuel cells to facilitate an energy transition led by hydrogen, has received a grant from Innovatec, another Encubator Partner.

In addition to receiving a €40,000 grant, the winning businesses will participate in a 4-month acceleration programme organised by PoliHub to support their technological growth and the validation of their business structure, while they will also have access to a network of companies, founders, mentors, subject matter experts and investors from the worlds of business, energy and the circular economy.  

Vision, talent and technology are essential ingredients for the green transition. The winners of the first edition of Encubator have risen to the challenge of sustainable and technological innovation that focuses not only on the environmental impact, but also the economic and social consequences. This programme could provide practical, cutting-edge solutions to the challenges of Climate Tech and sustainability, promoting a circular development model”

added Donatella Sciuto, Rector of the Politecnico di Milano. 

Credits home: Appolinary Kalashnikova on Unsplash

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Alumna Marzia Bolpagni voted woman of the year 

In 2021, we saw her given the title “star of engineering” by Forbes and with a long list of prizes (the latest were the British Women of the Future Award and the engineer of the year prize from the Royal Academy of Engineering). Despite the prizes, she has a desire to do even more.  

Bolpagni, an Alumna who obtained her doctorate in 2018, has been living in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years and today leads international digital implementation at Mace, a construction and consultancy firm which, among other projects, also built the celebrated London Eye. But the recognition did not stop there, because 2022 also proved to be full of success for Marzia: she was included by Corriere della Sera journalists in a list of 50 women who have left a mark on 2022.  

“Her ambition: to bridge the gap between academia and industry. She is the chair of the Modelling & Standards Committee of the European Council on Computing in Construction (EC3). She also leads a European working group for the digitalisation of construction where she represents Italy and the lead author of European Standard EN 17412-1 for specifying the level of information need.” 

Over the course of this year, the Alumna has also won the Rising Stars Award, which celebrates the best 5 professionals in the Infrastructure, Transport & Logistics category. 

marzia bolpagni
Credits: Linkedin

«Il gender gap? È un problema da risolvere e spero che il mio percorso possa motivare tante donne a intraprendere o continuare una carriera nella digitalizzazione dell’ambiente costruito, una carriera in salita ma ricca di soddisfazioni!»  aggiunge Bolpagni al Corriere della Sera. 

Girls@Polimi: with a voluntary donation (you choose the amount!) you can contribute alongside other donors to the creation of scholarships that support one or more female students enrolling on the first year of the Laurea Magistrale (Equivalent to Master of Science) programmes in Engineering, which currently have low female representation. Give now

Credits home: Corriere della Sera

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Alumnus Renzo Piano donates his archive to the Politecnico di Milano 

“I owe everything to the university: it is where I truly grew up, where I learnt everything”. Speaking to Corriere della Sera , Renzo Piano explained the decision to donate his archive to the Politecnico di Milano, which has found a home on the first floor of one of the buildings most celebrated and loved by Alumni, the Nave. 

Qui sono stati riservati 350 metri quadrati alla Fondazione Renzo Piano tra schizzi, disegni e dossier cartacei, che diventeranno una miniera d’oro per gli aspiranti architetti dell’Ateneo.  Lo spazio ospita, come dichiara la Fondazione su Linkedin, “una biblioteca, il fondo ‘Archivio Renzo Piano Architetto 1964 – 1977′ e spazi flessibili dedicati ad attività di laboratorio, studio, incontri e lezioni, per avvicinare in maniera diretta i giovani all’esperienza di oltre 60 anni di ‘fare architettura’ di Renzo Piano e dei suoi collaboratori.” 

archivio renzo piano
Credits: Fondazione Renzo Piano

But the Alumnus will also be present in person at the Politecnico di Milano. For five years, Piano will also take on the role of teacher for the first time in his career. 

“I know how important the Italian educational tradition is in stimulating the creativity hidden in young people, from Don Milani to Mario Lodi, from Loris Malaguzzi to Franco Lorenzoni: I don’t know whether I can live up to expectations. Apart from a brief experience at the Architectural Association School in London, I have helped many young architects in my firm and at my office at the Senate, but I have never really “taught”. I do however have a lot of stories to tell, true stories that might be interesting,” 

the Alumnus told the Corriere della Sera. He also added: 

“I will begin with my mistakes. I would like to confess my reservations, omissions... Twenty-year-olds soon realise when you are trying to fool them, but if I can be completely honest with them, miraculous things could happen. The first thing is to close the distance between me and these young people, to break down the apprehension, or perhaps awe, which is often felt towards someone like me. Then they will feel free to interject, ask questions and criticise.” 

Discover more:

Renzo Piano presents the Bovisa-Goccia masterplan

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META chooses the Polytechnic for a study on risks and opportunities of the Metaverse 

THIS NEWS WAS WRITTEN USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

Former students of the Polytechnic University of Milan will be thrilled to know that leading metaverse development company, META, has chosen their prestigious educational institution to conduct a study on the impact of the metaverse on society and the economy. 

The metaverse, a term referring to a virtual universe where users can interact immersively, is quickly becoming a reality. META, with its highly qualified team of developers, is working around the clock to create a metaverse that will be accessible to everyone. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the long-term effects of the metaverse on society and the economy. 

This is where the Polytechnic University of Milan comes in. With its reputation for excellence in technology and innovation, the Polytechnic is the ideal partner to tackle these critical questions. The META team will work closely with the Polytechnic of Milan to conduct studies and analyses that will provide concrete answers on the impact of the metaverse on society and the economy.

Former students of the Polytechnic University of Milan can be proud that their educational institution has been chosen for this important research project. This collaboration represents a unique opportunity for former students to be involved in this important research and contribute to the sustainable growth of the metaverse. 

META and the Polytechnic University of Milan are excited to work together on this project and hope that the research results will be used to inform decisions on how to responsibly develop and use the metaverse. We look forward to seeing what will be discovered and how these discoveries can help guide the future of the metaverse. 

Credits home/header: https://www.automazionenews.it/

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Agreement between Atlante and Politecnico di Milano

The Politecnico di Milano and Atlante, the company of NHOA Group (NHOA.PA, formerly Engie EPS) dedicated to electric vehicles fast and ultra-fast charging infrastructure, have signed an agreement for the creation of a  testing facility lab  for Atlante’s cutting-edge eStation.

This implementation agreement falls into the cooperation between NHOA Group and the Politecnico di Milano, within the Joint Research Platform (JRP).

The lab will be a testing environment with the most innovative tools, where Ph.D. students, young researchers, professors of the Politecnico and the R&D teams of Atlante, NHOA and Free2move eSolutions, as technology provider, will collaborate for the testing of the most advanced functionalities and features of Atlante’s eStation, a new hi-tech combination of fast and ultra-fast charging points supported by battery storage and powered by a system of solar panels.

Investing in research infrastructures and in long-term research projects with industrial partners such as NHOA is the secret to be able to build the knowledge and to transfer the know-how from university to society, and also contributing to train researchers and technicians in mastering the technologies of tomorrow. We are very happy with this initiative which allows us to equip ourselves better and better to face the technological challenge of 'sustainable mobility', a research field where Politecnico di Milano and NHOA are at the forefront,

have declared Daniele Rocchi, Rector’s Delegate for Relations with companies of the Politecnico di Milano.

At Atlante we are thrilled by the opportunity: this testing facility will provide us and the PoliMi students and researchers with a co-creation environment to study innovative solutions in the field of EV fastcharging solutions, surely taking our eStation to the next level,

have commented Stefano Terranova, CEO of Atlante.

Construction of the testing facility is expected to start by the end of 2022, enabling the testing procedures to start at the beginning of 2023.

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I am going to study management engineering at the Politecnico thanks to a scholarship  

In the three-year period 2020-2022 the Politecnico received over €10 million in donations from private individuals and companies. Supporting merit is the primary objective of the community: indeed, around half of these funds were used to finance about 500 merit-based or needs-based scholarships awarded to Politecnico students.  

Today we tell you the story of Anuar Mancini, 22 years old, from Perugia, who now describes Milan as his adopted city. He is one of the ‘2022 scholarship holders’, one of the many young people who - thanks to the support of donors - are laying the foundations for their future at the Politecnico di Milano. “After my Bachelor’s degree in management engineering, I will continue with a Master's degree at the Politecnico: I really value the technical and quantitative approach of this university,” he says. “My Bachelor’s thesis was the result of a five-month internship at SNAM, where I worked on the implementation of an interactive monitoring system using KPI dashboards, to evaluate the impact of maintenance on CNG and LNG methane dispensing stations.”  

The number of students enrolling in the management engineering course increases every year: this multidisciplinary course is highly valued on the job market. Not everyone has the financial means to support this educational pathway, especially considering the cost of living in Milan. For this reason, and to ensure the university doesn’t lose talented potential students who would otherwise be unable to study at the Politecnico, the School of Management organizes a fundraiser every year in support of deserving students in financial need, so that they can fulfil their dream of studying Management Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.  

“The scholarship I won was extremely gratifying and will accompany my memory of the Politecnico forever,” continues Anuar. In addition to taking into account household financial situation, the criteria for drawing up the ranking also consider the average grades in the undergraduate exams how soon they were taken..

. “I am extremely focused on results, on performance, always trying to raise the bar a bit. In my undergraduate course, I pushed myself hard: I nearly always sat the exams in the first available session, and even managed to sit some scheduled for the following year in advance. On the other hand, it was essential to be aware of my limits: when I knew that my performance would not be excellent, I stopped, took a step back and worked out how I could achieve the desired result.”   

Management engineers design and manage systems in which technology interacts in a complex manner with economics and organization. Thanks to the multidisciplinary profile, they can work in different sectors and roles. As a child, Anuar dreamed of becoming an astronaut, then a teacher, then a CEO of a large multinational corporation. “Now, what I feel like saying is that I would like to make an impact in society, something tangible or intangible that can help people live a better life. More practically, this dream could be materialized through a path of entrepreneurial growth, by the creation of an innovative product or service that is useful to society, or more simply by creating a memorable idea or model that can prove efficient and effective. One key notion I have held for a long time is the desire to be a citizen of the world, taking advantage of my professional life to travel, get to know new cultures and take inspiration from them. In this sense, I really value the role of management engineer, as it is extremely versatile and allows you to work in the most disparate fields, and, by definition, has the objective of solving problems using models in an efficient and effective way.” 

“These scholarships, established thanks to donations by Management Engineering Alumni and all the friends of the Management Engineering Department, are a concrete way of helping deserving students to embark on a path of personal growth and professional development that will lead them to become skilled management engineers,” comments Professor Marika Arena, coordinator of the management engineering course. “Therefore, I would like to thank most sincerely all those who have contributed towards this great initiative to date and remind people that the campaign is still open. Thanks to the help from our community, we can make a difference!” 

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185 Politecnico scientists rank among the best 200,000 in the world

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

This has been established by a list of the World's Top 2% Scientists, a global ranking of the most productive scientists prepared by Stanford University in collaboration with Elsevier and the"Scopusdatabase of the world's scientific research. The ranking is the result of a bibliometric study, a discipline that uses mathematical and statistical techniques to analyse the quantity, quality and diffusion of publications within scientific communities. The authors analysed data relating to over 8 and a half million researchers from universities and research centres throughout the world. Among them, approximately 195,000 scientists stood out for their scientific authority and currently represent the best 2%. Approximately 5,000 of these work (or have worked for the majority of their careers) in Italy, 185 of whom at the Politecnico di Milano. Compare the downloadable data using this link

The citations and the relative  h-index (an index that measures the productivity and scientific impact of an author, based on both the number of publications and the number of citations received) are evaluated for each researcher. The ranking also indicates the scientific discipline, ranging from astrophysics to zoology, and the respective ranking, according to a classification of the author's profile obtained using advanced machine learning techniques to produce comparable results across different scientific areas.

THE 185 POLITECNICO SCIENTISTS IN THE TOP 2% IN THE WORLD

Aliverti, Andrea – Amaldi, Edoardo – Amigoni, Francesco – Angelino, Gianfranco – Ardagna, Danilo – Astolfi, Marco – Bagherifard, Sara – Baraldi, Piero – Barazzetti, Luigi – Baresi, Luciano – Baselli, Giuseppe – Beretta, S. – Berizzi, Alberto – Bernasconi, A. – Bertolini, Luca – Besagni, Giorgio – Biolzi, Luigi – Biondini, Fabio – Bittanti, Sergio – Bocchiola, Daniele – Bolchini, Cristiana – Bolzon, Gabriella – Bonarini, Andrea – Bozzini, Benedetto – Braghin, Francesco – Brambilla, Angelo – Brambilla, Marco – Brenna, Elisabetta – Bruni, S. – Cagno, Enrico – Camagni, Roberto – Campanari, Stefano – Capello, Edoardo – Capello, Roberta – Capone, Antonio – Carminati, Marco – Carvelli, Valter – Casolo, Siro – Cercignani, Carlo – Ceri, Stefano – Cerullo, Giulio – Cerutti, Sergio – Cheli, Federico – Chiesa, P. – Chiesa, Vittorio – Ciarletta, P. – Codecasa, Lorenzo – Colaneri, Patrizio – Colombi, Pierluigi – Colombo, Fabrizio – Colombo, Massimo G. – Comi, Claudia – Consonni, Stefano – Corigliano, Alberto – Coronelli, D. – Cova, Sergio – Crespi, Andrea – Cristaldi, Loredana – Cubeddu, Rinaldo – Cugola, Gianpaolo – D’antona, Gabriele – Daniel, Florian – De Silvestri, S. – Della Valle, Giuseppe – DeLuca, Luigi T. – Demir, Ali Gökhan – D’Errico, Gianluca – Diana, Giorgio – Dozio, L. – Faccioli, E. – Faranda, Roberto – Faravelli, Tiziano – Ferrara, Liberato – Ferrero, Alessandro – Ferrigno, Giancarlo – Finazzi, Marco – Forzatti, Pio – Frassoldati, Alessio – Fraternali, Piero – Frigo, Carlo Albino – Fuggetta, Alfonso – Gambarova, Pietro G. – Ganazzoli, Fabio – Garzotto, Franca – Gazzola, Filippo – Gentile, Carmelo – Ghezzi, Carlo – Ghioni, Massimo – Giglio, M. – Gioda, Giancarlo – Giuffrida, Antonio – Grasselli, Maurizio – Groppi, Gianpiero – Guagliano, Mario – Guardone, Alberto – Harland, Christine Mary – Ielmini, Daniele – Karimi, Hamid Reza – Lacaita, Andrea L. – Lanzi, Pier Luca – Laporta, Paolo – Leva, Alberto – Leva, Sonia – Levantino, Salvatore – Lietti, Luca – Lovera, Marco – Lozza, Giovanni – Macchi, Ennio – Macchi, Piero – MacChiarella, Giuseppe – Maffezzoni, Paolo – Magni, Vittorio – Maier, Giulio – Mainardi, Luca – Manenti, F. – Manzolini, G. – Mariani, Stefano – Marseguerra, M. – Martinelli, Mario – Masarati, Pierangelo – Matricciani, Emilio – Mehl, M. – Meille, Stefano Valdo – Mele, Andrea – Melloni, Andrea – Metrangolo, Pierangelo – Migliavacca, F. – Milani, Gabriele – Minisci, Francesco – Monti-Guarnieri, Andrea – Morbidelli, Massimo – Natta, G. – Nisoli, M. – Norgia, Michele – Nova, Roberto – Onorati, A. – Pandolfi, A. – Paolucci, Roberto – Pata, Vittorino – Pattavina, Achille – Pedeferri, P. – Pedotti, Antonio – Pennacchi, Paolo – Pennati, Giancarlo – Pernici, Barbara – Piazza, Roberto – Pifferi, Antonio – Piroddi, Luigi – Prati, Claudio Maria – Quarteroni, Alfio – Raimondi, Manuela Teresa – Ranzi, Eliseo – Redaelli, Alberto – Resnati, Giuseppe – Righetti, Pier Giorgio – Rocca, F. – Rocco, Paolo – Romano, Matteo C. – Rosso, Renzo – Sala, G. – Samori, Carlo – Savaresi, Sergio M. – Scaioni, Marco – Scardigli, Fabio – Scattolini, Riccardo – Spagnolini, Umberto – Strano, Matteo – Svelto, O. – Taliercio, Alberto – Tanzi, Maria Cristina – Taroni, Paola – Tebaldini, Stefano – Tolio, Tullio A.M. – Topputo, Francesco – Tornatore, M. – Torricelli, Alessandro – Tosi, Alberto – Tronconi, Enrico – Turner, John Rodney – Valente, Marco – Vedani, M. – Zanero, Stefano – Zappa, Franco – Zerbi, G. – Zio, Enrico

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4 ERC starting grantsawarded to Politecnico di Milano

The  European Research Council (ERC), the European Union organisation that rewards talented scholars engaged in cutting-edge research, is funding  four projects with Principal Investigators from the Politecnico di Milano. Starting Grants are awarded to early-career researchers with highly promising scientific records and two to seven years of experience since completion of their doctorate.

The awarded researchers are:  Fabio Ferrari with the project TRACESMargherita Maiuri with ULYSSESPaola Occhetta with EvOoC and Gianvito Vilé with the project SAC_2.0. Each project is funded with EUR 1.5 million for a duration of five years.

With these four new projects, Politecnico di Milano has now received a total 56 ERC grants, or which eight Starting Grants. Under Horizon Europe, the European Union 20221-2027 framework programme for research and innovation, the Politecnico di Milano has achieved the outstanding result of 115 winning projects , of which 13 with ERC, for a total value of over 60 million euro. The Politecnico is seventh among European universities for number of winning projects.

TRACES (Transitions in Rubble-pile Asteroid Chaotic Environment and granular Structures), principal investigator Fabio Ferrari

With the TRACES project, Fabio Ferrari, senior researcher at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, studies the physical and dynamic properties of asteroids, in particular the evolutionary behaviour of these bodies, in an approach likening their internal and surface structure to a loosely cohesive granular medium. The project involves development of a new methodology for studying the granular mechanics of asteroids in microgravity and space conditions. TRACES provides new theoretical and numerical tools for the study of asteroids, validated by experiments in microgravity and on the ground, using data from the NASA DART and European Space Agency Hera missions.

ULYSSES (ManipULation of photoinduced processes bY reshaping tranSition StatEs via transient Strong coupling), principal investigator Margherita Maiuri

With the ULYSSES project, Margherita Maiuri, professor and researcher with the Department of Physics of the Politecnico di Milano, and currently visiting professor at Princeton University in the USA, proposes a new control model for improved efficiency in light-activated physical and chemical processes. ULYSSES is developing a new platform, exploiting optical nanostructures and ultra-short laser light pulses for real-time manipulation of molecular reaction. Possible applications range from photovoltaics to photocatalysis, especially in sustainable energy uses.

EvOoC (Evolving Organs-on-Chip), principal investigator Paola Occhetta

The EvOoC project, led by Paola Occhetta, researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Electronics Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano, is aimed at  development of intelligent and mechanically active "organs-on-chip" . These will be used as platforms for identifying the base mechanisms involved in regeneration and degeneration of cardiac and musculoskeletal tissue. To achieve this goal, the EvOoC is developing a miniaturised cell culture technology platform. Combining the principles of micro-fabrication, developmental biology, mechano-biology and artificial intelligence, EvOoC introduces revolutionary methods in tissue engineering and disease modelling, facilitating development of innovative translational strategies for tissue repair that are suited to numerous therapeutic applications.

SAC_2.0 (Single-Atom Catalysis for a new generation of chemical processes), principal researcher Gianvito Vilé

The SAC_2.0 project led by Gianvito Vilé, professor and researcher with the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta" of the Politecnico di Milano, engages in researching “single atom” catalysers: innovative materials with great potential for sustainable chemical transformations. The SAC_2.0 project aims to bring light to important scientific unknowns, including on the reactive structure of single atom materials, in particular developing methodologies for micro-fabrication in synthesising and functionalisation. Possible applications for these catalysts include use in conversion of CO2 as value-added products and development of “green” pharmaceutical synthesis methods.