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The winning research projects of the Polisocial Award 2022, dedicated to the theme ‘Local Development and Ecological Transition’ have been chosen. The funded projects will undertake to promote transition processes and ecological innovation for sustainable and autonomous development, aiming at tangible results and adopting a long-term perspective. The start date of the projects is 23 January 2023.

The Polisocial Award initiative is financed with funds from the IRPEF 5 per thousand and supports the development at the Politecnico di Milano of scientific research with a high social impact.

Find out more: Where do the 5 per mille donations that alumni have given to the Politecnico over recent years end up?

THE PROJECTS

PRESTO, PReventive and ecologic Engineering Strategies for fragile bones: Towards green healthcare 

Departments involved: DMEC DEIB DIG 

The project examines preventive treatments and eco-sustainable minimally invasive approaches capable of containing bone fragility, with the support of a multidisciplinary network extended to social, health and third sector entities. Looking ahead, the goal is to reduce the social impact of long hospitalizations and the ecological footprint of the Lombardy healthcare sector. 

NBSouth, Nature-Based Solutions via retrofitting for Climate Adaptation: a case in the Global South

Departments involved: DASTU, DABC, DICA

NBSouth proposes an exploration of the possibilities of employing nature-based solutions (NBS) for adaptation to climate change. Specific attention is dedicated to water management, thermoregulation and infrastructural adaptation of densely populated urban areas starting from a case study in Brasilia, in an area threatened by drought, heat islands and desertification. 

I-FERME, Intelligent inFrastructure dEsign foR a Multifunctional Efficient farm

Departments involved: DMEC DICA DEIB DENG

Researchers are studying how to improve the efficiency of multifunctional farms in Congo and sub-Saharan Africa. The strategy put in place focuses on the creation of new and simplified tools for the design of road infrastructures and support services for food processing and preservation, optimized on local resources and needs and made available to the communities involved and other target groups. 

CHAR:ME, Biochar and biomass-derived products from waste as sustainable and safe domestic fuel

Departments involved: DICA DCMC DENG DEIB

CHAR:ME aims at the development and diffusion of a sustainable technology for the recovery of solid fuel from organic waste. The aim is twofold: to replace the conventional alternatives (wood and charcoal), which are among the main causes of deforestation in developing countries and, at the same time, to make domestic cooking safer in these contexts. The case study under consideration is in Madagascar and includes a pilot experience on the island of Nosy Be 

AMAZING, Atlas Mountains, Aures Zone. INterconnecting local sciences and Global challenges

Departments involved: DICA DASTU DMEC DABC DIG

The Wadi Abiod valley, in Algeria, is faced with the global challenges of abandonment, growing desertification and the loss of knowledge. AMAZING offers a targeted and participatory combination of ancient sciences and new technologies, to enhance the historical buildings, optimize water management and recover the variety of economic activities and social complexity that have always characterized the identity of the valley.

To donate: www.dona.polimi.it

One of the flagships of the educational offer of the Politecnico di Milano is the flight test campaign of the Experimentation in Flight programme. It is a unique opportunity that combines passion, academic preparation and practical experience in a fascinating and highly specialized field, explains prof. Lorenzo Trainelli, programme head: the so-called airmanship, or the ability to interact safely with flying machines and the airport environment.

Each student (who wishes, it is not mandatory) plans and executes a flight test mission, acting as a Flight Test Engineer alongside the pilot. The goal is to expose students to the complete Flight Testing process: from planning, to practical execution, to data analysis and reporting, supporting them in developing a skill that cannot be studied from books.

ON BOARD THE FLYING CLASSROOM

We affectionately call it “P92DAER”: it is a Tecnam P92 Echo ultralight aircraft operated by the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DAER) for over ten years and then grounded following a breakdown.

To maximize the opportunities for students to access the experimental tests in flight, the P92 is essential: for this reason, the University has decided to recover it in flight conditions, an operation which involved some important interventions. Completely renovated, on Saturday 26 November 2022 the flying classroom of the Politecnico di Milano made the first flight of its new life over the Bresso airport ‘G. Clerici’.

The operation was sponsored by Longines, Tecnam and a large group of donors through the Alumni community, in collaboration with Aero Club Milano (ACM), the historic flight school operating from Bresso airport, with which a highly successful partnership is in place for several years and which, among other things, will allow the flying classroom to be operated from the Milan airport just a few minutes from the Bovisa campus of the Politecnico.

Donations, sponsorships and departmental funds have all contributed to a body of work that includes major items such as engine replacement, ballistic parachute installation, various structural and instrumentation modifications, painting and badge application, and registration as an ‘advanced ultralight’ with registration numbers I-5882 (instead of ‘basic ultralight’ as it was previously).

P92DAER is ready to become a real flying laboratory, permanently instrumented for the acquisition of flight data, and will allow a reduction in the cost of flight hours for educational activities. It will also have a strong impact in terms of research, in particular on the analysis of flight data for the development of predictive models, both in the context of European Commission projects and in collaboration with companies and institutions in the aeronautics sector: experimentation on aerodynamics, innovative materials, sensors, control and automation laws, measurement techniques and much more.

Telling you about all of our researchers’ achievements would clog up the internet, so here is a brief overview of the projects that made the headlines (or almost did). 

JANUARY 

• A study by Poli is published Nature Communications which analyses the social and economic consequences of competition for water resources in local communities in the Global South, caused by transnational acquisitions of agricultural land 
• Thanks to a study analysing satellite images, the secrets of Japan’s Daisen Kofun, one of the largest monuments ever built on earth, are revealed for the first time. Published in Remote Sensing 

• Researchers build a a battery which, following the laws of quantum physics, has a recharge time that is inversely related to the battery capacity. The study is published in Science Advances 
• The study that reveals how DNA protects itself from mutations caused by ultraviolet lightis published in Nature Communications: it will have important consequences in nanotechnology and pharmacology, such as the fight against skin cancer 
• By experimenting with new analytical and predictive procedures combined with the use of satellite platforms and machine learning techniques, the D-DUST project analyses the impact that emissions from agricultural activities and livestock farming have on our health. 
• For those who have lost their sense of smell: the ROSE project combines nanotechnology, microtechnology, biotechnology, mechanical design, neurosurgery, clinical olfaction, neuroscience and cognitive psychology to test the feasibility of a miniature olfactory prosthesis that combines odour microsensors and neural stimulators. 

FEBRUARY 

• A study by Poli is published Nature Climate Change that correlates climate change mitigation policies designed on a global scale with the potential side effects that they may produce on a local scale on African river basins 
• Researchers from the CHARM project are developing a high-speed, low-cost medical device for distinguishing cancerous cells from healthy cells without the need for chemical staining, using digital imaging technology and artificial intelligence.  

MARCH 

• ERC Consolidator Grant awarded to Massimo Tavoni: with the EUNICE project, he addresses the problem of uncertainties in climate stabilisation pathways and current climate-energy-economy models

• ERC Consolidator Grant awarded to Sara Bagherifard: with the ArcHIDep project, she deploys a revolutionary solid state deposition system in order to obtain heterogeneous materials with architecture structured on three levels of scale (micro, meso and macro) 

• Published in the prestigious Angewandte Chemie International Edition , a study by Poli highlights how halogen bonding can help improve the performance of perovskite solar cells, making it possible to achieve high efficiency and stability  
• Researchers are trying to create an accurate model of the human cerebral cortex using state-of-the-art 3D printing techniques, in order to uncover the molecular causes of the onset and development of neurological diseases, including in particular Pitt-Hopkins syndrome  
• A study shows demonstrates unprecedented control over the optical properties of graphene. The study is published in ACS Nano 
• Paving the way for a new type of material: a new type of phase transition in a bizarre quasi-crystal made of laser lightis discovered and observed in the laboratory. The discovery is published in the journal Nature  
• Hybris, a design for a hybrid-electric aircraft equipped with structural batteries, wins first place in the aerospace category of the Intellectual Property Award. Sinergy, a metal-polysulphide flow cell battery that uses inexpensive, abundant and non-toxic materials also wins an award (in the ‘alternative energy’ category).

APRIL 

• An ERC Advanced Grant iss awarded to Manuela Raimondi for her BEACONSANDEGG study that combines mechanobiology, bioengineering, oncology, genetics, microtechnology, biophysics and pharmacology to develop a new method for treating breast cancer 

• An ERC Advanced Grant is awarded to Daniele Ielmini for his ANIMATE project that aims to create a new computing concept to reduce energy consumption in machine learning, which requires 5,000 times less energy than digital computers of equal precision in terms of number of bits 

• Guidelines created for modelling and data sharing for the restoration project of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
• The first "quantum artificial neuron" promises to become the missing link between quantum computing and artificial intelligence. The ground-breaking study is published in Nature Photonics. 

MAY 

• New programmable materials are coming: the study by Poli published in Royal Society Open Science proposes mathematical techniques to design materials capable of adapting their shape to external stimuli 
• A Politecnico study published in Science explains how to save the Mekong Delta from rising seas 
• A study by Poli is published The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America the results of an experiment comparing the sound of different violins and identifying the combination of sound quality that makes the sound of a Stradivarius more pleasant. 

JUNE 

• An accelerator for the production of neutron beams, designed for clinical research on particularly complex tumours, is installed for the first time in Italy at CNAO  
• An innovative technological device for industrial use is developed for the study of new drugs to treat brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. 
• A large survey and digitisation project is launched in the Appia Antica Archaeological Park areaaiming to create a modern geographical atlas which serves as a '4D living digital twin'  

• New nanomaterial for precision medicine and ecological transition: a superfluorinated gold nanocluster is synthesised for the first time. Study published in Nature Communications  

JULY 

• The CRADLE Project, which is coordinated by Politecnico di Milano, aims to make asteroid exploration more robust and self-sufficient through innovative solutions for collecting dust samples from asteroids and comets 

• Optical wireless: the new frontier for self-driving vehicles and portable devices in a chip. Study published in Light: Science & Applications 
• I3LUNG, a project to implement personalised medical care based on artificial intelligence in lung cancer patients 

SEPTEMBER 

• Thanks to the use of X-rays, nanometric filters are more efficient and safer. The study is published in Nature Communications 
• A study by Poli aiming to develop innovative materials by exploiting the potential of carbon atomic wires 
• Researchers discover a new two-dimensional semiconductor: it exhibits the highest non-linear optical efficiency at nano-scale thicknesses. Study published in Nature Photonics  
• LICIACube witnessed the NASA/DART impact test with an asteroid: Poli researchers contribute to this success

OCTOBER 

• The European project UN-BIASED (UNcertainty quantification and modelling Bias Inhibition by an Agnostic Synergistic Exploitation of multi-fidelity Data), seeking to develop new modelling techniques for complex aerodynamic systems, kicks off
• As part of the SOS-Water Project, the Environmental Intelligent lab will study the limits within which our planet will continue to be able to compensate for changes and provide us with life support

NOVEMBER 

• The European project ECOSENS (Economic and Social Considerations for the Future of Nuclear Energy in Society) kicks off: its aim is to analyse citizens’ opinions and perceptions on the risks, benefits and potential of using (current and future) nuclear technologies in relation to the main social challenges
• Following the success of ‘phase A’, Politecnico di Milano and the European Space Agency are developing ‘phase B’ of the LUMIO (Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer) mission. The goal is to monitor the far side of the moon in order to detect flashes of light associated with meteor impacts.
• Published in the journal “Nature Chemistry” the study that highlights a new class of chemical reactions whose speed is controlled by quantum phenomena.

DECEMBER 

*to be updated*

Read the full story in MAP issue 11 starting from December