On 28 September, during an event held in the Aula Magna, Rector Donatella Sciuto, the Delegate for Diversity and inclusion Mara Tanelli and the donors awarded the 25 female students, winners of the 2023 edition of Girls@POLIMI.
Girls@POLIMI is the project of the Politecnico di Milano created to support girls who, during the high school, decide to undertake studies in the field of STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and attend engineering programmes with a low number of female students.
The awarded students will receive scholarships, each worth € 8,000 per year, with the chance to renew them for their next two years of study, and will have the opportunity to participate in events and initiatives of communication and training, such as mentoring and educational monitoring.
The scholarships have been funded by 12 companies (Gruppo Autostrade per l’Italia, Energy Dome, Esselunga, Fastweb, Hitachi Energy, Intesa Sanpaolo, Leonardo, Gruppo Lutech, MEDIOBANCA, Gruppo Nestlé in Italia, Reply, SIAE MICROELETTRONICA), by a foundation (Fondazione r.e.ACT ETS), by the University itself and by Alumni Politecnico di Milano.
Girls@Polimi is one of the initiatives with which the Politecnico di Milano is committed to promoting equal opportunities and guaranteeing an inclusive and respectful study and work environment where everyone's uniqueness is respected.
Milan, September 14th 2023 - new scientific study published in the prestigious international journal "Science Advances",has investigated one of the still poorly understood aspects of cancer, therapy-induced senescence in tumour cells. The study, the result of collaboration between researchers from Politecnico di Milano, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the National Cancer Institute in Milan, and the National Research Council, expands our understanding of cancer biology and paves the way for future therapeutic advancements.
Cancer continues to be a global health threat, responsible for millions of lives lost each year. Standard cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy remain the primary methods for treating neoplasms. However, a small percentage of treated tumour cells, called "therapy-induced senescent" (TIS) cells, exhibit resistance to conventional therapies, leading to tumour quiescence and ultimately, recurrence.
The team worked to uncover the biological mechanisms behind the formation of TIS cells. Researchers utilized advanced optical microscopy techniques, combining three-dimensional holograms of tumour cells with ultra-short pulses of laser light, with an incredibly brief duration of just one-millionth of one-millionth of a second, to identify biomolecules based on their characteristic vibrations. These highly technological tools allowed them to explore both the chemical and morphological aspects of TIS cells in human tumours. Importantly, this study was conducted without the use of invasive techniques, preserving the natural state of the cells.
The results are promising. The research group was able to distinguish key features of TIS cells in human tumour cells, shedding light on their early manifestation. These properties include the reorganization of the mitochondrial network, overproduction of lipids, cell flattening, and enlargement. By analyzing a considerable number of cells, researchers established a clear timeline for the development of these distinctive signs.
Arianna Bresci, the first author of the study and a doctoral student in the Department of Physics at Politecnico di Milano, commented: "This result is a clear example of how cutting-edge technologies, multidisciplinary expertise, and strong international collaborations are crucial in addressing the most pressing biological questions, such as the early reaction mechanisms of tumour cells to anticancer therapies".
Dario Polli, associate professor at the Department of Physics at Politecnico di Milano and the coordinator of the study, emphasized: "Our findings provide important insights into the complex world of TIS in human tumour cells. In our laboratory at Politecnico di Milano, we have developed a new non-invasive laser microscope that has allowed us to understand the initial stages of this phenomenon".
The study offers many avenues for the future of cancer research, opening new paths for investigation. The research team envisions broader applications in the development of personalized treatments using patient-derived tumour samples and the potential to refine current screening protocols for oncological therapy. The discoveries made by this research team bring us closer to understanding the complexities of cancer and offer hope for more effective therapies in the future.
‘Our universities are propelled by a non-stop engine that moves knowledge further every day. Research has the task and responsibility to provide the tools to make informed decisions'. The role of scientific research is clear in the words of Donatella Sciuto, Rector of Politecnico di Milano, in this interview published on 23 September in Corriere della Sera.. At the country's largest technical university (Italy's first in global rankings), our researchers deal with competitiveness, production and sustainable growth every day. With excellent results at European and global level: in 2023, Sciuto explains, '57 Italian researchers have won [European research funding, ed.] and 32 projects have succeeded, compared to 27 last year, which proves Italian universities and research centres have become more attractive. Politecnico hosts three projects of excellence by Giulia Acconcia, Chiara Paganelli and Giuseppe Maria Paternò. All three projects have applications in the biomedical world from fighting cancer using fluorescence and radiotherapy, to using bacteria as drug ” carriers’.
The construction site of the gasometers within the new Bovisa-Goccia Campus of the Politecnico di Milano, designed by the RPBW studio, started. The event took place in the presence of Donatella Sciuto, Rector of Politecnico di Milano, Renzo Piano, Senator for life and Alumnus of the Politecnico di Milano, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of the Municipality of Milan, Attilio Fontana, President of the Lombardy Region, and Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of University and Research in Italy.
The symbolic gesture to start the construction site was the planting of a tree dedicated to Federico Bucci, Pro-rector of the Mantova Campus of the Politecnico di Milano, who recently passed away.
“With the start of work on the gasometers, a new phase opens for Bovisa. From a working-class neighbourhood to a university area, Bovisa is a candidate for a third role, that of the Innovation District. A significant intervention that marks the return of white factories, those that invest in innovation, research and high-potential start-ups. A project that, thanks to the involvement of the institutions, marks a step forward for Milano and the Lombardy Region towards Europe,“
says Donatella Sciuto, Rector of the Politecnico di Milano.
The two gasometers were designed by a team with Milan Ingegneria and Betaprogetti, coordinated by architect Paolo Bodega, who also designed the Lecco Campus. The concept was developed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which designed the enlargement of the Bovisa Campus of the Politecnico.
Gasometer 1 will be dedicated to sport: on three levels there will be a swimming pool, a multi-sports field and a fitness area. Gasometer 2 - Innovation Hub will be dedicated to cutting-edge research and equipped with innovative laboratories, all the technological services necessary for their operation, and spaces for teaching.
This project is part of a broader plan for the sustainable urban regeneration of the 'Bovisa-Goccia-Villapizzone' area, the future 'open, green and permeable' campus that is to be completed by 2026.
The plan, which covers a total area of 32 hectares, envisages the construction of twenty new buildings that will house classrooms, start-ups, a 1000-seat lecture hall and two university residences with approximately 500 beds; a 24-hectare forest will be preserved, while large trees will create a green connection between the buildings. There are also tree-lined pedestrian paths and a cycle-pedestrian connection between the Bovisa and Villapizzone railway stations.
The goal is to achieve energy independence and zero CO2 emissions.2.
"On these pages, we have talked about research and its many perspectives in Europe. We told about POP, the equal opportunities programme launched a few years ago. We gathered consensus around the initiatives we started together, such as the book Alumnae, No less important, we looked each other straight in the eye and shook hands on several occasions, such as the Convention... In short, I am 'like one of the family'” Rector Donatella Sciuto says on MAP 12 for her first editorial in her new role. "I must admit that when I decided to run for rector of this 160-year-old University, I thought long and hard about what I could add to an organisation that is already very well positioned both in Italy and worldwide, a University which had achieved international standards in its classrooms and laboratories and which is a point of reference for business and local innovation.
However, Politecnico’s women and men are used to always raise their expectation s and standards. "The Strategic Plan 2023-2025 is a compass with four cardinal points: people, education, research and social responsibility. A reminder of exactly what we are aiming for. Our mission is indeed to aim for sustainable and inclusive growth that enhances talent and skills. To make a significant impact on the social and cultural progress of our country. To strengthen the ethical dimension and make it the cornerstone of our work”.
In the new QS University Ranking dedicated to Europe, the Politecnico di Milano achieves the 47th position, entering the Top 7% of the best universities (which are 690 in the ranking).
Moreover, the Politecnico is confirmed as the first university in Italy. This result was made possible by important factors that contributed to achieving this position. The University ranks among the best universities in Europe and first in Italy in terms of Employer Reputation, an indicator that assesses employers’ opinions on how universities train their graduates for the world of work.
The Politecnico is also awarded in Academic reputation an indicator based on the responses to a survey distributed to thousands of academics who drew up the list of the most authoritative universities in their scientific discipline.
These data confirm Politecnico di Milano's outstanding results, ranking among the world's top 20 universities in Design, Architecture and Engineering, according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 published last March. In Design and Architecture, it ranks 8th and 10th. In Engineering, it ranks in the top 20 worldwide, coming in at 18th position.
Politecnico di Milano wins 3 ERC Starting Grants 3 young researchers from Politecnico di Milano win the prestigious European funding worth €1.5 million euros
HÈRMES, MINIONS and EOS: these acronyms sound like cartoon-like or mythological names, but they are the three research projects of excellence on which the young researchers at Politecnico di Milano — winners of the prestigious ERC (European Research Council) Starting Grants of €1.5 million over five years — will be working.
All three projects have applications in the biomedical world from fighting cancer using fluorescence and radiotherapy, to using bacteria as drug carriers. The research by Giulia Acconcia from DEIB (Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering) aims at revolutionising non-invasive measurement techniques to acquire 3D and 4D images in real time; Chiara Paganelli (also from DEIB) is developing new modelling approaches to revolutionise radiotherapy against localised tumours; Maria Paternò (Department of Physics) is making bacteria light-sensitive and is exploring the possibility of using them as drug carriers in parts of the body that are not easily accessible, such as the gastrointestinal tract.
"Our University celebrates with great satisfaction the brilliant achievement of our promising young researchers", comments Paolo Biscari, the Rector's Delegate for Talent Development. The acquisition of no less than three ERC Starting Grant projects, with a success rate in this call of 37.5%, well above the average success rate of these type of projects, confirms that the researchers recruited in recent years have already achieved independence and international excellence in research. In line with our Strategic Plan 2023-2025, supporting young scholars’ innovative and independent research is one of Politecnico di Milano's fundamental objectives”. The HÈRMES project (High-speed timE Resolved fluorescence iMaging with no pilE-up diStortion) aims to develop extremely sensitive light sensors for fluorescence-guided surgery. This technology will allow surgeons to intervene even on individual cells during the most delicate operations, such as removing brain tumours, thus minimising side effects on the patient.
Giulia Acconcia, who grew up in Spoleto, holds a Laurea Magistrale (MSc) degree in Electronics Engineering and a PhD in Information Technology from Politecnico di Milano, where she is currently senior researcher and assistant professor. MINIONS –(Patient-specific Microstructural and radIobiological model for persoNalised external beam radiation therapy in localised tumourS) proposes a new modelling approach for cancer treatment through patient-specific radiotherapy planning and adaptation. The model will allow the microscopic characteristics of the tumour and its interaction with the radiation beam to be taken into account, developing biology-guided radiation therapy for each patient. The project will have an impact across various fields, such as bioengineering, medical physics, radiobiology, radiology and oncology, towards developing biology-guided treatments that will increase patients' survival and quality of life.
Chiara Paganelli holds a PhD in Bioengineering from Politecnico di Milano, where she is now senior researcher and assistant professor. She works in the CartCasLab laboratory (https://www.cartcas.polimi.it/), where she carries out research related to MRI-guided radiotherapy. The EOS project (Engineering Of bacteria to See light) proposes a new strategy to make bacteria able to perceive light stimuli. Specifically, it couples bacteria with photosensitive materials that transform light energy into electrical energy, which the bacteria in turn use to perform biological processes, such as proliferation and movement. EOS will explore the possibility of using bacteria as light-driven drug carriers in parts of the body that are not easily accessible, such as the gastrointestinal tract.
Another important application is in the study and minimisation of antibiotic resistance. Giuseppe Maria Paternò holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of Catania and a PhD in Physics from University College London. He is currently senior researcher and assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano’s Physics Department. ERC Starting Grants are aimed at researchers who have held a PhD degree for at least two years up to a maximum of seven years. The aim is to enhance the creativity and excellence of European basic or frontier research and to invest in the best ideas by encouraging the quality and ambition of individual researchers. Individual funding can be up to 1.5 million euros for 5 years.
Politecnico is at the top of the world rankings of universities also thanks to the frontier scientific research it carries out in its laboratories. The protagonists of this Italian record are the approximately 3,500 scientists and researchers of Politecnico. Among the hottest topics are obviously those related to the systemic transformation towards climate neutrality; and then, the world of digital, space exploration, life sciences, the movements embraced by the New European Bauhaus, the new frontiers in the study of matter... In particular, young researchers inject new life into the research system and grow innovative scientific strands. Politecnico invests in activities aimed precisely at encouraging young scientists of excellence to join in. Among many, this year we welcome twelve new young researchers who are among the best of their generation. They are here at Politecnico di Milano thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship programme. Let us introduce them... in alphabetical order.
HERNÁN BOBADILLA BOBADILLA is a philosopher of science with a background in geology and transdisciplinary research interests. He tells us: "There is a relatively new approach in the study of extreme climate events, known as the storyline approach. It can lead to relevant insights into extreme climate events under conditions of profound uncertainty. It is intended as a complement to traditional methodologies, but often meets with significant resistance among scientists”. Bobadilla intends to test the legitimacy of the storyline approach by exploring the various ways in which the approach to the plot and the philosophy of scientific understanding can corroborate each other.
According to the architect who designed the Science Gateway: “At a certain age, the only way to survive yourself is to work with young people”. Fabiola Gianotti, director-general of CERN: “In the night sky you look at the stars, we have to look into the emptiness and darkness”
Renzo Piano says he has worked with neuroscientists, with astrophysicists, now with particle physicists,and each time he has seen the same thing: “Human beings always dig deep, but at a certain point they stop when they get to the mystery. As Marguerite Yourcenar once said, the human being looks into the darkness, without looking away. And if you look into the darkness, at first you see nothing; then your eyes slowly get used to it. Because that darkness is not empty, it is inhabited by everything you have seen, read, heard and are about to imagine,, with that sublime stubbornness without which you never get to the heart of things. The important thing is to apply it to the right things”.
The new CERN, which will open on 7 October, began before the pandemic, on the day when the world's most important Italian woman — director-general Fabiola Gianotti — went to Paris to visit the world's most famous Italian man, Renzo Piano, , and his wife Milly, and asked for advice on a new building: “Every year we receive 150,000 visitors and turn away another 150,000. We need more space to tell students, teachers and anyone interested, who we are and what we do, the beauty and usefulness of physics. A gateway to science. I understand, Renzo, that you are very busy, I already have designs from some local architects, but please, give me some advice”. At the end of the meeting, Milly Piano accompanied Fabiola Gianotti to the taxi and told her: “I think Renzo wants to do this”.
Back in time
The construction site is almost finished, and it is called Science Gateway: precisely, the gateway to science. Renzo Piano designed a two-hundred-metre-long bridge, “almost a space laboratory landing”, which passes over the road and the border between Switzerland and France, and joins five structures. first is a 900-seat auditorium, which will be dedicated to Sergio Marchionne. The second — Piano explains— isa piece of what lies beneath, brought to the surface: the giant, 27-kilometre-long particle accelerator.Visitors will be able to see and understand how protons collide almost as fast as the speed of light. It is the mechanism that led to the discovery of the Higgs boson, known as the God particle. It is the closest humans have ever come to the mystery. “Einstein said that time is an illusion, — recalls Renzo Piano -- Our time can pass by very slowly or very quickly, our lives are very long and very short.
Borges wrote: "Time is the substance I am made of. It is a river which sweeps me along but I am the river. It is the tiger which destroys me but I am the tiger. It is a fire which consumes me but I am the fire”. The Big Bang, the explosion from which our universe was born, happened 13.8 billion years ago, a time we cannot even fathom; and it lasted an infinitely small amount of time that we cannot even grasp”.
Al Cern they went back in time to one millionth of a millionth of a second before the Big Bang..And they have managed to reproduce the same conditions as back then, the same temperature, a hundred trillion times higher than the temperature of this summer, which is sweltering even here in Geneva. Physicists have understood the how, not the why. What happened, not who did it. That is, if the 'Creator' exists. The other facilities are dedicated precisely to the study of the Big Bang and the quantum world.Renzo Piano has designed a building that breathes: “The air conditioning goes up through these little holes in the floor,we have planted four hundred trees all over, on the roof there are state-of-the-art solar panels; more energy is produced than is consumed.» There is also a facility dedicated to contemporary art: because, here, art and science are connected.
The render of the Science Gateway designed by Renzo Piano: the architect designed a 200-metre bridge as “a space laboratory landing” that passes over the road and the Swiss-French border (copyright RPBW)
The canteen and the glasses
CERN director-general arrives with her tray in hand and it is like being hit by a beam of protons. Imagine Rita Levi Montalcini with Enrico Mentana’s quick speaking and wit. “Your glasses have broken”. An arm came off, I will have to go to the opticians when I return to Italy. “Doesn’t matter, we have 3D printers! Give it here”. Everyone calls her by her first name, Fabiolà, pronounced in the French style. pHowever, she is very Italian: her father is from Asti, Piedmont (he lived to 101 years), her mother is from Palermo, Sicily (92 years), she was born in Rome, obtained her degree and PhD in Physics in Milan. She has been here forever: she came to CERN as a girl on a scholarship and never left. On the shelf in the control room are lined up empty bottles of champagne, used to celebrate great achievements. One photo reads the date '4 July 2012', discovery of the Higgs boson. “On that day,” Fabiola Gianotti tells, “CERN achieved the goal for which it was created in 1954: to bring the primacy of experimental physics back to Europe. We are now ahead of the United States. Americans and Chinese come to us”.
“I went to humanities high school, and it's not true what they say about Italian schools.Italian schools are still excellent today, here out of 17,000 scientists of a hundred and ten nationalities 2,500 are Italians, and they arrived by merit.. In high school, I studied physics a little bit; but I had a teacher who explained how physics works, how things work. And the fundamental physics is simple and elegant, based on principles of symmetry. But we exist because symmetry is not perfect. If matter and antimatter were present in equal parts in the universe, they would have annihilated, destroyed each other; and we would not exist.Instead, antimatter for some strange reason has disappeared; at CERN we are studying it, to find out what happened to it. In the night sky you look up at the stars. But stars, planets and matter only make up 5% of the universe. We have to look into the emptiness and darkness. I studied piano as a girl, still today I spend my Saturday afternoons playing. Many people ask me: why did you do something so different in life? But that's not true: “I find physics in music and music in physics”. Pope Francis wanted her in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. "I came from a Catholic background. But physics can never prove or rule out the existence of God”. What about extraterrestrial life? “God most probably exists. Because it is very unlikely that on any other planet in a huge universe the conditions that made life possible on Earth have been reproduced. But it could be a very different life form from ours”.How do you envision afterlife? "Like an immense space, in which I hope individualities are not lost; because we are all so different, so interesting. Ah, here, your glasses are ready, see the new titanium arms? You no longer have to go to the opticians”.
Some of Renzo Piano's great works
Inside the Cave
With Piano we descend into the cave where it all happens: about one hundred metres underground, inside the ATLAS detector, where the Higgs boson was discovered and is now being studied. The detectors are the places where the collisions occurring in the 27-kilometre-long accelerator, which protons travel through eleven thousand times in a second, are 'photographed'; now there are plans for a new 90-kilometre-long accelerator, to be run under Lake Geneva. One enters with eye recognition, a detail that inspired Dan Brown's terrifying opening words in 'Angels and Demons'. The lift is fast, but seen from below from the shaft the huge machine is impressive.
«“Here we do not only study particles”, says Piano. From CERN came the word wide web, in short the www, and it was gifted to the world. This is where the technologies of PET and new cancer treatments were created. Superconducting cables are made in order not to waste energy. In New York, Piano built the centre for neuroscience at Columbia University, the MBB — Mind Brain Behaviour —, for the study of the mind, the brain, behaviour; now he is building 'Climate Change', the new building where the climate revolution will be studied. "Everything is held. The sciences work together. Scientists collaborate, because they have realised that we are at a turning point in the history of mankind, and it is wrong to describe this time only as a great crisis. Wonderful things happen, great discoveries are made, solutions are found. It is precisely in the fields of science, medicine, climatology, but also human solidarity, that we are witnessing the somewhat tentative emergence, around the world,of a fluid network of global affinities. That they will be the salvation of our planet”.». Here even physicists walk around with screwdrivers in their pockets, and many are under 30 years old."I work among young people, and I assure you that they are extraordinary. The only way to survive yourself, at a certain age and with a long journey behind them, is to work with them..We old men must behave like the Japanese masters of the Ise temple, which is rebuilt every twenty years. Young people come, between the ages of 20 and 40 they learn how to build the temple, from 40 to 60 they build the temple, and from 60 to 80 they teach how to build the temple”.
Renzo Piano will be 86 in a few days, and he said he wanted to die on the construction site. Not in this case, though,the lift goes up the shaft, back to the warmth of the surface, back into the Science Gateway. "CERN has a budget of 1.2 billion, but the new building is only the result of donations and costs less than 100 million: that is less than the daily cost of a bomber that wreaks death and destruction”. Piano tells that his job is to build places of peace, be they museums, concert halls, universities, research laboratories, hospitals like the ones he did in Africa with his friend Gino Strada. "We are all embarked on the same spaceship, with an unknown destination. Waging war against each other is like fighting on a bus. All the more so in Europe, which is a widespread big city: because the opposite of the city is not the countryside, it is the desert; and in Europe there are no deserts”.
One thousand Russian and one hundred Ukrainian scientists work at CERN, and they prodigiously continue to collaborate. Among the member states is Israel, which offers scholarships to Palestinian researchers. “In architecture today, the aim is to provide shelter for communities", Piano explains, "and for this we also need primary beauty, not in the caricatured sense that the word has taken on: beauty, beauté, brings to mind a beauty parlour. The good we must recover is the 'kalòs' of the Greeks, which is also the good. ‘I swear to return Athens to the Athenians more beautiful than you delivered it to me’: the oath of politicians in the time of Pericles should also be ours”.
A study resulting from a collaboration between the Department of Energy and the Department of Physics at the Politecnico di Milano and supported by an interdisciplinary Ph.D. led by Silvia Rotta Loria has been published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials as a cover article.
The study explains the origin of the superfast optical response of titanium nitride (TiN). This material, already known for its refractory properties, is also attracting increasing interest because of its fast response to photo-excitation and the possibility of controlling its optical and electronic properties during synthesis.
TiN films have already been used for thermo-photovoltaic devices, for artificial photosynthesis or for micro super-capacitors on chips. Moreover, TiN is compatible with technologies used in digital electronics. Overall, it is therefore a material with great potential for the development of ultrafast photonic devices.
The study was carried out thanks to the synergy between two Departments of the Politecnico: TiN films were made in the NanoLab (Micro and Nanostructured Materials Lab) of the Department of Energy, they were then characterised in the ultrafast spectroscopy laboratories of the Department of Physics, and the experimental data were interpreted using a model developed in the Department of Physics.
This collaboration has made it possible to study in depth a material of great technological interest and to clarify the origin of its peculiar response to light excitation, which can be engineered through the manufacturing procedure
explains Prof. Margherita Zavelani Rossi, Department of Energy, co-author of the article.
Thanks to the accurate numerical model developed, it is now possible to determine how the response of a titan nitride thin film can be controlled by light itself; a fundamental knowledge for the development of new miniaturised opto-electronic and photonic devices
adds Prof. Giuseppe Della Valle, Department of Physics, co-author of the article.
The experimentation mentioned in the article is one of the outcomes of the METAFAST project funded by the European Union's H2020-FET-OPEN programme, coordinated by Prof. Giuseppe Della Valle. The project aims to develop a new class of ultrafast optical devices based on special nanostructured surfaces (called nonlinear metasurfaces).
To find out more, the study signed by Silvia Rotta Loria, Beatrice Roberta Bricchi, Andrea Schirato, Luca Mascaretti, Cristina Mancarella, Alberto Naldoni, Andrea Li Bassi, Giuseppe Della Valle and Margherita Zavelani-Rossi is online.
Using fibre optic sensors to monitor water networks against wastage: the international journal Sensors published the results of an experiment carried out at Politecnico di Milano aimed at optimising the water network.
Researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering pioneered the use of distributed fibre optic sensing (DFOS) based on Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) technology for monitoring water pipeline networks over long distances. At the heart of this technology is the common and inexpensive optical fibre used for telecommunications (which brings the internet into our homes) capable of measuring deformations to a hundredth of a millimetre.
I ricercatori del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale hanno sperimentato l’uso di sensori distribuiti in fibra ottica (DFOS) basati sulla tecnologia Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) per il monitoraggio delle reti di condotte idriche su lunghe distanze. Alla base di questa tecnologia c’è la comune ed economica fibra ottica per le telecomunicazioni (che porta internet nelle nostre case) in grado di misurare deformazioni al centesimo di millimetro.
The experiment consisted of two phases. ‘In the first one,’ the researchers explain, ‘we assessed the sensitivity of the sensor layout on an HDPE pipe stressed with static pressure. This first stage was successful, so we then concentrated on detecting the pressure anomaly produced by a leak in a piping circuit with flowing water. Overall, the results returned positive feedback on the use of DFOS, confirming the possibility of identifying and localising even very small water leaks.
In the future, the tested technology will be further developed towards industrial-scale production of 'natively smart' HDPE pipes, where DFOS are integrated into the pipe surface during the extrusion process.
The study, signed by Manuel Bertulessi, Daniele Fabrizio Bignami, Ilaria Boschini, Marina Longoni, Giovanni Menduni and Jacopo Morosi, is available at this link.
Water resource wastage is a global issue, increasingly exacerbated by the impact of climate change on the hydrological chain. In Italy, more than one third of the water fed into the national distribution network is wasted, according to ISTAT data from 2022. Widespread monitoring and efficient maintenance of the infrastructure are therefore two strategic and urgent actions.
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