Starting from the next academic year, the Cremona pole of the Politecnico di Milano will host the new master's degree course in Agricultural engineering , organized with in collaboration with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.
The Politecnico di Milano is the first Italian university to propose a study course fit for the new challenges that companies and organizations in the agricultural sector have highlighted in recent years.
To do this, a training course specifically dedicated to the agricultural and agri-food sector was created, aimed at training professionals to face the future challenges of a fundamental and distinctive sector for Italy and the European Union.
Credits: www.age.polimi.it
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING: GOALS
This project is part of a rapidly developing context: in the last three years the average annual growth of Agriculture 4.0 (the so-called" precision agriculture", created thanks to the use of digital 4.0 technologies) in Italy was 104% (Smart Agrifood Observatory, 2021), while the search for ever greater sustainability, an area where the European Union is a leader, is creating new innovative pushes.
"Our goal is to train engineers working in the agro-industrial sector with a systems vision - declared Gianni Ferretti, Vice Rector of the Cremona Campus -, that is a approach to the study and implementation of application solutions based on an overall vision of the various multidisciplinary aspects of the technological, agronomic, environmental supply chain, on the ability to model and manage the interactions between the various components, supported by basic knowledge of the sector ".
Credits: www.age.polimi.it
The degree course in Agricultural engineering is one of the few of its kind in the world and stems from the desire to give the right attention to issues such as innovation and sustainability and from the interaction of hundreds of companies that have collaborated in research in recent years. in this context together with the Politecnico di Milano.
"More and more players in the sector, in all positions of the supply chain, - explains Filippo Renga , director of the Smart Agrifood Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano - highlighted the need for new skills capable of facing and combining the future challenges of the sector: technological innovation, sustainability and collaboration ”.
Credits home: www.age.polimi.it
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Marco Donolato, Alumnus Physical Engineering, is the inventor of an innovative system able to detect infectious diseases, including Dengue fever, Zika and SARS-CoV-2 . The test requires only a drop of blood and produces accurate results in less than 10 minutes, allowing for prompt patient treatment.
Very easy to use, cheap, and requires very little training for medical personnel, making it particularly suitable for low-income and developing countries. It is one of the 3 finalist inventions in the "Research" category of the European Inventor Award 2021 , the European Patent Office's annual award to inventors who have made a significant contribution to innovation, the economy and society.
Credits www.epo.org
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The device is called BluBox and was developed by BluSense Diagnostics, the start-up that Donolato co-founded with his colleague and Alumnus Filippo Bosco, in Denmark, in 2014.
It uses the Immuno-Magnetic Assay technology: a laser beam passes through a blood sample mixed with synthesized magnetic nanoparticles to bind to a biological target, for example antibodies to a virus; an optical reader detects the clustering dynamics of the nanoparticles and identifies the presence of the biological target. It is able to quantify the virus concentration in the patient's blood in about 10 minutes.
The start-up has recently developed a version of BluBox that allows detecting the presence of COVID-19 antibodies in 5-7 minutes . The test will be launched in the next few days in some Italian hospitals.
«The test kit - explained Donolato , interviewed by Sole 24 Ore - was created with the aim of being cheap, but fast and accurate and requires little training for medical personnel. The test for Covid-19 will be marketed by half May and sold to public hospitals and clinics in Europe ». "Marco Donolato and his team demonstrated how it is possible to combine different lines of research to provide solutions to some of the biggest global health problems - commented the President of the European Patent Office, António Campinos, announcing the finalists of the 2021 edition of the European Inventor Award - It could potentially have a very significant impact on the health of some of the world's most vulnerable people ».
Among these projects there is also MakingMEV (Multiple Emergency Ventilator), a complete reinterpretation of the emergency support for respiratory ventilation: a ventilator capable of supporting the breathing of 10 patients at the same time , safe and customizable for each patient, and able to prevent mechanical ventilator damage.
THE PROJECT ILLUSTRATED BY ALUMNUS AND RESEARCHER BENIAMINO FIORE
MakingMEV aims to create the first fully functional prototype of the ventilator, validate its functionality in the laboratory and analyze its realistic potential of being used in a clinical environment.
« The process of bringing a new technology to the clinic passes through a well-coded procedure of approval by the regulatory bodies," explains Alumnus, and researcher at the Politecnico di Milano Beniamino Fiore . "Over the next 18 months we aim to take the first of these steps, namely the validation of the prototype in the laboratory, which will be performed both here at the Politecnico and at the Policlinico di Milano, using simulators to replicate the respiratory biomechanical response of treated patients ".
Photo by Adhy Savala on Unsplash
MakingMEV was created in a multidisciplinary context : «In the project - explains Fiore - researchers from three Departments of the Politecnico provided synergistic skills in bioengineering, mechanical engineering, automation and engineering management. The team is completed by the staff of the Anesthesia and Intensive Care Department of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, which gives its research contribution to the project on a completely voluntary basis ".
The project (we talked about in number 8 and issue 9 of the MAP) has already attracted the interest of various institutions of social utility and bodies active in the promotion of highly sustainable projects.
"The idea emerged during the pandemic wave of early 2020 in Italy. However, the project could be of benefit for emergency situations in general, and especially for less organized health systems in developing countries", and adds "MakingMEV was our reaction to the emergency, our way of saying: “let's do something concrete! “».
Producing water on the surface of the Moon is now possible thanks to a chemical-physical process that allows oxygen to be extracted from the regolith (lunar sand), as demonstrated by the experiments conducted by the Politecnico di Milano and OHB Italy .
The project, carried out as part of the demonstration mission ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization) , conceived and funded by ESA , European Space Agency and with the important contribution of ASI , Italian Space Agency is a fundamental element for the colonization of space , and in particular of the Moon.
The ability of humans to produce water on the lunar surface is of prime importance for the survival of crews over long periods of time. This production capacity also frees future colonies from the use of systems that would require a continuous supply from the Earth.
"The result obtained by the Politecnico di Milano and OHB Italia - says professor Michèle Lavagna of the Politecnico di Milano at the helm of the project - opens up new stimulating perspectives in scope of lunar exploration and a permanent and sustainable human presence. It is a process that presents innovative elements of an exquisitely Italian matrix that places our country in a position of international importance in the scenario of the next extra-terrestrial human exploration activities. "</em
HOW THE WATER PRODUCTION PROCESS ON THE MOON WORKS
The extraction process takes place using a plant built and installed in the laboratories of the Department of Aerospace Sciences and Technologies of the Politecnico. This plant, after being "fed" with sand simulating the lunar soil, managed to produce water , extracting oxygen from the oxides present in the minerals that make up the soil of the Moon.
“Produrre ossigeno in ambiente lunare – dichiara Roberto Aceti, Alumnus in Aeronautical Engineering and CEO of OHB Italia - testifies how the close collaboration between science, university research and businesses can lead to the development of an industrial product of the highest technological value capable of changing the prospects of our future as well as reconfirming Italy's very high spatial skills on the world stage. "
MAP is the magazine of the Alumni of Politecnico di Milano
The magazine is your compass to navigate everything that is developing and changing in our University.
Below you will find a related article : if you like what you are seeing, support us . You will be able to collect your copy for free.
The Politecnico di Milano has allocated 10 million euros to the post-Covid restart plan. The investments concern the innovation of education, the right to study and the innovation and research laboratories.
«After dealing with the emergency - declares the Rector Ferruccio Stay at Il Sole24Ore - the Politecnico di Milano has worked in recent months in a great work of revaluation and redesign. A dutiful act to redefine the positioning and attractiveness of the university; to think about the university of the future and accelerate innovation processes in response to new needs; to consolidate the relationship with the city and the territory, with companies and international realities. The greatest damage we could do to ourselves and our students is that of not being able to transform this moment, even if dramatic, into an element of advantage ".
Credits La Repubblica
INNOVATION OF TEACHING
Innovation in tools and contents, as also explained by Lamberto Duò, Rector's delegate for teaching, in the latest issue of MAP . Enhancing the experience of the last year but in the wake of a reflection already underway for some time, the attention of the University is directed to the technologies tested every day by teachers and students in the classrooms of the Politecnico di Milano to rethink the organization of the teaching by finding a balance between distance learning and classroom experience , reducing the hours of frontal lessons and promoting planning moments in face-to-face groups.
Pilot projects will also be promoted in some strategic directions, such as co-teaching with international universities . Finally, a strong investment will also concern the creation of new spaces for the socialization and well-being of students and workers.
LABORATORIES
The University has also launched a plan to upgrade research laboratories: technologies for space , quantum communications , materials , prints 3D biological materials are some of the sectors that today represent a priority in terms of investment.
In a period post-pandemic what will be technology's role in our new lives?
What will be the changes to education in this new normal? What are the competences?
In the Digital Talk organized by the North America Chapter in collaboration with Alumni Politecnico di Milano and MIP Politecnico di Milano we will answer these questions together with:
Paolo Juvara | VP of Engineering & CIO, Google Cloud Elena Pacenti | Dean School of Design, NewSchool of Architecture & Design Alessandro Treccani | Senior VP, HR Luxottica North America – Operation, Distribution, Logistic
Moderator: Tommaso Agasisti | Associate Dean, International at MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business, Professor of Public Management at Politecnico di Milano School of Management
Politecnico di Milano, ATM and the Municipality of Milan, together with Vodafone and IBM, unveil the TECH BUS , the first bus developed through an innovative research project on mobility. The project implements hybrid cloud technologies connected to the 5G network for assisted driving.
"Mobility is a key sector for the development and growth of the territory and cities, a crossroads between cutting-edge technology and organization - says Ferruccio Resta , Rector of the Politecnico di Milano - Here are some of the great challenges of the future. Milan, like other cities in the world, is the backdrop of experiments that combine the skills of the university with technologies made available by some large companies, with which the Politecnico di Milano has been working in synergy for some time. A project that aims to become a proof of the combination of technologies for sustainable and safe mobility ”.
The project, which has just started and is being tested, was developed in the Joint Research Lab for autonomous and connected electric urban mobility (JRL), an ecosystem that includes universities, industry and institutions: its primary mission is to implement autonomous driving and the creation of an urban circuit with a smart and technologically advanced infrastructure , which allows the transit of experimental vehicles to improve the movement of citizens and visitors to the city.
It is a test for Milan, which has always been at the forefront as a green and innovative city, to be carried out together with the leaders of research (Politecnico di Milano and Fondazione Politecnica), technology (IBM and Vodafone) and transport ( ATM Milan). It is the first step on the path towards autonomous driving, with the aim of raising even more the levels of regularity and safety of local public transport .
HOW DOES THE TECH BUS WORK?
The first TECH BUS will be a Bus of the 90/91 ATM line , chosen because most of its route takes place in a dedicated preferential lane, and will be recognizable by the blue and indigo colors, which represent the technological evolution and green, which represents the environmental sustainability of the electric traction vehicle.
On a technological level, the V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure) communication will allow the dialogue between the intelligent sensors on board the bus and road infrastructures such as traffic lights, street lamps and shelters. This continuous flow of information is guaranteed by the Vodafone 5G network and the IBM application interfaces , which in parallel allow the continuous availability of additional information such as the presence of traffic jams , obstacles, people close to pedestrian crossings , on-board systems and the driver, to support safe driving.
ECH BUS represents further progress in the New Urban Mobility chessboard, which combines technology and sustainability towards the avant-garde of Milanese public transport.
The experimentation has just begun, but the timetable currently foresees that in two years the project can be extended to the other trolleybuses of the ATM fleet in service on the 90/91 line.
MAP is the magazine of the Alumni of Politecnico di Milano
The magazine is your compass to navigate everything that is developing and changing in our University.
Below you will find a related article : if you like what you are seeing, support us . You will be able to collect your copy for free.
Credits header: Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash Credits home: allaguida.it
To tackle the climate emergency, Europe should reach carbon neutrality before 2050: an ambitious goal but still within reach according to Alumnus Lorenzo Rosa, international research currently working for ETH Zurich and in Forbes' "30 under 30" list for his innovative research on climate change and sustainability.
"We can reach the goal in two ways: the first is to use energy sources such as wind and solar with almost zero energy impact, essentially eliminating the emission of CO 2 from our production processes; but, realistically, we must admit that there are industrial sectors in which this possibility is still very remote, for example in air transport or in steel and cement industries and in agriculture. We must act now: where decarbonisation cannot be achieved, CO 2 emissions need to be balanced. Planting forests is needed, but it is not enough: carbon dioxide must be removed from the atmosphere when it is emitted ".
A study signed by Rosa, together with another Politecnico Alumnus, Marco Mazzotti, was recently published in the prestigious Energy & Environmental Science magazine. " Assessment of carbon dioxide removal potential via BECCS in a carbon-neutral Europe ”describes the results of the research, in which it was analyzed for the first time the potential of a European-wide CO 2 removal strategy.
Credits Lorenzo Rosa
TO CAPTURE CARBONE DIOXIDE
“Wherever possible, it is always better to use zero impact energy sources, but, where it is not applicable, bioenergy is a preferable source to fossil fuels because it is renewable. The issue is then collecting and storing carbon dioxide, which today, for the most part, is released into the atmosphere instead. BECCS ( Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage ) is a Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technology, i.e. removal of carbon dioxide , known but but not very often implemented: there are two or three large plants in the USA, one in the UK and some small pilot plants in Europe ”.
It consists of capturing the CO2 produced by combustion processes and collecting it in underground storage sites, at least 800 meters below the surface, where it remains trapped and cannot be released into the atmosphere.
This study quantifies the potential of this technology and analyzes its environmental and industrial effects "with a resolution per km" : it describes the current biomass availability of European countries, plants and infrastructures already present in the area, the results that we can expect and also the potential risks that a possible “carbon market” would have in terms of soil consumption and biodiversity.
Credits Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash
A DELICATE EQUILIBRIUM
Bioenergy is obtained from the combustion of biomass: wood, for example, or crops such as agricultural residues, but also organic waste. Biomass as an energy source is preferable to fossil fuels, both because it is renewable and because it is easier to sequester (i.e. collect) biogenic CO2 .
BECCS associates the production of bioenergy with the removal of carbon dioxide at the origin, in the same energy plant, avoiding its release into the atmosphere. “The decarbonisation objectives could direct the energy market towards bioenergy”, explains Lorenzo Rosa.
“It would be a desirable soution, but it can encounter some problems. If it becomes very convenient to produce energy from biomass, the risk is that entire territories will be taken away from forests or agricultural crops to produce this fuel . It is already happening, and the implications are dramatic in terms of deforestation and rising food prices, a problem that will only grow in the coming decades with the increase of the earth's population and which also affects very delicate geopolitical dynamics between producing and consuming countries."
The study highlights some of these aspects and directs the strategy towards the use of biomass already available as industrial, agricultural and urban waste : for example, crop waste (all the part of the plant that are not used to produce food or forage), the treatment of waste and waste water, organic waste and manure from farms, all amount to a certain bulk of biomass that can be used for energy.
Credits: www.rinnovabili.it
A QUESTION OF NUMBERS
To meet the 2050 deadline, it is necessary to remove 7.5 billion tons of CO 2 , or about 250 million per year for 30 years, which is equivalent to mitigating 5% of annual carbon dioxide emissions.
"5% is the minimum target : some estimates say that, to secure the planet, a much more drastic removal of 30% is needed. However, 5% is what would allow us to buy time ".
The study shows that the potential of this technology in Europe would be able to remove 200 million tons of CO 2 per year , sufficient to cover the 5% threshold , but the distribution of this potential technology is not uniform across Europe.
“Few countries have enough biomass to achieve their emission neutralization quota through BECCS. Other countries could import it, but, of course, this would lead to further production of CO 2 for the transport of this material ".
What about Italy? In Italy the total emission per year is of 400 million tons of CO2per year. Biomass already available for energy production would allow only 2% of emissions to be mitigated (data are from 2018). That leaves a minimum of 3%: so Italy will have to develop other alternative carbon capture strategies."
Lorenzo Petrangeli interviews Tommaso Loiacono and Matteo Marzorati, co-founders of Cordens Interactive.
The two Alumni are the creators of Vesper , the company's first video game, out this year and one of the 5 titles in the Red Bull Indie Forge final 2020.
What are the necessary checkpoints to create a videogame? The path from the idea to the first prototype, its costs and the skills set to create and distribute it?
MARM \ MORE is the product of a sustainable start-up "made in Polimi" and incubated in Polihub called Fili Pari : the two founders are Alice Zantedeschi and Francesca Pievani , Alumnae in Design for the Fashion System.
“Today more than 30% of the processed marble ends up in waste. Sometimes much more. A very high quantity if we think how much of a noble material it is: in some instances is reused for environmental redevelopment purposes but in others it ends up directly in landfills ", explains Zantedeschi to Repubblica .
The idea of the two Alumnae is to use marble before it becomes special waste (waste resulting from the production activities of industries and companies, managed and disposed of by authorized disposal companies), when it is still pure and usable. Hence MARM \ MORE , a material made of waterproof, breathable and windproof marble dust, created for fabrics.
"We tried to embrace the values of the circular economy, generating a synergy between two sectors, the textile and the marble sector, which had never communicated until today".
Fili Pari , born in 2020, has consolidated an industrial partnership with a company near Lecco, which supplies the "waste" of marble which is then used in clothing that combines style, innovation and performance techniques.
Just a few weeks ago Fili Pari Collection unveiled the new Spring Summer 2021 rainwear collection, with clean and essential lines, made in Italy.
“For this collection we have paired our marble fabric with recycled nylon. The colors are totally natural thanks to the presence of marble dust inside for more than 50% of the coating. ” declares Zantedeschi.
NOT JUST CLOTHES
The future seems bright for the activity of the two Alumnae: they are studying ways to apply the fabric also in footwear and is expected a collaboration with the luxury furniture brand Bentley Home , to create a series of chairs that will use MARM \ MORE for their upholstery.
Credits home: capolettera.com
MAP is the magazine of the Alumni of Politecnico di Milano
The magazine is your compass to navigate everything that is developing and changing in our University.
Below you will find a related article : if you like what you are seeing, support us . You will be able to collect your copy for free.
Scientific and technological research at Politecnico di Milano has different financing sources: as a public University a lot of the financing comes from the Ministry of Education; external financing is still gaining importance in the last few years, that is support coming from institutions or companies, weighting for around 142 million euros per year (one-third of the total budget for research).
Among the institutions most involved in research funding is the European Commission. Since 2014, through the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programs, the Politecnico has received around 221 million euros from the Commission, which were used to fund 497 research projects.
Most are collaborative projects between different research centers. A portion of the funding is instead dedicated to researchers who proved their excellence: among these, the Politecnico has welcomed 43 ERC e 30 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. These are grants that are granted to individual researchers for particularly promising projects, which concern frontier scientific fields or emerging technologies with great potential for innovation and collective interest.
Young researchers applying for a “Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship” (MSCA-PF) can submit a project proposal in collaboration with a European academic and non-academic research centers and under the supervision of a scientific director who is part of it.
The best universities attract the best candidates, also thanks to the support of the supervisors: “older” scientists, with experience in the specific field, able to guide the winners in the various steps of the research project, which usually lasts 2 or 3 years.
In order to acheive this goal, Politecnico has launched a talent development program to support young people and make them more competitive in the acquisition of European grants and in general on the international research scene. One of the actions envisaged in the strategic plan is the MSCA Master Class , a training course designed for potential MSCA Postdocs, who can obtain support from the University and expert supervisors during the writing the proposal and submitting it in response to the call from the European Commission.
Only the best candidates are admitted to the Master Class, which maximizes their chances of success and at the same time encourages them to rely on the Politecnico di Milano.
Since 2014 30 MSCA researchers have chosen the Politecnico to develop their research activities. We'll learn more about them in the next episode!
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