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Catalysts with better performances and greater sustainability thanks to nanoscale development

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The European project SPECTROKIN will carry out a technical and commercial feasibility study of the new operando-Raman annular reactor developed at Politecnico di Milano

SPECTROKIN (Operando-Spectroscopy Annular Reactor for Spectro-kinetic Analysis in Heterogeneous Catalysis), under the guidance of Professor Matteo Maestri of the Department of Energy, is the first phase of a bigger project, SHAPE (Structure dependent microkinetic modeling of Heterogeneous cAtalytic ProcEsses), financed by the European Commission for 1 million and a half euros. The Project began in 2016 with the goal of realising microcynetic models able to describe the changes in the structure of a catalyst in reaction. SHAPE has opened new scenarios for the development of catalysts with more efficient and sustainable performance for the environment, thanks to the nanoscale design of the catalytic material. Researchers developed a prototype of an innovative tool to study catalysis reactions capable of providing local information details on the behavior of the catalytic material in the reactor, under strict kinetic control and quasi-isothermal operating conditions up to 800 ° C.

Today SPECTROKIN aims to realize the technical-commercial feasibility of the designed annular operando-Raman reactor and its integration with other spectroscopic characterization techniques. The funds received could be invested in identifying business opportunities, prepare patent applications and verify how the results developed during the research can be applied in innovations that benefit industry and society.

We spoke about SHAPE on the 6th number of the MAP

Credits home/header: https://dillinger.it/cosa-sono-gli-elettroni-di-valenza-come-trovarli-ed-esempi/

DIGITAL TALKS | Professional interactions: getting to know each other to improve teamwork

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Digital Talks in french organized by the international chapter Alumni Polimi Paris, in collaboration with Alumni Unimi Paris.

Stefania Catacchio - Professional Trainer and Marketing Manager in a multinational company - presented the behavioral method DISC (Dominance, Influence, Stability, Conscientiousness), developed by American psychologists Marston, Clarke and Gaier and scientifically validated.

This methodology, used by many companies and professionals around the world (40 million people in recent decades), has allowed us to identify 4 fundamental character traits of personality.

Our behavior is strongly linked to the way we interact with the environment around us. Everyone reacts differently to external stimuli: exploring the link between our behavior and our personality allows us to enhance our abilities and improve our relationship with others.

During this webinar there were answered questions such as:

  • Why are we able to interact well with certain people and not with others?
  • Why do we feel more comfortable in certain areas?
  • Why do some people react better to stress than others?
  • Is the diversity of a working group an obstacle or an advantage?

The 4 fundamental traits of personality are present in each of us but in different proportions generating our strengths and our weaknesses: the knowledge of these traits and their functioning allows us to make the most of our strengths and to positively develop weaknesses.

February 11th: international day of women and girls in science

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"What exactly does an engineer do? Can I do it even if I didn't go to a science-focused highschool? Will I be good enough?

This time of the year many female high school students are asking themselves these questions as they consider their choice of college path. Many of their peers are asking themselves them as well; the difference is that, among girls, only a very small percentage will ultimately choose to enroll in an engineering course.

On the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, proclaimed by the United Nations for February 11 and sponsored by UNESCO, the Politecnico di Milano has launched EnginHERing PoliMi, a project to bring girls closer to engineering, and in particular to the study paths that still today see a very low presence of women. The University launches the project with the words and experiences of female students, researchers and Alumnae of the Politecnico, who tell of the still little-explored reality of female engineers.

Politecnico's commitment to reducing the gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects is also told in the book "Alumnae: Engineering and Technology." The book collects the stories of 67 female graduates between 1990 and 2014, who tell their stories to invite future female students to follow in their footsteps at Politecnico di Milano.

Read the Alumnae book

Female students in engineering courses are only 25% of the total. If you wish to support a female student that will begin her course degree in September 2021 in an Engineering degree course with a low female presence contribute in the creation of a Girls@Polimi scholarship. Give now

Two new “Circle” Scholarships to support the best students of Politecnico Di Milano

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Circle of Donors is the program of Politecnico di Milano dedicated to donors who would like to support the best graduate students by financing Scholarships coupled with a personal mentoring program.

The project, which began in 2016, has so far involved 29 donors for a total of 290.500 euros in scholarships. The Scholarships are financed by Alumni that are willing to share with students their experience and advice for their professional future.

Selected students receive 10.000 per year in both year of their graduate studies and are given the chance to be mentored by the donors. There are chosen based on their merit among the best graduates of the undergraduate degree course continuing their education at Polimi. 16 students were chosen since 2016, all graduated with the highest honors: the first two were Giulia Realmonte, Alumna of Energy Engineering, e Alessio Durante, Alumnus of Electrical Engineering. Both completed their studies at Politecnico in 2018 con a Circle Scholarship. “It’s great to be a part of this community of Alumni and to receive advice by those who have experience and can help you avoiding the same mistakes” said Giulia on the eve of graduation and Alessio: “The Circle program is a unique opportunity in Italy. No other university enhances its best students in such a way”.

Other winners were: Serena Farina, Electronics Engineerig, Alberto Lucchini, Automation and Control Engineering, Andrea Sassella, Automation and Control Engineering, Lorenzo Amadori, Mechanical Engineering, Daniele Loda, Electronic Engineering, Riccardo Galvani, Biomedical Engineering, Andrea Ticozzi, Automation and Control Engineering, Jacopo Gargano, Computer Science and Engineering, Marina Nikolic, Computer Engineering, Tommaso Marchesi, Civil Engineering, Paolo Cattaneo, Physics Engineering and Massimo Terzi Automation and Control Engineering.

  • Paolo Morreale
  • Gabriele Zanoletti

A few weeks ago two more students joined the group of the winners by winning the call “AlumniPolimi per meriti accademici” 2020: Gabriele Zanoletti, Electronic Engineering, and Paolo Morreale, Architecture Planning. “For my future I would like to be involved in something that will bring me enthusiasm, an ambitious and elegant project”, said Gabriele and Paolo adds: “I have chosen Politecnico to study in a prestigious school of architecture and to live in an international environment such as Milan. This will allow me realize my dreams and become a good architect”.

Do you wish to launch a campaign to establish a scholarship? Visit our section on the website dedicated to the donation options of Politecnico di Milano. Visit the website

The Politecnico team participates in the first car race for autonomous vehicles traveling at 186 mph

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The Indy Autonomous Challenge is a $1.5 million competition between universities to program modified Dallara IL-15 race cars. Teams will compete in the first-ever speed race for driverless cars running up to 300 kph around the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 23, 2021.

28 teams of over 500 university students from 39 universities in 11 countries will compete on the Indianapolis track. Representing Italy is the PoliMOVE team of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, led by Prof. Sergio M. Savaresi, one of the leading international groups in the field of automotive control, intelligent vehicles and smart mobility.

Credits: Indy Autonomous Challenge

All the cars in the race will be identical to each other: the chassis is that of the Dallara IL-15, specially modified for driverless competition. No further mechanical, aerodynamic or engine modifications are allowed. Electronics and sensors are also the same for all teams. These are the technical constraints of the first Indy Autonomous Challange: the competition is 100% focused on the artificial intelligence algorithms that will be developed by the teams.

Credits: Indy Autonomous Challenge

Teams are already competing in the simulation qualifiers (and Polytechnic is consistently placing in the top spots). This competition is also an opportunity for Polytechnic researchers and students to develop a complex problem in autonomous vehicle design. The main team is constituted by PHD students, while the support team is made by graduate students that are following a special extracurricular course. Is a multidisciplinary course composed of computer engineers, automation engineers, electronic, mechanic and areospace engineers. Some of the students were already part of Formula Student (we have talked about in in the firs number of MAP).

"The race is spread out over a year and a half, as in fact registrations closed in March 2020. Essentially there is a first part that will end next May 27 with the Simulation Race, where everything is done and developed in simulation and after which the experimental part begins," Savaresi tells Formulapassion.it (read his full interview here). "Ideally the simulator should be a faithful replica of what happens in the car, so in an ideal world we can take the code, bring it to the real car and within a few days in theory it should work. The transition to the real vehicle however is not trivial, but everything has been structured to be very realistic. The team of Politecnico di Milano is distinguishing itself and in particular we won the second hackathon. [...] We just finished the third one, where we ranked second. Actually, this event was faced in pairs and we were competing with the University of Munich. We won both batteries, but the final ranking was based on overall time. We set the fastest lap time and potentially could have won, but in race two the University of Munich was going slow, giving us a bit of a plug at the beginning and costing us time to pass them. We finished second in the end, but we are still happy," concludes Savaresi.

 

Partecipation to the Indy Autonomous Challenge is one of the many research and innovation initiatives of our university. Find out how to contribute to the creation of a Scholarship for one of our best student or for a research grant for a young researcher: Give now

Cover photo from Indy Autonomous Challenge

At Politecnico the world's most innovative model of driving simulator

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The most innovative model of driving simulator available on the market was installed yesterday, february the 3rd at Politecnico di Milano, Bovisa Campus. With a development budget of 5 Ml euros, of which 2 euros financed by Regione Lombardia, the simulator is the crowing jewel of a project promoted by Cluster Lombardo della Mobilità, which has the objective of developing a technopole for the automotive cluster in Lombardia, which is the fourth one at a european level.

The DiM400 is an unique instrument for sustainable mobility. It will help to develop new ecological vehicles, for the development of components made with innovative components, for applications of vehicles dynamics, for the fuel consumption optimisation, to test security systems, for autonomous driving and sustainable motorsports.

Other applications are the possibility to verify the interaction between road users and infrastructures which will be essential in road safety research. It will be made available to students researching topics of vehicle dynamics, driver-vehicle-infrastructure.

Source: MiaNews

"Experimental infrastructures and state-of-the-art laboratories are essential elements for international research and development with companies. Through the installation of the simulator Politecnico di Milano is competing on an international scale and turns the Bovisa area into an ecosystem of innovation. This is the objective of the University: to face the great challenges of the coming years, first of all that of mobility."says Rector Ferruccio Resta

In the labs of Politecnico di Milano more than 3000 Professors and researchers, among the best ones in the world, are doing research. Help us keep the research system alive by contributing to fund a doctoral fellowship with a donation. Give now

Credits home: Drismi

Digital Talks | Covid-Working: organizzazione delle persone e degli spazi di lavoro

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What is the future of education?

La pandemia Covid-19 ha avuto un forte impatto sul mondo del lavoro, cambiandone i ritmi, gli spazi, i flussi. Partendo dai risultati di un’indagine svolta su più di 8.000 docenti universitari italiani, sviluppata da un gruppo di ricerca interdipartimentale del Politecnico (Alessandra Migliore, Chiara Tagliaro e Andrea Ciaramella, DABC, e Cristina Rossi-Lamastra e Massimo Colombo, DIG), si è discusso del cambiamento in atto e del futuro del workplace.

Sono intervenuti:
Gioia Ferrario | Human Resources director, Deloitte
Alessandro Adamo | Director DEGW Italy and Partner Lombardini22
Mariano Corso | Responsabile scientifico Osservatorio Smart Working, School of Management Politecnico di MIlano
Gianbattista Pezzoni | Group Property Director Vodafone
Patricia Viel | Architetto, Co-Founder dello studio ANTONIO CITTERIO PATRICIA VIEL.
Introducono: Emilio Faroldi | Prorettore Delegato Politecnico di Milano
Alessandro Perego | Direttore DIG
Stefano Capolongo | Direttore DABC

Huawei and Politecnico di Milano: scholarships for young researchers

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The Joint lab, a joint laboratory developing cutting-edge wirless technology and where students and Phds are able to carry on their thesis with the assistance of professors of Politecnico and researchers of Huawai was created in 2019 thanks to the decade-long collaboration between Huawei and Politecnico, under the guidance of Umberto Spagnolini, Professor of Politecnico in the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria (DEIB). On the trail of this collaboration today Politecnico and Huawei are setting up scholarships for young researchers in "Wirless Communications"; Huawei also gives to Spagnolini the tytle of Huawei Industry Chair, supporting the joint research projects for the next 10 years on high-value topics at the industrial and scientific level.

Credits: https://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/telco/5g/

"The degree course in Telecommunications Engineering - says Professor Spagnolini - will have, thanks to this donation the chance to offer promising young resarchers the opportunity to study 5G/6G systems with scholarships and resarch position. This will foster the expertise and innovation of the Joint Lab between Politecnico di Milano e Huawei.”

In 2020, thanks to the support of the Community of Aumni we were able to create 87 scholarships to allow deserving students to study at Politenico di Milano.
Even with a small contribution you can help a student in need: Give now

Dona.Polimi.it: a new way of donating and supporting Politecnico

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In 2020 the Alumni Community has collected more than di 2,600,000€ to finance scholarships, facilities and research projects. Thanks to the 9.585 donors, the University was able to carry on lots of projects, from high-impact research to urban restructuring to diversity projects, as well as being able to finance 87 scholarships.

The new website www.dona.polimi.it was developed to further focus the attention on this topic and to ease the donation process and more importantly to share the results of the collective effort in the spirit of transparency and participation.  

From the homepage is possible to choose a project or a scholarship to make a donation to and to be updated on its progress. The new website gives also the chance to make a group donation: it is an invitation to all Alumni to become Ambassadors of Politecnico and to involve colleagues and friends; with a small contribution (starting from 10€ each) they can really be of support for a scholarship or a researcher.

“The Pride of Politecnico: in 2020 Alumni donors have given their concrete support to the efforts of the University in being a powerhouse of knowledge and innovation for the country: their donations have given the possibility for a lot of students to carry on with their studies and to a lot of researchers the opportunity to continue their research projects.
– Enrico Zio, President of the Association of the Alumni of Politecnico di Milano, Rector's Delegate for Alumni and individual fundraising at Politecnico di Milan

MBA: Politecnico Di Milano among the best In the world according to the Economist

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The full-MBA ranking of the Economist is the classification of the best Master of Business Administration (MBA) of the world. In 2021, Politecnico di Milano enters the ranking of the best Master of Business Administration (MBA) of the world, placing itself 85th. At the European level, Politecnico is the only one in the ranking among technical universities with a Business School or Management Department, and the fourth among generalist universities with technical expertise and a Business School or Management Department. More broadly, only 35 European universities are present in the ranking.

Among the parameters considered by the ranking the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano distinguishes itself in the percentage of Alumni that have found a job within three months after completing the course, in the average increase of their salary and in the presence of international students and Alumni.

Read the full report

Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini, respectively President and Dean of MIP Politecnico di Milano: “We are very proud to enter this ranking for the first time in our history. Is a result that we wish to share with all the students that have chosen our School and those that will join us this year.

If you want to help bright and needy students to study at the Politecnico, contribute to the creation of a scholarship. In 2020 alone, thanks to the support of the Alumni Community, we were able to create 87 scholarships that allowed as many deserving students to study at the Politecnico di Milan
Even with a small contribution you can help a needy and deserving student: Give now

Politecnico Has Developed A New Method To Accelerate Particles

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Smaller, flexible and economic accelerators will allow to strengthen basic research with potential impacts on many applications, from cancer therapy to the protection of cultural heritage

After five years of work, ENSURE, a ERC H2020 project financed by the European Commission has reached its main objective: to control and optimize a non-conventional technique of acceleration of particles irradiating nanostructured materials with innovative properties using super-intense and ultra-short laser pulses.

High energy particle beams are used in basic research but have different applications: they are used in cancer therapies, in some diagnostics in medicine or in the production of semi-conductor, also in the field of cultural heritage, for example to determine the composition of a picture thanks to the analysis of the components of its materials. High energy particle beams are obtained through accelerators, which have some constraints of cost and dimension.

The research team of ENSURE, led by professor Matteo Passoni (full professor of Physics Of Matter of the Department of Energy) has developed a new method of particles acceleration that uses the interaction of a a laser impulse of great power and ultra-short (up to 1020 W/cm2 in a few tens femtoseconds) and a specific kind of nanofoams, developed by the team that has a density between a solid material and a gas one (we have talked about this topic in the 5th number of the MAP, that you can read at this link https://alumni.polimi.it/magazine/?magazine=2141).

The approach tackled by Passoni will allow to create Smaller, flexible and economic accelerators with reduced costs of construction and radioprotection. The results were published in the paper “Integrated quantitative PIXE analysis and EDX spectroscopy using a laser-driven particle source” on Science Advances magazine (https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/3/eabc8660).

Together with the research results, ENSURE has allowed to Politecnico di Milano to create two new labs that host the state-of-the-art scientific instruments that allow to produce non-conventional materials needed in creating irradiated targets.

“Research on acceleration that we pursued, both in theory and in practice has had positive outcomes. We have produced materials with peculiar qualities, such as nano-structured carbon foams of super low density, that make the acceleration process more efficient and we have proven that results are better by investing not only on the laser but also on irritated materials, a technological and economical solution. Lastly we have started the sperimentation on some important application of the technology, with promising results” says Matteo Passoni. “In the last few years some Italian researcher have had the opportunity to work with me at Politecnico and the research work has had important collaboration with excellent industrial, research and academic realities at the national and international level.

Sostieni la ricerca al Politecnico di Milano.
Aiutaci a finanziare una borsa di dottorato. Give now

Credits header/home:: Photo by White.Rainforest ∙ 易雨白林. on Unsplash