{"id":30881,"date":"2022-08-12T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T07:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.polimi.it\/?p=30881"},"modified":"2022-11-17T17:15:27","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T16:15:27","slug":"scienziati-politecnici-per-sfide-globali-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.polimi.it\/en\/2022\/08\/12\/scienziati-politecnici-per-sfide-globali-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Polytechnic scientists for global challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Politecnico di Milano has obtained from the European Commission important funding for two research projects: one for the fight against breast cancer and the other for the fight against climate change.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This takes the form of two ERC Advanced Grant<\/strong>, funding awarded by the European Research Council to researchers well-established in their field, in order to carry out innovative and high-risk projects. The selection for this type of funding is very competitive: this year, out of 1735 projects submitted, only 14.6% obtained the funds.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SUPERCOMPUTERS THAT CONSUME 5000 TIMES LESS ENERGY  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Daniele Ielmini<\/a><\/strong>i, professor at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, will leadANIMATE (ANalogue In-Memory computing with Advanced device Technology)<\/strong>, a project that aims to develop a new computing concept to reduce energy consumption in machine learning. It is a critical issue for stopping climate change: we do not think about it when we use a computer, but the energy cost of the actions we perform on the internet, starting with the everyday things, is very high. Data centres, which currently meet most of the world's AI needs, now consume about 1% of global energy demand, but growth is expected to reach up to 7% by 2030. Apparently simple operations, such as searching for a consumer product or service (for example when we book holidays or choose a film on a streaming site) are based on data-intensive algorithms and have a significant impact on the production of greenhouse gases.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Daniele Ielmini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Professor Ielmini\u2019s preliminary ANIMATE research has shown that computational energy requirements can be reduced by closed-loop in-memory computing (CL-IMC). This system is capable of solving linear algebra problems in a single computational step. Thanks to the reduction in calculation time, CL-IMC requires 5,000 times less energy than digital computers with the same precision in terms of number of bits. Ielmini's project will develop the device and circuit technology, system architectures and set of applications to fully validate the CL-IMC concept.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A PROTOCOL TO NEUTRALIZE THE NATURAL BARRIER IN BREAST CANCER  <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Manuela Raimondi<\/a><\/strong>, professor in the \u2018Giulio Natta\u2019 Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, combines mechanobiology, bioengineering, oncology, genetics, microtechnology, biophysics and pharmacology to develop a new method for the treatment of breast cancer.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Manuela Raimondi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In fact, in this type of illness, the aggressiveness is related to the fibrotic stiffening of the tumour tissue: fibrosis progressively prevents drugs from reaching cancer cells. With BEACONSANDEGG – Mechanobiology of cancer progression<\/strong>, Raimondi intends to develop a method capable of circumventing this problem. Starting from the modelling of microtumours at various levels of fibrosis and from human breast cancer cells adhered to 3D polymer micro-supports, the microtumours will be implanted in vivo into the respiratory membrane of embryonated avian eggs, in order to elicit a fibrotic foreign body reaction in microtumours. This study model will be validated with anticancer drugs whose clinical outcome is known to depend on the level of tumour fibrosis. It will also provide a standardisable and ethical platform to promote the clinical translation of new therapeutic products in oncology. This is a key issue for professor Raimondi: some of the research and modelling tools she has developed over the last ten years have precisely this goal: to reduce or replace the pre-clinical experimental phases in vivo, for example, with the use of 3D supports for cell cultures and microfluidic chambers for tissue and organoid culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ERC: \u201cCHALLENGING EUROPE’S BRIGHTEST MINDS\u201d <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A bit of context for this good news: the Politecnico is at the top of the world rankings of universities also thanks to the frontier scientific research that it carries out in its laboratories. The protagonists of this Italian record are the many scientists and researchers of the Politecnico (ERC and beyond): about 3500.<\/strong>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these are 'ERC researchers', with ERC standing for European Research Council. ERC is a European Commission tool that supports pioneering and frontier research. It is said that these researchers are among \"the brightest minds in Europe\", scientists who could be on the trail of new and unpredictable scientific and technological discoveries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, to date, 52 ERC projects at the Politecnico<\/strong>. They vary according to the size and duration of the funding: between Euro 150 thousand and 12 million.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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