Erik Franco – Pagina 6 – Progress in Research

En-RRI: ethical co-creation for participatory research and innovation

Posted on 14/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Orienting public participation in science and technology to make innovation more consistent with society’s needs and demands: this is the aim of the recently concluded research project En-RRI (Enhancing RRI in the bottom-up co-creation of science and technology).

The research team, coordinated by Politecnico di Milano and composed of researchers from Università di Padova and Università degli studi di Trieste, worked to understand and promote innovation projects with significant participation from citizens and civil society actors, i.e., co-creation projects.

En-RRI highlighted how co-creation can make innovation more ethically and socially responsible while improving its public perception and understanding.

The team produced the book “Co-creazione e responsabilità nell’innovazione tecno-scientifica dal basso” (Co-creation and responsibility in bottom-up technological and scientific innovation) which presents in an accessible manner the possible ways of conducting innovation projects can be conducted in the fields of healthcare, digital technologies and environmental sustainability. They also produced the and the illustrated cartoon book “Fare e raccontare la co-creazione della scienza e della tecnologia” (Making and telling science and technology co-creation) which describes a number of guiding principles (geared towards researchers, policy makers and civil society organisations) to be used to align research and innovation processes with shared societal values in order to guide citizens, institutions and scientific communities in tackling the major challenges facing society today, such as the ecological transition.

En-RRI project website

New catalyst makes chemical processes more efficient and less harmful to environment

Posted on 13/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

A discovery by the Politecnico di Milano opens up new perspectives in the field of sustainable chemical synthesis, promoting innovative solutions that allow chemicals to be created in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way. The research was published in the journal Nature Synthesis.

The team developed a catalyst that is more active and selective in esterification reactions, through which products used in the manufacture of medicines, food additives and polymers are formed.

The revolutionary feature of this new catalyst is that it reduces the use of rare metals, a significant step towards conserving critical resources and making processes more sustainable. In addition, the catalyst can be activated by sunlight, eliminating the need for energy-intensive methods. This discovery holds enormous potential in reducing dependence on finite resources and lowering the environmental impact of catalytic processes.

Gianvito Vilé, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering ‘Giulio Natta’, coordinated the project, while Mark Bajada, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Politecnico di Milano, is the first author of the paper. The study was conducted in close collaboration with researchers from Università di Milano Bicocca and Università di Torino, and was funded by the European Commission through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Horizon Europe project recently awarded to the Politecnico di Milano (SusPharma).

The study in Nature Synthesis

Environmental benefits of floating offshore wind farms

Posted on 12/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Offshore wind farms, on which great expectations are placed for decarbonising electricity production, ensure environmental benefits throughout their life cycle. This emerges from a study published in the international journal Sustainable Production and Consumption in which researchers from Politecnico di Milano analysed the potential environmental impacts of a floating offshore wind farm undergoing authorisation off the coast of Sicily.

The analysis included the phases of procurement of materials, transport of components, assembly and installation with specialised vessels, maintenance during operation, disassembly and end-of-life.

Overall, the results of the analysis provide a rough indication, which is useful for becoming aware of the environmental loads of a renewable electricity generation system and comparing it with other energy sources.

Results show that comparing 1 GWh of energy taken from the national grid with 1 Gwh of energy produced by the wind farm, the overall impacts of wind power are significantly reduced for almost all impact categories analysed: in the ‘climate change’ category, the benefit is a 92% reduction in impacts, and worsening is only observed in the ‘abiotic depletion’ category (+95%). Furthermore, this technology would allow to avoid generating energy from fossil fuels, and therefore, as the results show, related investments would be quickly repaid in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and energy, in 2 and 3 years, respectively.

Scientific literature is still insufficient when it comes to life cycle analysis (LCA) of offshore wind farms with large turbines (over 15 MW) installed on floating structures reflecting recent industry developments and current market trends. However, in order to assess their true environmental sustainability, it is important to analyse renewable electricity generation technologies from a life-cycle perspective.

Authors of this study are, Mario Grosso, professor in Solid Waste Management and Treatment; Lucia Rigamonti, professor in Methodologies for Life Cycle Thinking; and Gaia Brussa, researcher at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The study online

The microscope that reveals the chemical composition of samples

Posted on 11/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

An international research team co-ordinated by the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the National Research Council in Milan (CNR-IFN) and involving researchers from Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Physics, Columbia University and Stanford University, has developed an innovative optical microscope capable of producing detailed images of the chemical composition of a sample more effectively compared to the systems currently in use. The result has been published in the journal Optica.

This instrument represents a major breakthrough in the field of microscopy and spectroscopy, opening up new perspectives for research in the materials and life sciences. Indeed, it will be able to contribute to the study of innovative two-dimensional materials and to the characterisation of microplastics found in the environment and within animal tissues.

The benefits of the microscope stem from the unprecedented combination of two techniques, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform spectroscopy. The developed method allows Raman and fluorescence maps to be acquired in up to 100 times less time than with traditional instruments and to measure all sample points at the same time and with high efficiency, acquiring more data simultaneously.

The study online

Controlling the shape of a drop is possible

Posted on 06/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Controlling the shape of a drop is a revolutionary discovery and will soon enable us to manufacture liquid technology devices in the pharmaceutical and environmental fields. Through the encapsulation of one liquid in another, applications such as the controlled release of drugs, emulsification processes and, for example, the clean-up of spills of liquid pollutants such as oil will be possible.

Researchers at the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the Aalto University of Helsinki and the University of Oxford conducted a study on the shape control of droplets consisting of a mixture of water and a protein (hydrophobin).

While a drop of pure fluid, e.g. of water alone, always retains its initial shape during evaporation, these drops made of a water-hydrophobin mixture, on the other hand, show surprising changes in shape during evaporation,
Pierangelo Metrangolo from the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering ‘Giulio Natta’

This research demonstrates the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to drive innovation: the interaction between mathematics and chemistry has enabled the understanding of a new physical phenomenon and its transfer to technology to engineer innovative materials that will revolutionise various industrial applications.

The collaborative work of the authors of the study, Pasquale Ciarletta, Pierangelo Metrangolo and Davide Riccobelli, was funded by Regione Lombardia’s NewMed project to create innovative methods and materials for precision and personalised medicine.

In fact, the hydrophobin initially dissolved in water reaches the drop’s free surface during evaporation and begins to self-assemble to create a thin film that encapsulates the drop and allows its shape to be controlled thanks to a particular combination of certain gravity conditions and the chemical and mechanical properties of the solute that is unveiled and described by a mathematical model,
Pasquale Ciarletta of the Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Mathematics

The results of these studies have been published in the prestigious scientific journal Physical Review Letters.

The study online

Digital Care: emerging care models, new players and future relationships

Posted on 05/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

On Wednesday 28 June, the results of the research project Cura Digitale (Digital Care), conducted by D\Tank, the think tank of the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano, were presented at the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre.

The pandemic has accelerated digitisation processes in the healthcare sector, prompting users to make greater use of online services, for instance to keep specific problems under control (diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, etc.) or to adopt a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

A group of researchers from the Department of Design investigated the topic of Digital Care through the four main tools – research of scientific articles, exploration of patents, user analysis and discussion with decision-makers – with the aim of outlining a shared trajectory towards equitable, accessible and inclusive digital care.

Three relevant themes emerged from the research – Distributed Care, Self-Care and Health Booster Technologies – which can be considered as three different areas of design. Each area has been declined to the Present, the Possible Future and the Alternative Present to identify convergences and references useful for the realisation of strategies, products, services and places of Digital Care.

Cura Digitale on the D\Tank website

Politecnico di Milano joins the EBRAINS research infrastructure

Posted on 28/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The Politecnico di Milano joins EBRAINS, the new digital research infrastructure (RI), created by the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP), to foster brain-related research and to help translate the latest scientific discoveries into innovation in medicine and industry, for the benefit of patients and society.

The membership will give POLIMI the opportunity to co-design future iterations of EBRAINS’ cutting-edge tools and services. These state-of-the-art capabilities – which cover data sharing, atlasing, modelling, simulation, high-performance computing, and neurorobotics – aim to help European researchers to address major challenges in brain health, benefiting from insights into data science, brain organization, and artificial intelligence gathered from the EU Flagship Human Brain Project. The Human Brain Project (HBP) has been Europe’s largest brain science project, funded by the EU combining neuroscience, computing, and AI to study the brain and its diseases.

Becoming a member of EBRAINS is a strategic move for Politecnico di Milano. It allows us to promote our research on brain microcircuits and simulations, with a focus on learning mechanisms and neurorobotics. EBRAINS provides advanced tools, resources, and collaboration opportunities. It enhances our visibility and impact on an international scale,

says prof. Alessandra Pedrocchi, responsible for EBRAINS at Politecnico di Milano.

We are very pleased to welcome Politecnico di Milano as an associate member at EBRAINS. The university conducts high-level research on brain modelling, simulation, and neurorobotics, among other areas in neuroscience,

says Paweł Świeboda, CEO of EBRAINS.

The website of EBRAINS

fastMOT: revolutionising medical imaging

Posted on 27/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

With its innovative fast gated, ultra-high quantum efficiency single-photon sensor, the fastMOT (fast gated superconducting nanowire camera for Multi-functional Optical Tomograph) project will enable deep body imaging with diffuse optics. Implemented in the new Multifunctional Optical Tomograph, the light sensor will achieve a 100x improvement of signal-to-noise ratio compared to using existing light sensors.

The fastMOT project will receive a total of 3 million euro in funding: 2.49 million euro from the European Innovation Council programme and 525,000 Euro from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee.

Traditionally, organ monitoring and deep-body functional imaging are performed using ultrasound, Xray (including CT), PET or MRI. However, these techniques allow only extremely limited measurements of functionality and are usually combined with exogenous and radioactive agents. To overcome this limitation, six partners, coordinated by the Dutch SME Single Quantum, have joined forces to develop an ultra-high performance light sensor in different imaging techniques to radically improve the performance of microscopy and imaging.

The novel sensor is based on superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), which have been shown to be ultra-fast and highly efficient. However, the active area and number of pixels have so far been limited to micrometre diameters and tens of pixels.

The fastMOT consortium now aims at developing new techniques to overcome this limit and scale to 10,000 pixels and millimetre diameter. In addition, new strategies for performing time domain near infrared spectroscopy (TDNIRS) and time domain speckle contrast optical spectroscopy (TD-SCOS) will be developed to optimally use this new light sensor with Monte-Carlo simulations. The new light sensor will be implemented in an optical tomograph and will achieve a 100x improvement of signal-to-noise ratio compared to using existing light sensors.

The new sensing technology will have a major impact on a wide range of sectors: not only will it improve microscopy and imaging performance, but it will also enable groundbreaking applications that will lead to new insights and a major economic boost. The proposed Multifunctional Optical Tomograph will make it possible to image deep organ and optical structures and monitor body functions such as oxygenation, haemodynamics, perfusion and metabolism. It also has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of non-invasive breast cancer diagnosis, reducing the risk of false positive biopsies, with benefits for patients’ quality of life and improved sustainability for the healthcare systems.

In addition to Single Quantum, the participating institutions are the Center for Ultrafast Science and Biomedical Optics CUSBO at the Department of Physics of the Politecnico di Milano in Italy (unit responsible Prof. Alberto Dalla Mora), the Institute of Photonic Sciences ICFO in Spain, the Technische Universiteit Delft in the Netherlands, the network of European laser research infrastructures Laserlab-Europe AISBL in Belgium, the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. in Germany, and the University College London in the United Kingdom.

The fastMOT website

fastMOT is funded by the EU’s HORIZON EUROPE programme (grant agreement 101099291) and by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (grant number 10063660).

ACRE, agricultural robots to contribute to the sustainability of the sector

Posted on 26/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Politecnico di Milano took part in the second edition of ACRE (Agri-food Competition for Robot Evaluation), a competition dedicated to agricultural robots, which took place in Cornaredo (MI) at the ‘Cascina Baciocca’ experimental farm of the University of Milan.

This edition of ACRE was dedicated to robots designed for the weeding of open-field crops, an area in which exploiting this type of machine, even in a low-cost version, could bring great environmental, social and economic benefits by providing an alternative to the use of chemicals.

The competition involved robots built both by start-ups connected in various ways to academia and developing advanced robotic solutions and by companies already offering engineered products on the market. The performances were evaluated according to strict scientific criteria predefined by the organisers with the aim to measure the performance of all participants in an objective and repeatable manner.

ACRE’s main goal is to bring the world of agricultural machinery industry closer to the world of expert researchers in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence, in order to also create solid partnerships that in the near future will allow bridging the existing agricultural robotics gap between the European industry and that of the United States – and similarly between the Italian industry and that of various European realities such as the Netherlands and France.

ACRE is funded by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 ‘METRICS’ project, with the primary aim of increasing the spread of robots and artificial intelligence techniques in agriculture. The competition is organised on the Italian side by AIRlab, the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics laboratory of Politecnico di Milano, and by the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milan, with the collaboration of FederUnacoma and Informatore Agrario.

Launch of QUID, the Italian quantum communication network

Posted on 23/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The QUID (Quantum Italy Deployment) project is the Italian implementation of the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI), promoted by the European Commission with the aim of creating a European infrastructure for quantum communication.

In the course of the project, existing communication infrastructures, whether fibre-optic or airborne, will be integrated and equipped with quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, which will cover a large part of the national territory; at the same time, QUID promotes the development of Italian companies that produce systems and services for quantum communication to different categories of users.

The main purpose of QUID is the development of nodes in quantum metropolitan area networks (QMANs), interconnected through the Italian Quantum Backbone, an infrastructure that covers the Italian territory and distributes, with unprecedented stability and accuracy, time and sampling frequency signals using commercial optical fibres. In each QMAN, quantum key exchanges will take place between nodes using discrete variable QKD systems; distances greater than metropolitan will be covered using ‘trusted’ nodes or innovative Twin-Field QKD techniques (with ‘untrusted’ nodes).

QUID will also unite important sites for the connection between fibre-optic communication and the space segment of the European QCI.

Alongside these infrastructural activities, QUID places great emphasis on the development of methods for the optimal delivery of quantum communication services.

Finally, QUID leaves room for the development of innovative QKD techniques, for increasing the transmission frequency, for the use of new types of optical fibres and for free-space transmission.

The QUID consortium brings together leading Italian companies in the sector, leading research institutes involved in quantum communication, for both the terrestrial and space segment, and universities engaged in innovation and education.

The involvement of companies that produce QKD devices, operate telecommunications networks and terrestrial and space services, and that offer integrated IT security solutions, will enable the easy connection of QKD systems in communication networks across the country.