Erik Franco – Pagina 7 – Progress in Research

Designing the hospitals of the future

Posted on 22/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The World Health Organization presented in Baku (Azerbaijan) the new design recommendations for hospitals to be built in the European region: the document was written at the Design & Health Lab of the Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano, coordinated by professor Stefano Capolongo.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of being prepared to deliver uninterrupted health services also in case of natural and human-induced disasters, emergencies and other social crises: for a hospital to remain functional during these situations, it must be designed with strong and flexible infrastructure, high resistance to hazards, and a focus on safety and comfort; it also have to ensure sustainable compliance with hygiene standards.

The technical brief collects guidelines for addressing different aspect of design: hospital localization; creation of green areas for the well-being of patients and medical staff; space accessibility; digitalization to improve service management; synergy between territorial hospital organizations; hospital hygiene; social, economical and ecological sustainability; prevention and security.

The document

Is circular always synonymous with sustainable?

Posted on 13/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

According to a scientific article published in the Journal of Waste Management by Lucia Rigamonti from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, together with researchers from Brunel University in London, the University of Southern Denmark and Wageningen University & Research, the concept of “circularity” is not necessarily synonymous with “sustainability”. Efforts to achieve circularity do not always guarantee a sustainable result, therefore it is important to define more clearly the concept of circularity and what we hope to achieve by fostering it.

Currently, the circularity of packaging materials, components and products is one way to reduce the negative environmental impact of the life cycle of packaging. However, the meaning of the term is still broad and most of the indicators used to measure it fail to capture the complexity of the system or the wider effects, including potential ripple effects that may nullify or even reverse the environmental benefits.

To solve this problem adopting a practical approach, researchers have proposed a circularity scoreboard based on 7 simple questions that cover the life cycle of a product: production, use and end-of-life.

Current actions aimed at circularity can focus too much on superficial effects and lose sight of the real goals of the circular economy. Our goal is to kick-start a scientific discussion on how best to combine scientific knowledge and research on material, component and product flows across society to achieve the broader goal of sustainability while keeping pace with the time frames imposed by corporate decisions and policies. This is why we call for meaningful circularity targets, to prevent corporate decisions or policies from inadvertently helping to consolidate policies and infrastructure that do not contribute to real sustainability,

the four researchers argue.

In a context where the European Commission intends to transform the Packaging Waste Directive into a regulation directly applicable in all EU Member States, it is of paramount importance not to lose sight of the real goals of the circular economy.

The article available online

Digital twin: the SmartWins Project

Posted on 05/06/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The SmartWins project, financed by the European Commission, aims to strengthen the capacity of Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) in research and development activities on the topic of digital twin in the construction sector, and on methods and technologies for assessing the energy performance of buildings. The aim is to facilitate the transition to a smart, sustainable and zero-emission built environment.

Politecnico di Milano, represented by the Department of Energy, is among the project’s five global partners. Our role is to contribute to the project by sharing knowledge and training activities.

Training activities have recently begun. Professors, researchers and laboratory technicians took turns with a series of speeches and lectures on key topics related to energy efficiency in buildings. The quality of confined environments; electrically and thermally activated heat pump technology; RELAB laboratory activities; technologies for controlled contamination environments; underfloor heating systems combined with displacement ventilation systems; assessment of indoor environmental conditions; phygital and cognitive buildings were discussed.

But what are digital twins? They are digital representations of real physical objects or objects to be built. Their purpose is to provide a digital representation useful for design, implementation, simulation, integration, verification, monitoring, maintenance, etc.

The main parts that constitute a “digital twin” are: the physical object and the context in which it operates, their digital representation and the communication channel between the physical and digital object.

Among the various sectors where the “digital twin” approach can offer great benefits is the construction sector, allowing operators to simulate various scenarios and assess their impact on building performance. For example, simulating the impact of using different building materials, technologies for heating, cooling, ventilation or visual comfort. This allows the most efficient solutions to be identified in the design phase and control parameters to be optimised in the operational phase.

This approach is not yet fully developed or widespread in the built environment sector, but it has the potential to revolutionise the way we design, construct and operate buildings. Communication and collaboration between the various parties involved in the building lifecycle can thus be improved: by providing a common platform for data sharing and collaboration, errors can be reduced, efficiency can be improved and it can be ensured that everyone is working towards the same goals.

The other project partners are: KTU, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH), Contecht, Innotrope.

SmartWins website

Futura: Politecnico’s strategic master plan for Salsomaggiore

Posted on 31/05/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Salsomaggiore spa,the international conference “Le città di Igiea, luoghi termali fra memoria e progetto” (The Cities of Igiea, Spa Places between Memory and Design) took place, bringing dozens of experts including architects, urban planners and historians from all over Europe to Salsomaggiore.

After World War I, Palazzo Berzieri set the artistic trend of Art Deco spa buildings. These two days discusses the time, form and place of that cultural context

explains Emilio Faroldi, Executive Vice Rector of Politecnico di Milano and scientific coordinator of the conference.

The strategic master plan signed by the Politecnico di Milano, was also illustrated which will shape the form and new destiny of Salsomaggiore. It is a project by the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, implemented in synergy with the Municipality of Salsomaggiore and the operational tools of the new General Urban Plan (“PUG”).

We called it Futura

explains Maria Pilar Vettori, professor at our School of Architecture. A Lucio Dalla quote, certainly, but also, after Igiea, another feminine noun for the creative energy that will give new life to Salsomaggiore.

“Futura is the acronym for ‘Forme urbane termali fra urbanistica, rigenerazione ed architettura’ (Spa Urban Forms between urban planning, regeneration and architecture), and is above all something new and far-reaching: we started in 2017 interviewing residents and an open debate with the city and its representatives, imagining a polycentric place capable of offering that physical and functional fusion that European cities today demand”.

The master plan focuses on a number of places in Salsomaggiore to be ‘taken care of’ and regenerated, such as the train station, the Platani arena, the market square, the parks, in the name of a multifunctionality and polycentric dimension of the city.

In the Renaissance, ideal cities were planned, calling upon the best artists of the time: after years of waiting and uncertainty, Salsomaggiore has done the same, entrusting the anxieties of a complex, stratified, lively and sometimes wounded city to the visionary knowledge of architects and planners. All this to make it concrete and real that utopia in which humans has always tried to merge their idea of yesterday with their drive towards tomorrow.

Photonic chips for low-power neural networks

Posted on 15/05/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

A study by the Politecnico di Milano and Stanford University, published in the journal Science, shows that it is possible to create extremely efficient neural networks using photonic chips.

Neural networks are distributed computing structures inspired by the structure of a biological brain and aim to achieve cognitive performance comparable to that of humans. They are used in many areas, such as speech and image recognition and synthesis, autonomous driving and augmented reality systems, bioinformatics, genetic and molecular sequencing, and high-performance computing technologies.

Neural networks are trained with a large amount of known information, on the basis of which they become able to adapt their behaviour, working autonomously. However, their training is an extremely energy-intensive process.

Researchers from the Politecnico’s Photonic Devices Lab and Polifab, the university’s micro- and nano-technology centre, in collaboration with researchers from Stanford University, have sought a solution and developed a silicon microchip just a few square millimetres in size with an integrated photonic accelerator that allows calculations to be performed very quickly – in less than a billionth of a second – and efficiently. Thanks to this photonic chip, neural network operations take place with considerable energy savings.

In addition to neural networks, it will be possible to use this device as a computing unit for multiple applications where high computational efficiency is required, e.g., for graphics accelerators, mathematical coprocessors, data mining, cryptography and quantum computers.

The study online

Safe drinking water distribution with SafeCREW

Posted on 12/05/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The second meeting of the SafeCREW project, funded by the European Union (EU) within the Horizon Europe program, has just taken place at Politecnico di Milano. SafeCREW aims to support the novel EU Drinking Water Directive (DWD) by generating advanced knowledge and developing tools and guidelines for disinfected and non-disinfected drinking water supply systems.

Provision of safe drinking water in sufficient quantity is essential for human health and concerns 4 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by United Nations. Both surface water and groundwater are essential resources for drinking water supply throughout the European Union. While water quantity, threatened by increasingly frequent periods of drought, receives much attention, the threats of climate change impacts on water quality for drinking water supply, on the treatment processes necessary for its purification and on the maintenance of drinking water quality along the distribution network are currently inadequately considered.

Despite the long-term experience with the reliable operation of drinking water supply systems (DWSS), the climate change impacts on water quality require to face a number of new challenges: the (future) need for disinfection, the microbial stability in the distribution network, and the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), with potential adverse effects on human health.

Utilities need to address short-term demands for improved risk management arising from the current DWD, as well the long-term challenges of climate change impacts on water quality, minimizing the risks for final consumers.

Currently, DWSS are very diversified by source of supply, purification processes, characteristics of the distribution networks, so that they must address different concerns to supply drinking water safe for human health. SafeCREW faces these critical issues, focusing on disinfection, its consequences, and the minimization of disinfectant dosages and DBPs formation, and moreover it addresses the potential need for disinfection in currently non-disinfected DWSS.

Four case studies in three European countries were chosen as representative (Hamburg, Berlin, Milano, Tarragona) to develop novel technological and modelling tools for drinking water treatment and distribution management, with a multidisciplinary approach, which allows to act on the entire DWSS, from the supply source, via purification treatments, up to the final distribution.

More in detail, chemical and microbiological water quality characterization methods will be improved, novel data sets on the occurrence and concentration of so far unknown DBPs will be created, evaluation protocols for materials in contact with water will be identified, innovative and sustainable treatment solutions will be developed to actively respond to the identified threats, the management of distribution networks will be optimized, which can no longer be seen only as passive infrastructures for water distribution, and finally risk assessment procedures will be defined that integrate the effects of mixtures of chemical and microbiological contaminants.

SafeCREW will provide transferable tools to end-users (water utilities, national/EU regulators, researchers, enterprises), including:

reliable methods to evaluate microbial stability, characterize natural organic matter (NOM), detect DBPs and account for their human health toxicity;
experimental protocols to select proper materials in contact with disinfected and non-disinfected water;
monitoring and modelling tools, also exploiting machine learning, for real-time optimization of DWSS management;
an integrated risk assessment framework to guide future interventions which ensure that both disinfected and non-disinfected DWSS can continue providing safe drinking water in the face of climate change.

SafeCREW will increase the preparedness of the EU water sector for challenges arising from climate change and will support the EU’s leading position in science-based policy making for drinking water consumer protection.

SafeCREW partnership includes 11 European organizations. In addition to Politecnico di Milano, DVGW (German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water) Research Center (Leader) and Tutech Innovation GmbH, both at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) (Germany), Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin (KWB) (Germany), BioDetection Systems b.v. (BDS) (The Netherlands), EURECAT Technologic de Catalunya (Spain), Umweltbundesamt (UBA) (Germany), Consorci d’Aigües de Tarragona (CAT) (Spain), Metropolitana Milanese SpA (Italy), Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Germany) and Multisensor Systems Ltd. (MSS, United Kingdom).

Politecnico di Milano brings in SafeCREW multidisciplinary skills thanks to the collaboration of researchers from four Departments: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA, prof. Manuela Antonelli), Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “G. Natta” (DCMC, prof. Carlo Punta), Department of Mathematics (DMAT, prof. Ilenia Epifani) and Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB, prof. Francesco Trovò).

SafeCREW website

The origin of the stains on leonardo da vinci’s codex atlanticus revealed

Posted on 02/05/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

An in-depth study by the Politecnico di Milano, published in Scientific Reports, has uncovered the cause of a number of black spots that appeared several years ago on the Codex Atlanticus, one of the most extensive and fascinating collections of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches and writings.

The stains particularly affect the modern panel – known technically as the passepartout – that binds and frames Da Vinci’s original papers in the codex preserved at the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana library in Milan. The interdisciplinary research team coordinated by Lucia Toniolo, Professor of Material Science and Technology at the Politecnico di Milano, used a series of non-invasive and micro-invasive analysis techniques to examine and understand the nature and causes of the phenomenon of blackening that has been observed on some 210 pages of the Codex since 2006 and has caused great concern among museum curators and conservators, as well as scholars.

The research by the Politecnico di Milano focused on folio 843 of the Codex and, combining hyperspectral photoluminescence analysis, UV fluorescence imaging, with micro-ATR-IR imaging, revealed the presence of starch glue and vinyl glue in the areas where the staining is most concentrated, right at the edge of the folio.

In addition, the presence of rounded inorganic nanoparticles composed of mercury and sulphur was detected within the cavities formed between the cellulose fibres of the passepartout paper. These particles were identified as metacinnabar, a mercury sulphide in an unusual black crystalline phase.

In-depth studies on paper preservation methods have allowed us to formulate some hypotheses on the formation of metacinnabar. The presence of mercury could be linked to the addition of an anti-vegetative salt to the glue mixture used during the restoration of the Codex in the 1960s and 70s, which could have been applied in only certain areas of the passepartout paper, precisely where it holds Da Vinci’s folio, to ensure adhesion and prevent microbiological infestations on the Codex. The presence of sulphur, on the other hand, has been linked to air pollution (sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels were very high in Milan in the 1970s) or to the additives used in the glue, which over time would have led to a reaction with mercury salts and the formation of metacinnabar particles, responsible for the black stains.

Ritessere: silk by-product reborn into new materials

Posted on 01/05/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The RETESSERE (Silk Sericin materials from textile industry by-products) project has kicked off, funded by the Fondazione Cariplo. It aims to use the by-product from the treatment of raw silk, sericin, for the production of new materials and devices in the field of life sciences.

RITESSERE will evaluate new technologies which, starting from the sericin obtained from raw material of Italian origin with traceability certification (cocoon or raw silk), will lead to the obtainment of both two-dimensional electrospun matrices composed only of sericin, and new materials based on specifically modified sericin. These products will be characterized from a chemical-physical and morphological point of view, and the impact of their introduction on the textile industry market and on other high-tech sectors will be analysed.

In particular, the advantages of the circular approach will be demonstrated through three actions:

• sericin-based facial masks for the cosmetic industry

• three-dimensional scaffolds of sericin for cell culture

• modified sericin-based film for the packaging industry.

RITESSERE aims to demonstrate how sericin can be systematically recovered and used to produce high-tech materials. Starting from silk of Italian origin, RITESSERE will define and optimize a technological process aimed at giving nobility to this waste product, proposing a new sustainable and circular method for the silk production cycle.

The results of the project will also be conveyed and made available through continuous interaction with the Advisory Board, made up of players with a driving role in the silk industry, in the definition of new circular economy practices and in the involvement of civil society (Associazione Costruttori Italiani di Macchinario per l’Industria Tessile, Donne in Campo, Ufficio Italiano Seta, MADE-Competence Center Industria 4.0, Rigano Laboratories, Associazione per il Museo della Seta di Como).

The three-year project RITESSERE is a project funded by Fondazione Cariplo with the Economia Circolare – Promuovere ricerca per un futuro sostenibile program, and is led by Professor Simone Vesentini of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and by professors Paolo Rosa and Sergio Terzi of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano.

Partners in the project, coordinated by our university, are Università degli Studi Milano Bicocca and Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis).

The RITESSERE project has received funding from Fondazione Cariplo, grant n° 2022-0529

Launch of the juice mission to Jupiter

Posted on 28/04/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

On 14 April, at 14:14 Italian time, JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), was launched from the Kourou base in French Guiana, the European Space Agency probe that will reach the Jupiter system in 2031 to make detailed observations of the gaseous planet and three of its moons: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.

The Politecnico di Milano is also involved in the mission: researchers at the MetroSpace Lab in the Department of Mechanics, on the Lecco Campus, helped to design of one of the main instruments on board the probe: MAJIS (Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer), an imaging spectrometer that operates on two different spectral channels, near infrared and infrared. The instrument was built by a French and Italian consortium, (French Principal Investigator, Francois Poulet from the IAS in Paris, with Italian Co-Principal Investigator, Giuseppe Piccioni from the INAF in Rome) with Belgian support; the optical head of the instrument is the Italian contribution.

In particular, the team from the Politecnico led the initial phase of the thermomechanical project, studying a passive cooling system capable of maintaining the infrared sensor at temperatures below 90 K (-183.15 °C) and the entire optical system at temperatures below 140 K (-133.15 °C), even though the satellite will operate at close to Earth temperatures.

The executive design and construction of the instrument were conducted by Leonardo, funded by the Italian Space Agency, under the supervision of the scientific team, within which the Politecnico group will remain active during the flight and operational phase of the mission, first to refine the thermal model of the instrument, using the data collected during the cruise phase, and then to support the planning of the observations.

Photo: ESA – S. Corvaja

1000-MAD”: ambitious experimentation project for self-driving vehicles

Posted on 21/04/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

For the first time, the 1000 Miglia 2023 event, an event that embodies the history of world motoring, will be kicked off by an autonomous car, a symbol of the future.

Called “1000-MAD” (1000 Miglia Autonomous Drive), the Politecnico di Milano project represents the first experimentation in the world of autonomous vehicles on public roads, with an extension path of more than 1500 km and a time window of over 12 months.

1000-MAD is an initiative that aims to increase the technical skills of Italian industry, to contribute to the development of sustainable mobility and to create awareness of this technology in the public.

The Politecnico project sees the support and collaboration of 1000 Miglia S.r.l., the support and patronage of MOST – National Center for Sustainable Mobility and many sponsors and technical partners. Several research groups and our departments are involved, to address in an integrated way issues of technological development, project management (led by the Connected Car & Mobility Observatory), but also design and communication.

In recent years, the Politecnico di Milano has been working intensively on the front of Artificial Intelligence and autonomous driving techniques applied to racing cars, and now, in view of a possible legislation on the circulation of autonomous cars on public roads, the “1000-MAD” project is a candidate as the first experimentation in the world of autonomous vehicles in public contexts, characterized by a very high variety of routes, iterated over several experimental rounds.

THE CAR

The vehicle that will be used for the experimentation is the brand-new Maserati MC20 Cielo, an iconic and emotional super sports car that combines the best of modern technologies with the charm of the history of Maserati (which has repeatedly intertwined with the history of the 1000 Miglia).

On this car, made available by Maserati, the Politecnico di Milano has installed all the technological elements of a “robo-driver” (actuation systems, sensors, computers, communication systems, and all the software that implements the AI-driver algorithms), to put an Artificial Intelligence behind the wheel of the “Cielo”.

The use of a Maserati as the vehicle base of this project also testifies to the intense research collaboration that has existed for more than a decade between the Politecnico di Milano and Maserati engineering in the field of electronic vehicle control & automation systems.

THE 1000 MIGLIA 2023

From 13 to 17 June, the Maserati MC20 Cielo will cross the entire route of the 1000 Miglia, tackling in “autonomous driving” mode some sections of the route, where the request for authorization to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is being completed (in particular, the crossings of the cities of Bergamo and Brescia, Italian Capital of Culture 2023, Milan, Ferrara, Modena and Parma). In the sections that will be authorized by that date, the vehicle will drive in total autonomy, respecting the rules of the Highway Code, as required by the historical regularity race in stages that takes place promiscuous to normal car traffic.

EXPERIMENTATION AND THE 1000 MIGLIA 2024

Participation in the 1000 Miglia 2023 is only the first step of “presentation” of the project. Once the 2023 edition of the “most beautiful race in the world” is over, a year of intense development and experimental refinement of the A.I-driver technology will start, in which the car will be trained on a route similar to that of the 1000 Miglia on municipal, provincial and state roads, and partly also motorway sections, with the ultimate goal of carrying out the entire route of the “1000 Miglia 2024” in autonomous mode.

THE CO-DRIVER

To comply with the testing authorization requirements (D.M.70 “smart-roads”), the vehicle driven by the A.I-driver of the Politecnico di Milano must be constantly supervised by a human co-driver. In the 1000 Miglia of 2023 the co-driver will be exceptional: Matteo Marzotto, expert driver and member of the Board of Directors of 1000 Miglia S.r.l., with many experiences of participation in the historic 1000 Miglia. He will thus remember the 70th anniversary of his uncle Giannino’s victory (1953 edition), in an ideal handover between past, present and future. This link between human driver and artificial intelligence will be visually represented by an iconic object, under development at the Department of Design of the Politecnico, which will be unveiled at the opening of the 1000 Miglia and which will accompany Matteo Marzotto throughout the route.

THE PERCEPTION OF ITALIANS

The project also aims to make autonomous driving known to the public. According to data from the Connected Car & Mobility Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, in fact, today Italian consumers are perfectly divided into 50% already inclined to use a self-driving car and another 50% against. The main reasons for those in favour are the convenience of “being able to do other activities during the journey” (45%), and greater safety (31%); conversely, opponents are held back by the discomfort of not having control of the car (37%) and the feeling of less security (33%). Evidence is therefore needed to inform and prepare consumers for the autonomous mobility revolution.

THE VALUE FOR THE COUNTRY

The “1000-MAD” project will enhance the Italian scientific and technological capacity, creating a unique experimental context in the world, in which to carry out research and development of new technologies for autonomous mobility. It will also help define regulatory interventions to promote the development and use of autonomous cars; create a connection between the main research centres and the territories active on the topic in Italy and abroad; it will collect and publish technical data to develop industrial strategies and technologies. Finally, the project aims to collect and publish data on the Italian territory, defining and calculating an AI Autonomous Drive Readiness Index, which can help all administrations to direct their policies (and resources) on priority issues for that territory.