jrc – Progress in Research

Jrc deep social analytics for employee engagement goes live

Posted on 29/09/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The research carried out at the “Deep Social Analytics for Employee Engagement” Joint Research Center has gone live half-way through its first year, the joint research centre is today presenting the preliminary results to the companies involved.

The project is being led by the Politecnico di Milano’s Departments of Management Engineering and Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, together with another eight Italian and international companies with an interest in research, innovation and development in the context of Human Resources management. It is a strategic partnership for the development of knowledge, models and technologies for analysing and improving Employee Engagement.

Within the new work organisation models that have been enabled by the digital age, the adoption of which was accelerated by the pandemic, the measurement, monitoring and development of employee engagement has become a fundamental factor in being able to take action in relation to employees’ working experiences, including in terms of retention.
Professor Mariano Corso, Research Manager.

What is the objective of the JRC Deep Social Analytics for Employee Engagement? To identify alarm bells and weaker signs of employee disengagement which, if listened to, can allow organisations to implement timely and specific measures to support the wellbeing of their own people. The challenge is therefore to combine traditional systems for measuring engagement, which are based on static models and look to the past, with more holistic, integrated and real-time approaches.

The approach is multidisciplinary and based on the use of data. The normal tools for measuring and monitoring engagement were combined with approaches involving machine learning, data analytics and data fusion, to collect and assess the great volume of data available to companies today, always in line with the framework established by GDPR.

The vast quantity of data generated on a daily basis, as well as the emergence of new approaches and technologies for analysing it, now presents great opportunities to measure and improve employees’ working experience.
Professor Matteo Matteucci, Research Manager.

To date, JRC Deep Social Analytics for Employee Engagement has enjoyed the participation of the companies A2A, Banca Mediolanum, Costa Crociere, the Credem Group, Maire Tecnimont, Poste Italiane, together with Beaconforce and Microsoft which joined as the project’s technological partners.

New ONCO-TECH-LAB

Posted on 19/04/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The Politecnico di Milano and the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) have today launched a framework agreement for scientific research, through the establishment of the joint research centre ONCO-TECH-LAB – Modeling and Applications for Human Health, which will combine the Politecnico di Milano’s know-how in artificial intelligence, robotics and cutting-edge tissue engineering technologies with IEO’s extensive knowledge in life sciences.

ONCO-TECH-LAB is a platform that integrates the two partners’ human, instrumental and logistical resources in order to increase the critical mass and quality of research, thus opening up access to national and international calls, funding and programmes for both institutions. The main area covered by the agreement is oncology, plus other disciplines: haematology, immunology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, transplantology and diagnostic imaging.

The initiative stems from the awareness that synergy between biomedical research and technology is the winning strategy for bringing together different skills and developing a common language to support research and education. This is the model implemented at ONCO-TECH-LAB, a multidisciplinary driving force for bringing scientific discoveries more efficiently into the reality of patient care.
Guido Baroni, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and coordinator of the Joint Research Centre.

Agreement with a2a

Posted on 09/02/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The A2A Life Company Group and Politecnico di Milano have started up collaboration for the development of innovation, research and training initiatives in the Energy & Utility sector, to support Italy’s ecological transition. The recently signed partnership model is based on two agreements with a total value of 8 million euros and a duration of 5 years.

In particular, the agreement provides for the establishment of a Joint Research Centre to implement multidisciplinary experimental projects on specific issues such as sustainable mobility, the development of renewable energy and hydrogen, battery recycling, the study of new technologies for waste treatment and the recovery of materials and energy, for a total of 5 million.

At the same time, the partnership will give rise to a Joint Research and Innovation Centre inside the Innovation District, which Politecnico di Milano is developing at the former Bovisa gasometer park and in which A2A will take part with a total investment of 3 million euros. The Joint Centre will be entirely dedicated to innovation in the following thematic macro-areas: “Technologies for the environment and energy” and “Technologies for sustainable mobility”, also touching on the themes of energy transition and the circular economy.

The JRC – Joint Research Center has proven to be one of the most valid tools for strengthening the understanding between universities and business.

The agreement was signed by the Rector of the Politecnico, Ferruccio Resta, and by Renato Mazzoncini, CEO of A2A, in the presence of the President of A2A, Marco Patuano, the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala and the President of Regione Lombardia, Attilio Fontana.

The JRC – Joint Research Center has proven to be one of the most valid tools for strengthening the understanding between universities and business. For activating an ever closer synergy on topics of common interest and to meet the challenges that the NRRP poses to Italy: from energy transition, to sustainable mobility, and renewable energy. These are some of the objectives of the agreement which sees Politecnico di Milano working alongside A2A. One of the companies most actively encouraging this path of shared growth. Ready to support joint research from an open supply chain perspective. This agreement in fact represents a shared desire to create a real ecosystem of innovation that goes beyond applied research projects to the development of a flagship project on which the Politecnico will focus in the coming years.
Ferruccio Resta, rector of the Politecnico di Milano

JRP healthcare infrastructures up for the design of hospitals 4.0

Posted on 08/02/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

What will the hospital of the future look like?

The Joint Research Platform Healthcare Infrastructures has been set up to answer this question, a platform of excellence for innovation led by Politecnico di Milano – Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering (Design & Health Lab) and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. It is aimed at companies and institutions in the healthcare sector for the development and testing of innovative research and infrastructure projects.

Mario Cucinella Architects, Philips, Politecnica Ingegneria e Architettura, Eredi Rossini Domenico, Siemens SpA, and Tecnicaer Engineering are the companies that have joined the platform and will work in synergy with the Politecnico, in particular to develop a sustainable model of “user-centred” healthcare, capable of going beyond the exclusively hospital-centric perspective.

User-centred hospitals have been shown to improve patient and healthcare operator satisfaction, increase productivity, lower management costs, help reduce the risk of falls by 30%, care-related infections by 35%, staff turnover due to burnout by 30%, adverse events by 15%, and average length of stay by 10%.

The new Hospital 4.0 will be designed by developing, validating and testing design models for the different functional areas of the hospital (Surgery and Critical Patient, Diagnostics, Emergency, Outpatients, Inpatients, General, Logistic and Technical Services) or strategic characteristics (flexibility, resilience to maxi emergencies, sustainability).

The ambition of the JRP Healthcare Infrastructures is to define the new paradigms for the Hospital of the Future. It ‘s the first example in Italy for which the world of research, business and institutions activate a joint working table that aims to address the social, epidemiological and technological challenges related to innovative and sustainable healthcare infrastructures. The JRP is a new multidisciplinary initiative by Politecnico di Milano that will generate multiple frontier actions with important spin-offs for the world of healthcare.
Stefano Capolongo, Professor of Hospital Design at Politecnico di Milano and Scientific Coordinator for this initiative.

The JRP is a new multidisciplinary initiative by Politecnico di Milano that will generate multiple frontier actions with important spin-offs for the world of healthcare

On a national level, current guidelines all focus on investing in healthcare by creating people-centred systems. With JRP Healthcare Infrasctractures we promote a new vision of Hospital 4.0 and best practices in healthcare. As a foundation, we know that, in order to create valuable services for citizens, it is essential to understand the needs of society through dialogue with all stakeholders and to connect the industry sector with that of academia and the institutions. With this project we bring together major players in the healthcare sector, academia and the institutions in order to share the direction of development in healthcare infrastructures
Andrea Sianesi, President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano.