Posts by Michele Covolan

The University of Turin collaborates with Festival del giornalismo alimentare, which presents from 23^rd to 25^th February at Auditorium Vivaldi (Piazza Carlo Alberto, 3, Turin) some meetings, debates and workshops about the following theme: information about food and diet.

Some professors and researchers of the University of Turin are taking part in these meetings: it is a chance for them to underline the importance of the multidisciplinary research in university: the 27 different seats of the University are carrying out high-quality research and dealing with the spread of knowledge about the land development. The University of Turin has reached a positive result in the research field, according to the figures of the last evaluation about the quality of research (VQR 2011-2014): it has reached the first place in Italy for its Public engagement.

134 out of 500 research projects per year are about agriculture and diet, and they deal with themes like environment, economy and science.

33 projects are about food, primary and secondary production, food safety, medical and socio-economic questions – these projects gained European funds through the programmes Quadro and Horizon2020, but also thanks to specific programmes which deal with environmental protection, the creation of networks for the development and of innovative solutions for agriculture, water protection and management, and the promotion of healthy food solutions.

In addition, the University of Turin is the only Italian academy who is part of the union EIT Food, the European Institution of Innovation and Technology.

The thirteenth edition of the project “M’illumino di meno” starts on February 24^th. Also this year Politecnico of Turin is taking part in this initiative promoted by Radio Rai “Caterpillar” to encourage energy conservation and environmental sustainability.

This university has always promoted activities in favour of sustainability and carried out concrete actions for energy conservation in its structures and for the initiative “M’illumino di meno”. As concerns this project, there are two important events promoted by the Green Team of Politecnico, an organisation born inside Politecnico in order to promote activities in favour of sustainability and to make this university a sustainable campus.

On February 23^rd at 7 p.m. a flash mob called “Switchmob” takes place in Turin, thanks to a collaboration between “M’illumino di meno” and “Ingegneria Senza Frontiere” (Engineers without borders): the students and all the people working in the university will invade the rooms and the hallways looking for lights which are still on at the end of the day. The objective is to make the students and the university workers aware of energy conservation and conscious of its use. The results of this campaign will be monitored in real time by Living LAB, which will show the reduction of the energy consumption. Finally, there is a refreshment by candlelight for all participants.

Another initiative is “Aumentiamo l’efficienza energetica nell’illuminazione” (Let’s improve the energy efficiency in the field of lightning): it takes place on February 24^th at 10 a.m. in Sala Consiglio di Facoltà. This event is focused on “energy efficiency in the field of lightning”, an important theme for the present Public Administration, also supported by the many chances given by Conto Termico.

Politecnico encourages an experimentation with the use of LED lightning instead of the current devices, by adding, if necessary, motion and light detectors. To promote this initiative, Politecnico is going to show its interest during this event, to involve operators who will be ready to provide the material needed for this experimentation for free. At the Living LAB in the university, they will carry out measure campaigns before and after replacing the devices: the aim is to test the actual reduction of electric energy consumption. This experimentation is taking place in some rooms of the central seat (in some offices and a hallway).

The results of this experimentation will be then released and could be useful for future contracts of large-scale replacement of the devices.

The average evaluations of Politecnico are one of the best in Italy. Among the figures released by ANVUR we can see: Architecture in first place and Civil Engineering in second place in the ranking of the universities of big dimensions; Mathematic Sciences in second place in the ranking of university of middle dimensions; Law Sciences (represented by a few researchers but with a great scientific production) in first place and Economic Sciences and Statistics in third place in the ranking of small universities.

These results allowed the university to increase the Ordinary Financial Fund of 2016, and it’s a result that only 20% of public universities reached.

The second element that allowed the increasing in the FFO is the scientific production of the new-employed; in this field, Politecnico is in the first places in the Italian ranking. This shows the prudent and meritocratic recruiting policies of the last years, both for young researchers and for ordinary professors. In the field of Industrial and Information Engineering, Politecnico is in first place for its ability of selection of its staff in the ranking of universities of big dimensions. In the scientific areas we can find Mathematic Sciences, Architecture and Civil Engineering in the first places.

Finally, Politecnico of Turin has been mentioned this morning as “best practice” during the presentation of a report about the figures of Terza Missione (that is Technological Transfer and Public Engagement), and ranked in second place for its patenting activities and for giving value to the intellectual property.

The dean Marco Gilli says: “The results about our university are extremely positive. There are research fields which are already strengthened for what concerns their quality and their competitiveness, but other must be strengthened and supported, in order to have a faster development process. The politics of this university (both the ones of the past and the ones we will put into practice in the future) want to support these strategies and make our results better.”

On February 21^st ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems) showed the figures coming from the survey about the quality of research (VQR), carried out considering the data between 2011 and 2014, and the tables representing the evaluation areas and the results of Terza Missione.

In December the results had already been positive for the University of Turin, and now we can see the same: 3^rd place among all the other Universities, with positive results also in educating and recruiting highly qualified professors. In particular, UniTO is at the first place in Italy in Public engagement, it makes the impact of research in the region better and improves the scientific production.

The section dedicated to Terza Missione honours the politics of the University in the region for the development of the territory and the activities of research and teaching. It underlines the importance of the activities that allowed to evaluate the openness of the University of Turin to the socio-economic situation and it measures the many interactions the University has with business, schools and the society, in order to create more and more opportunities of social development.

VQR 2011-2014 compared around 96.000 research products, which are the result coming from professors and researchers in the 16 scientific areas, in order to evaluate 96 universities, 12 research agencies coordinated by the Ministry of Education, MIUR (University and Research) and 26 agencies which decided to take part in this evaluation.

So Gianmaria, Ajani, dean of the University of Turin: “The success of our University comes from the excellent job of our researchers in the universities and the selection of products. We are one of the few university in the North of Italy that still are improving their performance. The evaluation is extremely positive also for the awarding of the FFO (Ordinary Financial Fund), which is higher than in the last year by 8%. The first place of UniTO in Public Engagement honours many years of work of the whole university community, but above all it shows the openness and the recognizing of the key role the university can and must have for the region and the country today”.

The University bets on the courses in English. Now there are six degree courses in English, but next year there will be 10 of them.

The greatest news is that you will be able to become a “doctor” thanks to the English degree course of medicine at the hospital San Luigi – Orbassano. This opportunity will be presented to the students of Capus Luigi Einaudi who attend the 4^th or the 5^th class at high school until Friday 24^th during the “Orientation days”. This year the courses will be presented by professionals, notaries, advocates and social workers that will talk about the job perspectives.

The English language offers more possibilities. Another great piece of news is that until now the only courses in English had been the two-year specialising degrees. In September the first three-year course starts – Business and Management – and also the first five-year course begins – Medicine. The two specialising degrees that will start are European Legal Studies and Business Administration. There will be also an English curriculum of Philosophy. Last year «Stochastics and data Science» started: the number of subscriptions was 35 – not few for a specialising degree.

The consul general of the United States, Philip T. Reeker, on February 17^th visited Politecnico of Turin and SITI (Institute for the Region and Innovation). He also met Bernardino Chiaia, vice-director for internationalisation and Romano Borchiellini, vicedirector for the logistics and president of SITI.   During this meeting the engineer Sergio Olivero introduced the project X-Team.

The consul looked interested in increasing his knowledge of this initiative, promoted by Politecnico of Turin, University of Ca’ Foscari (Venice), IUAV, SITI and CORILA. This initiative wants to educate some experts in saving of the cultural heritage from attacks or natural events and from the illegal trade of art works.

The main objective is the education of experts ins saving the cultural heritage in critical situations caused by wars or natural disasters, through an approach that makes them able to start development processes, whose aim is to create job places for highly qualified people: in this way they will give all those people who are fleeing now the prospect of “coming back home with dignity”.

The people to educate will be chosen among the students and researchers of countries who are in conflict and among the officials of the cultural system. In particular, they will make an effort also to involve refuges, even those on the edge of country which are in crisis: in fact, they are a real “deposit of competences” that could help rebuilding their home countries.

X-Team will also promote the creation of highly specialised local agencies: through this project they will create a coordination unit in Italy and “Satellite Centres” all around Europe, which will collaborate with local partners, spread the know-how and act in loco through chains of innovative services for the safety, the protection and the management of the cultural heritage, with, as a consequence, more job places for qualified people.

Which is the best way to involve the young in speeches about mafia and illegality? Terre di Musica has found an attractive way to let everybody know about this positive event: the confiscation of resources from mafia.

In Via Verdi 9, Turin, in Aula Magna at Cavallerizza, on Februart 20^th 2017 at 4 p.m., there will be a meeting about music, cinema, literature and art, which are the means necessary for the project of cultural requalification of the resources confiscated from mafia.

Main actors at this meeting are the inventor of this project (Salvatore De Siena, founder of the band Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti) and a series of spokesmen of the institutions involved in it: Rocco Sciarrone (University of Turin, Cultural Studies, Politics and Society), Alessandro Cobianchi, Arci Nazionale, Maria Josè Fava (LIBERA Piemonte) Piero Ferrante (“Narcomafie”), Marco Maccarone (Cascina Caccia, San Sebastiano Po, Turin).

This meeting is organised by the University of Humanistic Studies, coordinated by Alberto Rizzuti and it is open to anybody. With the sponsorship and the support of the University of Turin and ARCI, Terre di Musica, organised in collaboration with LIBERA, is a trip around Italy, whose best moments are noted in a book and a movie by Zona: here you can find the historical, social and cultural information about these resources and also the experience of the characters.

http://www.unito.it/sites/default/files/terre_di_musica.pdf

On Tuesday 14^th February at 10.45 a.m., the mayor Chiara Appendino and Gianmaria Ajani, dean of the University of Turin, are signing and showing the press a dialogue between the City of Turin and its University about the carrying out and the testing of projects whose objectives is to reorganise projects aiming at reorganise offices and city services.

Valter Cantino, director of the Management University, and Emilio Agagliati, director of the staff of the City of Turin will take part in this meeting with the journalists.