UniTrento and Confindustria Trento presented on 4 February the results of the first edition of the Industrial Problem Solving with Physics (Ipsp). The event was promoted to boost the business-university research relationships, based on similar successful proposals implemented in Northern Europe.
Thirty young researchers of the University of Trento used their knowledge, skills and creativity to solve the concrete problems of local businesses: Adige Spa (Blm Group), Aquafil Spa and Röchling Automotive.
The work was developed at the end of July 2014. The kind of support provided by the team in the management of the presented issues was extremely satisfactory for the local businesses: on the one side because of the effectiveness of their work, on the other because of the excellent collaboration between the researchers and the internal personnel of the enterprises.
“The three involved companies obtained concrete solutions to their applicative problems, experimenting a new way to approach them”, Giulio Bonazzi ( Confindustria Trento), explained. “We were sure that the enthusiasm of the young researchers and their technical preparation would lead to new solutions, to enhance the innovation level and the competitiveness of the companies. And we got a perfect demonstration of this! This kind of experience should be spread to other Departments of the University of Trento”.
Aronne Armanini, Deputy Rector of the University of Trento, added that “Following the agreement for the university, research and innovation signed some weeks ago by Confindustria and the Conference of Italian University Rectors, I believe it is fundamental that we contribute, here in Trentino, to the economic and cultural development, “play the game” and create new opportunity of growth and employment, above all for the young. UniTrento wants to play its role, to participate in the European research and technology transfer programmes together with companies, and keep in mind the needs of businesses in the preparation of the Doctoral courses. In this sense the kind of research carried out at UniTrento plays a strategic role. Let us not forget that the productivity of our researchers is 3.5 to 5 times higher than the average productivity of Italian researchers. The most successful area in the relationships with the productive world is engineering, but physics is also becoming very important for the industrial innovation. Hence the initiative “Industrial Problem Solving with Physics” is important because it concretely shows that the theoretical study and the university research can form the basis for new solutions for the technology issues of companies”.
At the end of the works, among the suggested solutions, an Evaluating Committee and the entire Scientific Committee and the representatives of the involved companies recognised the merit of the team of researchers who worked on the topic submitted by Adige Spa and who obtained the “gold medal”. Adige Spa is a global leader in the engineering, production and sale of machines to work on metal tubes and it had required to the researchers to identify methods and instruments to study the fluid-dynamics of gases used in the laser cutting techniques. The results were so successful that, at the end of the initiative, collaboration between the company and the department was activated.
The industrial problem presented by Aquafil - located in Arco (Trento, Italy) - and the main actors in Italy and in the world, in the production of synthetic fibres, regarded the colouring of fibres using ad hoc additives: the so-called masterbatch.
The third project regarded the Röchling Automotive Group. The researchers had to explore the automotive sector, to investigate the role of a product used in the modern processes of catalytic reduction of exhaust gases.
The high level of the initiative and the consequent satisfaction of all involved partners prompted them into repeating the experience, which will be held between 20 and 25 July 2015. Companies may register until 5 May 2014 and try to solve their problems thanks to physics only.