Stefania Palmieri

This research investigates studies on multi-sensory environments (MSEs) and, comparing existing solutions on the market, offers an integrated product-service, designed to contain costs, from an industrial manufacturing perspective, with a high level of flexibility, aimed at children with intellectual and motor disabilities. Based on the studies developed by the LudoMi team, a project awarded at Polisocial Award 2017, as acknowledgment on research with a high social impact relevant for the scientific community. We report the case study of Merlino: research project, in progress, with the Design Department of the Polytechnic of Milan, which aims to increase the development of cognitive faculties and motor skills, promoting learning and improvement of communication and relational skills.

La ceramica è da sempre un materiale associato a grande tradizione artigianale, culturale e da un certo punto in avanti anche industriale. Oggi, grazie alle nuove tecnologie e nuovi utilizzi del prodotto è sempre più oggetto di attenzione da parte di designer e aziende.Sul lungo sviluppo della produzione ceramica per l’oggetto d’uso si innestano i temi fondativi del design: l’unità delle arti a cavallo tra il 18 e il 19 secolo, l’oggetto singolo in relazione con le tecniche, i mercati e le trasformazioni del gusto nei decenni successivi, una più complessa visione del progetto funzionale che considera gli oggetti d’uso come una componente dell’idea di architettura negli anni 50 e 60, per tornare all’alveo dell’oggetto significante, ormai assorbito da una specificità disciplinare tipica del disegno industriale, nella contemporaneità. Oggi la ceramica ha perso la tradizionale connotazione di rivestimento di pareti e pavimenti ed è diventata un vero complemento d’arredo: il vaso, il piatto o tutto ciò realizzato con questo materiale abbelliscono il quotidiano, avvicinandosi e sovrapponendosi al concetto di design contemporaneo. La continua ricerca e le sperimentazioni sulla materia sono rese possibili grazie alle nuove possibilità produttive e alla digitalizzazione dei processi di decorazione. Grafiche dettagliate, texture diverse, effetti tridimensionali trasformano il materiale ceramico quasi in un’opera d’arte. La sua plasmabilità consente interpretazioni originali non esistenti in natura ancora tutte da scoprire. Dal punto di vista industriale, inoltre, lo scenario del futuro, peraltro già in essere, vede la stampa 3d aggiungere anche la ceramica fra i materiali che è possibile stampare. Probabilmente non servirà per creare oggetti per uso consumer ma le ceramiche altoperformanti sono tra i materiali migliori per produrre prototipi industriali avanzati, a partire da dati digitali elaborati da un software CAD/ CAM. La ceramica non è solo uno dei materiali più nobili del nostro passato,ma, grazie alla stampa 3D, anche uno dei materiali di maggiore potenziale per il nostro futuro

Il tema della riorganizzazione dei rapporti tra sistemi industriale, università/ricerca tecnologica e norme in via di emanazione da parte dei governi è estremamente attuale perché dettato dalla necessità del recupero di competitività del sistema economico occidentale per effetto della globalizzazione, e quindi della grande espansione, dei nuovi competitori provenienti soprattutto dai paesi asiatici e dal Sudamerica. La nuova dimensione di questi rapporti, in Europa e in particolare in Italia, si sta sviluppando su due percorsi: il primo down-up e il secondo top-down per seguire uno sviluppo strutturale importante nel campo dell’organizzazione industriale esistente, relativo soprattutto all’utilizzo ed evoluzione della Ricerca Tecnologica applicata. Lo studio affronterà quindi dapprima l’indicazione delle caratteristiche dell’esistente specialmente per quanto concerne le dimensioni medie del tessuto industriale europeo, e italiano in particolare, come elemento limitativo degli investimenti in R&S e le inevitabili ricadute connesse nella riarticolazione anche delle strutture universitarie, almeno in Italia. Si provvederà quindi a compiere una comparazione schematica tra i sistemi di organizzazione industriale, riferiti alle MPMI, esistenti tra i vari stati europei e in particolare tra cluster, poles de competitivités e distretti industriali e reti di imprese, che rappresenta la nuova frontiera della struttura industriale

This research investigates studies on multi-sensory environments (MSEs) and, comparing existing solutions on the market, offers an integrated product-service, designed to contain costs, from an industrial manufacturing perspective, with a high level of flexibility, aimed at children with intellectual and motor disabilities. Based on the studies developed by the LudoMi team, a project awarded at Polisocial Award 2017, as acknowledgment on research with a high social impact relevant for the scientific community. We report the case study of Merlino: research project, in progress, with the Design Department of the Polytechnic of Milan, which aims to increase the development of cognitive faculties and motor skills, promoting learning and improvement of communication and relational skills.

Simulation techniques are an essential tool, to allow learners and operators to develop hard and soft skills simultaneously. Emerging technologies in the field of sensory perception will improve training and emergency management. The combination with virtual reality technologies will allow the development of complex systems, more realistic, allowing an effective and targeted training. They will allow the monitoring of training sessions and the collection of useful data for the generation of a standardized, efficient and unambiguous practice of action. The Design takes on the role of facilitator and manager of the system constituted by the different actors, with the mission to design and indicate the guidelines for setting up an innovative simulation center.

This report claims to analyse and describe the way a professional designer’s work is evolving, focusing on the liaison with industry. What company role do designers play and what skills do they master? What aims do they have? Modern technologies and a change in the socio-economical background have revolutionised enterprises. Design must now breach new and unexplored boundaries concerning both engineering and innovation. The rising professional figure, capable of dealing with these complexities, expert designer, skilled manager, coordinator of distinct aspects of knowledge, will fulfil the definition of Hyper-designer.

The EDME Laboratory, established within the Polytechnic of Milano, is the first result of a path of multidisciplinary integration, which synthesizes multiscalar relationships, outlining the identity of an instrument of investigation, interpretation and representation of experiential scenarios. The generated model integrates with a physical space innovative ICT technology and materials of the latest generation, to carry out research involving simulations of complex activities and interactions, and predictions on the perceptual and digital control aspects of the environments where such activities are carried out. This contribution, through two research projects, will highlight how qualified research can lead to the creation of methodologies and the implementation of innovative applications; the achievable results meet the needs for systems able to detect and simulate perceptual aspects and for systems of environmental interaction.

Extended realities, along with other enabling technologies, can improve the way we perform professional and entertaining activities. This paper describes the possibilities created by future applications in the field of sports. These possibilities emerge from the analysis of various aspects of the project to evaluate the feasibility of the idea: studying the different opportunities created by extended realities and applied to learning processes, the possible technological needs have to be addressed in the near future to meet the users’ needs within the sports system and to obtain significant benefits at an appropriate cost.

Recent and continuous innovations in the field of extended reality and, in particular, augmented reality, are able to revolutionize different aspects of the reference market sectors. At the same time, a constant evolution in the area of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning, if combined with the aforementioned innovations, allows to conceive solutions able to shape new ways to inform, to improve skills and to spend time. The ability to simulate contexts, environments, actions and emotions and the possibility to use the data generated by the simulations in a disruptive way permit to imagine and create learning and strengthening paths.This developing research has been carried out within the Interdepartmental Laboratory EDME (Environmental Design Multisensory Experience), which belongs to the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano. It has been conducted by investigating the state of the art of augmented reality and artificial intelligence technologies, highlighting interesting and highly innovative case studies; from this first phase we moved on to analyze the sport sector in which an important potential for future development was recognized. The last part of the first phase of this research project consisted in the elaboration of a concept for an enabling technological system and a business model with a high innovation coefficient, whose realization is hypothesized for the year 2030.It is intended to demonstrate how a design operation, which started from emerging technologies and a sector of high interest and assumed a scenario of use over ten years, is not only extremely interesting but also, and above all, useful to consciously predict and accompany the aforementioned technological development.

The inexorable technological evolution, supported by the growing adoption of digital products, is progressively transforming the canonical physical objects into experiential objects while changing the way we interact and relate to the real world [1]. This change is generating new lifestyles, newopportunities, and new design challenges. Through increasingly smart and interconnected objects, it is possible to create shared activities and experiences that overcome the barrier of the "tangible", to land in increasingly immersive and attractive environments. Such interactions amplify the need to create meaningful content, extending our perception beyond purely physical reality.
Starting from a research on "Corrugated cardboard and Digital technologies" carried out at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with a leading company in the packaging sector in Italy, we examined corrugated cardboard from different points of view.
From the analysis carried out, we were able to see how, still today, corrugated cardboard is perceived as a cheap material with little value. But the same material, when placed in a digital scenario, could acquire value by giving tangibility to immersive digital experiences.
From these considerations derives the neologism "cardboardification", a transformation that enhances corrugated cardboard to technologically advanced material, evolving from a container of physical elements to a container of digital content.
As technologies change, so do formats and quality of content, dematerialising and giving rise to new customisable experiences that are potentially useful in mitigating the differences between users. In a broad and changing framework, learning is also undergoing important changes, leaving great room for improvement, especially considering the generational and skills gap between immigrants and digital natives [2].
Digitisation allows for a vast amount of innovative content that can activate parallel learning processes, without replacing the canonical teaching activities proposed by educators. In this logic, our proposal aims to outline elements that, through play and cardboardification, accompany the educational processes useful for the growth of the child, not only by making available digital content, but tangible augmented experiences that act as a bridge between the physical and the virtual [3].

Sustainability is a theme often argued by many but practically handled by few. Nowadays, the environmental debate is more and more felt on every level of the social hierarchy and persistently pushed by continuous government regulations. From companies’ point of view, deciding to define sustainable behaviours as fundamental requirements of one’s production chain is a duty rather than a strategic choice.
There are, however, countless ways to innovate in the field of sustainability, some more well- known and praised than others; if one were to consider the food conservation industry and take into account the behaviour of companies involved in such field, for instance, one would soon realize how little is done to find innovative ways to tackle the environmental crisis, as well as transmit to the consumers values such as freshness and quality.
The University-Industry synergy was at the base of this research and made it possible to observe and study the industrial reality from a fresh perspective.
The thorough corporate know-how, the deep data and context analysis carried out during the initial phases of the project and the continuous dialogue and feedback from the company inner elements made it possible to develop a refrigeration system which rethinks entirely the current refrigeration methods put in place by the main companies and takes a new direction towards a more sustainable way of displaying, purchasing and distributing food in grocerant environments. This is made possible
through the localized distribution of cold, which allows food to be stored and distributed without the use of packaging and with more thorough and individual control on temperatures, in order to optimize its organoleptic qualities and extend its life span.
The University-Industry cooperation also allowed to better understand inner company dynamics and generate innovative thinking, such as involving the final client in the ideation process in order to increase awareness over the sustainability of food conservation products and the value of the products themselves.
This research aims at finding innovative solutions to increase consumers’ knowledge of food quality and to involve them in the processes meant to face the environmental crisis. Transforming in a circular connection between three parties - the company, the client and the final user - a B2B relationship which previously only involved the producing company and the buying client.

The turbulence of competitive, technological, social and market scenarios is posing companies unprecedented challenge in the innovation of products and services. Considering the actual continuous and shared design process as a network in space, the author proposes to read AdvanceDesign as a catalyser of constant research and innovation, as promoter and mediator of different technologies causing the evolution of methods that fit with social and economic as well as industrial situations.