Telecom Italia has inaugurated the S-Cube laboratory on the Milan Polytechnic campus for the development of advanced ICT technologies for Smart Social Spaces. Research and academic knowledge are combined with industrial know-how and experience, giving rise to an innovative model of relationship between university and business: this is the philosophy of the "Joint Open Lab S-Cube", which was inaugurated today, in the headquarters of the University of Milan, in the presence of Professor Giovanni Azzone, Rector of the Milan Polytechnic, and Cesare Sironi, Telecom Italia's Innovation Manager.
The "Joint Open Lab S-Cube" is focused on the design and implementation of new services connected to the "Smart Social Spaces", where Internet technologies, together with the increasingly widespread use of individual "smart devices" (smartphones, tablets, smart object), enable new ways of interaction and communication not only between people but also between objects and physical spaces in real and virtual contexts: the home, the office, the school, as well as different urban scenarios (concerts, exhibitions, activities and places of interest).
The laboratory combines the interdisciplinary skills of the Politecnico di Milano, inherent to Innovation Management, Service Interaction Design, Computer engineering and Urban Studies, with those of Telecom Italia researchers, experts in the most advanced and innovative ICT scenarios.
The initiative consolidates the collaboration between the company and the Milanese university, which includes the funding of eight scholarships for research doctorates (of which 7 related to the Joint Open Lab project), the activation of apprenticeship contracts for the 'Higher Education aimed at graduating students, the creation of a Master in Business Innovation and ICT Management, as well as joint participation in calls for funding in national and international projects.
The "Joint Open Lab S-Cube" – housed in the Via Golgi 42 headquarters at the Milan Polytechnic – is one of the innovative research poles that Telecom Italia is activating throughout the country, in partnership with the most qualified Italian universities, with the aim of relaunching and transforming the relationship between the world of industry and that of research and teaching in the field of technological innovation. The already active laboratories are located in Pisa and Trento and the inauguration of similar spaces in Turin and Catania is expected within the year.
The collaboration aims to bring the typical knowledge of the academic world closer to possible applications in the industrial field, transforming innovative ideas into opportunities, with a tangible return for the local socio-economic system.
“The most advanced ICT technologies reveal surprising potential uses. The new services of the 'Smart Social Spaces' are an extremely interesting field of conquest for research”, he says John Azzone, Rector of the Milan Polytechnic. “Telecom Italia will have the opportunity to work with well-trained and motivated researchers and, we are certain, the establishment of this new Joint Open Lab will be a place of growth and satisfaction for both the academic and industrial worlds”.
"Telecom Italia has decided to invest in university research and higher education, turning to the Politecnico di Milano, one of the excellences of Italian research", declares Cesare Sironi, Head of Innovation at Telecom Italia. “Together with the Polytechnic we want to develop a new teaching and research model, which has positive and immediate effects on the industrial world. This path – adds Sironi – is an integral part of a larger project of the Group which aims to improve the model of innovation and the relationship between academia and business, following an approach based on 'Open Innovation', and involving industry, universities, start-ups and innovative territorial realities”.
