The ISSG PhD candidate Linghzi Chen has won the Top Prize Award as part of the 2026 Piezo MEMS Design Challenge, an international initiative sponsored by the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics and STMicroelectronics. The awarded project, titled “Novel Subwavelength Phononic Crystals to Reduce Anchor Losses”, was selected as the best among 40 proposals submitted by participants from around the world. The award includes the free fabrication of the proposed device, offering a valuable opportunity for experimental validation and technological development. The prize was officially announced during the IEEE MEMS 2026 Conference, held in Salzburg (Austria) from January 25 to 29, 2026, one of the leading international scientific events in the field of microelectromechanical systems. L'articolo Linghzi Chen has won the Top Prize Award – 2026 Piezo MEMS Design Challenge proviene da DICA - Polimi.

Andrea Marcucci, PhD graduate of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has received the Young Research Prof. Surendra P. Shah Award 2026 on Technologies for Low-Carbon and Lean Construction for his dissertation entitled An Advanced Tunnel Refurbishment Methodology Based on Slip Forming Fast-Setting Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete. Now in its fifth edition, the award recognizes the best doctoral dissertation defended in the previous year on topics related to the sustainability of construction and reinforced concrete infrastructure. Andrea won this year’s edition, selected from over 50 candidates, 15 of whom advanced to the final stage, held in person at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, India. The jury was composed of Prof. Barzin Mobasher (Arizona State University), Prof. Alexandra Bertron (current Director of INSA Toulouse), and Prof. Pat Rajeev (Swinburne University, Melbourne). The award was presented by Prof. Gettu (IIT Madras) and Prof. Mobasher, in the presence of Prof. S.P. Shah, to whom the recognition is dedicated. Prof. Shah is currently Director of the Center of Advanced Construction Materials, Civil Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington, Emeritus Professor at Northwestern University, and a member of the National Academy of Engineers in the USA, Germany, and China. He is widely regarded as a leading authority in advanced construction materials and was named among the ten most influential figures in the cement and concrete construction industry several years ago. Andrea completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Liberato Ferrara within the ISSG program. His doctoral scholarship was co-funded by the National Operational Program Research and Innovation 2014-2020, FSE REACT-EU, and by the start-up Hinfra S.r.l., within the ETLR project for the refurbishment of existing tunnel linings. L'articolo Andrea Marcucci has received the Young Research Prof. Surendra P. Shah Award 2026 proviene da DICA - Polimi.

Professor Liberato Ferrara has been elected a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), leading global authority for the development, dissemination, and adoption of consensus-based standards in the broad domain of concrete materials and structural applications, with more than 40,000 members spanning more than 120 countries. The election to ACI Fellow, one of the highest distinctions awarded by the Institute, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to both the American Concrete Institute and the concrete industry at large. Only a small percentage of ACI members receive this prestigious honor, which acknowledges professional excellence, leadership, and long-term commitment to the advancement of concrete science and engineering. L’annuncio formale dell’elezione del Professor Ferrara avverrà durante la Opening Session and Keynote Presentation dell’ACI Spring 2026 Concrete Convention, in programma domenica 29 marzo 2026 presso l’Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago Hotel. This recognition highlights Professor Ferrara’s significant impact on the international concrete research and professional community and confirms the high quality and relevance of his scientific and technical contributions at a global level. L'articolo Professor Liberato Ferrara Among the Fellows of the American Concrete Institute proviene da DICA - Polimi.

The international scientific journal Hydrology (MDPI) has awarded the Hydrology Best Paper Award to the paper “Probabilistic Approach to Tank Design in Rainwater Harvesting Systems”, authored by Maria Gloria Di Chiano, Mariana Lobo Marchioni, Anita Raimondi, Umberto Sanfilippo, and Gianfranco Becciu. The award is granted annually by the journal’s Editorial Board to contributions that stand out for their originality, scientific significance, and impact on the reference community, also based on indicators such as citations and downloads. The awarded paper presents an innovative probabilistic approach to the design of storage tanks in rainwater harvesting and reuse systems, providing a significant contribution to the development of sustainable solutions in the field of urban hydraulic engineering. This recognition confirms the high quality of the research and its international impact. To read the full article, visit: https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5338/10/3/59 L'articolo Maria Gloria Di Chiano awarded the Hydrology Best Paper Award proviene da DICA - Polimi.

Panagiotis Asaridis has been awarded as the winner of the 11th Edition of the Afan De Rivera Prize for his PhD thesis in the field of hydraulic reclamation and soil protection, titled “Flood Damage Assessment to Power Grids.” The award recognizes the best theses addressing topics related to hydraulic reclamation and territorial protection. L'articolo Afan De Rivera Prize: Award to Panagiotis Asaridis for His PhD Thesis proviene da DICA - Polimi.

‘Green’, energy-independent sensors as small as a coin have been developed for wireless networks and real-time monitoring. These are the results of the MetaVEH (Metamaterial Enabled Vibration Energy Harvesting) project, which has just ended, following funding of €4 million under the Horizon 2020 ‘Pillar 1 – Excellent Science’ call to reduce CO2 emissions. The research was conducted by a consortium consisting of three universities — Imperial College London, the Politecnico di Milano and ZHAW Zürich as lead institute — together with Multiwave Technologies and STMicroelectronics. The initial idea was simple: to exploit the movement of vehicles on structures such as bridges and motorways, feeding the harvested energy into sensors used to monitor those same structures. The sensors are now widely used but often difficult (or impossible) to reach for battery replacement, as they are situated in inconvenient places, perhaps at the top of an antenna or on the girders of a viaduct. The real challenge lays in creating a small device and solving the issue of the power needed by the sensors for both operation and data transmission, thus limiting battery waste and the environmental impacts of dead battery disposal. The prototype developed by MetaVEH after nearly five years of studies is based on the concept of ‘energy harvesting’, that is, using the vibrational energy available in the environment and relying on piezoelectric materials to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The most effective piezoelectric materials currently used in existing sensors, however, contain lead, an environmentally toxic element. Instead, the project focused on developing and testing ‘green’ piezoelectric materials free of rare earths, using a standard, readily available element: aluminium nitride. At the same time, technology was developed to produce mechanical metamaterials — materials specially ‘engineered’ for certain properties and reactions — that can manipulate the propagation of elastic waves, greatly amplifying the performance of energy harvesters. The resulting metamaterials, manufactured using innovative 3D printing techniques, have particular mechanical properties due to which they can ‘catch’ the wave passing through them, forcing it to concentrate on the piezoelectric material, a phenomenon known as ‘rainbow trapping’. The technology developed for engineering the metamaterials was patented by Imperial College London and the Politecnico di Milano. This allowed the energy harvesters to be prototyped on various scales, down to the MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) scale. The device has a total length of 300 microns, i.e. less than half a millimetre, and it all fits within a 1-cent coin. ‘In MetaVEH we have shown that vibration harvesters can move from concept to a complete autonomous sensing platform – says Andrea Colombi, professor at ZHAW Zürich and MetaVEH coordinator – By coupling advanced metamaterial structures with nonlinear energy management and wireless transmission, we demonstrated that sensors can operate without batteries and still deliver reliable data, even in environments where replacing batteries is difficult or impossible. This opens the door to sustainable monitoring solutions for infrastructures and the Internet of Things’. ‘MetaVEH has also been a rich mathematical challenge, where we tackled the complexity of nonlinearity, metamaterial modelling and multiphysics coupling – says professor Richard Craster, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London – These advances in theory and simulation have been essential to guide the prototypes and demonstrate their potential in real applications’. ‘We are dealing with a wide range of structural mechanics, especially for this type of sensor,’ says Raffaele Ardito, professor at DICA – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano. ‘With colleagues in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, we have worked hard to find a ‘green’ alternative. At the end of the project, we now have a prototype for a microscale energy harvester based on a piezoelectric material without lead or rare earths, and therefore neutral with respect to ethical and environmental sustainability’. This device holds a strong potential for practical applications, namely in two domains: as high-quality resonators for 6G telecommunications and as autonomous sensors for structural health and environmental hazard monitoring. By harvesting energy from ambient vibrations, such devices can be deployed in inaccessible locations, becoming active only when needed and transmitting real-time data to safeguard infrastructures. For example, they could provide early warnings of earthquake-induced motions, terrain instabilities, or fatigue damage in critical structures such as bridges and tunnels. For the project, STMicroelectronics has created micrometer-scale prototypes by integrating lead-free piezoelectric materials directly into the MEMS manufacturing process. This innovation has improved conversion efficiency of mechanical energy into electrical energy and has paved the way for new applications, potentially useful in the fields of 6G communications and Internet of Things (IoT). Furthermore, the MetaVEH project was selected within the EU Innovation Radar Platform initiatives for its high innovative content. L'articolo ‘Green’, Coin-Sized Sensors from the MetaVEH Project for 6G and Seismic Monitoring proviene da DICA - Polimi.

Alberto Guadagnini, professor of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale – Politecnico di Milano and Vice Rector for Research at Politecnico di Milano, has been awarded the prestigious International Honorary Fellow Award by the Geological Society of America (https://www.geosociety.org), one of the oldest and most authoritative scientific institutions in the field of geosciences. Established in 1909 by the GSA Council, the award honors international geoscientists who have distinguished themselves through outstanding research in the geosciences, the promotion of environmental awareness, the linkage between science and society, and their contributions to public policy in natural resource management. The award ceremony took place during the 2025 GSA Annual Meeting, held in San Antonio, Texas. For more information: https://lnkd.in/emp3HDxK L'articolo Alberto Guadagnini recives the International Honorary Fellow Award – GSA proviene da DICA - Polimi.

Maurizio Crispino, full Professor of Roads, Railways and Airports at our Department, has been appointed Global Coordinator of Strategic Theme 4 – Resilient Infrastructures by the PIARC World Road Association. For over thirty years, Prof. Crispino has been actively involved in national and international PIARC activities, serving as Chair of the Technical Committee 4.1 Pavements for PIARC Italy and as a member of the corresponding international committee. This appointment recognizes his outstanding scientific and professional contributions to transport infrastructure and sustainable mobility. L'articolo Maurizio Crispino appointed as the new Global Coordinator of Strategic Theme 4 – Resilient Infrastructures of PIARC International proviene da DICA - Polimi.

Zhewen Huang, PhD candidate in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering at our Department, under the supervision of Prof. Liberato Ferrara and Prof. Estefania Cuenca Asensio, received the Outstanding Presentation Award at the ArtIStE – 1st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Structural Engineering, held in Turin, for his work entitled “Modeling the chloride transport into cracked concrete through Physics-informed Neural Network.” The event, promoted by the ArtIStE research group, brought together international experts exploring the potential of artificial intelligence applied to structural engineering, aiming to develop increasingly smart infrastructures and cities. L'articolo Zhewen Huang receives the Outstanding Presentation Award proviene da DICA - Polimi.