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12 March 2010

The first meeting of the DIGESPO Project – coordinated by FBK and financed by the EU with over 3 million euros – to be held on Tuesday, March 16, at the University of Uppsala. The prototype will enable the household exploitation of solar energy with a 60-70% yield.

(v.l.) Producing heat and electricity directly at home with innovatory technology, capable of achieving a yield of 60-70% of the harnessed solar radiation: this is the aim of the DIGESPO Project (DIstributed CHP GEneration from small size concentrated Solar POwer), coordinated by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler of Trento and financed by the European Union with funds for over 3 million euros in the next three years.
The first technical meeting of the European project partners, following the launching of the project earlier this year, will be held on Tuesday, March 16 at the University of Uppsala, in Sweden. Besides the FBK and the University of Uppsala, other partners attending the meeting will be the researchers from the Polytechnic of Milan and from the corporate partners “NARVA” (Germany), “ELMA” (Riva del Garda, TN), “SES” (UK) and “Projects in Motion” (Malta).
The system, which can be installed at any home, comprises a series of small parabolic elements, with a diameter of 40 centimetres, mounted on the roof, and a heat engine (Stirling engine) for which the FBK’s REET Research Unit has developed and deposited an international patent. The purpose of the parabolic elements is to concentrate the solar radiation and heat a heat transfer fluid running inside a vacuum tube to a temperature of 250-300 °C, to activate the engine connected to the system and produce electricity and heat. The engine innovation will enable the production of energy from renewable sources at household level, without any exhaust gas emissions and suited to the energy needs of the final user.
The Scientific Coordinator of the DIGESPO Project is Luigi Crema, a researcher at FBK’s REET Unit, at the head of which is Alessandro Bozzoli and which carries out research & development activities in the field of renewable energy. “The system”, Mr. Crema explained, “is already being developed. FBK will provide a fundamental contribution to the development of the thermodynamic engine, to the study of the high-temperature heat transfer fluids, and to the material for converting the solar radiation into thermal energy. The first prototype will be available in 18 months time and will be tested in Trentino, at the FBK laboratories, and at the Hilton Hotel in Malta. A more advanced version will be developed and commissioned in the middle of 2012”.

“DIGESPO, regarded as one of the best European Energia 2009 projects”, Mr. Bozzoli explained “is part of an overall vision of research that the REET Units at the FBK have been engaged in developing over the last few years, and as a result of which the FBK is becoming internationally renowned in this sector. Our goal is to accomplish a complex technological system, based on new technologies capable of integrating different renewable energy sources, to help buildings gain a certain degree of energy self-sufficiency. The forecasted technological impact is enormous, at both the local and the European and, indeed, international levels. The programme relating to energy for buildings is consistent with the European programmes and objectives in this sector”.

> For further information visit the REET RESEARCH UNIT WEB SITE
> Download the images : tecnologia DiGesPo, Luigi Crema, Alessandro Bozzoli

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8 March 2010

"habitAzione"

From Thursday 11 to Monday 22 March, in Trento, on show the art installation by Anna Scalfi on the cooperation between FBK researchers and a group of elderly citizens within the frame work of the European project ‘Netcarity’.

(v.l.) Translation into the language of art of the work carried out by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) researchers with a group of elderly citizens of Trento within the framework of the European project Netcarity, dedicated to the improvement of life in the home by using new technologies.

This is the meaning of “habitAzione”, the installation created by the artist Anna Scalfi with Chiara Leonardi (researcher of Unit I3 in FBK), Massimo Zancanaro (head of the FBK Research Unit 13), Fabio Pianesi (FBK coordinator for Netcarity) and Francesca Gennai (Regional Institute for Social Studies and Research), on show for the public from Thursday 11 to Monday 22 March at the FBK headquarters in Via S. Croce in Trento.

The visitors of “habitAzione” will be free to move through the floor plan, traced in 1 to 1 size, of a 70 m² dwelling that includes furnishings and cooking area, in which everyday objects interact with the technological prototypes studied by the researchers to boost the feeling of safety, the will to remain independent and the psychological, cognitive and emotional well-being of the elderly.

Anna Scalfi, within the Clean floor project at FBK, has asked the researchers to translate into artistic gesture the basic idea of their scientific work, documenting the approach between the practices of art and the motivations of science. In particular, “habitAzione” illustrates the dialogue that was created between the FBK researchers and the people of the centre for services for the elderly, the Centro Servizi Anziani (cooperative Kaleidoscopio) of Trento, of the University for the Elderly and for Leisure Time (UTETD, Trento) and of the Margherita Grazioli public organization for social services in Povo (Trento) within the framework of the project ‘Netcarity’, being conducted since 2007 together with the Autonomous Province of Trento.

The elderly people working in the project contributed in imagining the first technological scenarios, tested and evaluated the prototypes that the researchers created along the way and organized a collection of materials relating to their domestic life using various tools of expression, such as diaries, maps, drawings and pictures. This path can be experienced by visiting habitAzione, from Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.. Guided visits also available, booked on request by calling: (++39) 0461/314616-0461/314620). Free admission.

> Download the photos of the OPENING!

For further information:

The text about Habitazione by Anna Scalfi
The “habitAzione” installation
The NETCARITY project

Anna Scalfi (1965) www.annascalfi.com
Anna Scalfi lives art as the frame that profoundly changes the borders of permitted action. The entire organizational process of her projects falls under the analytical perspective of the mechanisms of negotiation between art and civil society. An independent artist, she intervenes with site-specific projects capable of triggering currents of participation that go beyond the strictly artistic context.
She is currently working in London on her latest project, "From inside (I like the system)", a PhD programme with the Essex Business School. Her research is the result of an inter-disciplinary education at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, the S. D’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts and the university faculty of Sociology of Trento. Some of her most recent works are: “Traccia 0_via Belenzani_46_Trento”, Fondazione Galleria Civica, Trento (2009); “indeposito, project” (2009); “Chat”, Ca’Foscari, Venice (2009); "Celata", Manifesta 7 Parallel Events, Trento (2008); "Always half full", Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d'Alba (2008); "Welcome to Italy", Mart, (2007); "Money will save the World", Palais Brongniart, Paris (2007).

Il progetto NETCARITY
Fondazione Bruno Kessler and the Autonomous Province of Trento participate in NetCarity, a project launched in 2007, in cooperation with the Istituto Regionale di Studi e Ricerca Sociale (Regional institute for Social Studies and Research). Financed by the European Union, the research project aims at enriching the home with technological tools capable of helping the elderly person in more efficiently and more easily carrying out their daily activities, ranging from self-care and health activities to those relating to entertainment and to the maintenance of social relations. Among the practical applications envisaged by the project, scheduled to end in January 2011, is a 3D vision system to detecting accidental falls within the home and for triggering the corresponding rescue services; technologies for the monitoring of gas leaks, fire or intrusions; advanced cognitive capacities support services. The FBK researchers, coordinated by Fabio Pianesi, are also developing new man/machine interaction paradigms that do not use traditional computers but exploit interfaces designed specifically for the elderly. An extremely innovative aspect of the project is the continuous involvement of the final users and of their care and assistance givers in the design, development and evaluation of the various services.

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