NECSTLab - Politecnico di Milano

Creativity Science and Innovation (CSI) Course | Ideare, Inventare, Innovare

On May 14 and 15, NECSTLab hosted Ideare, Inventare, Innovare, an event organized at Politecnico di Milano as part of the Creativity Science and Innovation (CSI) course and Passion in Action initiative, focused on the development of projects based on the Arduino UNO Q, thanks to the collaboration with Arduino.|

During the 2-day event, students worked in teams, moving from concept to a working prototype — designing, building, and testing their solutions within an intensive and inspiring timeframe.

🏆 The winning teams will now continue their development journey directly at NECSTLab, supported by researchers and mentors, taking their prototypes to the next level and to present to the Arduino team in June.

👏 A special thank you to Arduino, and in particular to Fabio Violante, Massimo Banzi, Stefano Implicito, Lucrezia Carnelos, and Achille Montanaro, for their invaluable support and collaboration throughout the entire initiative. A heartfelt thank you also goes to Marco Santambrogio and Aldo Torrebruno for their commitment to making this experience possible for the students under the guidance of the NECSTLab PhD Students: Susanna Bardini, Teka Kimbi Ntimanputu, and Marcello Martini

This event not only showcased the students' technical talent and creativity but also highlighted the importance of bridging the gap between education and real-world innovation.

: The Multimagineering Project

📣 “Brick walls are there for a reason.
The brick walls are not there to keep us out.
The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want something.
Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want something badly enough.”
— Randy Pausch

This quote strongly drives many of the activities within LEONARDO, especially when it comes to our Spartan experiences.

At first glance, it may sound unusual for a technical university and a research lab to involve students in activities such as Spartan races. But if we look more closely, perhaps the real question is: why are we among the few integrating these experiences into education and research training?

Running an obstacle race means facing the unexpected, adapting continuously, dealing with fatigue, uncertainty, pressure, and failure. Sounds familiar? These are exactly the kinds of challenges our students experience every semester during their academic and research journeys.

🎯 Obstacles are not only exams. Obstacles are everywhere in life, and everyone faces them differently. Through LEONARDO, we want students to understand that there is nothing wrong in being scared, struggling, or feeling that a challenge may be “too much.” Obstacles are there for a reason: to help us discover who we are, how we react, and how much we are willing to grow.

🎯 Spartan races also teach something fundamental: recognizing our limits and asking for help. No matter how strong or prepared we are, sometimes we need the support of others... and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Together, we can achieve results beyond what we initially imagined. Sharing experiences means being inspired and empowered by the people around us, exactly as shown in these moments.

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On Friday, May 29, 2026, we will have a new talk for the series .

During this talk, we will have, as speaker, Susanna Bardini, PhD student at Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria.

In the following, you can find the details about the talk:
📌 Title: Multimodal Sensing Infrastructures for Personalized Health Monitoring: Wearable Sensing, Distributed Learning, and Edge Intelligence

📌 Abstract: In an era of rapid technological advancement, the integration of wearable technologies and ambient sensors within smart buildings offers unprecedented opportunities to optimize well-being, performance, and recovery. This research aims to develop a scalable, privacy-preserving framework that combines data from wearables and environmental sensors, using Federated Learning (FL) for distributed analysis. The focus is on understanding how ambient factors impact on general wellbeing, daily routines, and working performances. A key component of the project is the creation of a digital twin for university students, which monitors their sleep, cognitive function, stress, and recovery, providing personalized insights to enhance academic performance and well-being. Additionally, the system explores the use of VR frameworks to assess the impact of these technologies on student well-being, both in terms of academic outcomes and personal development.

📌 Time: 11:30 am

📌 Location: live from the NECSTLab Meeting Room or online on Zoom: https://polimi-it.zoom.us/j/93555591476

On Friday, 22.05.2026, we continued the series of our .

During the talk we had, as speaker, Leonardo De Grandis, PhD student at Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria.

In the following, you can find the details about the talk:
📌 Title: A Graph Machine Learning Approach for Multi-Omics Representation Learning

📌 Video: https://youtu.be/4yqGWApiCCI

NFT @ 22052026: A Graph Machine Learning Approach for Multi-Omics Representation Learning - On Friday, May 22, 2026, w...

📣 NGC evolves into BRIDGES
In the coming days, we will leave for the 17th edition of what, for many years, has been known as the NECST Group Conference (NGC).

Born in 2011, NGC was created with a simple but ambitious goal: helping students step out of their comfort zone, connect with the international research ecosystem, present their work, and build relationships that can shape their future.

Today, this initiative enters a new phase.

🚀 NGC becomes BRIDGES: Boosting Research, Innovation and Personal Development through a Global EcoSystem.

For the first time, the initiative opens beyond NECSTLab and welcomes PhD students from the entire DEIB community, thanks to Prof. Luigi Piroddi’s vision of extending what was started within NECSTLab.

Because research grows faster when communities connect.
Because innovation happens when different perspectives meet.
Because sometimes the most important thing we can build… is a bridge.

📍 First stop: New Orleans, May 23–30, for IPDPS, with:
V. Tasso, F. Pesce, A. Verosimile, M. D. Buttiglione, T. Spagnolo, M. Ronzani, M. Balla, G. Sorrentino, D. Conficconi, C. Silvano, and M. Santambrogio.

📍 Then San Francisco, May 30–June 5, for visits and meetings across the Bay Area innovation ecosystem, including Microsoft, META, Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Google, IDEO, INNOVIT, Mind the Bridge, Nucleo, and many other inspiring realities.

The SF delegation will also include:
S. Danna, L. De Grandis, L. Ginestretti, J. Lazzari, T. K. Ntimanputu, G. De Franceschi, L. Cordioli, M. Martini, M. Magarini, and A. R. Miele.

Over the next days, our students and researchers will present their work, exchange ideas, build connections, and expand their vision of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

This is BRIDGES.
And this is only the beginning.

: The Multimagineering Project

Ciao a tutti, come ogni anno alcune considerazioni dopo il talk e i colloqui individuali con i ragazzi di LS3 e LS4.
Molti studenti universitari, soprattutto in percorsi impegnativi come ingegneria, alternano allenamenti, sessioni di studio intense, poco sonno e pasti molto veloci. Il problema è che il corpo riesce a compensare per tanto tempo… finché non inizia a presentare il conto.
L’alimentazione non serve solo a “mettere massa” o dimagrire.
Serve soprattutto a dare al cervello e ai muscoli l’energia giusta per funzionare bene ogni giorno.
Una nutrizione equilibrata aiuta a:
•⁠ ⁠mantenere concentrazione e memoria più efficienti
•⁠ ⁠recuperare meglio dopo l’attività fisica
•⁠ ⁠gestire stress e stanchezza mentale
•⁠ ⁠fare PREVENZIONE delle malattie croniche (in particolare problemi metabolici e cardiovascolari)
E la prevenzione parte da abitudini semplici: dai pasti bilanciati, vari e regolari all’idratazione adeguata; dal sonno ristoratore alla riduzione di cibo ultra-processato
Non serve essere perfetti.
Serve costruire abitudini sostenibili che permettano di stare bene oggi e anche tra molti anni.
Ricordate che la prevenzione è tutto!

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On Friday, May 22, 2026, we will have a new talk for the series .

During this talk, we will have, as speaker, Leonardo De Grandis, PhD student at Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria.

In the following, you can find the details about the talk:
📌 Title: A Graph Machine Learning Approach for Multi-Omics Representation Learning

📌 Abstract: Graphs are a powerful way to represent heterogeneous biological entities and their interactions. As a result, Graph Machine Learning (GML) is increasingly used to study biological networks. This talk covers the key steps of applying GML in a multi-omics context, from raw data processing to model development. Since data aggregation and harmonization remain bottlenecks for large scale artificial intelligence applications, two methods for consistently collecting high-quality genomic variants and multi-omics data will be presented. Finally, two different approaches for multi-omics GML applications will be introduced: a tool for compound-protein interaction prediction leveraging graph matching networks and a framework for toxicity detection on RNA-seq data.

📌 Time: 11:30 am

📌 Location: live from the NECSTLab Meeting Room or online on Zoom: https://polimi-it.zoom.us/j/93555591476

On Friday, 15.05.2026, we continued the series of our .

During the talk we had, as speaker, Laura Ginestretti, PhD student at Humanitas University.

In the following, you can find the details about the talk:
📌 Title: Toward In-the-Wild Mental State Monitoring: A Multimodal Framework for Cognitive and Emotional Assessment

📌 Video: https://youtu.be/cNEHhBzS54M

NFT @ 15052026: Toward In-the-Wild Mental State Monitoring - On Friday, May 15, 2026, we had a new talk for the series .During this talk, we had, as speaker, Laura...

📣 CSI for PhD @ Politecnico di Milano – First Edition

Cosa succede quando portiamo il mondo di Creativity, Science and Innovation (CSI) dentro il percorso di dottorato?

Nasce qualcosa di nuovo.
Uno spazio in cui ricerca, creatività, innovazione e imprenditorialità si incontrano.

Parte la prima edizione di CSI dedicata ai PhD del Politecnico di Milano: un percorso pensato per andare oltre la ricerca “tradizionale” e lavorare su ciò che spesso fa davvero la differenza.

💡 generare idee e trasformarle in opportunità
🧠 allenare il pensiero creativo
🎤 saper comunicare e fare pitch
🤝 gestire interazioni, negoziazioni e team
⚡ affrontare lo stress e sviluppare consapevolezza
🚀 avvicinarsi al mondo dell’innovazione e dell’imprenditorialità

Un percorso intenso, distribuito su 4 settimane, che combina momenti in presenza e online, alternando teoria, pratica e sperimentazione.

Si parte dalle basi – introduzione, Intelligenza Sociale, primi progetti – per poi entrare nel vivo con creatività, negoziazione, comunicazione e gestione delle relazioni,
fino ad arrivare ai pitch finali.

L’obiettivo non è solo formare ricercatori eccellenti, ma contribuire a sviluppare figure capaci di trasformare idee e risultati di ricerca in impatto reale: progetti, startup, collaborazioni con l’industria.

Non è “solo” un corso.
È un laboratorio in cui mettersi in gioco, uscire dalla propria comfort zone e sviluppare competenze che accompagnano ogni percorso di ricerca e innovazione.

Perché fare ricerca oggi significa anche saper raccontare, negoziare, collaborare… e costruire qualcosa che vada oltre il laboratorio.

E questo… si può allenare.

: The Multimagineering Project

Ciao!! Eccoci con il nostro appuntamento per il POST che vuole legare: Frasi && Sketchnote && Creatività

‘’Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

Questo post, oltre a darvi la possibilità di pensare a degli input legati al progetto Leonardo, vi offre la possibilità di sfidare la vostra creatività nel rappresentare il concetto tramite un disegno.
La capacità di mettere su un disegno (per quanto semplice) quello che volete esprimere, vi sarà molto utile.

Questo quarto disegno deve essere fatto nella modalità che preferite (e.g: a mano, PC, AI etc) . Cercate di essere più comunicativi possibili nell’esprimere la frase della settimana

Sotto trovate un nostro tentativo, mettete nei commenti il vostro

BUONA FRASE e buon SKETCHNOTE a tutti!!!!