Home Forums Silicon Valley Study Tour – August 2018 Milano Silicon Valley 2018

124 replies, 13 voices Last updated by JiaLiang 5 years, 11 months ago
  • Giulia Solis
    Participant
    @giuliasolis
    #2393

    Good evening everyone!
    I want write something about the article shared by @daniel-romano; unfortunately I couldn’t read the article because it was a photo on the newspaper, but the subject intrigued me and so I decided to have some informations abut the topic on the web. IoT is a program about the spread and development of smart cities that involves a lot of Italian cities with different applications of innovation and internet in urban areas. The aim is to improve management of its assets and services, technological choices, impacts on the organization of work, territorial governance of data such as the issue on network security and forms of civic participation.

    Turin is among the most developed city of the program “pon metro” adopted by the European Commission which provides a financial envelope of 892 million euro.

    I think that one of the most interesting project in Turin is “The file of the beneficiary”: an instrument in which there are all digital informations using three instruments: SISA, a platform for management of social welfare services; ERP, a platform for management of access to public residences; ASSISTANCE CASE that create a dialogueu with INPS portal.

    The aim is to make possible the citizens access to their data and at the same time make easier the dialogue between different public bodies that have such data.

    I hope that Daniel will be able to post the article and so we will able to read it. Surely it will be very interesting!!

    Good night everybody!
    Giulia 🙂

    Luca
    Participant
    @lucabaldessarini
    #2394

    Hi everyone!

    Wow, so many new members out there, and what a great fire chat. A big welcome also to @daniel-romano and @jialiangzhou in our fast-growing community! So many interesting thoughts to discuss, thanks @stefaniatibiletti for the new topic.

    I do think that fashion and the way it’s evolving lately is truly one of the most important and actual themes to face and deeply analyze. It touches people’s heart, it makes people crazy, it’s one of the most evolved forms of art because you can represent yourself in it, it defines someone and his personality. Moreover, fashion has also always defined ages and historical periods, and we’re always consciously or unconsciously influenced by it.
    These days though, especially with the rise of fast fashion since 2000, which contaminated almost the entire industry, we’ve seen the shine of the traditional fashion and the handmade couture concept vanished nearly entirely. At first, it was a revolution, low prices for customers, collection dropping nonstop and new big players like Zara and H&M were starting their almost all-market ownership takeover. In fact, they later become such big companies that also the historical and classic players can’t play it safe anymore, being pushed like everyone else to go fast no matter what. Then, in the most recent years, people have become more and more aware of the unsustainable side of that, thus leading these important themes to the light.

    Following that, several scandals and protests around low labor costs exploitation and environmental impact showed up increasingly. One of the biggest was about Nike tolerating sweatshops back in 2001. Another, most recent huge outrage was the one about the 2013 Rana Plaza eight-story building collapse in Bangladesh, 1129 deaths and about 2500 people injured. The building was declared dangerous for the few cracks that had recently appeared, and bank in the building sent, in fact, its staff home. Ether Tex factory managers though, whose textile company worked for giants like Inditex, Walmart, Mango, Benetton and many many others, forced employees to work anyway in that edifice sentencing them in so doing to death.

    Like I said before, another huge topic that has been widely discussed over recent years is the fashion environmental impact. From the article “In the U.S, over about two decades, the amount of clothing thrown out each year has doubled from 7 million tons to 14 million tons. By 2030, as the global population grows 16%, one estimate suggests that clothing consumption will grow 65%”, this is humongous guys.
    Regarding this topic I’d really like to recommend you this documentary that I’ve seen a few years ago, The Next Black – A film about the Future of Clothing, I’ll make you a short summary about that because it’s quite long, but is definitely worth watching if you have time.
    The topic here is really how amazing people are trying to embrace the challenge of merging technology and sustainability in order to let this industry make it to a brighter future.
    The first example of that is Studio XO, who is the “fashion laboratory adding light and magic to what we wear“, pushing the boundaries of 3D printing (coming back to the previous topic) and dressing artists like Azealia Banks, Lady Gaga, and Black Eyed Peas. Talking about tech in the fashion we cannot talk about the amazing improvements in sportswear made in the recent years. One example about that is Adidas, which is completely revolutionizing the way we monitor our sports activity throughout incorporated sensors within sports jerseys.
    Another brand which I think is really pushing the sustainable fashion and its innovation at the same time is Patagonia, who is trying to put the textile consumption on climate change to a minimum. To do this, in addition to its yet super sustainable manufacturing methods, it tried some few years ago to go all in with marketing. So, in 2013, the Californian company founded by Yvon Chouinard, launched the “Don’t buy this jacket” campaign in order to encourage customers to buy new stuff only if it was needed.
    Talking about re-usability, the documentary above mentioned talked also about a project which I’ve never heard of before then. IFixit is “the free repair guide for everything, written by everyone”, and it basically consists in an open-sourced online platform which teaches you how to repair everything, clothing included.
    Coming to the end, the dyeing textiles theme comes one. “Every year the process of water dyeing textiles disposes the equivalent of half Mediterranean into our rivers and streams, add to 200.000 tons of toxic chemicals that escape wastewater treatment and end up in those very same waterways” solely from adding color to textiles. An estimated 17 to 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment and an estimated 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used throughout the world to turn raw materials into textiles.
    So here it comes Yeh Group, a worldwide supplier of innovative fabrics and finished garments based in Thailand. More specifically, it uses high compressed supercritical carbon dioxide to dye textiles, as results, it uses 0% water, 50% less energy, and 50% less chemicals; and with a yearly capacity per-machine of nearly 1 mln meters, it’s really changing the game out there.

    But, besides all this, I think that one the most important innovation which lately heralded the fashion world is sustainable couture. Like is being shown in the documentary, there are so many good ideas and technologies out there around that. For example, brewing tea and bacteria cultures in order to grow textures throughout fermentation. Yes, you’ve heard that right. Between 2000 and 2010 only we faced a +47% textile consumption, and now we need to do something about it. We need to embrace this social challenge and push technologies like this one with the aim of being as much close to zero as possible regarding our fashion impact rate on the environment.
    One proud Italian example for that is Orange Fiber, a “Made in Sicily” innovative company founded by Adriana Santanocito and Enrica Arena which produces clothes out of oranges discards (700k tons of orange waste produced every year). In addition to the sustainable side of it, those clothes work also as a “vitamin treatment” for your skin.

    All of these companies I think are truly trying to change forever the way people think about fashion, drastically reducing its impact on our planet.

    I’d like to close with a quote from the article @stefaniatibiletti shared which I really loved: “We need to get to that point, we need to find a way where fashion in general–both fast and slow–are operating within the planetary boundaries and have a positive impact instead of a negative one. You can play with the thought of super-fast fashion that you wear and put in the ground and it decomposes very quickly, enters back into the biological cycle very quickly, and it’s made for one-time use

    – Erik Bang, Innovation Lead at H&M Foundation.

    Good night everyone, have a nice week!
    Luca Baldessarini

    Giulia Solis
    Participant
    @giuliasolis
    #2395

    Good morning everyone and good Monday! 🙂

    First of all thank you to @lucabaldessarini and his participation on the fashion topic! There are lots of examples vary stimulating and so I’m so happy especially about the documentary that he posted.

    I agree with him about the role of fashion in our world and for all of us because it defines someone and our personality. Than fashion is the inspiration and is IN all forms of art: in photography, in cinema, in sculpture, in architecture paintings and as we live in the fashion Italian city, we can touch the extreme fashion walking through Milan streets!

    Another important thing about fashion is its role in costumer purchasing process studied by marketing sector in companies. In fact it’s vary important when is introduced a new product, understand trends to be sure of its success. So I think that marketing experts use fashion to understand TRENDS and than fashion creates effects everything we have around us. Do you agree with me?

    I saw “the nexts Black- A film about the Future of Clothing” on YouTube and I’m impressed about innovations in fashion productions. It’s interesting the presentation in the video from 19:50 minutes where they explain about materials used to create sustainable clothes using foods or drinks. Watch it!!

    I still want to dwell on three aspects introduced by Luca:
    First of all I want say something about the big idea launched by Yvon Chouinard “Don’t buy this jacket” is a campaign vary interesting because it isn’t used by companies during production process but it is a true educational campaign and it encourages customers to buy new clothes only if it was needed, so I think that it is the real innovation!
    In the same way there is Ifixit that is a guide that educates people to not waste in fashion choices.
    Finally there is “Orange fiber” and I read about it in the past and I think that it is a brilliant idea but I hope that in addition to vitamin treatment for our skin, it will also be possible smell the citrus of the beautiful Sicily! 🙂

    And you? what you you think about this innovation?

    Good week everybody! :*

    Elena Riganti
    Participant
    @elenariganti
    #2396

    Hi guys!

    Thank you @lucabaldessarini for sharing with us so many interesting contents! I absolutely agree with you about the importance we give to our way of dressing. With clothes we can express ourselves and our main features.
    As consumers we are more often inovlved by susainability, but sometimes we are too price-conscious. So we look for the lowest price leaving aside quality and respect for the environment. I think that could be a problem because if people don’t take care about it, some companies could continue their productions with exploitation or creating waste and pollution. So in my opinion people should buy more and more from companies like the ones we have talked about who continue to innovate their product and process to be always more careful about these themes.
    For what concerns scandals and protests, Nike had a big damage because of the resonance that its scandal had on media. Nike allowed child exploitation in developing countries that in our nations is considered in a very negative way. Despite that, Nike remained one of the biggest and most famous producer of shoes.

    I saw the fantastic Parametric Sculpture Dress worn by Lady Gaga, it was made thanks to a 3d printer. Her style is always eccentric and extravagant, but this dress was really amazing!

    I agree with you two about the importance of the “Don’t buy this jacket” campaign. I think we need more and more campaignes like this one, to understand we have a central position.
    To answer your question @giuliasolis, I agree with you about trends. I think that there’s a difference between style (that’s more personal), fashion (that lasts longer) and passengers enthusiasm. So marketing experts have to understand if a trend is evolving in one of this way and according to that they can create marketing strategies to sell their product and maybe create a new trend.

    Talking about fashion and innovation, did you know that McDonald’s launched a clothing line?
    https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/mcdonald-s-launches-clothing-line-with-big-mac-prints-10136634.html
    What do you think about that?

    I want to thank @giuliasolis because I think that “the nexts Black- A film about the Future of Clothing” will be very interesting, I’m going to see it after my university lessons!

    Good afternoon everyone,

    Elena Riganti

    JiaLiang
    Participant
    @jialiangzhou
    #2397

    Hi guys!
    Hope you are all doing very well!

    Thank you @elenariganti for citing how simple hashtags can gain so much attention and can become viral. That reminds me of the #IceBucketChallenge, promoted by the ALS Association and quickly gone viral worldwide, which managed to raise a ton of money for research.

    Thank you @stefaniatibiletti for sharing another interesting article.
    This one is an excellent example of how big companies are investing in outsourced innovation. H&M runs the Global Change Award every year awarding with a total prize of 1 million dollars the most groundbreaking technologies in the fashion industry, which is showing signs of will to take a “green” path for an healthier planet.

    In fact, as cited in the article, the amount of clothing thrown out each year only in the U.S. has reached 14 million tons. That’s a number we can’t ignore.
    So I wanted to dig further into this topic and I found this article:

    How (and Why) H&M Is Trying On Clothing Recycling

    It essentially states that H&M is the leading fashion company at promoting clothing recycling programs. But it has received lots of criticism even if since 2013 it has been allowing customers to bring their old clothing of any brand or condition in an H&M location near them, in order to have them reworn, reused or recycled.

    The main source of criticism comes from the way H&M rewards its customers, by offering them vouchers and coupons, such that it’s paradoxically supporting fast fashion, which causes the same big problem that it’s trying to fight with its own recycling program.
    But I think that overall it’s a great way to start spreading awareness about the underestimated clothing pollution.

    Thank you @lucabaldessarini for sharing that interesting documentary.
    That’s a hint of what we are going to wear in a more conscious future.

    While innovation in the fashion industry benefits our environment, on the other hand it could create more inequality between rich and poor people.
    Fast fashion is continuously evolving, and along with the green innovations that are supporting our environment there innovations that look even more incredible the surface, but that could harm all of us.
    An example is SoftWear, an autonomous sewing robot that is able to make whole T-shirts and jeans, thanks to computer vision that deals with fabric stretches, by adjusting on spot and making it stay straight.
    It’s faster than a human sewing line. The company that created SoftWear states that the robot can replace a conventional line of 10 workers and produce about 1,142 t-shirts in a 8 hour period, against to the 669 for the human sewing line.
    The company managed to gain attention from Tianyuan Garments Company, a Chinese firm that produces for brands like Adidas and Armani. Tianyuan Garments has invested $20 million in a factory in Arkansas, planned to open in 2018, and has staffed the factory with 21 robotic production lines. That means the factory could be able to produce 1,2 million T-shirts a year.
    All this sounds amazing, especially with the progress made in AI, but it’s going to create more unemployment in developed countries too.
    In fact there is no reason to not use a technology that is more efficient and cheaper than human labor, considering that machines can’t protest for being used too much. And labelling a T-shirt “Made in Italy” will be even cheaper that a T-shirt “Made in China”.
    Every repetitive and boring task is going to be replaced by robots, in every field, leaving bigger gaps between the Rich and the Poor.
    Maybe there is a positive side in this new upcoming revolution, because people will find more human jobs that doesn’t only consist of the same few movements in the production line.
    So new type of jobs will have to be created, possibly completing the machines, until when they will be indistinguishable from us in behavior.

    So I believe that not every innovation is good for us and our world, but we have to be very careful on how we’re going to exploit them, not ignoring what they may cause.

    Do you think there will be another industrial revolution brought by the intelligent robots? (Maybe we are already living it)

    I would like to suggest you a very exhaustive and interesting book about this topic: The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

    Goodnight everyone!

    Zhou Jia Liang
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    Elena Riganti
    Participant
    @elenariganti
    #2398

    Hi everyone!

    I would like to say a little thing about H&M. It’s true that the amount of clothing thrown out is really high. But I think that people dont’ know that and they would probably buy from it the same. Anyway, H&M introduced rewear, reuse and recycle that remain a good way to reduce waste and money. So I believe that it’s a good way to become more “green”, starting little by little.

    Thank you @jialiangzhou for talking about AI and robots. I think that robots will be more present in our future, in work but also in everyday life. Just think about all the household appliances that we have nowadays. They are getting more sophisticated and they have more and more functions that replace us. For example Bimby can cook for us, robot vacuum cleaners can sweep for us. These product are very helpful especially in a time in which women are full-time workers, mothers and whatever. I’m pretty sure nobody thinks about being replaced in these tasks.
    So I think that even in work if a robot is better than a human, it has to be used. Using robots can be cheaper, can make the production faster, can make fewer mistakes than humans and there might be many other advantages. Of course that has consequences for humans, but I believe that it’s a natural part of progress. We can’t stop technological development because of our fear of being replaced. Rather, we should follow this development for example creating new types of job. 20 years ago people couldn’t imagine such a wide spread of web. They couldn’t image jobs like social media marketing, influencer or blogger, web analyst, e-reputation manager. Social media changed our life, but created new jobs too. Nowadays, almost all companies have a social profile, a website, an e-commerce channel.
    For this reason I think robots will help us more than they will damage us. I believe AI, robotics and virtual reality will be our future, so we have to change the way we see things and start imaging differently.
    Furthermore I think that for now robots won’t totally replace humans. Robots can’t think, maybe they need humans to be operated, they don’t have emotions or typical human characteristics required in business. So, we should find a way to create synergies between robots and humans. They shouldn’t replace us but work side by side with us. That could be the opportunity to innovate ourselves, our job, our life!
    One last consideration about it is that robots can produce more than humans and faster. It could be positive, but it could also drive to over-production. There could be a market problem if companies don’t manage at best the introduction of the robots in their production process. And as you said @jialiangzhou robot can replace people in the assemply line. The same repetitive movements can cause so many problems to humans. Have you ever seen Charlie Chaplin’s film “Modern Times”? It talks about these problems in an assembly line.
    In the end, I think that the introduction of this type of robot in companies won’t be so fast as the development in robotics. We will have the time to understand all the opportunies and threats about that.

    Do you agree with me? What do you think about?

    Goodnight guys,

    Elena Riganti

    JiaLiang
    Participant
    @jialiangzhou
    #2400

    Goodmorning everyone!

    Thank you @elenariganti for sharing your thoughts on AI and Robots.
    I completely agree with you on the fact that technological development has created new types of jobs that we couldn’t even imagine few years ago. Jobs that are bringing us farther from the assembly line, fortunately. These jobs are also exciting and require imagination and creativity, qualities that AI doesn’t have yet.
    As you cited, robots in everyday life are helping us to in repetitive household tasks, allowing us to spend more time with people we love.

    I’m also a strong enthusiast of technological revolutions and I believe that people shouldn’t spend all their life doing the same few movements all the day.
    But we should help people to keep up with the quick changing world, in order to address them towards new opportunities.
    I see many people reluctant to embrace fresh technologies, but that’s where they can find a better future.
    And education has never been so accessible from everyone like these days.
    There are so many free courses online from the best professors in the world, so there’s no need to attend Harvard or Stanford to learn what they teach.

    Thank you @elenariganti for citing Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, I have only seen parts of it, but it perfectly depicts the problems with the assembly lines.

    Wish you all a great day!

    Zhou Jia Liang

    Lorenzo Stevenazzi
    Participant
    @l-stevenazzi
    #2402

    Hi everyone and welcome you all!

    Thank you, @stefaniatibiletti , for the hint about 3d-printed houses. As you said before, they would be very useful in a temporary situation when a lot of people lack of shelter in consequence of an earthquake or similar natural events. @giuliasolis showed us a great example example of an innovative marketing campaign by Coca Cola but I think there would be more effective ways to remind customers about a brand such as augmented reality (although it would be less immediate because you need your smartphone to be targeted). Personally, I would just throw the little gadget away after a while and this makes the campaign ineffective. Thank you @lucabaldessarini and @elenariganti for talking about the environment: as I said in my previous posts, I do agree with you two and I think a new approach to the problem of non-recyclable waste is very needed and crucial to preserve nature, especially in Italy where we have not to pollute the soil as tourism is one of the strengths of our country. Although its goal is great, in my opinion the disadvantage of the Precious Plastic Project is that not everyone is willing to get this do-it-yourself approach, especially because of lack of time, while their solution is for sure creative and shows that everyone has to change something of their habits to do something for the common good instead of waiting for others’ actions (such as the government ones): I personally like this very much.

    Concerning to the second topic, I would like to show you an example of 3d-printing technology in the medical sector. It is Holey, an Italian startup which aims to help injured people with plaster casts and orthopedic supports by 3d printing them after the customer’s needs and lifestyle.

    Thanks @stefaniatibiletti for telling us about HomeBiogas, a company that tries to bring bioreactors to home environments. Although the project is great, maybe its costs are too high for common people just to have green energy, but a big company can reduce left-overs from the canteen and produce green energy, for example. In addition to that, I agree with @giuliasolis about the fact that, especially companies in the food sector, could benefit from it (using it to reduce energy costs after a an initial expense). I do agree with @jialiangzhou about the need of education on these themes as I wrote in some previous posts of mine.

    I would like to share something related to green energy as well, hoping I’m not too late to join the discussion and maybe @daniel-romano will find it relevant for his job. Its name is Glass to Power and it is a spin-off of University of Milano-Bicocca. The team of Sergio Brovelli, Associate Professor in Experimental Physics, and Francesco Meinardi, Associate Professor of Physics of Matter, developed a technology that uses nanoparticles to absorb and emit light which are colourless in order to design a photovoltaic window. It looks like a common window but it can produce energy and it is easily scalable to cover large surfaces. Moreover it is eco-friendly since it doesn’t involve heavy metals that can pollute the environment and it is recyclable. I think it could make the difference in crowded cities where buildings and skyscrapers can reduce their costs in energy. Just think of something like Palazzo Lombardia, fully covered with photovoltaic panels.

    Let’s switch to fashion. I’ve never had the opportunity to talk about fashion and innovation so far and @stefaniatibiletti ‘s post reminded me of a jacket I’ve received as gift which is made of coffee fibers. @giuliasolis talked about Ecoalf but the brand isn’t the same: the producer is, in fact, SCafè Fabrics which also manufactures fabrics for third players.

    @elenariganti
    wrote about clothes made with plastic and I wouldn’t be hesitant to wear them as, I think, we actually have already some of them: fleece is more and more produced with PET from plastic bottles and if you love the mountains, it’s likely that you have at least one. In my opinion we don’t necessarily need new textiles to reduce pollution and create a sustainable fashion productive cycle but more efficient ways to collect waste and scraps while delivering a high quality product. Thank you @lucabaldessarini for telling us about Orange Fiber, it is an awesome project! In addition to that, as he pointed out, low cost clothes companies usually exploit workers: I think we must ask ourselves why a certain product has a certain price: there is a correlation between low prices and exploitation or bad quality of course. In my opinion this is the most important part: the ethic of a company must be respectful towards employers. If it is not so, if possible, I’d prefer not to buy its products.


    @elenariganti
    talked about Modern Times: Charlie Chaplin showed us how men in assembly lines are actually transformed into robots so I’m totally favorable to using automation in productive processes while elevating workers’ conditions to better ones (by making them managing and supervising the operation, for example).

    Regarding to AI and fashion, your discussion reminded me of an article that I’ve read on the MIT Technology Review. Researchers at the University of San Diego and Adobe researchers developed a system which uses AI to suggest clothes which learns from Amazon purchases. This could be done also with profiling cookies but the new step is that the brain-shaped algorithm will suggest retailers new designs and clothes styles to satisfy clients better. Their project is just at its beginning but I wonder what you think of it. In my opinion, although it could generate new outfits, (high) fashion is something which needs creative minds and ideas that only humans (and not AI trained with already-existing data) have.

    Thank you for the discussion and waiting for your replies, have a nice evening!

    Giulia Solis
    Participant
    @giuliasolis
    #2403

    Hi guys! How are you?
    It’s amazing and stimulant be part of this forum!
    First of all thanks to @jialiangzhou to talking about H&M case and about robots. I want say something about H&M, certainly their campaign is vary interesting and also it is admirable their interest on environment question and about the focus on social responsibility. Recycling clothes is one of the best and simple thing to do when an industry decides to focus its policy on re-use and elimination of waste.
    But maybe this is something of trivial and known, so I want say something about the bad side of these campaigns: often they are proposed by industries like a way to show its own image or a brand image in which the consumer recognizes himself. In fact lots of fashion industries base their business on a social strategy that is able to be accepted and legitimized by all type of stakeholders. So this type of campaigns often are only a bait and switch; in fact most of industries are guided by public relationships for which environmental issues are trendy and if consumers are interested in, they decide to promote these campaigns to increase sales and brand image. Their behavior get to persuade the consumer to see the company in a positive light.

    Vary interesting is the discussion about the robot too and so thanks to @elenariganti too for her contribution. And I want say something about question by @jialiangzhou: I think it will be another industrial revolution with che introduction of intelligent robots; now it’s too early talk about this because there are lot of countries that don’t have the culture of innovation yet in their production process. I think in future it will be the new border; in fact there will be lots of positive sides like for example the reduction of errors, waste or failures and we mustn’t have fear for this introduction because we will be the time to adapt ourselves to this big change that will happen gradually and not brusquely. Any way in the future human resource will continue to be the central point of the processes because anything will replace intuition, creativity, intelligence and imagination oh human resource. And than there will be always someone that will design the robots!

    Now I want give you another topic about one of my favorite Italian startup: “LeCicogne” this is their website:

    Home

    It was the business case that I analyzed in my three-year thesis and I think that it was the example that an idea of success is something of simple and tangible but that meets a need that wasn’t satisfied yet. I met the founders of this idea and I was impressed about the enthusiasm that I saw in their eyes. Now they are well known especially in Rome but their business is developing in other Italian cities too.
    “Le Cicogne” is a platform in which parents can have lots of services for child care: a babysitting service or an help with homework after school or a baby drive service. They have the app in which there is hight level of security for parents and babysitters too in fact there are presentations, feedbacks and transparency for identity. Now they are in PiCampus, a dreamland in Eur area in Rome inspirited by Silicon Valley in which selected startup have six months of permanence to grow their business and they can have from 25 thousand to 200 thousand to develop themselves.

    What do you think about this innovative business? Do you like it? Did you know this startup before?

    Have a good evening everybody!

    Giulia

    Giulia Solis
    Participant
    @giuliasolis
    #2404

    [I had technical problems with my previous answer, so this is the right version! Good night :*
    Hi guys! How are you?
    It’s amazing and stimulant be part of this forum!
    First of all thanks to @jialiangzhou to talking about H&M case and about robots. I want say something about H&M, certainly their campaign is vary interesting and also it is admirable their interest on environment question and about the focus on social responsibility. Recycling clothes is one of the best and simple thing to do when an industry decides to focus its policy on re-use and elimination of waste.
    But maybe this is something of trivial and known, so I want say something about the bad side of these campaigns: often they are proposed by industries like a way to show its own image or a brand image in which the consumer recognizes himself. In fact lots of fashion industries base their business on a social strategy that is able to be accepted and legitimized by all type of stakeholders. So this type of campaigns often are only a bait and switch; in fact most of industries are guided by public relationships for which environmental issues are trendy and if consumers are interested in, they decide to promote these campaigns to increase sales and brand image. Their behavior get to persuade the consumer to see the company in a positive light.

    Vary interesting is the discussion about the robot too and so thanks to @elenariganti too for her contribution. And I want say something about question by @jialiangzhou: I think it will be another industrial revolution with che introduction of intelligent robots; now it’s too early talk about this because there are lot of countries that don’t have the culture of innovation yet in their production process. I think in future it will be the new border; in fact there will be lots of positive sides like for example the reduction of errors, waste or failures and we mustn’t have fear for this introduction because we will be the time to adapt ourselves to this big change that will happen gradually and not brusquely. Any way in the future human resource will continue to be the central point of the processes because anything will replace intuition, creativity, intelligence and imagination oh human resource. And than there will be always someone that will design the robots!

    Now I want give you another topic about one of my favorite Italian startup: “LeCicogne”.
    It was the business case that I analyzed in my three-year thesis and I think that it was the example that an idea of success is something of simple and tangible but that meets a need that wasn’t satisfied yet. I met the founders of this idea and I was impressed about the enthusiasm that I saw in their eyes. Now they are well known especially in Rome but their business is developing in other Italian cities too.
    “Le Cicogne” is a platform in which parents can have lots of services for child care: a babysitting service or an help with homework after school or a baby drive service. They have the app in which there is hight level of security for parents and babysitters too in fact there are presentations, feedbacks and transparency for identity. Now they are in PiCampus, a dreamland in Eur area in Rome inspirited by Silicon Valley in which selected startup have six months of permanence to grow their business and they can have from 25 thousand to 200 thousand to develop themselves.

    What do you think about this innovative business? Do you like it? Did you know this startup before? this is their website:
    https://www.lecicogne.net
    Have a good evening everybody!
    Giulia

    Daniel Romano
    Participant
    @daniel-romano
    #2407

    Thank you so much @giuliasolis for considering the article and finding infos about that. The interesting thing about IoT is that it’s really much more than just city efficiency: it has possible applications in every aspect of life, public and private: it goes from health to entertainment. Of course it involves gathering so many datas about people that it could be used also for negative purposes, like influencing people’s minds (about this I reccomend le book “Hooked – How to build habit-forming products” by Nir Eyal, who speaks also about the morality involved in the possibility to “control” people); but on the other way it can be used to really serve people’s lives, and make any kind of everyday personal process smarter.

    I also want to thank @1-stevenazzi. I know Glass to Power, I have been to an event powered by iBicocca who invited just right Sergio Brovelli: he told about this interesting idea of making solar windows, which are windows able to capture solar energy from the glass itself and turn it into electricity! That’s not actually only an idea because they prototyped the window and also patented it, and they are now setting the business around the product. I think that’s a very interesting product, but as an architect I must say that I can see some big limits in it, both technical and aesthetic. But ehi, I’m a big fan of innovation and if they manage to improve the product that would be good news!

    Stefania Tibiletti
    Participant
    @stefaniatibiletti
    #2408

    Hi Guys! What a conversation! Great Job!

    I’m so happy that you were able to share your thoughts, create connections and link different topics.

    Here I have the last two articles that are connected with your previous comments:

    https://www.edf.org/blog/2018/03/28/how-environmental-innovation-will-transform-business-usual

    https://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/dubai//dubai-to-soon-energise-waste-with-ai

     

    As I told you, the finish line is almost here!

    if you want to finalize your application in order to have the chance to be part of the SVST 2018, you have to send me your CV within Friday 30 March at 3pm!

    This is my email: stefania.tibiletti@studenti.unitn.it  moreover you have to put in cc Paolo Marenco: marencopaolo@gmail.com

    I will consider as part of your evaluation all the comments until Friday, after that you are free to use the forum to continue to share what you want! In addition if you have questions about San Francisco, the tour or do you need any kind of information, I am here and do not hesitate to contact me! 🙂

    Your CV must be in 1 page format, here you can find a template that may help you

    Have a nice week and an happy Easter with your family and friends! 🙂

    Stefania

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    @
    #2409

    Hi guys!

    My name is oscar and i’m a student of Milano-Bicocca university.

    I study business economics and since the first year i’m interested about marketing, startups and new economy. For this reason i joined iBicocca project (http://ibicocca.it/) since the first semenster of my first academic year. iBicocca is the project of Bicocca University that wants to develop innovation and entrepreneurial skills in the students.

    But how?

    Students can follow many events, workshop and activities that allow them to understand better our modern world.

    In addition to this, they receive also entrepreneurship classes by the accelerator Nuvolab (https://nuvolab.com/). After that, they can help other students with business ideas to develop them and write a business model (http://ibicocca.it/ihelp/richiedi-un-ihelp/).

    Thank to that project i had the chance to start working on business models,marketing and business. It has been so interesting and after my erasmus year abroad i joined the team of iBicocca with an internship. At the moment it’s 6 months that i’m working there and i’m so glad that i could help to develop this project.

    I managed the social networks, the website and i had the pleasure to interview our guests. Here you can find that one that i did to Paolo Marenco:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W42DYEpodU

    I think iBicocca project is like a startup: it began 3 years ago with 300 participants and now they are 800. We have to attract our customers (the students), give them our service (events, workshop…), involve them and try to make them brand ambassador.

    My colleagues Daniel Romano, Emanuel cukaj and Fabio vantaggiato that are also in this forum can confirm that with this project students can develop many soft and hard skills that are very important nowadays.

    For this reason i couldn’t write many messages during the last weeks but i promise i wil do during these days.

    Good night!

    This is my linkedin if you wanna know more abot me https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscardipasquale/

    Elena Riganti
    Participant
    @elenariganti
    #2412

    Hi guys and welcome @oscar,

    Thanks for all your replies and tips, they always make me think a lot and it’s a way to compare different points of view!

    First of all, thanks @l-stevenazzi for talking about Glass to Power, I have heard about this, but I didn’t know much about it. It’s really interesting because it’s an other way to be “green” and sustainable. Regardind energy, sustainability and houses, more generally, do you know what a passive house is? Some years ago on of my teacher told me about his passive house who uses passive devices to provide heating and energy. For example, his house has photovoltaic panels, big windows who can take advantage of solar exposure and greenhouse effect, a particular ventilation system, a rainwater tank to use rain water insteadof drinking water for irrigation, and others. This type of house can reduce pollution, waste of water and energy. It can be more expensive than a traditional house, but he estimated that this difference is about 10% (but then there are really low expenses!). He used to say that the cheapest, cleanest and most sustainable energy is the one who isn’t used. I couldn’t agree more!
    Staying in this topic about environment and sustainability, from Tuesday the first Atm electric bus in Milan is working! Did you know it? It can drive for 180 km without recharge (the charging time is about 5 hours). There’s a big project to make Milano diesel free within 2025, introducing more electric buses. It’s about a 14 million euro investiment to reach the goal of “full electric”. New electric buses will be introduced in april and october. This is a great step finally made!
    Thanks also @stefaniatibiletti for your articles always stimulant! Finally we have arrived in a moment where there are more and more projects like the ones we talked about and likee Wastenizer system in Dubai. I hope there will be more cooperation between the state and companies to create and put in place policies, strategies or projects to improve the environmental situation.

    I’d like to say something about “Le Cicogne”, cited by @giuliasolis. I know it thank to iBicocca who organised an event with one of the founders last year. I think that is a great idea because it responds to a very widespread need. As we said before, an innovation doesn’t have to be radical, it can concern a new way to organize something. I think baby-sitting is more and more required and offered, because parents who work have to find somone who can look after their children and so many girls (maybe even boys) become baby-sitter to collect money while studying. “Le Cicogne” combines this to prospective and make their meeting easier. Maybe, a problem could be that parents prefer people they know to look after their children. They can be wary and they can prefer other way to find a baby-sitter. However, “Le Cicogne” is well organised in this aspect. In fact, it has a ethical code to subscribe, organizes training courses for baby-sitter, allows parent to leave a feedback. So I think it deals with this potential problem in a good way. It ensures responsibility and security.

    Regarding IoT, I believe that it’s a fantastic world who is going to grow up. As @daniel-romano said, it can find application in very different sectors. For example, it comes to my mind the alarm that rings before if there is traffic! I still agree with you @daniel-romano, IoT can be used with positive or negative purpose. I think that it could involve privacy or security risks too.

    Let me know your opinion!

    Goodnight,

    Elena Riganti

    Luca
    Participant
    @lucabaldessarini
    #2413

    Hi everyone! How you doing?

    Welcome to our super forum @oscar! We already know each other, I’m from Liveconomy student association, and I’ve so many news to tell you about the Milan Innovation Ecosystem project, which we’re developing with Ferruccio Martinelli (E-Club Bocconi former President), and Francesco Salvatore, from TWCAP. I don’t know if you remember, we have to meet asap.

    I’d like to start talking a little bit about H&M and its recycling program which has been around for a while now. First of all, I do think that as the first fast fashion brand to do so, in 2013, they for sure need some recognition. I hereby agree with @jialiangzhou that it has been a really good way to start pushing customers in this direction. Statistics from the article are just crazy, 80 bln pieces of new clothing consumed every year (+400% from 2000). So I do think that those kinds of critiques moved to the brand are quite useless. H&M like any other brand is a company and not a non-profit, and as a company, it needs to make profits. I therefore find their idea really good, both from an environmental side as well as for a brand awareness/marketing perspective. In this way in facts, they of course push customers to buy more of their stuff, legitimately increasing the company earnings, but at the same time, lots of those new clothes comes with a nearly zero environmental impact, since they have theoretically been produced by the old ones. And looking at the numbers, with over 55.000 tons of garments collected they have been able to “give back” ca. 270 mln of T-shirts; in addition to that, for each kilogram of textiles collected, 0.02 euros has been donated to charities.

    Thank you also @jialiangzhou for the hint about SoftWear, that is really good! Those numbers are just awesome, 2x the max human sewing capacity per day and 1,2 million T-shirts produced a year, wow! Moreover, I couldn’t agree more with the fact that this kind of innovation, which can fully replace humans especially in this kinds of labor-intensive jobs, should be encouraged and supported. But of course, the further it goes the more jobs will be taken over by it, and here stands I think one of the biggest socio-political problems of the future of humankind.
    Social, because of course, it will heavily impact our lives in the next future, mainly due to the enormous AI developments that are taking place. Political, because I think governments have the formal responsibility for that, they need to introduce this kind of themes in the daily political debate and they need to put this kind of questions in their political programs. Just try to find, if you’re able to, any kind of mention about technology and AI in any political campaign, especially in Italy. This is the future, and it’ll come anyway, whether we like it or not, and if governments won’t be up with the times, we will never be able to fully put technology in the service of humans. I consider my self as a tech enthusiast and I can’t wait for it to come, but at the same time, I do think that this 4th Industrial Revolution (just watch this video, it’s amazing) is and will be totally different from the others. We’re not going from steam-powered machines to mass use of electricity. Technology is already so far ahead so many that we all need to deal with it right now, in a proactive and optimistic way, because the future is wonderful, but only if we live it without blind eyes.
    Furthermore, I completely agree with @elenariganti that a high turnover comes naturally with progress but I do also think, like I said before, especially for the disruptive level of this revolution, that this time will be totally different regarding the unemployment rate. That’s why we need to heavily embrace a public debate on that, that’s why we need to improve our traditional education system, which is also absolutely not up with the times. Of course, like @jialiangzhou correctly said, creativity will be our unextinguishable and unique added value, but only for a little time I think, and moving on, the neural networks who are already able to beat humans at extremely difficult strategic games without even learning how to play them, will for sure match our level and go beyond. Have a look at some few messages ago if you want, @l-stevenazzi, @elisa, @fabio and I have had a super interesting conversation about all these themes, let me know what do you think. Oh, and by the way  @jialiangzhou I have to quote you, « we should help people to keep up with the quick changing world, in order to address them towards new opportunities », this I believe truly represents everything; and thank you also for the book suggestion, I’ve just added it to my Amazon list!

    Coming back for a little bit to the Precious Plastic project, I do agree with @l-stevenazzi that for sure not everyone will embrace the DIY way, I think in fact that this kind of solution should be managed centrally, at a community level, from some sort of local authority/charity, especially for developing countries. But if the project would evolve over, maybe into a profitable business, with a smaller compactor as a final product already built to be sold, it would for sure become a useful home tool to recycle your own plastic and produce the object you need without keep buying them. It could also be used by companies, dramatically reducing their environmental impact and their costs by building, for example, their own tools or machinery with 3D printing and recycled plastic. Thank you @l-stevenazzi for the tip about Holey, never heard of it before, that’s I believe one of the most important and impactful applications of 3D printing. Talking about “Glass to Power”, wow, what a great project, this is THE THING. Being able to collect energy with those Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), that can create a traditional looking window, it’s a huge step which I think could improve so much the photovoltaic adoption rate in cities still remaining something with close zero environmental impact.

    Regarding the articles shared by @stefaniatibiletti, first of all, I’ve never heard about the Wastenizer project, here is an example of governments truly taking care of the future of our planet. With the huge target of becoming a waste-free city within the next 2 years (having the highest tonnes of waste per capita, 3.5 million tonnes) the Dubai Administration is really shooting for the stars. Moreover, this amazing project could serve as an example for so many countries, especially for the developing ones where this is one of the worst problems at the moment.
    I truly believe that this is a perfect example of technology serving humanity and with the good use of AI I think Dubai will reach for sure reach is target of steering 100% of the city’s waste away from landfills by 2030, which is huge!
    Talking about the environmental progress I’m perfectly convinced that it « doesn’t just happen » like I wrote few messages ago talking about tech, and I also fully agree that « environmental progress it’s only « propelled by successive waves of innovation inspired by leaders and actions », quoting the article.
    Secondly, I personally think that only large partnerships between companies and between governments can make a positive impact on the future of our planet before it’s too late. Everyone needs to embrace this challenge together no matter what, and profits should come in the second place, this is our planet. By using blockchain technology to « track and improve food waste across supply chain » for example, we could ride the 4th industrial revolution thinking that we’re heading to the future with the right mindset. But in order to do that, we need enlightened leaders who guide us, like the Dubai Municipality, with actual steps into tough problems, and we need to distance ourselves from the bad ones like Donald Trump, who choose a few months ago to take America out form the COP 21 act.

    I just want to close with a quote from the article that I really liked:

    « Fueling this hope is the Fourth Wave of environmental progress, where the exponential growth in innovation will empower people – business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, individuals, and communities – to take action and fill the gaps in environmental leadership »

    Goodnight guys,
    Luca Baldessarini

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