Vinca il migliore. L’agonismo nel mondo naturale dal nucleo atomico alla scala cosmica

Il progetto 2016 del ciclo La Curiosità fa lo Scienziato ha proposto una riflessione sui temi della competizione e collaborazione nel mondo naturale, coinvolgendo gli ambiti disciplinari di fisica, chimica e scienze naturali. In tutto il mondo naturale osservabile equilibri e dinamiche sono riconducibili ad entità in competizione, secondo regole che si vanno scoprendo man mano che aumenta la capacità di interrogare la natura. In fisica entrano nell’arena poche forze fondamentali, dalla micro scala atomica fino alla macro scala cosmologica. In chimica diversi composti competono nel determinare l’evoluzione e gli effetti delle reazioni. Nel mondo biologico il rapporto che si stabilisce in un determinato ambiente tra le varie specie animali e vegetali, legate tra loro da relazioni antagonistiche, ma anche mutualistiche, è condizione indispensabile per la sopravvivenza. Gli incontri previsti all’interno del Progetto, dedicati a platee di età diverse, hanno sempre incluso conversazioni a tema arricchite da esperimenti includendo in talune circostanze anche esecuzioni di brani musicali. Le attività hanno complessivamente raggiunto un pubblico di circa 1200 persone. Nel seguito vengono elencate e brevemente descritte le varie attività svolte. Il materiale documentale prodotto durante il Progetto è messo a disposizione a libero accesso sul sito del Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Informatiche e Matematiche dell’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia al link: http://www.outreach.fim.unimore.it/site/home/divulgazione/la-curiosita-fa-lo-scienziat

NADIA - NAvigation for DIsability Applications

Il Progetto Nadia (NAvigation for Disability Applications), finanziato dall'Agenzia Spaziale Italiana ed affidato a un team composto da industrie, università e associazioni d'utenza, ha l'obiettivo di sviluppare un sistema prototipale che consenta agli utenti del progetto (disabili motori, ipo/non vedenti) una maggiore autonomia e una più sicura mobilità in ambito urbano, tramite l'utilizzo di tecniche di radionavigazione satellitare. La presentazione descriverà le attività ingegneristiche finora effettuate e in particolare a partire dalla definizione dei requisiti utente, la progettazione del sistema e lo sviluppo dei suoi elementi critici (fra cui specifiche interfacce utente, algoritmi di comunicazione per migliorare la sicurezza, detezione di ostacoli e navigazione indoor

The NADIA Terminal User Interface for People with Motor Disabilities

In this paper, a user terminal interface is described realizing an application allowing autonomous and safe mobility of people on a wheelchair. The application has been developed in the framework of the NADIA research project, funded and promoted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and implemented by Thales Alenia Space Italia with the collaboration of a mixed team of companies, university and user associations. The project has brought to the realization of a system exploiting the combined use of satellite navigation technologies based on GPS, EGNOS and augmentation signals, of hybridized technologies and of specific and user-oriented services implemented by terrestrial infrastructures. The user terminal selected is a consumer laptop, due to its flexibility, processing power, possibility of connection to other devices needed for the application. The user terminal has been made suitable to provide NADIA services also to wheelchair users presenting different kinds and degrees of upper limb disabilities, by means of a proper hardware solution overcoming limitations of existing technical aids for PC accessibility, not intended to be used in an autonomous mobility scenario. Also thanks to a proper control scheme of the application implemented by the terminal software, users may be provided with NADIA services by means of commercially available switch sensors specifically devoted to exploit user-specific residual abilities. The development of the solution has been constantly guided by hints and feedbacks from user associations, partners in the project. The NADIA prototype system has been successfully tested in several occasions by wheelchair users with upper limb disabilities

A step forward towards increasing the mobility and participation of people with disabilities utilizing Satellite Navigation Technology Applications

Large groups of the population in Europe encounter significant difficulties in taking part in everyday life due to their functional limitations. The NADIA (NAvigation for DIsability Applications) Project, funded and promoted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and implemented by Thales Alenia Space Italia with the collaboration of a mixed team of companies, university and user associations, has made concrete steps forward in demonstrating that satellite navigation applications can have an important role in facilitating the mobility of people with disabilities. This paper describes not only some basic features of the system, but looks at how they are related to the process of defining user needs and requirements, highlighting the role of end users and of professional users of Assistive Technology (AT)

Technophobia and Technophilia in the Media, Art and Visual Culture

The volume collects most of the speeches presented at the conference \u201cTechnophobia and Technophilia in the Media, Art and Visual Culture\u201d held at the University of Genoa in May 2018. The conference was organized by some scholars and students of the Doctoral School in Digital Humanities of the same University particularly interested in investigating the political, cultural and \u201csentimental\u201d impact of technology. So, \u201cphilia\u201d and \u201cphobia\u201d appeared immediately as two crucial concepts in order to test both the cultural and ideological perception of technology in our society, and the emotional \u201ctemperature\u201d of the relationship between human beings and technical devices, tools and environment. But, at the same time, a question was also posed in regard to the feelings toward technology itself, seen as symptoms of an incomplete neutralization of technology. This condition, it seems, is in fact to be the destiny, or the final accomplishment, of our \u201ctransparent society\u201d