Intel rewards researchers and ideas at Bologna University

A prize of US$ 70,000 to an early-career researcher, two prizes of US$ 35,000 to two doctoral students and one  to a start-up project, all made in Unibo: the University of Bologna walked off with a bundle of prizes from Intel.

In late November it was the turn of Stem Sel, the Bolognese spin off proposal that together with three other finalists of the National Prize for Innovation 2012 won a special recognition from Intel Italia. In late October it was the turn of 36-year old Chiara Buratti, researcher at the Alma Mater since 2011, and Michele Rossi and Bojan Milosevic, two of the University's PhD students. They received, respectively, the  Intel Early Career Faculty Honor program for the most outstanding early-career researchers and  the Intel Doctoral Students Honor Programme  for the most promising research PhD students.  Bologna candidates were selected and rewarded in this highly competitive contest among  many excellent candidates from several  universities and research fields. Together with them, there were 8 researchers and 23 PhD students from the most prestigious universities in Europe, including the ETHZ in Zurich, the EPFL in Lausanne and the Imperial College in London, just to name a few.

Chiara Buratti carries out research in the field of wireless sensor networks, with particular reference to smart city applications: radio-controlled street lights which intelligently vary the brightness levels to reduce energy consumption or the radio network used to quickly identify areas of high traffic and communicate promptly with the users. And it is in this field that Chiara will continue to work with her prize money, saving a part of it also to collaborate with Intel researchers and visit their laboratories. The researcher, who spent a research period working at the CNRS in France and is involved in numerous EU-funded projects, is not new to prizes and awards: in 2010 she won a national prize for the best PhD thesis in telecommunications. The year before, on the other hand, she won the best paper award in Saint Petersburg, during an international scientific conference.

The Intel Early Career Faculty Honor program was created by Intel to make contacts with the most outstanding researchers at the beginning of their careers, offering them financial support and networking opportunities. Already experimented in the United States, in 2012 Intel decided to establish a similar award in Europe for the first time. At the beginning  of the year, Intel visited 16 of the most active and excellent European, Swiss and Russian Research Institutions : Alma Mater was the only Italian Institution  to be included. Intel invited universities to present candidatures for outstanding young university researchers with less than 4 years' experience. 33 were received, in fields running from smart cities to visual computing, and nine young scientists were selected, being  Chiara Buratti one of the nine.

The Intel Doctoral Students Honor Programme,on the other hand, gives prizes to promising PhD students. The Program was founded to promote innovation in key areas and develop a pipeline of talents for Intel's future workforce. The 2012-2013 selection was a highly competitive process, with almost 70 candidates from 16 universities. Two awards were given in Bologna, both for PhD students in the Guglielmo Marconi Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering. Bojan Milosevic works in energy-efficient Body Area Networks to track and analyse the movement ?in Luca Benini's group, that deals with electronic systems for energy efficiency and intelligent environments. Michele Rossi works with electronic interfaces for nano-sensors in Marco Tartagni's group. The aim of the group is to build ultra-low noise and ultra-low power micro-electronic interfaces for advanced sensors for biomedical applications, the environment and agriculture.

The spin off proposal Stem Sel,born from the Bologna University Chemistry Department, has been sustained by the Spinner 2013 facilities and has granted the StartCup’s last edition . Thanks to the Intel award, Stem Sel will havedirect access tothe second step selection for the European round of the Intel Business Challenge, a business plan competition for university students, graduates and young entrepreneurs. Beyond that, Intel Italia raffled a very special prize: a personal meeting with Marcos Battisti, Intel Capital’s Managing Director, the Intel company that has invested billions of euro in innovative and high-leverage business throughout the world.  During the same event , Stem Sel also received a prize from the British General Consulate in Milan and the UK Trade&Investment for the most promising business plan with an international outlook, giving  access to  partnership services with companies, institutions and centres of excellence in Great Britain, as well as with UK TI sector specialists, able to provide information and illustrate the potential of the UK market. The core idea ofStem Sel consist of   developing, engineering, producing  and marketing of “Celector”, an instrument  that selects and sorts human stem cells from