Spoke 9: 2.6 million euros to develop Digital Twins for healthcare, industry, culture, and infrastructures
11 projects will be funded by SISSA with the second round of Funding Calls of the iNEST Consortium
Trieste, 16th December 2024
Healthcare, infrastructure, the nautical industry, as well as steel industry, imaging, and cultural heritage enhancement, are some of the fields covered by the projects selected by SISSA in the second round of Cascade Funding Calls of the iNEST Consortium. The winning proposals, with a total funding of €1.7 million for the Triveneto area and about €900,000 for Mezzogiorno, were presented on 4th December at the University of Verona during an iNEST event, attended by researchers and professionals working with the Consortium. This event enabled companies to explore potential connections with relevant scientific sectors.
The funded projects align with the themes of Spoke 9. «With the Funding Calls, iNEST Spoke 9 has funded several industrial projects to support and foster innovation in Northeastern and Southern Italy. These projects focus on digitalizing processes, products, services, and infrastructures through advanced models and data analysis for Digital Twins,» explained Prof. Gianluigi Rozza, coordinator of Spoke 9.
Personalized medicine and reduced risks with Digital Twins
Improving quality of life is the primary goal of healthcare-related projects. Digital replicas of human body parts provide deeper insights for managing chronic illnesses and congenital defects.
ROMed2VR, a project by ENGYS Srl, InSilicoTrials Technologies SpA, and RBF Morph Srl, winner of the Triveneto Call, aims to reduce risks in a palliative procedure for improving blood flow in congenital heart defects.
CarDio Twin (CDT), by Almaviva Digitaltec Srl, has won the Mezzogiorno Call and focuses on addressing heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization among the elderly. Using Digital Twins, it seeks to gather clinical data and tailor treatment plans.
The DiaBeCo project, developed by I.T.Svil Srl with the Regional Center for Information Communication Technology, is another winner of the Mezzogiorno Call and aims to support diabetic patients by integrating machine learning models into a digital platform. It calculates risks, proposes personalized therapies, and ensures the privacy of patient data.
Safety, emergency management, and territorial planning: infrastructure Digital Twins
Digital Twins effectively simulate complex infrastructure, as demonstrated by these project proposals: Secure Twelthy (by La SIA SpA with the University of Salerno) and G-IDA 2.0 (by STRESS Scarl with the University of Naples Federico II), both winners of the Mezzogiorno Call, as well as GEMINI – GL24 (by DBA PRO SpA with Fabcube Srl, Omniaevo Srl, Thetis SpA, EBWorld Srl, SERTECO Srl, and Metaverso Srl), winner of the Triveneto Call.
Secure Twelthy aims to create modular Digital Twins of small-to-medium healthcare infrastructures to identify criticalities, virtualize spaces, and provide practical support to healthcare personnel and patients in emergency management; G-IDA 2.0 improves the safety and maintenance of Italian road infrastructures, with particular attention to tunnels, through digital replicas that enable real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance; GEMINI develops an advanced digital model of complex territorial systems, starting from an experimental prototype of the Venice Lagoon, to simulate future scenarios and hence improve planning, design, and territorial management. The prototype will be made available for free to the Venice Lagoon Authority.
Industrial Digital Twins: optics, nautical sector, and steel industry
Digital Twins are invaluable tools for industry, with several areas of application, as proved by other funded projects COMET, developed by DYNAMIC OPTICS Srl and winner of the Call for Triveneto, aims to use Digital Twins to precisely replicate the optical aberrations of professional lenses, essential for obtaining photorealistic images in the cinematic, gaming, photography, visual effects, and augmented and virtual reality sectors.
A winner of the same Call is Digital Twin for Tomography (DTT), by ALIA-MENTIS Srl with CDG Srl and Vetorix Engineering Srl, which deals with industrial imaging: its goal is to develop a tomographic system prototype to analyze large composite components, enabling qualitative analyses of digital copies of scanned objects, with applications in the nautical, automotive, and sports sectors.
Another winner of the Call for Triveneto is SILENS, by NegroponteLab Srl with Dataveneta Computers Srl, BeDigital Srl, and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The basic idea is a digital tool for the integrated management of information related to pleasure boats, capable of coordinating aspects such as human resources, energy, environment, and regulations; such a prototype can reduce environmental impact and improve collaboration between companies and public administrations, promoting a more sustainable and transparent approach.
The winning proposal for the Triveneto Call D-SIM, by Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA, instead concerns the steelmaking industry. D-SIM involves the development of a mathematical model to simulate a metal solidification process, thereby optimizing production, improving performance, and preventing defects.
A Digital Twin to enhance cultural heritage
A standout project is VETEREA, winner of the Mezzogiorno Call, by SPICI Srl with the “Alberto Calza Bini” Interdepartmental Research Center of the University of Naples Federico II; a non-beneficiary partner and end-user is the Municipality of Santa Maria Capua Vetere. This project proposal has the goal of overcoming accessibility limits to archaeological remains, which are often inaccessible or embedded in private properties, by offering AR and VR experiences and hence innovative digital narratives to residents and tourists. By using a Digital Twin, VETEREA aims to connect the modern town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere with the ancient Capua Vetere, buried underground, creating a Phygital Reality that merges the physical heritage of the nowadays city with its archaeological past.
