Italian mechatronics focuses on space. It was with a project in this promising field that Davide Vignotto, PhD at the University of Trento, was awarded the fifteenth edition of the Italian Mechatronics Award, the competition of the Mechatronic Group of Unindustria Reggio Emilia in collaboration with Nòva – Il Sole 24 Ore, co-organized by Community, created to promote the culture of mechatronic technology in the various sectors of the national mechanical industry.
The project, entitled “Experimental analysis and analytical modeling of a release mechanism for a space mission”, was carried out during the PhD program in collaboration with Ohb Italia, a company of the European space group Ohb Se, in order to analyze a fundamental mechanism of a space mission.
The president of Unindustria Reggio Emilia Fabio Storchi and the president of the Mechatronic Group Alberto Rocchi presented the award – a prize of 5,000 euros – on the occasion of the year-end meeting of entrepreneurs “2022 – Human capital and digitalization”, which was held last night in Reggio Emilia.
The Scientific Committee of the Prize indicated Davide Vignotto as the winner, explaining that “the work carried out during the doctorate (the highest level of university education) concerns a particularly complex and fascinating research field such as that of flight sensors in the field of one of the most ambitious space projects of the future relating to a space observatory to detect gravitational waves. This is a frontier research of the highest scientific level carried out in collaboration with a leading European company in the Space Economy sector. The research has made it possible to achieve important scientific results but also concrete applicative implications for the redesign of the analyzed components ».
Now in its fifteenth edition, the competition has been open this year to projects (thesis, research doctorate, scientific publication or ad hoc study) carried out by undergraduates and graduates of mechatronic departments of national universities in collaboration with a company .