European Researchers’ Night 2022

Cnr Nano is ready to be part of the 2022 Researchers' Night, which will take place in 25 countries on Friday 30 September. This year both Cnr Nano units, Modena and Pisa, will join the event with engaging hands-on presentations and demonstrations, contributing to the local initiatives in the city center of Modena and in the Cnr Research Area of Pisa.

The European Researchers' Night is held every year in more than 300 cities in 30 European countries at the same time. Its aim is to bring research, innovation and its protagonists closer to the public of all ages in fun and inspiring ways. Cnr Nano has held an event each year since 2013, since it provides a unique opportunity for our researchers and the public to interact with each other, and to bring Cnr Nano research to a wider audience.

In Modena our researchers will display a series of playful experiment and immersive activities, within the local program Unimore-Illumina organized by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia:

L'apprendista ignorante: come gli algoritmi imparano a giocare (e a vincere) (The ignorant apprentice: how algorithms learn to play (and to win)) - An interactive, interdisciplinary activity, to see-first-hand an example of machine learning. Using a simple series of boxes, visitors will implement the winning strategy in the "NIM" game (a simplified version of the Tower of Hanoi game), and experience how the algorithm learns the winning strategy even without knowing the rules of the game! T At the booth : Fulvio Paleari (Cnr Nano), 20:00 - 00:00, San Geminiano Complex, in Via San Geminiano 3, Modena

Toccare le proteine a mani nude virtuali (Touching proteins with virtual bare hands) - Is a booth where visitors can explore proteins in a unique way, by being immersed in a virtual reality! Thanks to a VR viewer and a molecular visualization program it will be possible to see, assemble and manipulate proteins as well as touch the protein structures with virtual bare hands. By searching the protein database, it will be possible, for example, to create a 3D snapshot of the SARS CoV-2 spike protein. At the booth : Giorgia Brancolini (Cnr Nano), Daniele Montepietra (Unimore) and Alessandro Mossa (Cnr Nano), 20:00 - 00:00, San Geminiano Complex, via San Geminiano 3, Modena.

Disegnare il futuro dell'elettronica (Designing the future of electronics) - Playing with pencils, diodes, sheets of paper and crystalline models, visitors will discover two-dimensional materials and their role in the technology of the future. Researchers from Unimore and Cnr Nano will illustrate the most recent research, including the research activities underway in our lab. At the booth : Marco Gibertini (Unimore), Claudia Cardoso (Cnr Nano), Giacomo Sesti (Unimore), 20:00 - 00:00, San Geminiano Complex, via San Geminiano 3, Modena

In Pisa, our researchers will be welcoming visitors at the Cnr Research Area with a series of demonstrations on

Nanotecnologie per la salute - Nanotechnology for health. Ilaria Tonazzini and colleagues will explain what nanosciences are, who are the scientists working in this multidisciplinary field and how thanks to nanotechnology it is possible to develop innovative tools for medicine and health. They will show biomaterials used in regenerative medicine or to study our brain, as well as nano-prototypes and nano-sensors, developed by our labs and spinoff, capable of releasing drugs or performing bimolecular analysis and diagnosis in a fast and timely way. At the booth : Ilaria Tonazzini (Cnr Nano), Maria Cristina Gaglierdi (Cnr Nano), Ambra Del Grosso(Cnr Nano), Antonella Battisti(Cnr Nano), Chiara De Cesari (Cnr Nano), 16:30 - 20:30, Area della Ricerca del Cnr di Pisa, Via Moruzzi 1, Pisa