With the Opening Ceremony of the Summer School of the CI-LAM, the activities of the 2021 edition of the bilateral platform on advanced manufacturing between Italy and China begin

The China-Italy Laboratory on Advanced Manufacturing (CI-LAM) is the bilateral platform on advanced manufacturing launched in 2017 and promoted by the Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST), involving as promoters from the Italian side, the University of Naples Federico II, University of Bergamo and SPICI, and from the Chinese side, Tsinghua University, the China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance, the TusPark university incubator, and Hangxing China-Italy Innovation Incubator.

The program includes various activities that, starting from our Universities, spread across the territory, through the creation of joint laboratories, student and researcher exchanges, innovation projects, matchmaking activities between academic research groups and university spin-offs, and advanced training.

Thanks to the work carried out in 2020, CI-LAM was also mentioned as a bilateral platform on advanced manufacturing and Smart Factory themes in the “Action Plan towards 2025 between Italy and China on scientific and technological cooperation” drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Over the years, CI-LAM has organized three editions of the Summer School, involving numerous students, researchers, and faculty from the two countries, attracting the interest of many Italian and Chinese universities to join the initiative.

The 2021 edition features a rich calendar of events, including matchmaking meetings between research groups and spin-offs, testimonials from entrepreneurs and researchers, presentation of successful cases of university spin-offs and Italian and Chinese startups.

This year, the Summer School involves 59 students from about 20 Italian, Chinese, Norwegian, and American universities around the following themes: “New Material for 3D Printing: Prototyping and Production; Digital Twins and its Industrial Applications; Energy Management for Energy Internet; IoT for 4.0 Industrial Revolutions; Smart Robotics; Open and Distributed Automation System, Novel Power Semiconductor Devices, Equipment and DC grids; Machine Learning in Advanced Manufacturing.” 

At the opening ceremony, moderated by our President, Dr. Vincenzo Lipardi, participants included Prof. Sergio Cavalieri, Vice Rector for Innovation and Technology Transfer at the University of Bergamo; Giovanni Breglio, Full Professor at the University of Naples Federico II; Prof. Giorgio Ventre, Director of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies; Jason Wang, President of China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance; Prof. Kang Chongqing, Director of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University.

The first session of the Opening Ceremony concluded with remarks from the Rector of the University of Bergamo, Remo Morzenti Pellegrini.

Following this, there was a round table on human/technology coexistence and sociological, ethical, and legal challenges of Transition 4.0, with contributions from Professors: Adam Arvidsson, Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II; Zhu Guiping, Full Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University; Dan Zhang, Associate at Tsinghua University and Dr. Shi Zhe, CDO of Foxconn Group.