Monday, 7 July, at the Italian Innovation Factory Tech Hub in Naples, the seventh edition of the CI-LAM Summer School 2025 officially commenced, the joint workshop between Universities, Incubators, and Business Accelerators on the theme of advanced manufacturing.

With the Naples event, two weeks of activities kicked off between Naples and Bergamo, with the participation of about sixty students and researchers from Italy and China.

The day opened with the CI-LAM Business Creation Hackathon, dedicated to the development of entrepreneurial ideas, with training sessions, mentoring, and a final pitch session in front of an international jury.

In the afternoon, eight teams composed of Italian and Chinese students and researchers presented their entrepreneurial ideas, in the presence of esteemed representatives from the academic, business, and institutional world, including Prof. Gianluca D'Urso, representing the University of Bergamo, Dr. Vincenzo Lipardi, President of SPICI srl, Prof. Fabio Villone and Prof. Giovanni Breglio for the University of Naples Federico II. The event was concluded by Dr. Valeria Fascione, Councillor for Research, Innovation, and Startups - Campania Region, who awarded the winning projects.

*The China-Italy Lab on Advanced Manufacturing (CI-LAM) is a bilateral cooperation platform between Italy and China, established in 2017 to promote scientific collaboration in the field of Smart & Advanced Manufacturing.

CI-LAM is promoted, for the Italian side, by the University of Naples Federico II, the University of Bergamo, SPICI srl, and Intellimech, and for the Chinese side by Tsinghua University and the China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance.