The China-Italy Laboratory on Advanced Manufacturing (CI-LAM) is the bilateral platform on advanced manufacturing launched in 2017 and promoted by Italy’s Ministry of Education, Universities and Research and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China.
It is promoted by the University of Naples Federico II, the University of Bergamo and SPICI on the Italian side and by Tsinghua University, the China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance, the university incubator TusPark and the Hangxing China-Italy Innovation Incubator on the Chinese side.
The scientific and educational cooperation program includes various activities such as the creation of joint laboratories, exchanges of students and researchers, innovation projects, matchmaking activities between academic research groups and university spinoffs, as well as advanced training.
Thanks to the activities carried out in 2020, CI-LAM was recognized as a bilateral platform on the themes of advanced manufacturing and smart factory in the “Italy-China Scientific and Technological Cooperation, Action Plan towards 2025” drafted by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Over the years, CI-LAM has organized three editions of its Summer School, which has involved numerous students, researchers and teachers from the two countries, leading numerous Italian and Chinese universities to join the initiative. The 2021 edition includes a rich program of events, including matchmaking meetings between research groups and spinoffs, testimonials of entrepreneurs and researchers, and the presentation of success stories of Italian and Chinese university spinoffs and startups.
This year the Summer School is welcoming 59 students from about 20 Italian, Chinese, Norwegian and US universities andis focusing on the following topics: 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.
The Opening Ceremony was moderated by our CEO, dr. Vincenzo Lipardi and saw the participation of Prof. Sergio Cavalieri, Vice-Chancellor for Innovation and Tech Transfer of 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 the China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance; Prof. Kang Chongqing, Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University.
The first session of the Opening Ceremony ended with a speech of the Dean of the University of Bergamo, Remo Morzenti Pellegrini.
A round table on the coexistence of man and technology and on the sociological, ethical and legal challenges of Transition 4.0 was then held and involved Adam Arvidsson, Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II, Zhu Guiping Prof. at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University; Dan Zhang, Associate Professor at Tsinghua University and Dr. Shi Zhe, CDO of Foxconn Group.
