Successfully monitored Venezia-Atalanta (34th day of Italian Serie A)
Despite a 3-1 defeat on the pitch, Venezia F.C., at whose 'Pierluigi Penzo' stadium the match against Atalanta was played, has certainly won the record of the most technologically advanced club in the top Italian football league. From 15 April to 30 September, a REACT control unit will be operational in the iconic football pitch surrounded by the greenery of the Giardini di Sant'Elena, just a few metres from the Biennale pavilions. The location was chosen by the CINSA researchers both for the specificity of the sports facility and the dynamics of an indoor mass event with thousands of fans concentrated in a short time and in a limited space, and for the possibility of intercepting millions of people from all over the world visiting the 59th International Art Exhibition of Venice.
Martin, Linda and Mr. Act star in science cartoon for young and old alike
A great dream come true, that of the Science for Peace programme narrated in 120″ thanks to a cartoon that in 8 large plates (50 x 70 cm) will illustrate, from the constitution in 1958 to today, values and projects linked to science for peace.
Up to the present day with some characters who will live the project actions of REACT in a rigorous and funny way. Martin, a gullible and chatty mobile phone operator, Linda a punctilious and knowledgeable control unit and Mr. Act, wisely called to mediate on what Martin and Linda say and measure.
The testing step starts for the six REACT stations
The six REACT stations have been installed near one of the Venetian ARPAV monitoring station.
This first step will allow Italian scientists from Ca’ Foscari to test the instruments and to validate the correct functioning of the installed sensors. During the next testing month, the six monitoring stations will register lots of information about the environmental conditions: atmospheric pollutants (PM 1, PM 2,5, PM 10), the ambient noise, the nitrogen dioxide and the sulfur dioxide. Other important measurements will be about the wind speed and direction, humidity and temperature.
All those information will be crucial for the REACT project: after the first testing step, units will be ready to be installed in various places in Venice.
REACT control units now available at Ca' Foscari University Campus
After a pre-testing phase guaranteed by the supplier, the REACT stations have started to measure the first parameters in the classrooms and laboratories of the Venetian university’s Scientific Campus. These stations are already measuring meteorological and environmental parameters in Turkey, Romania, Belgium, Iraq, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and, in a few months, Georgia. These are the ten parameters measured:
- Fine dust PM 1, PM 2, PM 5, PM 10 (low resolution);
- Barometer range 800/1100 hPa
- Sulfur dioxide (SO2 high resolution)
- Nitrogen dioxide (NO2 high resolution)
- Sound level probe (30/120 dB low resolution)
- Wind speed (0/75 m s-1)
- Wind direction
Everything is ready at Palazzo Antici Mattei (Rome) for the opening cross-training meeting REACT
Three days organised in 5 working sessions and an internal meeting to encourage a scientific and political debate in the presence (physical and virtual) of Ambassadors, Authorities, Researchers and Journalists, all hosted in the wonderful gallery frescoed by Pietro da Cortona of Palazzo Antici Mattei, seat of the Centre for American Studies, in whose rooms the poet Giacomo Leopardi lived for a few weeks from November 1822, staying in these rooms until April 1823, as a guest of his maternal uncle, Carlo Antici. Rooms that two centuries later have also inspired the REACT researchers.
Tender officially opened: supply of 6 REACT control units
The 6-page tender specifications describe the expected characteristics of the monitoring system that will be tested between Italy and Georgia. Ten required elements that will be evaluated by REACT researchers, who should start the experimental activities early next year.
The deadline for submitting bids is 5 October. Bids will be evaluated by 15 October with an initial short list of the best proposals and a subsequent direct negotiation phase to find the best technical and economic solution.
"Milestone 01" report presented to NATO
A 22 page document with contributions from research groups on both sides of the Atlantic, with Italy and Georgia looking towards the United States. The actions carried out seem to look beyond the pandemic and research activities in the presence and in the field are widely hypothesised. The market survey carried out by the CINSA Venice Local Unit on 5 different companies active in the environmental monitoring sector in order to compare the various Low Cost Environmental Sensing (LCS) solutions is interesting.
Pandemic continues to be critical, the "REACT Milestone 1 Project Management Week: December 14th -18th 2020" will be all virtual
It is official. No researcher will be able to travel from Italy, Georgia or the United States to meet and work on the REACT project in person, but although they will have to give up the human sharing of the results of their work, the scientific and administrative activities will be the subject of a week of intense confrontation where there will be the final pleasure of a wish and a virtual toast for the coming Christmas holidays, at the end of the work on Friday 18.
The pandemic does not stop scientific research: the REACT project starts in videoconference (and more)
In the virtual presence of dignitaries and researchers, an original and ambitious research project was launched. Its aim is to create an interface between the social perception of environmental quality and monitoring with low-cost, and therefore widely available, monitoring stations. Some twenty speakers were connected from Brussels, Tbilisi, Parma, Venice, Rome, Oklahoma and Padua, whose details are given in this summary.