A group of researchers from the University of Trieste, in collaboration with the CIMeC (Interdepartmental Centre for the Mind and Brain) of the University of Trento, has identified signs of intentional behaviour in insect larvae, traditionally thought to be guided exclusively by reflexes to external stimuli. 

The results of the study, published in Scientific Reports (Nature Group), raise interesting questions about the criteria for attributing intentionality to different animal species, how far we can go - phylogenetically and in terms of the complexity of the neural system - and how far we can recognise forms of volition.

The researchers, in particular, studied larvae of the beetle Tenebrio molitor. Also known as the mealworm, it is the first insect to have been officially approved for marketing in Europe as an affordable, sustainable and advantageous alternative source of protein to traditional ones such as meat and fish.

Cinzia Chiandetti, associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Trieste and head of the Animal Cognition Laboratory: ‘As the results indicate, these animals possess a higher level of cognitive capacity than previously intuited and hypothesised; although they do not imply that all the larvae's behaviour is intentional, they emphasise the complexity of their mental life. They reveal, that is, that these insect larvae - traditionally considered automata, i.e. creatures that would not be able to perform voluntary actions, but would merely respond to external stimuli through reflexes - are capable of articulated decision-making processes, are able to weigh different options, weigh costs and benefits and choose which action to take, demonstrating flexibility to achieve desired results. With a changed and increased sensitivity in the general public to issues such as pollution and environmental impact of intensive livestock farming, anti-speciesism, and animal exploitation, we hope that this discovery will help influence virtuous attitudes in humans.’

In a 3D Y-shaped, specially printed maze (as shown in the figure), the research team trained Tenebrio molitor larvae to prefer one arm to the other in order to gain access to food, observing their ability to learn and, therefore, to head for the side associated with the reward. In the second stage of the study, the researchers applied the so-called ‘reinforcer devaluation paradigm’: i.e. in a different environment, they paired the food with an aversive stimulus, exacerbating it by adding lemon. In a third and final stage, the larvae were tested again in the Y-maze to assess their willingness to choose the target branch where they had received the food reward during initial training. What emerged was that, after devaluation of the reward, the larvae significantly reduced their visits to the target branch: that is, they formed a mental representation of the action-consequence relationship, demonstrating flexible control of actions to obtain desired results and avoid unpleasant ones. 

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Full study published in Scientific Reports

Goal-directed behavior in Tenebrio molitor larvae

UniTS students now have a new ‘relax space’ in the basement of the DEAMS Department.

Thanks to contributions from local companies such as Modiano, NPV Investment, SME and Divulgando, the room now offers desks, stools, two football tables and shelves for book crossing, all based on students’ requests.

Apleona provided the room with an air-conditioner to regulate the temperature of the space.

The room is open to all University students from Monday to Friday from 7:45 to 20:00.

Rector Roberto Di Lenarda, Vice-Rector Valter Sergo, Director General Luciana Rozzini, Head of DEAMS Donata Vianelli, Stefano Crechici from Modiano, Valentino Pediroda from NPV Investment, Lucio Gomiero from SME, Riccamboni and Mereu from Divulgando were all present at the inauguration.

The 2024 FVG Digital Report ‘Business Strategies in the age of AI: How IT enterprises tackle and change the market’ analyses and describes how the many small and medium-sized companies in the digital world of FVG, with great dynamism, are generating new product and service offers related to Artificial Intelligence. 

A group of researchers and PhD students from DEAMS analysed how AI companies are ‘laying the groundwork’ for AI in its various forms with their customers. What are the business models of AI-based digital enterprises? Mainly two: niche and ‘digital tailoring’ applications and the classic ‘system integrator’. There are still few stand-alone solutions.

The Report produced by DITEDI, now in its fourth edition, was realised with the scientific contribution of the DEAMS Department of UniTS (in collaboration with colleagues from UniUD, Area Science Park and Banca Intesa Reserach Department), which reconstructed the technological, sector-based and market diversification strategies of mechanical engineering companies, identifying some development trajectories typical of the sector. 

The full report is available at https://fvgdigitale.ditedi.it

The 2024 data show that the number of ICT companies in the region (2908) is seeing a constant and regular increase. +2.4% compared to 2022, for a total of 2214 companies in Friuli Venezia Giulia operating in the ICT sector, up by 0.9% again compared to 2022, with the province of Udine representing the reference point for ICT companies in the region, as it hosts almost half of those identified.

Joint stock companies (1056 units) represent the prevalent corporate structure, accounting for 47.7% of the total, increasing by +1.7% since 2022. They are followed by sole proprietorships (812 units, 36.7%), which record a more significant nominal increase, with 31 more units compared to 2022, offsetting the decrease of 32 units among partnerships (318).

From an economic point of view, after a negative 2020, with a more pronounced decrease for the hardware sector and the recovery in 2021, 2022 was still a positive year, overall better than the pre-Covid period. On the other hand, 2023 settled for more modest increases in turnover, lower than the previous year except for service industries. Overall, there is a fluctuating trend over time, with an improvement in 2021, a decline in 2022 and a substantial hold in 2023, mainly in favour of operations management. With respect to offer type, the hardware sector also suffers the most in terms of profitability.

In any case, the regional digital sector represents a strong innovative drive for the local economy and business system. In fact, the ICT sector currently has 102 innovative start-ups, which operate mainly in software development and account for 52% of all regional start-ups. 

Other such signs can also be found in the innovation propensity indicator, which shows that 13% of companies in the regional ICT sector present at least one sign of innovation. Such companies represent 9% of all regional companies with an objective propensity for innovation.

Looking instead at patenting activity, a progressive increase since 2017 for both Italian and European filings immediately jumps out. While this trend is positive, it shows how in absolute terms the sector has a low propensity for patenting compared to much higher numbers in ‘analogue’ sectors.

The topic of the creditworthiness of companies belonging to the digital cluster was also examined in depth, thanks to the collaboration with Modefinance Srl. The analysis highlights that the credit profile of digital companies operating in FVG is solid and making steady progress through the years. At the same time, the average riskiness of companies in the sector appears limited. Therefore, we see a sector growing in a harmonious way without showing the ‘jerks’ typical of other IT contexts, such as those of America, which are on the contrary characterised by greater riskiness, but also by higher average growth rates.

The FVG digital ecosystem thus appears to be growing and ready for the AI challenge.

Human Rights Day is observed annually around the world on 10th December and commemorates the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed in Paris in 1948. This landmark document enshrines the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

This year's theme, ‘Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now’, is a call to acknowledge the importance and relevance of human rights in our everyday lives. 

We have an opportunity to change perceptions by speaking up against hate speech, correcting misinformation and countering disinformation. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, ‘Human rights are the foundation for peaceful, just, and inclusive societies.’

The new Innovator Community Lab (ICL) of the University of Trieste has been officially presented, a training course dedicated to innovation and young entrepreneurship that continues and renews the role of the CLab.

The ICL project will have a strong international vocation and will see the introduction of significant structural innovations: the lab, which will still be aimed at UniTS students wishing to develop an entrepreneurial project based on an original idea, will award participants with training credits that will form part of the student’s university career.

At the end of the one-year course, the new programme will award five scholarships worth 5,000 euros each for the best students and participation in short training stays. Starting this year, two winners will travel as visiting students to a major innovation centre.

The call for applications for the new Innovator Community Lab 2025, presented at the meeting, will select 30 UniTS students to start entrepreneurial training. The deadline for applications is 20th January 2025, all information is available on the Innovator Community Lab portal.

The announcement of the new ICLab was made during the annual event that concludes the CLab’s activities: the evening had opened with a round table entitled ‘The revolution of failure: the engine of innovation’. Moderated by Cristiano Degano, Regional President of the Order of Journalists, the discussion was attended by experts and business leaders such as Elisabeth Weingraber, business consultant; Gerd Pircher, CEO of HSBC Italy; Alberto Conta, Head of Administration of illycaffè; Susanna Martucci, CEO of Alisea Società Benefit; and Serena Zacchigna, Professor of Molecular Biology at UniTS and ICGEB Cardiovascular Biology Group Leader. The speakers offered young entrepreneurs insights on how to turn failure into an opportunity for growth and success.

The event also featured students from the course who, at the end of a year of training and coaching, transformed business ideas into structured projects ready for the market. The finalists presented the projects they had developed in a wide range of fields using frontier technologies in strategic sectors or with fast-growing markets: from artificial intelligence to renewable energies, from sustainable home heating to the enhancement of Made in Italy, to the development of platforms for customising fantasy games.

The winners of this edition were Leonardo Zamparini, a Physics student, and Valentina Coggiola, a Marketing & Management student, with the BrusaDoor project, and three Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics students - Ivan Buttignon, Tommaso Moro and Enrico Savorgnan – with the LiteAI project.

BrusaDoor proposes the development of an infrared radiant door for home heating, with an innovative design and intelligent management that optimises space and ensures thermal comfort, effectively integrating heating and interior design.

LiteAI, on the other hand, aims to provide tools that can improve children’s educational experience, offering fully customised, inclusive learning paths focused on the development of soft skills through playful-pedagogical activities.

Finally, during the meeting, the new Innovator Community Lab 2025 call for proposals was presented, which will continue its objective of training young entrepreneurs and supporting the growth of innovation. The University of Trieste thus confirms its role as promoter of young entrepreneurship, enhancing the talent and creativity of its students.

‘Congratulations to the winners and to all the participants in the training course,’ concluded Rodolfo Taccani, Deputy Rector for Technology Transfer. ‘All the students involved have demonstrated creativity, determination and a high level of entrepreneurial spirit. We are proud as a university to contribute to the training of a generation of innovators that our entrepreneurial system sorely needs.’

A dynamic sector, ready to face the challenges of innovation and diversification. This is the conclusion of the report of the FVG Metalworking Observatory, in which the DEAMS Department of UniTS has participated, providing cases and evidence of this phenomenon.

Area Science Park, the University of Udine and Intesa Sanpaolo were also scientific partners in the project.

These are the three main themes that emerged from the report:

International Vocation

The engineering sector represents 46% of the regional manufacturing industry, with an electromechanical specialisation (94% of the engineering sector). In the November 2024 snapshot, the sector ‘held up’ better than predicted in the June flash report, with 5,114 companies (-0.3% compared to November 2023, instead of -0.7%), while the rest of manufacturing performed in line with forecasts. The province of Udine, which accounts for 45% of the regional companies, is the area that has recorded the largest decline since 2021 (-2.3%). The province of Pordenone remained stable with 32% of the companies. The tendency towards internationalisation remains strong (41% of companies); exports are more widespread among medium and large companies, which are often innovative and certified.

Diversification and Economic Performance

Intesa Sanpaolo's internal survey of its commercial network shows that FVG companies are increasing the geographical diversification of their sales and supply markets, above the Italian average. In 2023, turnover growth at current prices was 22.5%, with an improvement in margins (+2 points compared to 2019), driven by foreign operations (growth of 25.9%) and participation in the construction supply chain.

Business Diversification Strategies

In a rapidly changing market, FVG companies are exploring new strategies: some are focusing on geographical or sectoral diversification to grow or to avoid crises, while others are strengthening their presence in existing markets. However, diversification requires transversal skills and the ability to adapt to the rules of new markets not possessed by all companies.

From 4th to 8th December 2024, Trieste University Press (EUT) will be among the 597 exhibitors at ‘Più libri più liberi’ (the more books, the more freedom), the national fair of small and medium-sized publishers, hosted at the Rome Convention Centre - La Nuvola. A unique appointment for the publishing world that will bring together 597 exhibitors from all over Italy, ready to present novelties and catalogues to the general public.

EUT will be part of the UPI – Italian University Press collective stand (Stand B66-B68), in collaboration with other academic and scientific publishers. During the five days of the fair, curated by Chiara Valerio, more than 700 events are planned, including meetings with authors, debates and readings, offering the public and professionals an opportunity to dialogue and discover the new frontiers of small and medium publishing.

The theme of the 23rd edition, ‘The Measure of the World’, celebrates the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo, author of The Million. A tribute to imagination as a tool for exploring and narrating the world through the pages of books, real maps for discovering new territories of thought.

Once again this year UniTS has taken ‘a hop, skip and a jump for research’!

A blue wave of 300 runners took part in the Telethon 24x1 Hour Relay Race, now tradition, with representatives from the entire academic community. The race was held in Udine over the weekend of 30th November and 1st December.

The runners, grouped in teams, each ran a one-hour stretch on the route established by organisers in the historic centre of Udine.

From Piazzale Europa to Piazza I Maggio in Udine, the UniTS running team mobilised all members of the University of Trieste to participate in the initiative dedicated to charitable causes and raising awareness of the importance of research of rare genetic diseases.

Vice-Rector Valter Sergo ran part of the race and took the lead at the opening of the event, along with Director General Luciana Rozzini and four heads of department (Massimo Degrassi - DiSU, Ivan Donati - DSV, Stefano Parolai - MIGe and Donata Vianelli - DEAMS) and a large number of professors, technical and administrative staff and students, some even braving the cold night-time temperatures.

By taking part in this initiative, the University community reaffirmed its commitment to research and its support for public initiatives which have a profound impact on society.

Once again in this edition of the Telethon, the UniTS community were the most numerous, colourful and festive representation of Trieste.

Five UniTS PhD graduates were awarded € 3,000 each in the inaugural edition of the PHD Innovation Award, the prize designed to celebrate the merit, innovation and creativity of young scientists in the year of the University of Trieste’s 100th Anniversary.

The winners are:

Francesco Armillotta, PhD Course in Physics, with a thesis entitled ‘Mono and Bi-metallic Tetra Pyridyl Porphyrin Monolayers from Uhv to Near - Ambient Conditions’, supervisor Erik Vesselli;

Beatrice Bartolomei, PhD Course in Nanotechnology, with a thesis on ‘Carbon Nanodots: from Purification Strategies to Multifunctional Materials’, supervisor Maurizio Prato and coordinator Alberto Morgante;

Luca Grisetti, PhD Course in Molecular Biomedicine, with a thesis entitled ‘The role of Aurora Kinase A in the Development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and in the Regulation of Programmed Death - Ligand 1’, supervisors Claudio Tiribelli and Devis Pascut, coordinator Germana Meroni;

Silvia Mauri, PhD Course in Nanontechnology, with a thesis on ‘Operando Soft X - Ray Absorption Spectroscopy Applications for the Investigation of Surface Reactivity of Heterogeneous Catalysts for Methanol Valorization’, supervisor Piero Torelli, coordinator Alberto Mogante;

and

Paola Tesolin, PhD Course in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences, with a thesis on ‘Phenotypic High Throughput Screening Highlights Promising Molecules for the Treatment of SLC7A8 Dependent Age - Related Hearing LO’, speakers Paolo Gasparini and Giorgia Girotto, coordinator Paolo Gasparini.

The response from the call for applications for the first PHD Innovation Award was exceptional. Out of 220 eligible applicants, as many as 95 students applied (56% women), demonstrating their self-belief in the excellence of their work. 

The awards ceremony was opened with greetings from the Rector Roberto Di Lenarda, the Director of the UniTS Doctoral School Alessandro Baraldi, and speeches from the three external judges of the award: Maurizio Manzin, Professor at the University of Trento, with a speech on ‘Innovation and technoscience in the post-thinking era’, Silvia Gross, Professor at the University of Padova, with ‘Chemistry between past, present and future: a versatile tool for the green transition' and Anna Cereseto, Professor at the University of Trento, on ‘The genome editing revolution in the life sciences: from advanced therapies to the new agrifood’.

‘In recent years, UniTS has shown a firm commitment to strengthening higher education. Since 2019/2020, we have significantly increased the number of scholarships funded directly by the University, reaching almost 200 places in the latest call for applications for the 13 PhD courses,’ emphasised Prof. Baraldi. ’Not only have we increased the number of places available, but we have also seen an increase in course popularity. This year, for the 40th round of PhD grants, applications exceeded 1,000, marking an increase of 21% over the previous year and 53% over two years ago.’

In the photo: Prof. Alessandro Baraldi with the three winners present at the award ceremony

Over 4,000 Italian teams responded to the invitation made by Red Bull Basement, the international event that brings together a new generation of innovators ready to conceive, develop and launch their ideas with the acceleration of AI.

Innovators and emerging entrepreneurs from all over Italy presented new-generation ideas and solutions and, after examining all the entries, the national jury selected the winning idea: it is ‘BatterIT’ presented by Andrea Berti, a PhD student in Nanotechnology at UniTS, and Andrea Miotto, currently employed at Ferrari in the Marketing and Finance sector.

They will therefore represent Italy at the Red Bull Basement World Final in Tokyo from 2nd to 5th December 2024.

Despite the high quality of the finalist entries, which made the choice truly challenging, the jury was unanimous in awarding victory to BatterIT, an innovative hybrid motor that combines a sodium battery and a combustion engine.

Unlike lithium batteries, sodium batteries are made from abundant and low-cost materials such as salt and are fully recyclable, non-flammable and non-toxic to humans while maintaining their efficiency over a longer lifetime. Based on these advantages, BatterIT paves the way for greener, safer and more durable solutions in the electrified transport sector.

‘Our idea is unique because it focuses on an under-explored area that nevertheless presents great opportunities: the application of sodium batteries in the transport sector,’ the winners explain. ’Although this technology is rooted in decades of development and has significant potential, research in the automotive sector is still limited and few companies are actively working on its real possibilities.

‘BatterIT has the potential to transform the world of transport by directly addressing one of the most pressing needs in the automotive market: the demand for safer and more sustainable hybrid solutions. Sodium batteries, with their reliability, affordability, environmental safety and recyclability, offer an attractive alternative to traditional lithium technologies. By reducing dependence on scarce, expensive and polluting materials, they not only

make green energy more accessible but also achieve a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions during the production and extraction processes.

This makes our solution a game-changer in the world of sustainable mobility, able to accelerate the transition to cleaner and more inclusive energy systems,' they conclude.