Date Published:
Aug. 2, 2017, 4:49 p.m.
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB) is a research and innovation centre operating in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) domain. Founded in 2000 by Compagnia di San Paolo and Politecnico di Torino, today ISMB relies on the technological and process competences of around 150 researchers working in close cooperation with companies, academia and public administration.
ISMB operates according to the knowledge management model: this means that it plays an active role not only in devising innovative solutions, but also in their implementation and consequent developments. This approach represents a step forward with respect to technology transfer, and in this sense the evolutionary lines of European research are taken into account.
Vision and experience on cities and technology
ISMB is a non-for profit research centre focused on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which carries out research in partnership with private and public institutions. The mission of ISMB includes support to its partners in the evaluation of established or cutting edge technologies and of their introduction in the products and services of interest.
Among the recent projects carried out by ISMB with public administrations, the most significant is the introduction of a intelligent system for the remote control and management of street lighting, based on the installation of low-cost electronics (an alternative to the typical, capital intensive upgrading of all street light using LED technology) to optimize the timing of turning-on/off operations. Actual measurements carried out with the support of the target administrations showed that this solution is able to provide savings of 10-15% on the street lights’ electricity bills. Remote monitoring and control can also be extended to thermal energy management, with even higher savings.
ISMB is currently developing an offer based on two main principles: transparency and saving sharing model. Transparency is obtained by giving the customer web tools to actually check the energy consumption. The saving sharing model is applied by calculating ISMB’s compensation as a share of the actually obtained (and jointly measured/verified) savings. The model is not yet finalized and approved, mainly because it is quite different and innovative if compared to the usual, existing rules for the payment of services.
