Thursday, October 9, 2025 | 5:00 - 6:00 PM
Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering - Politecnico di Milano
Alpha Room (Building 24)
Abstract
Thursday, October 9, 2025, from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, in Aula Alfa at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano (Building 24), the second meeting of the seminar series Meet the STEP-CHANGErs – A Series of Voices Shaping Sustainable Change will take place.
The seminar series provides a platform to explore cutting-edge research in sustainability through the work of PhD students in the Science, Technology, and Policy for Sustainable Change program. Each session highlights how emerging research addresses real-world sustainability challenges, offering insights into innovative solutions and fostering a broader conversation on pathways toward systemic change.
The events also provide an important opportunity for networking among PhD students and the academic community, with an aperitif following each session.
Andrea Lucchini Huspek will present a talk entitled “Decoating of Cutting Tools Materials Exploiting Vacuum and Liquid Plasma Technologies”. His presentation will address the removal of protective coatings from cutting tools, which are widely used across almost all sectors of the manufacturing industry — from automotive to biomedical and electronics applications. Modern machining conditions require surfaces with high hardness and corrosion resistance, typically achieved through protective coatings. However, at the end of a tool’s service life, these coatings must be removed to allow for resharpening and regeneration. Traditionally, this process has relied on concentrated and harmful chemicals. Lucchini Huspek’s research proposes instead the use of vacuum and liquid plasma technologies, offering innovative and sustainable solutions for removing hard coatings from cutting tools.
Camilla Quaresmini will present her work entitled “Modeling Epistemic Fairness in Networked Opinion Dynamics: A Socio-Technical Approach”.
Her research aims to redefine algorithmic fairness as an epistemic issue rooted in power asymmetries. Focusing on diffusion processes — such as those related to sustainable mobility — it demonstrates how overlooking the distribution of credibility and knowledge can reinforce existing inequalities. Drawing on the philosophical theory of epistemic injustice, Quaresmini extends the Linear Threshold Model to capture how biases influence the adoption of new practices or technologies. She also introduces the principle of Epistemic Fairness, aimed at correcting distortions in credibility attribution, thereby improving both network equity and policy effectiveness. This socio-technical approach bridges philosophy and engineering, providing decision-support tools that translate normative insights into formal models for fairer and more sustainable policy design.
Please register here to participate.