The project “Towards the Smart Villages of Italy” has come to life thanks to the collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Politecnico di Milano. The project research group includes Andrea Pimpinella, research fellow in Telecommunications at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering.
The initiative, funded by the Progetto Rocca Project, was developed by Prof. Giovanna Fossa from the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment of the Politecnico di Milano together with Prof. Brent Ryan from the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
MIT students and professors conducted ten days of fieldwork, travelling to some of the most economically disadvantaged and poorest areas of Europe in inland Sicily (Favara, Vizzini and Centuripe), exploring the role of cultural heritage, digitization and WFH as tools to promote new forms of sustainable development. From this perspective, the digital transition is an opportunity that cannot be missed. The class also compared similar conditions of marginalisation in the Alps (Valtellina, Tirano and Teglio). The students are now working on their final projects, focusing on certain topics, such as: spatial metrics of abandonment in Sicily, proposal for a regional WFH plan in Valtellina, digital awareness of small businesses, opportunities for Valtellina in view of the upcoming Winter Olympics and planning guidelines on tourism and food production in Sicily.
In such a context, the understanding of people habits (e.g., mobility patterns in the region or density of activity and frequency of visit in cities) is of paramount importance for urban planners and designers. As an example, the identification of areas with denser human activity as well as the analysis of its evolution over time provide crucial insights about where and when a specific service is more needed, thus driving decisions and investments of policy makers and institutions. Indeed, there is a close relationship between the habits of a group of people and the characteristics of the environment where such people live, both in terms of infrastructures (e.g., transportation systems, leisure or healthcare facilities, digital access, etc.) and type of land use (residential, commercial, or industrial). Due to the ubiquity of cellular networks and the popularity of mobile devices, similar considerations apply also to mobile users’ communication habits.
In other words, a careful analysis of data collected at the access of mobile networks,which represents the specific contribution of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, can reveal interesting aspects of social, topological, and technological phenomena at large scales. For these reasons, the research team will leverage a nation-wide dataset containing several Key Performance Indicators gathered at the access of the LTE cellular network of Vodafone Italy. Aim of the analysis is the study and modelling of the spatial and temporal characteristics of mobile users’ activity, with specific focus on the Italian countryside and small towns system.