Andrea Bisciotti is a PhD student at the Department of Physic and Earth Sciences at University of Ferrara, currently doing his internship at ZAG, Laboratory for Stone, Aggregate and Recycled Materials under mentorship of Dr Lucia Mancini and Asist. Prof. Dr Ana Mladenovič. During his time at ZAG he won the Sustainability Award “Le Strade del Futuro” (The roads of the future) of the PIARC Italia national competition.

PIARC is the world association in the field of road infrastructure with 142 member countries that was established in 1909. It is one of the main associations in the world for the exchange of knowledge and technologies in both infrastructure and road transport sector.

The project entitled Mobile automated separation devices with hyperspectral cameras for in-situ processing of infrastructure demolition and road works waste into recycled aggregates, presented by Andrea Bisciotti, is part of his PhD research project at the University of Ferrari. The presented text will be published in the PIARC proceedings “Le Strade del Futuro” and the project will be available in the Italian Pavilion during the XXVII PIARC World Road Congress in Prague in October 2023.

The decision on the award was made by the evaluation committee, led by prof. Vittorio Nicolosi from Tor Vergata University in Rome, together with a group of experts from the public infrastructure sector. In their words, “the Commission recognized the importance of the project, which enables the analysis and processing of waste, for the future in terms of environmental and social impacts. In particular, the project is of great importance due to the many renovations of public and private buildings and infrastructure in the coming years, with whereby this system enables faster separation and reuse of materials, making the recovery process economically and operationally sustainable and feasible on a large scale.”

The award ceremony will take place today, May 24, 2023 in Rome during the XXIX PIARC National Conference in the presence of the Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, the CEO of Anas S.p.A, Aldo Isi, and Edoardo Valenta, President of PIARC Italy and President of Anas. The event will be streamed live on PIARC YouTube channel.