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The study of complex systems demands more than just deep expertise, it requires collisions of interdisciplinary minds. That’s why, as part of the COgITOR Project, we’ve created a “bonus track” video highlighting the power of collaboration across disciplines. Whether you’re a researcher, innovator, or policymaker, this is a call to rethink how we approach innovation – together. Watch now and discover why connecting minds is not just a philosophy, it’s a necessity for tackling complex challenges.

Podcast

Episode #24: The study of complex systems demands more than just deep expertise, it requires collisions of interdisciplinary minds. That’s why, as part of the COgITOR Project, we’ve created a “bonus track” episode highlighting the power of collaboration across disciplines. Whether you’re a researcher, innovator, or policymaker, this is a call to rethink how we approach innovation – together.

Episode #23: Dr. Bevione talks about low‑grade heat—the kind usually considered too low in energy content to be useful.

Episode #22: Prof. Chiolerio presenta un innovativo sistema cibernetico basato su liquidi intelligenti. I sistemi colloidali descritti sono in grado di memorizzare dati, eseguire calcoli, resistere in ambienti estremi e autoripararsi. Integrano sensori, moduli di riconoscimento e generatori termici, aprendo nuove prospettive per la robotica autonoma.

Episode #21: Dr. Bevione presenta celle termo-elettrochimiche basate su idrogel per convertire il calore perduto a bassa temperatura in energia elettrica. Questi dispositivi, stampabili in 3D, possono alimentare sensori e strumenti in ambienti difficili, riducendo sprechi energetici.

Episode #20: Dr. Pilia proposes to couple together colloidal computing systems and tiny machine learning devices, an extremely promising set of devices featuring very limited energy consumptions and costs. His novel idea drafts a low cost device of the future, specifically conceived for edge computing.

Episode #19: Prof. Konkoli gives an inspiring talk on reservoir computing, crystal clear about many of the nowadays hot topics, such as unsupervised learning, neural networks, and memristors. The idea he is describing brings us to a fascinating upcoming technology of a sensing reservoir computing device.

Episode #18: Dr. Knez presents some among the most advanced plasma technologies to infiltrate materials and modify their chemistry, creating hybrids out of natural materials or providing new functionalities, such as electronic conductivity, to insulating materials. This groundbreaking innovation enables an infinite amount of practical applications.

Episode #17: Dr. Ulmann presents the analogue computers, showing how to solve partial differential equations and providing a fascinating paradigm that from vintage technologies moves to the future ones. Analogue computers are capable of solving very complex problems with a quite simple wiring and setup.

Episode #7A: Neste episódio do Cogitor Readings, Dr. Fortulan apresenta uma pesquisa colaborativa desenvolvida, que explora a computação não convencional utilizando coloides biológicos como reservatórios físicos.

Episode #16: Prof. Yolles analyses the COgITOR concept in light of the Mindset Agency Theory, a metacybernetic approach where the features of the colloidal autonomous system embody principles of self-regulation, self-organisation, and adaptability to external influences. Insights of this framework will help us in understanding the unique features of living systems when compared to cybernetic systems.

Episode #15: Prof. Strano discusses about the advancements at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of colloidal electronics / robotics, where the electronic devices have been suspended in fluid streams to provide higher functionalities. This exciting idea promises to enable sprayable / injectable fully functional autonomous devices, that could explore inaccessible areas.

Episode #14: Dr. Sen introduces us to the marvelous world of soap films and foams, whose development was done within the European projects “Progeny” and “SOFIA”, bringing our capabilities to the level of controlling the surface chemistry of the top and bottom layers of soap films. Foams are envisaged as photosynthetic reactors to perform sun-activated conversions. The upcoming technology enabled by foams is an artificial leave, capable of converting the carbon dioxide into solar fuels.

Episode #13: Dr. Krahne discusses how nanophotonic cavities can be made using simple metal-dielectric-metal structures with no lithographic steps needed. Such devices behave as fully tunable Fabry-Perot cavities featuring near zero permittivity materials, and represent an innovative technology for future photonic devices.

Episode #12: Prof. Suslov gives a review of electromagnetic field equations coupled to fluid flows, whose study has an incredibly broad range of applications, spanning from remote operation to atmospheric and climatic studies. Likewise the typical scale of application can range from nano and micro-devices, up to planetary scales.

Episode #11: Prof. Descrovi discusses how azocompounds can be exploited as light responsive additives in composite soft materials, whose sensitivity to light polarization provides a means to remotely control their shape. An exciting upcoming technology of light-activated devices is now reality.

Episode #10: Prof. Garoli presents research activity on iontronic devices, an extremely promising field that will enable processing information with ionic channels, instead of electronic ones. By leveraging on the abundance of ions he envisages multi-binary parallel logics to enable future technology conceived for neuromorphic computing and biosensing.

Episode #8: Dr. Tarabella discusses several examples of recent research performed with organic semiconductors and devices, developed with novel processing technologies and materials, featuring unprecedented sensing capabilities. Findings enable brand new devices based on soft matter of great availability and sustainability.

Episode #7: Dr. Fortulan presents amazing findings about the advanced electronic properties of both synthetic and natural colloids, in particular memfractance and reservoir computing (RC) tasks. He shows that RC is exceptionally executed by modified egg white proteins, providing an abundant source substrate, and featuring excellent figures of merit, compared with conventional artificial neural networks. The future technology enabled is computing with natural colloids.

Episode #6: Prof. Chiolerio discusses how the architecture design of a holonomic cybernetic system has changed and evolved to take into account recent advancements in the pioneering research on colloidal substrates. Liquid state machines, neuromorphic systems, learning and plasticity, multi-particle phase correlation are addressed. Findings enable an upcoming technology based on holonomic liquid devices for massively parallel computation.

Episode #5: Dr. Antipov discusses the challenges to be faced during the synthesis of commercial colloids, including routes to fabricate high stability, high purity bismuth ferrite nanoparticles featuring the desired oxidation state and crystalline phase. This exciting talk on nanomaterials synthesis for high tech applications brings us directly into the future.

Episode #4: Dr. Crepaldi proposes an innovative path towards establishing a digital twin of the colloid electrodynamics based on an artificial neural network. The consequences of such visionary idea is that artificial intelligence could be trained with the raw experimental measurements collected in the last years to create a comprehensive model, that later could be made free to access, making available to the broader community a precious resource.

Episode #3: Dr. Nunes dos Santos introduces us to the marvelous world of self-healing polymers, in other words plastic components that can restore their integrity after being damaged by scratches or cuts, by exploiting their labile chemical bonds that can be easily activated raising their temperature by some degrees. Such materials hold an enormous potential for many future applications, including home devices.

Episode #2: Dr. Nikolaidou presents living and hybrid unconventional materials, combining sustainable features with active properties, including sensing capabilities. Her exciting research is based on functionalized kombucha hydrogels, that involve living yeasts and bacteria communities populating a soft cellulose network. Future applications encompass smart living buildings and wearable devices.

Episode #1: Dr. Noushin Raeisi Kheirabad introduces us to the most recent exciting discoveries about the fault tolerance of colloid-based computing devices, arising from the amorphous characteristics of the colloidal mixture. These findings highlight the viability of colloid-based computing for future unconventional computing technologies.