Press release -
Wavision, a revolutionary technology for food quality
Milan, 6 March 2024 - Packaged food products can hide contaminants that threaten product quality, causing product recalls or endangering consumers' health. To meet this challenge, a team of students from Alta Scuola Politecnica - a two-year joint excellence programme of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino - supported by Wavision s.r.l., a spin-off of Politecnico di Torino, have worked on the Wavisionproject, an innovative solution using microwave sensors and Machine Learning algorithms.
Food companies are producing ever larger volumes of packaged food to meet the growing and taking advantage of increased process automation, and this means a proportional increase in the risk of food contamination. Protecting consumer safety allows companies to retain customer confidence and safeguard brand reputation, which is crucial for them. It is therefore essential that any contaminants are detected before products are marketed.
The project’s underlying technology uses an innovative detection principle: microwaves can see the difference between the product to be inspected and any foreign body contained in it. When contamination occurs, the microwaves are altered in such a way that the algorithms developed by Wavision can detect the contamination. The capabilities of this system are an innovation aimed at overcoming the intrinsic limitations of already available devices, as the detection principle is based on a physical property that has never been considered for this purpose before, namely, dielectric contrast. For example, X-ray-based devices exploit the contrast in density between product and contaminant, and therefore, their detection capabilities only cover the most frequent classes of contaminants found in the food industry, such as plastics, glass, wood, etc.
The project now runs in five directions. Initially, it will work to improve the setup of the prototype for experiments, proposing an alternative that uses cheaper components without jeopardising efficiency. Next, the dataset will be expanded to strengthen robustness tests and improve the ability to identify contaminants. A theoretical analysis of biological contaminants will be also performed to identify prevailing ones. Advanced Machine Learning models will also be evaluated to improve detection accuracy and reduce calibration time. Finally, a trained Neural Network model will be introduced to detect and manage anomalies in the industrial production chain.
Much progress has been made but some research questions still remain open. However, the Wavision team's innovative approach addresses many of the limitations of current contaminant detection methods, aiming to reduce costs and waste and ensure consumer safety. This advancement in technology could revolutionise the industry, ensuring safer products and consumer confidence.
ASP
Alta Scuola Politecnica (ASP) is a two-year programme of excellence, parallel to Laurea Magistrale (equivalent to Master of Science) programmes, that Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino jointly launched in autumn 2004. Each year ASP selects, on the basis of individual merit and skills, 150 talented young people (90 from Politecnico di Milano and 60 from Politecnico di Torino) from among students who have regularly completed their three-year Laurea (equivalent to Bachelor of Science) programmes within the set timing and are enrolling in a Laurea Magistrale (Master of Science) programme at Politecnico di Milano or Politecnico di Torino. The ASP Community is made up of students from about 20 different countries; more than a third of them are women. The official language of ASP is English.
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Politecnico di Milano is a scientific-technological university which trains engineers, architects and industrial designers.
The University has always focused on the quality and innovation of its teaching and research, developing a fruitful relationship with business and productive world by means of experimental research and technological transfer.
Research has always been linked to didactics and it is a priority commitment which has allowed Politecnico Milano to achieve high quality results at an international level as to join the university to the business world. Research constitutes a parallel path to that formed by cooperation and alliances with the industrial system.
Knowing the world in which you are going to work is a vital requirement for training students. By referring back to the needs of the industrial world and public administration, research is facilitated in following new paths and dealing with the need for constant and rapid innovation. The alliance with the industrial world, in many cases favored by Fondazione Politecnico and by consortiums to which Politecnico belong, allows the university to follow the vocation of the territories in which it operates and to be a stimulus for their development.
The challenge which is being met today projects this tradition which is strongly rooted in the territory beyond the borders of the country, in a relationship which is developing first of all at the European level with the objective of contributing to the creation of a single professional training market. Politecnico takes part in several research, sites and training projects collaborating with the most qualified European universities. Politecnico's contribution is increasingly being extended to other countries: from North America to Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe. Today the drive to internationalization sees Politecnico Milano taking part into the European and world network of leading technical universities and it offers several courses beside many which are entirely taught in English.
