Sustainable Mobility and Innovation: The Commitment of Avogadro Students in Turin
The students of the Avogadro School Institute in Turin, who participated in the ASOC educationa path as Team OpenAVO, are about to open a bike repair shop at their school. Thanks to a grant from the Bloomberg Foundation and the City of Turin, they will also finally be able to upgrade the bike parking area by installing new racks.
"We enthusiastically seized this opportunity," explains Professor Alfonso Carlone, "by presenting two twin projects. One is focused on infrastructure, which involves opening a bike repair shop and improving the bike parking area in the school courtyard. The other is dedicated to educational activities, such as safety and the responsible use of bicycles, as well as bike maintenance. This project includes the involvement of experts in courses aimed at students, who in turn commit to sharing the information they’ve learned by creating videos and websites. We are very proud to have won the grant along with 10 other schools in the area, and we are already working to complete our proposals."
Sustainable mobility was at the heart of their interests during the 2023-2024 edition of At the School of OpenCohesion programme. At the end of their civic monitoring of the BICIPLAN 6 CYCLABLE NETWORK CONNECTION - CYCLABLE PRIORITY ROADS project, they received an award from the Senate of the Republic, but for them, that was just the start of their journey on two wheels.
The team also participated in the national competition organized by Unioncamere "Storie di Alternanza", with a video about the history and developments of the project funded by cohesion policies and monitored through ASOC. The project's goal is to improve the cyclable priority roads in Turin and promote sustainable urban mobility. Civic monitoring has shown that the initiative is effective, though there may be some challenges, particularly in terms of management.
During their research, in addition to the data gathered from various sources, the interviews with experts from the Polytechnic University of Turin and from Mobyforall, FIAB Torino Bici & Dintorni, the Torino Respira association, ARPA Piemonte, as well as the staff of the Department of Mobility, proved to be very useful for the production of the video. The students were able to meet these experts during different stages of the project. Throughout all the meetings, it was emphasized that the use of bicycles for transportation is essential to reduce traffic and pollution, thereby improving the city's livability and the population's health.
As reported by the team’s infographics, it was found that the kilometers of bike lanes in Turin have significantly increased (from 190 in 2013 to the current 270), as has the number of citizens using bicycles, although not yet enough to significantly impact mobility in Turin.
In all the initiatives undertaken, the students have actively put themselves to the test. To strengthen teamwork and overcome initial difficulties, they applied the Agile technique within the team, a methodology that promotes collaboration and shared leadership. They acquired new skills and experimented with innovative storytelling techniques, bringing the project and their civic monitoring research into the metaverse.
"I used augmented reality to create a virtual experience about our 'Biciplan' project, aiming to convey our journey in an innovative and, above all, interactive way," says Enea Tramontana from Team OpenAVO. "I developed everything using a headset called Meta Quest 2, which was donated to the school by the Mondo Digitale Foundation. This experience was very useful to me and enhanced my skills as an IT specialist."
The students continue their commitment initiated with ASOC to keep the focus on sustainable mobility in the city. For example, they plan to create a system to track and analyze home-to-school mobility and reward those who use bicycles.
