Ducati, the sixth edition of the “Fisica in Moto” Summer School begins

Summer School “Physics in Motorcycles” – The sixth edition of the “Fisica in Moto” Summer School begins, the summer laboratory of physics applied to motorbikes organized by the Ducati Foundation. Open to Italian secondary school students, Summer School “Fisica in Moto” takes place at the Ducati headquarters in Borgo Panigale from 18 to 22 July 2016. The Laboratory is reserved for 25 deserving students with strong scientific predispositions: an opportunity to do theoretical and practical in-depth study of Classical Mechanics with a modern and original approach. Inside the Laboratory it is possible, for example, to experience the concreteness of the physical principles studied at school and the link between these and the design of a Ducati MotoGP motorcycle.

The students of the Summer School are all adults: 19 boys and 6 girls, selected both on the basis of profits and for the reasons they explained in a video presentation letter. They come from all over Italy and from different institutes: 19 of them come from scientific high schools, one from the classical high school, one from the Agricultural Technical Institute and four from ITIS. The Summer School is not simply an opportunity for students to engage with the world of engineering and academia, but above all it is the competition between laboratory research teams. Participants are divided into groups and each of them is assigned a different experimental piece of equipment, with which they must invent an experiment that allows them to model the physical behavior of a component of the motorcycle or engine, such as the brakes or clutch. The group that presents the experiment that is best suited to describing and predicting the real functioning of the object under study will be rewarded by a jury made up of university professors and researchers and secondary school teachers.

Also in this new edition of the "Fisica in Moto" Summer School, the laboratory teachers are Ducati engineers and professors from the Universities of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Bologna. Among the latter are the vice-rector of the Alma of Bologna Mirko Degli Esposti and the director of the CNR of the Emilian capital Vittorio Morandi.