The University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) is one of the 7 Universities of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. It has a university statute, focused on professional training and applied research. Together with the University of Southern Switzerland (USI), it is the only Italian language university pole in Switzerland, with almost 4’000 students mainly in the Lugano region. Besides basic education, SUPSI offers postgraduate courses and applied research facilities to local, national and international industries. SUPSI successfully participated and is currently active in a number of EU projects within the scope of the various framework programs and special research actions like EUREKA. Moreover, SUPSI is funded through regular national research programs and direct applied-research grants from the industry. SUPSI is structured in four main departments, which in turn are organized in institutes and laboratories.

The Department involved in this proposal is the Department of Innovative Technologies (DTI). The Thermo-fluid Dynamics (TFD) laboratory is part of the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Technology Institute (MEMTI) that belongs to the DTI. The TFD Laboratory is headed by Professor M.C. Barbato and has major experience in performing thermo-fluid dynamic studies of components for industrial systems, assisting in their development and participating proactively in their optimisation. The TFD lab. Is member of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER) for Heat and Electricity storage.

The Hybrid Materials (HM) laboratory, headed by Prof. A. Ortona, deals with applied research and teaching in the field of science and technology of materials. The HM Lab research is focused on the development, characterization and study of the relationships between production processes and final characteristics of innovative materials of technological interest, which are studied in the framework of several research projects that the laboratory leads in collaboration with companies and institutions both in Switzerland and abroad.