Meet Impactscool’s Ambassadors: Lorenzo Stevenazzi

New appointment with the Impactscool community where we meet our Ambassadors. Today is the turn of Lorenzo Stevenazzi, a physics student at the University of Milan-Bicocca. Lorenza has a strong interest in the intersection of neuroscience and electronics. Passionate about technology and startups, he participated in the Silicon Valley Study Tour 2018 and subsequently became part of iBicocca, a university project to spread the entrepreneurial spirit. He deals with scientific dissemination at the Italian Physics Students Association and believes that the Third Mission is necessary for the project to reach everyone.

What does being an Impactscool Ambassador mean to you?

Being an Ambassador means to me having the opportunity to discuss the ethical aspects of technology and contribute to the debate to wish for a human future.

The future in three words…

Efficiency: increasingly optimized industrial processes will reduce production costs and time, achieving greater environmental sustainability.

 Education: workplaces will require new competencies that should be taught also taking advantage of broadband connections, increasing the number of students and overcoming geographical borders.

 Responsibility: the ever-increasing speed of technological progress requires us to be ready to take action, being experts and responsible to shape our future.

What are you doing today and what could your job be in the future?

I am currently a master’s student in physics of matter, specialization in electronics, and I am interested in neural interfaces, in other words, sensors that connect biological neurons and silicon hardware. The study of physics allows me to ask myself questions about what surrounds me and keeps me curious: in the future, I am willing to look for an equally challenging job. 

What are the greatest opportunities that technological development will bring and what, instead, the risks?

Progress brings novelty and new issues that should be addressed. I think the biggest risk is not to take a standpoint. Such passive attitude towards change could exclude the human component, for example in highly-automated work sectors and when men become the means, and not the final users, of innovation.

Technology, if correctly used, surely improves the quality of life but might reduce critical thinking and inventiveness, an essential factor in various jobs, such as in scientific research.

It is necessary to raise awareness of the consequences of progress to achieve a balanced relationship with technology itself.

How do you imagine 2050?

I imagine a future where technology is actually an extension and in support of human capabilities.

Regarding neuro-silicon interfaces, they will allow new ways of interaction between the mind and machines, with immediate advantages for paralyzed people or with missing limbs. I think the line between what is biological and artificial will become blurrier and a serious ethical and philosophical discussion to understand and lead the progress will be necessary.

What will your hobby be like in the future?

I like to learn about new cultures: with faster means of transport, this would be easier.