IT Life: The passion lives in the laboratory, in nanotechnology – TechWeekEurope

She loves being outdoors, running, and climbing (currently practice in soft version with children aged 8 and 10 years) but when it works Giovanni Isella never puts his head out center “in the basement” of laboratotio LNESS (Laboratory for Nanotechnology, Epitaxy on Silicon and Spintronics) of the Polytechnic of Milan Bicocca and the University. Here directs research on materials based on silicon-germanium , a complex work explains: “The band silicon-germanium is responsible for developing new materials both for physics studies but especially crucial for the realization of optoelectronic devices for IT applications and sensors “. In the past I worked for about a year and a half at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, loves the classics, especially English speakers, including Dickens and John Fante …

Giovanni Isella, directs research on materials based on silicon-germanium to LNESS

1 – What was the best project of his career? What has most passionate for the innovations that led to the technological challenge?
The project I was most passionate to date has been the attempt to create a laser source, for use in the field IT, from materials commonly considered “ indatti ” for this purpose. To make “ laser compatible ” semiconductor materials such as silicon and germanium, it was necessary to deform in a controlled manner to levels close to the breaking point, a challenge is not really closed and still open … “there’s room for improvement” …

2 – What project is following today of particular innovation?
The research project in which we are more committed as laboratory that deals with development of new materials for electronics and photonics revolves around the “ silicon photonics ” or the ability to realize photonic devices that use silicon, the material at the base of microelectronics. Many “big players” such as Intel and IBM are working on the realization of “ optical interconnects ” or to replace the electrical optical interconnects in microprocessors of the future-next, which will contain several tens or hundreds of cores. The exciting aspect is the duty to leverage a wide variety of physical properties (electronic, optical, but also mechanical) to obtain the material with the characteristics of “right”. A few steps in the right direction we’re doing as evidenced by our recent publications in journals such as Nature Photonics.

3 – Which technology used ten years ago?
In ten years the center LNESS (Laboratory of Nanotechnology, Epitaxy on Silicon and Spintronics) of the Politecnico di Milano University of Milano-Bicocca much has changed. The technologies that we dealt ten engages as “strained-silicon” are now part of our notebook processors.

4 – Which technology do you think you will use in the next ten years?
I think it will begin to emergence of new paradigms do not necessarily tied to “on-off” and “1-0″ but based on quantum computation or manipulation of the spin, the magnetic needle of the compass associated with each electron.

5 – What is your hero instead of technology and what is its negative character (if you have)?
Do not think you can define technology but it certainly is a hero Reinhold Messner. In an interview a few years ago, he said that the real mountaineering challenge of the future is to do more with less. I think it applies to many areas of human activity. Simplify and regain “intellectual control” of our actions would reduce the risk of generating systems so complex as to be incomprehensible.

6 – What was your favorite technology? What we loved the most?
The open source software. I like the idea that there is someone who will let him to not conform to the dictates of big brains from Microsoft and Apple.

7 – Apart from the current company where she works, which company she admires the work he is doing in IT?
The laboratory CEA-LETI in Grenoble, have at their disposal means unimaginable in Italy but I would say that know how to exploit them fully.

8 – What is the biggest challenge for an IT department today?
Make it clear what services are useful and which are not

9 – Favourable to the Cloud or contrary to the Cloud?
Very favorable. My carelessness is proverbial. Knowing that with a connection and a smartphone can I recover my data calms me.

10- what he wanted to do as a child?
I do not know why, but the miner. Today after a long day in the lab, which is located in the basement, I can not wait to get out to get me a ride.

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