Adnkronos Parma, May 15 (Labitalia) – Engineers and industry meet at Sps Italia: vision, skills and responsibility to guide the digital and sustainable transition. Success in Parma for the conference 'Building tomorrow. Engineers protagonists of the transformation', promoted by the National Council of Engineers (Cni) and the Regional Federation of the Orders of Engineers of Emilia-Romagna (Fedinger), with the contribution to the coordination of the Order of Parma, the host province within Sps Italia, the most important trade fair dedicated to the intelligent industry.
An event that brought together professionals, institutions, businesses, academics and experts to reflect on the challenges of the digital and ecological transition, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and industry 5.0, forcefully reaffirming the role of the engineer as a key figure in the ongoing transformation. The day was led by Pietro Adrasto Ferraguti, editor-in-chief of 12 TV Parma, who accompanied the speeches of the numerous guests with rigor and competence.
The meeting was opened by Cni President Angelo Domenico Perrini, who emphasized the human and social value of the profession: “Behind every technology there are people, skills, vision and responsibility. It is not the machine that innovates, but the person who designs it and uses it with creativity and ethical awareness. The role of engineers today is not only to create technology, but to do so in a responsible way and oriented towards the concrete improvement of people's lives”. Perrini also underlined the importance of registration in the register for information engineers, as a guarantee of continuous training and respect for the code of ethics, to protect not only companies but the entire social system.
Alessio Colombi, Fedinger coordinator, spoke in the same vein, inviting us to look to the future with clarity and responsibility: We are living in a historical moment in which industry and with it the entire society is experiencing two epochal transformations: the digital transition and the ecological transition. These are systemic challenges, involving technologies, processes, people and organizational models. Tomorrow cannot be predicted: it is designed, built, guided. And it is not built alone: it is built together, with vision, competence and responsibility”.
A strong call to the ethics of innovation came from Gennaro Annunziata, C3i Coordinator, who emphasized the impact of technologies on humanity and the role of regulated professions: “With the advent of artificial intelligence and the environmental transition, the ethical aspect is often overlooked. Regulated professions make the difference because they must refer to a code of ethics that also guarantees ethical aspects in the design of new technologies. Furthermore, it is essential to have a constant dialogue with other stakeholders: institutions, academia, research. The ideas may be singular, but the vision must be shared”. Annunziata also drew attention to cybersecurity, explaining how investments in this area should not be considered accessories, but central to job safety and the very stability of manufacturing.
Following this, Claudio Ferrari, president of the Parma Order of Engineers, underlined the importance of the presence of the Orders in a trade fair context such as Sps, where innovation is also measured in terms of ideas: “In a trade fair where innovative products are exhibited, we wanted to exhibit the ideas and knowledge that lie behind the creation of advanced technological products. The orders have an institutional role in the country system and contribute in terms of collaboration. If you don't collaborate, you don't build: collaboration is essential to contribute to the common good and make the country competitive”.
The interventions of the business world are highly anticipated. Giovanni Baroni, Vice President of Confindustria and President of Piccola Industria, launched an appeal for responsibility: “Artificial intelligence is certainly a cultural revolution. It is an event that small and medium-sized businesses cannot miss, but the point is the governance of this technology. Engineers must be trained for its application and knowledge, but also to reduce its risks. Artificial intelligence mixes existing data: in terms of creativity it brings nothing. Creativity and true innovation are still made by human beings”.
Gabriele Buia, president of the Parma Union of Industrialists, also spoke of a cultural revolution: “I would call artificial intelligence a cultural revolution on a par with the introduction of writing. We must collaborate at all levels of the country system. We need a shared European vision: without a single regulation, but above all not penalizing compared to other countries less rigid in terms of rules, we will not be able to be competitive. But we must also be clear with the government: talking about AI is important, but if we do not overcome the competitive gap, starting from the cost of energy, bureaucracy, regulation, we risk being left behind. Europe risks being turned off by the United States and China, because we are blocked by self-imposed limits. Artificial intelligence is a technology that we must guide, but we need to put ourselves in a position to be competitive”. Buia concluded by underlining the urgency of investing in training and professional requalification.
The vice president of the Emilia-Romagna Region Vincenzo Colla highlighted the subsidiary role of engineers for the quality of the system: "Our region has an exceptional manufacturing economy and definitely needs engineering to qualify the territory. When there are good engineers, there is good quality at all levels, both relational and supply chain. And it is not true that our young people do not want to return: we need to create the conditions to retain them or make them return to Italy".
Finally, the conference saw the participation of representatives of the academic and research world, such as Andrea Prati, Vice-Rector of the University of Parma, who underlined the synergy between the university and the engineering world 'at the service of Italian civil society'. Andrea Zappettini (Cnr), Claudio Arlandini (Cineca), Emanuele Frontoni (University of Macerata) and Lorenzo Ivaldi (Cybersecurity C3i) brought important contributions on advanced materials, automation, cybersecurity and standards for intelligent manufacturing, in a multidisciplinary dialogue that demonstrated how the future of innovation can only be built in an integrated and collaborative way.