What does the collaboration between academic research and industrial innovation look like in practice? We saw a live example on May 12, 2026, when ST organized a day event at Politecnico di Torino (Italy), bringing together around 300 attendees, including students, PhD candidates, professors, and ST colleagues.
The initiative was designed to present ST as a key industrial partner for the university community, combining company vision, testimonials, and hands-on demonstrations. Alongside the testimonials, talks, and demo area, a dedicated corner gave attendees the opportunity to speak directly with our talent acquisition team, discover open job and internship opportunities, ask questions about recruitment, and better understand the skills and career paths we value at ST. The day also included a virtual tour of the Agrate and Catania fabs, attended by 90 participants.
Inspiring talks and career journeys
One of the highlights of the day was the motivational talks from ST company fellows and the testimonials from PhD students still collaborating with ST and introduced by their professors.
Professor Enrico Macii emphasized the strength of the relationship between Politecnico di Torino and ST, describing ST as one of the university’s largest partners. He highlighted the company’s strong commitment to collaborative research, scholarships, equipment support, and student recruitment.
The personal journeys helped students see how academic research can evolve into industrial impact and professional growth. In particular, Giulio Ricotti (Senior Design Director at ST) delivered R&D and Innovation in Product Design, sharing insights on IC design, ultrasound imaging, and the challenges of high-voltage transmission systems. Later, Giuseppe Desoli (Artificial Intelligence Technology Director at ST) presented From Silicon to Embodied Intelligence: Accelerating Innovation with Generative and Agentic AI, explaining how AI is moving toward physical, real-time intelligence through sensing, edge AI, and in-memory computing. This occasion created a connection between inspiration, technical depth, and career opportunities.
Oculus: an immersive gateway to ST manufacturing
One of the areas at the event offered an immersive virtual fab tour, allowing visitors to explore ST’s manufacturing world through a virtual reality experience. Using virtual reality (VR) headsets, the activity was organized to give students a practical and engaging look at an industrial environment they cannot easily visit.
The experience created strong interest because it combined innovation, accessibility, and a memorable way to connect with ST’s operations. It also showed how digital tools can support outreach and engagement by bringing complex industrial realities closer to a student audience. For many participants, this VR experience was a first step into ST’s ecosystem.’
Comfort on wheels with AutoDevKit seat adjustment
The seat adjustment demo by AutoDevKit showed how cars are moving from manual to electric controls for comfort features. Instead of using levers or knobs, the seat is managed by electronics that control its position, heating, and lumbar support.
Developed with BeonD, member of the ST Partner Program, the system is a plug-and-play smart seat for high-end cars. It can store different user profiles, so each driver can quickly find a preferred seating position. The seat can also be controlled from a tablet, smartphone, infotainment system, or CAN bus. The demo was based on AEK-MCU-C4MLIT1, an AutoDevKit evaluation board, and featured SPC58EC80E5, an automotive microcontroller, 4x VNH7040AY, four motor driver ICs used to control the seat movements, and 2x VN7E010AJ, two high-side switch ICs that help manage power distribution to the heating and lumbar functions.
Smarter battery integration for electrified mobility
In this demo, the LV BMS battery pack, created by our Partner BeonD, showed how a low-voltage battery management system fits into the AutoDevKit ecosystem and can evolve into customer projects.
The demo had three goals: to show how battery packs are assembled and integrated, to highlight the electronics mounted on the pack, and to demonstrate remote data analysis and control. The battery pack was designed to provide a realistic example of how electric vehicle batteries are built, monitored, and connected to the rest of the system. It also showed how a battery management solution can help keep the pack running safely and efficiently.
Edge intelligence for safer robotics
The smart sensor-based fall detection demo showed how a humanoid robot can react quickly when it loses balance. At the heart of the system is the LSM6DSO16IS ISPU, an Intelligent Sensor Processing Unit that can process data directly on the sensor and recognize four different fall directions.
As soon as a fall is detected, the the ISPU sends a signal to the microcontroller, which then reacts according to the direction of the fall. The demo was based on STEVAL-BCNKT01, a development kit, NUCLEO-64 STM32F446RE, a microcontroller board, X-NUCLEO IKS02A3, an expansion board for sensor connectivity, and STEVAL-MKI230KA, a sensor adapter board.
This use was a concrete example of how ST technologies can enable fast, efficient, and context-aware reactions at the edge, supporting smarter and more responsive machines.
Precision impact sensing made visible
How do you measure a light tap and a powerful impact with the same sensor? This consumer use case answered that question with the LSM6DSV320X, a 2-in-1 MEMS accelerometer and IMU designed for high-accuracy impact sensing. It can detect movements in two ranges, 16 g and 320 g, which means it can track everything from light motion to extreme shocks.
In the setup, a sensorized mallet was used to strike a target base, and the impact intensity was displayed so visitors could see the result immediately. The setup was based on STEVAL-MKI251A, an adapter board for the sensor, and SensorTile.box PRO, a compact evaluation platform used to test motion-sensing applications. This hands-on setup made it easy for visitors to understand how motion sensing can be translated into clear and useful feedback.
AI in action with Neural Art Accelerator
The edge AI vision demo brought computer vision to the edge of the system, with AI vision processing performed directly on a microcontroller instead of relying on the cloud. It was based on STM32N6, the first high-performance STM32 microcontroller family with a ST’s proprietary Neural-ART accelerator, and STM32N6570-DK, a development board used to test advanced embedded applications. A camera captured the scene, enabling a range of vision tasks such as people detection, hand and face landmark detection, multi-pose estimation, semantic segmentation, and style transfer. This kind of demo helps explain how edge AI can make devices faster, more responsive, and more efficient while reducing dependence on external processing.
The Auto Squadra Corse PoliTO Formula SAE car
What does a Formula SAE car need to be both fast and safe? The Auto Squadra Corse PoliTO project offered a clear answer with a lightweight carbon fiber monocoque, a structure that combines high stiffness with low weight. The car runs on a fully electric powertrain with four independent in-wheel motors, enabling torque vectoring, a control strategy that improves traction, stability, and cornering in real time. ST devices act as the brain of the vehicle: microcontrollers manage data acquisition, sensor processing, actuator control, and safety logic, while the L9963E, a battery management integrated circuit, supports battery monitoring and communication.
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