Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering – Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.
General information
Date of birth: 12 April 1969
Nationality: Italian
Education
Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics, Politecnico di Torino, February 1999
M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, December 1994 (with honors)
Employment
March 2001- December 2019 Politecnico di Torino. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Assistant Professor
February 1999- February 2001 Politecnico di Torino. Department of Mechanics. Research Grant
April 1995-Oct.1995 Politecnico di Torino. Department of Mechanics. Research Assistant
Teaching experience
Walter Franco is lecturer in Mechanics for Design (Bachelor), Humanitarian Engineering (Bachelor), Technologies for Sustainable Development (Bachelor) and Automatic Machines Mechanics (M.Sc.).
He has been lecturer in Applied Mechanics, Mechanical Devices and Systems, Mechanical System Dynamics, Fluid Automation, Control of Mechanical Systems and Mechatronics.
He also taught in Specializing Master Courses (Socio-environmental sustainability of agri-food networks, Cooperation for Sustainable Agrifood Development, Innovation Technology and Automatic Control), and in Industrial Courses (Measurement Methods and Systems).
He has been one of the teacher coordinators in the student workshop AnpilPay 2.0: design and construction of a manual press for high-density straw bales and of a load-bearing straw bale housing prototype. (Politecnico di Torino, 2015)
He is member of the academic board of the Mechanical Engineering PhD at Politecnico di Torino. He is one of the proponents of a PhD of national interest in peace studies (in the design phase).
He is author of a book on mechatronics.
Research
His current main research fields are:
Appropriate Devices and Machines: mechanical devices and mechanisms for intermediate or appropriate machines; manually operated machines (human powered press for raw earth blocks, human powered baler for producing straw bale for straw construction, human powered assisted thresher-cleaner); animal powered agricultural machines (multipurpose animal-drawn wheeled tool carrier for cultivating terraced fields); portable combine harvester and manual thresher; watermill mechanical transmissions; water portable filters.
History of Mechanisms and Machines: functional analysis of historical human and animal powered machines, in particular for peasant agriculture: threshers, grain cleaners, reaper-binder machines; old water mills.
He is member of IFToMM Italy (International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science) and takes part of Technical Committees for Biomechanical Engineering and for Sustainable Energy Systems of IFToMM. He is also member of the Permanent Commission for History of Mechanism and Machine Science of IFToMM and of the Cross-Disciplinary Group “Securing our Future Environment – Air, Water, Energy” of IFToMM;
He is member of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association IHPVA.
He is part of the scientific committee and management council of the Museo dell’Agricoltura del Piemonte.
Awards
-Nomination for Best Application Paper Award, IFToMM World Congress, Tokyo, Japan, 2023.
-Silver Best Application Paper Award, The 1st IFToMM for Sustainable Development Goals Whorkshop, online, 2021
-Best Research Paper Award, The 15th IFToMM Worl Congress, Krakow, Poland, 2019.
-Springer Best Research Paper on the History of Mechanism and Machines Science, The 15th IFToMM Worl Congress, Krakow, Poland, 2019.
-Silver Best Application Paper Award, 2nd International Conference of IFToMM Italy, IFIT 2018, Cassino, Italy, November 29-30, 2018
-Bronze Best Research Paper Award, 4th IFToMM Symposium on Mechanism Design for Robotics, MEDER 2018, Udine, 2018.
-Gold Best Research Paper Award, 6th International Workshop on New Trends in Medical ad Service Robot, MESROB 2018, Cassino, Italy, July 4-6, 2018.
-Best Applicative Paper Award, 27th International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region, RAAD 2018, Patras, Grece, 2018.
-First Prize in the Technical Paper Award, International Humanitarian Technology Conference, IHTC 2017, Toronto, Canada, July 20-21, 2017.
-Best Paper Award, First International Conference of IFToMM Italy, IFIT 2016, Vicenza, Italy, December 1-2, 2016.
-Second Best Poster Award, Foot International Congress, Berlin, Germany, June 23-25, 2016.
-Optime Award, Best Graduates, Unione Industriale di Torino, Italy, 1995.
Public engagement
Walter Franco has promoted, organized, or presented as an invited speaker at more than forty public events, particularly regarding the role of appropriate technologies in the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of marginalized or in socio-economic transition communities.
Publications
Walter Franco is author of more than one hundred papers published in national and international journals and conference proceedings. He is also co-inventor of several patents, some of which with international applications (PCT, US, CN).
The complete list of publications is available at the following link: https://iris.polito.it/cris/rp/rp05809?sortBy=2&order=DESC&type=all