N. Cretton
NICOLAS CRETTON HOMEPAGE
Custom Search
About me

Maturity thesis

In between the third and the fourth year of high-school, students have to choose a subject and work for one year on a research project. At the end they sum up their research results and write a maturity thesis. Each year, professors who wish to coach such a research, propose subjects for the students to choose from. If you want to read about astronomy maturity thesis, go here.

Diploma done during 2009

In 2009, I teamed up with an Art History colleague (Vera Segre) to work on some interdisciplinary projects: the artistic value of scientific pictures, drawing or objects. What are the connections between science and art? What message do communicate art and science? Why scientific images are sometimes considered as art and exposed in art museum? What does provoke an aesthetic response from a scientific image?

1. Damiano Petralli: A comparison between astronomical and romantic picture.

2. Denise Maiocchi: Harmony and beauty in ancient Greece.

3. Cinzia Fani: The study of human proportions in a historical context.

4. Elena Guggiari: Female beauty standards during the twentieth century in science and in art.

5. Gabriele Ciampi: Aerodynamics and design.

6. Lena Gabutti: Anatomy until the Renaissance period: The turning point of Andrea Vesalio and a comparison with Leonardo da Vinci.

7. Michele Campana: Soap bubbles.





Diploma done during 2010

In 2010, I supervised three diploma projects: two on renewable energy and one in astronomy.
1. Santiago Navonne and Michael Newland: A solar tracker for a photovoltaic module.

2. Michele Morandini and Raffaele Colombi: A study of the energy profile of a building: the case of the Lugano 2 high school.

Awards




  1. "Scienza e gioventù" price:
    At the 45th national competition Scienza e gioventù, Santiago Navonne and Michael Newland received the mention "very good" and won the Metrohm foundation prize: a participation to the scientific meeting I-SWEEEP, The International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering and Environment) in Houston, USA.



  2. The best maturity thesis of the high-school (year 2010-2011):



    The work of Santiago and Michael has also won the "best maturity thesis" of the year for the Lugano 2 highschool. The bank Wegelin & Co (Private banking) offered 1'000 CHF for this prize.



  3. I_SWEEEP competition 2012:



    Santiago and Michael won a golden medal (and 1000$ in cash) in the Energy category at the 2012 I-SWEEEP olympiad in Houston. Their project was ranked in the top 5% of all the projects in their category.




Diploma done during 2012

In 2012, I supervised two diploma projects on renewable energy: the design and construction of two solar parabolic concentrators, one shaped as troughs and one shaped as an antenna.
1. Stanley Kunnakatt, Sandro Marcotullio and Richaross Grueninger: Parabolic trough solar concentrator with automatic tracking
2. Janina Kick, Chiara Knecht, Matteo Nicoli and Giada Cassis: Parabolic dish solar concentrator with automatic tracking


Awards





"Scienza e gioventù":

At the 47th national competition Scienza e gioventù, all candidates have received the mention "very good".



Diploma done during 2013

In 2013, Richaross Grueninger and I continued to work on the design and construction of the parabolic troughs.
1. Richaross Grueninger: Progress in the construction of a Parabolic trough solar concentrator with automatic tracking




Diploma done during 2014

In 2014, I supervised four projects: design and construction of two types of mirrors for solar collectors (inspired by Fresnel), and the parabolic troughs and dish.
1. Davide Apolloni, Leonardo Tognola: Effects on the energetic yield of a Fresnel linear collector applied to vacuum solar tubes.

2. Riccardo Destefani, Dimitri Populov: Semi-mobile vertical mirrors for CPC solar collectors.

3. Canonica Roberto, Olivieri Enea: Construction of a parabolic solar dish concentrator with automatic tracking for domestic use.

4. Bizzozero Manuela, Casiraghi Erika, Keller Claudio: Parabolic solar troughs with automatic tracking.





Awards





"Scienza e gioventù":

At the 49th national competition Scienza e gioventù, Leonardo and Davide received the mention "excellent" and won the Metrohm special price: 2 weeks at the London International Youth Science Forum.



National award for the "Liceo di Lugano 2" high school





"Scienza e gioventù" 2016:



At the 50th national competition Scienza e gioventù, our high school the "Liceo di Lugano 2", has received a recognition for the high number of participation in the last 10 years: 33 times with 12 mentions "excellent" (hervorragend), some of which you will find on this very page!







Diploma done during 2017

In 2017, I supervised two projects: design and construction two types of heliostats: 1D and 2D.
1. Giacomo Burani, Nicholas Gianotti, Arthur Jaques: Design and construction of mobile flat mirrors for thermal solar plant.

2. Victor Telazzi, Tsubasa Fabbri: One-dimensional heliostats for solar collector.

At the 51th national competition
Scienza e gioventù, Giacomo, Nicholas and Arthur received the mention "very good".



Copyright