Our Stories
Our Stories
Riccardo Accolla
Riccardo Accolla was one of the first students of the Politecnico di Milano to graduate in Biomedical Engineering.
His passion for research on sensory systems on the one hand and the desire, typical of engineers, to see technological innovations coming from academic research realized from a commercial point of view, have been the keystone of a career that – since the years of his PhD, obtained at the Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne – has always moved along the border between basic research and the food industry and which finally, after several years spent in Switzerland, brought him to the United States.
Here he founded a consulting company and, in 2018, began collaborating with Ripe.io, an innovative startup that uses blockchain technology to digitize agri-food supply chains in order to increase their traceability, quality and sustainability.
Riccardo, tell us a little about yourself: what is your story?
I started studying at the Politecnico di Milano in 1996 and in 2001 I graduated in Biomedical Engineering. After graduating, I worked for two years in an important biomedical company, Baxter, holding a position in "technical marketing". Since my university days, however, I have always had a passion for the study of sensory systems: not surprisingly, in my degree thesis I dealt with the auditory system, more specifically with the propagation of electromagnetic fields through hearing and with the effects of the first cell phones on the auditory system.
So, in 2003 I took the opportunity to carry out a PhD in Switzerland, at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where the Brain Mind Institute, one of the largest neuroscience centers in the world, had just been inaugurated. In my doctorate I dealt with the gustatory system because at the time it was still a relatively unexplored field, on which there was not much scientific literature. Among other things, it was a doctoral program in collaboration with Nestlé, therefore particularly attentive to industrial applications.
In 2007 I obtained my PhD and I was immediately recruited by Firmenich, one of the most important Swiss companies in the world for the production of perfumes and aromas, where I dealt with innovative formulations. After three years in Geneva, I was offered to move to the United States, where the company was launching a small innovation group related to the development of new ingredients for the food industry – ingredients that reduced the amount of sugar, fat and salt in food while maintaining the same organoleptic properties. I was asked to become Head of the Discovery section: my job would have been to act as an “interface” between the company and basic research, and to look for scientific innovations that had the potential to be used in the development of new products.
I accepted with enthusiasm and moved to the United States, where I had the opportunity to interact with numerous academic institutions but also with many startups, presenting the company with the most interesting news regarding – to give just one example – the use of taste receptors in the screening of new ingredients for food and beverage formulations.
The close contact with the startup world convinced me to embark on an entrepreneurial adventure myself and so in 2014 I founded A-T4H (acronym for “A Taste for Health”), a consulting company that has the goal of supporting startups in the development and marketing of new ingredients in the fields of nutrition, health and taste. This activity has allowed me to work closely with many realities, including Ripe.io, with whom I started collaborating in 2018, initially as a consultant for a project called “Internet of Tomatoes” on the digitization of the supply chain of tomatoes produced in the United States and subsequently marketed by a popular salad chain that pays particular attention to the quality of the ingredients.
I was so happy with the experience that three years ago I accepted the proposal to work with the company full-time as manager for projects involving the agri-food chain.
What exactly is Ripe.io about?
Ripe.io provides a software infrastructure that uses information technology, especially blockchain technology, to digitize the agri-food supply chain, and therefore to make it more transparent, ensuring maximum traceability, quality and sustainability. A small part of our projects directly involve the final consumer, who has the opportunity to know exactly where the food comes from, but the bulk of our business concerns the initial links of the supply chain, mainly from a b2b perspective. We work a lot on safety-related projects: in the event of bacterial contamination, for example, our technology makes tracking potentially contaminated batches much easier and faster. Our aim is to increase visibility and transparency within the supply chain, often to allow farmers to have all the information they need to improve their practices and to increase their profits, reducing the number of intermediaries. Basically, our platform collects and connects data from different sources – management systems, sensors, information transmitted directly by farmers, etc. – making all stages of the supply chain traceable and transparent. Using blockchain technology has two major advantages. The first is that the platform is not managed by a central actor: everyone can enter information independently, deciding which data to share and with whom to share it in a peer-to-peer environment. The second is that each data entry and each subsequent modification of the entered data leave an immutable trace, thus guaranteeing the traceability of each intervention.
What are you working on right now and what are your plans for the future?
At the moment with Ripe.io I am mainly working on two projects.
The first concerns the traceability and quality of raw, high-value agricultural products, in particular cocoa. I have acquired a good knowledge of the cocoa production chain and I can say that it’s an extremely interesting field but also full of challenges because it often presents problems related to the exploitation of child labor, especially in West Africa, to the poor guarantees of product quality, with intermediaries who crush farmers' profits… In short, it is a sector in which the use of blockchain technology could certainly have a positive impact on the life of farmers.
The second project concerns the sugar cane supply chain in Belize and directly involves the country's Ministry of Agriculture. Here too, the aim is to improve the life of farmers and to facilitate access to bank finance for small farms, which thanks to our platform will be able to make more detailed forecasts and plan their activity more efficiently.
As for the future of the company and blockchain technology, I believe that the new frontier of development is represented by sustainability. An increasing number of investors, institutional and non-institutional, now consider sustainability – expressed in the so-called ESG criteria – a fundamental parameter for choosing which activities to invest in. A platform like ours would allow farms to monitor, and therefore improve, the sustainability levels of their business, thus attracting more investments. It is in this direction that we will develop our technology in the coming years.
What do you like most about your job?
What gives me the most satisfaction is without a doubt the direct relationship with agri-food operators. We all eat, we all have food-related memories and an emotional relationship with the land and what it produces, but most of us do not have the chance to touch with their hands the hard work and commitment hidden behind the food we consume every day. It is very satisfying for me to get to know this reality closely, to concretely help farmers to improve their living conditions, often getting my hands literally dirty, as I do whenever we need to put sensors in the fields. Even the opportunity to learn new things, in areas still unexplored for me, is something exciting: when I was doing academic research I never thought of working in the agri-food supply chain, but over time I became passionate about its complexity and this gives me great satisfaction.
How important was it for you to study at the Politecnico di Milano and what is the most useful thing you learned during the years you spent at the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria?
The experience of the Politecnico di Milano was fundamental for me and also quite gratifying because – let's face it – it requires a lot of commitment. The things I learned when I was a student, especially basic engineering and the application of mathematical models to biology, have been extremely useful throughout my career, not only during my PhD but also when, in my current position, I had to develop a data model capable of linking information from the agricultural supply chain (soil conditions, transport conditions, etc.) to the prediction of how products could be evaluated from a sensory point of view. If I had studied only biology or agronomy I would not have been able to develop anything like that, or I would have had to acquire the necessary skills later and with greater difficulty.
Another very important aspect linked to the Politecnico di Milano is the global network that it has been able to create over the years. Personally, being a member of the North America Alumni Association has given me several opportunities to expand my professional network. I have participated with great pleasure in many different panels and, thanks to this bond, I can continue to collaborate with the university where I graduated many years ago!
Is there a memory of your "polytechnic years" that you are particularly attached to or a funny anecdote that you would like to share?
I have so many memories of my polytechnic years, it was a very beautiful time in my life. The first that comes to mind concerns the exams. It was the time when my friends and I were discovering bioengineering and one of the most exciting courses, at least for me, was that of Prof. Emanuele Biondi on electromagnetism. Among the students there was a rumor that, during the exam, the first student to be called was almost always asked the same question. So, when I studied for the exam, I prepared myself very well on that question, in case I was called first. I had a reputation for being quite lucky and in fact on the day of the exam I was the first student to be questioned. I remember that, when my name was called, my friends who were going to take the exam that same day started “roaring” from the back of the classroom, especially when they heard that the first question the teacher asked me was actually the one we expected and for which we had all prepared. Unfortunately, I did not answer the second and third questions as well, so in the end Prof. Biondi commented on the exam by saying: "Look, I give you 30 cum laude but I'm not too convinced". At those words, from the back of the classroom there was an explosion of uncontainable anger from my friends!
Finally, what advice would you give to an engineering student from the Politecnico who would like to pursue a career in your field?
To the engineering students of the Politecnico di Milano, and in particular to bioengineering studens, I would say not to think that a career like mine, very close to biology, is precluded or particularly difficult to undertake. On the contrary, a degree from the Politecnico di Milano and the engineering training it guarantees represent a huge advantage in this sector as well.
Furthermore, I would tell them not to lose the taste for exploration and above all not to be afraid to move and to have experiences abroad. For me, they have been fundamental, both as a student and afterwards.
Newsletter
Do you want to stay updated on all the research activities, events and other initiatives taking place at the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria of the Politecnico di Milano? Subscribe to the DEIB Community newsletter!
Newsletter
Do you want to stay updated on all the research activities, events and other initiatives taking place at the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria of the Politecnico di Milano? Subscribe to the DEIB Community newsletter!
