From the 8th to 12th June, the 22nd International Conference on Near Infrared Spectroscopy was hosted by the Italian Society of NIR Spectroscopy (SISNIR). The NIR Conference is a biennial conference dedicated to all aspects of NIR spectroscopy, bringing together hundreds of academic and industrial stakeholders to discuss theoretical frameworks, innovative applications (agri-food, clinical, pharmaceutical, etc.), instrumental solutions, and chemometric modelling. The conference was the theater of many plenary discussions and keynote lectures from leading researchers, and allowed exhibitors to present high quality poster about their scientific research, as well as allocating an area for animated conversations with attendees and stakeholders.

This was a great opportunity for the SUM4Re project to showcase the SWIR line-scan cameras that have been used for demolition waste identification.  Our partner TECNALIA was present to provide details about this technology but also present their poster (see below!):

INTEGRATION OF 2D HYPERSPECTRAL TECHNIQUES AND 3D RECONSTRUCTION FOR THE PRECISE DIFFERENCIATION OF MATERIALS IN CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE RUBBLE

Co-written by Jon Ander Iturrioz Aguirre, Federica Amato, Giulia Gorla, Jose Manuel Amigo, Veronica Garcia, Marcos Alonso, Daniel Watson, and Beñat Urtasun. 

NIR spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging (HSI) are vital for rapid, precise material measurement in quality control and recycling, especially for the complex, heterogeneous construction and demolition waste used in the cement industry. This study converts 2D hyperspectral images into a 3D metric space to compare the accuracy of 2D measurements against 3D reconstruction. Integrating hyperspectral techniques with 3D reconstruction provides a robust method for characterizing construction waste materials. This innovative system improves component identification, offering a foundation for efficient, sustainable industrial applications in classification, recycling, and quality control.

We address our gratitude to TECNALIA and Jon Ander Iturrioz, who represented the SUM4Re project at the conference. Thanks to their active participation, the Rome NIR Conference had been a great opportunity to showcase our technology and methodology, and get people engaged in our mission to reduce demolition waste in the construction sector.