Case Study: Politecnico di Milano simplifies archaeological site monitoring with Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics

Politecnico di Milano - Customer Case Study

Politecnico di Milano, one of Italy’s leading technical universities, needed a simple way to remotely monitor environmental conditions at an underground archaeological site in Rome, where physical access was limited. Working with Microsoft Azure, the university aimed to capture and manage sensor data on humidity, temperature, light, CO2, soil moisture, and ground movement without requiring a complex, highly specialized IoT setup.

Microsoft Azure provided an end-to-end solution using Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure SQL Database, Azure App Service, and Power BI to collect, process, store, and visualize the sensor data. The system sent about 1 KB of data every 30 minutes and enabled archeologists to view live, customizable dashboards through a web interface. The results were immediate: the team discovered dangerously high humidity and poor air circulation, prompting urgent preservation actions and supporting plans to reuse the scalable solution at other archaeological sites.

Politecnico di Milano

Luca Mottola

Associate Professor