2023: a year of celebrations and award-winning politechnic alumni and projects worldwide

2023 was a year of achievements for Made in Italy by Politecnico di Milano. On this page we have compiled a list of awards and recognitions. Please let us know if we are missing any!

FEBRUARY

• Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli — born in Italy, Californian by adoption (he teaches at the University of California, Berkeley), and an alumnus of Politecnico — is among the world's leading experts in computer science. We only mention Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli's recent achievements, including the prestigious BBVA Foundation “Frontiers of Knowledge Award”.
• Professor Amalia Ercoli Finzi, the “comet lady”, was officially awarded the prestigious Hubert Curien Prize.
  

MARCH

• Alumni Chiara Giovannini and Fedele Cavaliere, along with their team of students at Alta Scuola Politecnica, received the UX Design Award. In the competition for best user experience, products and concepts that offer meaningful solutions for actual needs compete from all over the world.
• Kramer Prize was awarded to professor Stefano Consonni from the Department of Energy
• IPMA Global Research Award 2023 was awarded to professor Giorgio Locatelli from the Department of Management Engineering

APRIL

• 7 Alumni in the Forbes 30 Under 30 ranking: 7 Alumni nella classifica Forbes 30under30: Leonardo Bertelli — 26 years old — Science category; Camilla Cecilia Conti — 28 years old — Manufacturing & Industry category; Rachele Didero — 26 years old — Consumer Technology category; Alessandro Fanni — 29 years old — Science category; Lisa Iannello — 26 years old — Healthcare category; Francesca Madonini — 27 years old — Science category; Guido Putignano — 20 years old — Science category
• A project submitted by professors Massimo Ferrari and Claudia Tinazzi from the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and the Built Environment were awarded the top prize at the Piranesi Prix de Rome et d'Athènes 2022-23.

MAY

• Professor Andrea Castelletti, from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, has been named the national winner for Italy in the first edition of the Frontiers Planet Prize. This prize was created to recognise the best research published in the last two years in the field of sustainability science.

JUNE

• Outside the official competition, there is a noteworthy and historic moment to be remembered: for the first time, the kickoff of the 1000 Miglia 2023, an event that embodies the history of world motoring, was initiated by an autonomous driving car — a symbol of the future. “1000-MAD” (1000 Mile Autonomous Drive), by Politecnico di Milano, is the world's first test of autonomous vehicles on public roads
• And speaking of autonomous driving: there was a new victory for PoliMOVE! This victory is especially sweet as it occurred practically on our doorstep — securing the top position on the podium at the Monza Autodrome for the Indy Autonomous Challenge 2023
• Francesca Berti, from the “G. Natta” Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, received the L'Oreal - UNESCO Prize dedicated to recognising the most deserving female researchers in all fields of science and technology.

JULY

• The JARVIS team from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano won the KUKA Innovation Award 2023.
• Three researchers from the Department of Physics received prestigious awards from the European Physical Society and the EOS — European Optical Society. Giulio Cerullo won the EPS-QEOD Quantum Electronics Prize for his groundbreaking contributions in the field of generating light pulses characterised by a few optical cycles. Andrea Schirato was awarded the EPS-QEOD PhD Thesis Prize for his thesis on non-equilibrium nanophotonics. Margherita Maiuri received the EOS Early Career Women in Photonics Award for her contributions in the field of ultrafast optical spectroscopy.

AUGUST

• The Italian team won the prestigious Hack a-Sat competition, organised by the US Department of Defence. The (achieved) objective: to breach the computer security of a satellite. Congratulations to the Mhackers, led by professor Mario Polino from the Department of Electronics Information and Bioengineering
• Gaia Letizia Civardi, PhD student at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, was awarded a prestigious Amelia Earhart Scholarship

SEPTEMBER

• Professor Alfio Quarteroni, from the Department of Mathematics, accepted the prestigious ICIAM Lagrange Prize in Tokyo. This prize is awarded every four years by the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics to mathematicians who have made exceptional contributions to the field of applied mathematics throughout their careers. Professor Quarteroni was awarded for his “groundbreaking contributions that have had a significant impact on the field of mathematics”.
• Subrata Ghosh, from the Department of Energy, was awarded the Diamond and Carbon Materials Early Career Research Award
• Francesco Pierri, researcher at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering won the SIGKDD 2023 Outstanding Dissertation Award – Runner Up

OCTOBER

• Four female graduates from Politecnico have been recognised in the Fortune “50 Most Powerful Women” in Italy list: women who have excelled in various fields such as business, science, and society. These women include Marzia Bolpagni: Head of BIM International & Associate Director at Mace; Lucia Chierchia: Managing Partner & Chief of Open Innovation Ecosystems at GELLIFY; Ana Mazzeo, Country manager Wobi Italia; Grazia Vittadini, CTO at Rolls Royce.
• 202 Poli scientists have been included in the ranking of the world's best scientists: they have been distinguished from millions of researchers globally, recognised for their high level of scientific expertise. Read the list at this link
• Massimo Roj's Edoardo Camardella's bivouac receives the "WTW Willis Towers Watson" award in the IN/ARCHITECTURE 2023 competition.
• Off Campus NoLo won third place and an honourable mention at the Seoul Design Award, organised by the Seoul Design Foundation. This award is an international competition that recognises the best design works from all over the world.
• Cybersecurity: A Politecnico project chosen by Google as one of the top contenders in the Tech for Social Good Impact Challenge
• A team of students from Politecnico di Milano, coordinated by Maurizio Ferrari Dacrema, researcher in the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, won the prestigious RecSys Challenge 2023 as best academic team. Around 500 teams took part in the competition, including some large companies such as NVIDIA and Intel, as well as some major universities
• Professor Bianca Maria Colosimo, along with her team at the Department of Mechanics, with whom she has been working for years has received four awards., who has been working with her team for years in the interdisciplinary field between manufacturing and data.
  Colosimo received the Honorary Certificate as an International Expert in Additive Processes from the European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting (EWF) and the Award for Research in Materials Science Dedicated to Zero Waste Solutions from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. She was awarded a Brumbaugh Award by the American Society for Quality for the statistical analysis of the data. She is also the first Italian and the second woman ever to be awarded the prestigious George Box Medal by ENBIS — European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics

NOVEMBER

• Patricia Viel (ACPV ARCHITECTS) is the “Best architect of the year” 2023 according to Fortune Italia
• Jacopo Peron, a young mechanical engineer and an 800-metres athlete who dreams of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics, received the “Carlo Speroni” award.
• Luca Torelli, a young alumnus in management engineering, was selected among the winners of the Young Manufacturing Leader Innovation Contest: Youth in Action for Industry 5.0.
• Alberto Guadagnini, docente di Idraulica al Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale del Politecnico di Milano, riceverà la Medaglia Henry Darcy 2024 dell’European Geosciences Union (EGU) : https://alumni.polimi.it/2023/12/21/il-prof-alberto-guadagnini-vince-la-prestigiosa-darcy-medal-2024/
• Budd-e, a robot designed to assist individuals who are blind, has been awarded the “Innovation in Digital Health” prize, organised by AGENAS in collaboration with SICS — Società Italiana di Comunicazione Scientifica e Sanitaria. Its journey begins thank to the support of donors from Politecnico di Milano: Budd-e is the outcome of a research project that received funding through donations equivalent to 5 per mille to Politecnico
• Elena Crespi and Ferdinando Vincenti, PhD students from the Department of Energy, were honoured by AIMSEA (Italian Association of Fluid Mechanics and Systems for Energy and the Environment) during the 78th ATI (Italian National Thermotechnical Association) conference, dedicated to the issue of energy transition.
• Professors Maristella Matera and Salvatore Andolina from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering have been chosen by Google as winners of the Award for Inclusion Research Program.
• Best Paper Award was awarded to Paolo Gaetani and Andrea Notaristefano,researchers from the Department of Energy, awarded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

DECEMBER

• Professor Enrico Tronconi from the Energy Department at Politecnico di Milano has won one of the three prizes of the Air Liquide Scientific Challenge with his innovative proposal to use electricity to produce hydrogen. He will now be able to develop his project and turn it into a market-ready technology
• Sofia Scataglini, a former student of Biomedical Engineering and who now works as a lecturer at the University of Antwerp, was presented the Premio del Presidente per la Giornata delle Marche. Her research work focuses on design for health and human care; she collaborates with a number of institutions and founded the group Digital Human Modeling by Women, which is dedicated to supporting women working on STEM subjects.
• Ddpstudio, founded by Alumni Lorenzo de Bartolomeis, Gabriele Diamanti and Filippo Poli, receives the 13th National Innovation Award Prize of Prizes for Hannes, the "bionic hand"
• The year begins and ends with professor Amalia Ercoli Finzi being awarded the Ambrogino d'oro 2023 by the mayor of Milan.