Let's review the best moments of the 11th Convention in our #Bestof2022: here is the video with highlights from the event that brings together, challenges and inspires the Alumni Community every year!
The Convention is one of the many initiatives created by Alumni Politecnico di Milano. If you like this initiative and the other ones dedicated to the Alumni community consider donating.
Telling you about all of our researchers’ achievements would clog up the internet, so here is a brief overview of the projects that made the headlines (or almost did).
*to be updated*
SINCE 2007 they have been designing and manufacturing racing sailboats to participate in international competitions. They are the girls and boys of the Polimi Sailing Team: in the last edition of the SuMoth Challenge, held this summer, they won first place in the design and second place in the regatta with their prototype Teti, competing with over one hundred and fifty teams from four corners of the world.
Teti is a champion of innovation: at this link we can see her take flight over the waters of Lake Garda. Evaluation is based on the sailing skills during the regatta, on the engineering and design component and on sustainability.
'Those of the SuMoth Challenge were stimulating, tiring but wonderful days’, says Beatrice Rimoldi, team leader. She is attending the last year of a master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. ‘We were able to really team up because everyone believed in the goal we were there for - to win - and didn't hold back. The guys on the team worked late into the night to fix boat breakages that occurred in the water so that Teti was always ready to take to the race course the next day. Getting on the podium was the recognition for months of intense work’.
Marta Zattoni, in charge of logistics, in her first year of a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering as well as helmsman of Teti, remembers some moments of those months of work:
‘During the tests we had problems because it is a prototype made with recycled materials, therefore easily subject to breakage; you get out of the water and count the things that are broken. For me, who was born as a sailor and experienced sport as something solitary, it was wonderful to see that when I returned to shore there were twenty, thirty people ready to help me, who couldn't wait to get their hands on the boat and fix it. It was really like being on the water with the whole team because we were all involved’.
Then, she recalls the turning point: ‘The most critical phase when sailing with foiling boats is the take off, that is the moment in which you pass from a displacement gait with the hull on the water to a foiling pace with the hull detached from the water and only the appendages immersed. When using a prototype there is always the unknown, you always ask yourself: ‘Will it fly?’. It was exciting when I was able to fly with Teti for the first time because it was the moment in which we all understood that the prototype was working’.
MAP, the magazine dedicated to the architects, designers and engineers of Politecnico di Milano, is back with its 11th issue, which, as always, was made possible thanks to the financial support of its donors.
This issue offers you a constantly up-to-date reading experience thanks to the QR codes , that will take you to countless content on the web, photos and videos to delve into the news. But this new feature does not change MAP’s core essence: you will still find the same care in telling you about your Politecnico, the latest updates and the achievements of the Alumni and Alumnae, who contribute substantially to the University’s development.
Happy reading!
Winners of the Intellectual Property Award. From Poli:
The winners of the 27th edition of the Compasso d'Oro:
From focussing on social challenges to synergies with institutions and businesses: this is the balance struck by the Politecnico di Milano - and the outgoing Rector Ferruccio Resta Resta - at the inauguration of the 160th academic year. And it is on this basis that we will continue to build from 2023, which will see the new Rector Professor Donatella Sciuto in office.
The ceremony, held on 30 November 2022, was attended by Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of University and Research; Attilio Fontanta, President of Lombardy; Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan; Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari; and Marta Ghidoli, President of the Student Council. Benedetto Vigna delivered the Lectio Innovation and Scientific Method.
On this occasion, the Rector took stock of the activities over the last six years, with a critical look at the university’s work and its impact on the socio-economic context.
‘The university system has a guiding role that we must keep as bold, open and free as possible’ the Rector commented. ‘In doing so, we must be more courageous in implementing genuine reward policies, something that does not only concern the university, but the entire country. “Generate excellence” or “reduce gaps”? I believe the solution is to enhance diversity so as not to cause the system to regress. We must have the courage to strike a difficult balance between those institutions that operate at international level and those that fulfil the equally important task of serving their local territory’.
In keeping with the polytechnic tradition, the utmost attention to research- the heart of the university vocation - has characterised this mission, with the university at the frontier of the most complex challenges: from space to biotechnology, quantum technologies, big data, artificial intelligence and social challenges. Research that goes hand in hand with teaching, that enhances it with the aim of producing young polytechnic students to govern these challenges in the future. The centrality of the Politecnico's social impact and, therefore, its relations with businesses and with the various laboratories set up in collaboration with companies (we have talked about the laboratories here) brings us full circle.
The Rector closed his term of office by symbolically passing the baton to the Rector-elect, Donatella Sciuto. Passing an important legacy to her: the construction of the new Campus in Bovisa, which bears the signature of Architect and Alumnus Renzo Piano'Open, green and permeable': this is the future of the Politecnico.