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The female population is underrepresented in many of the activities carried out at technical universities. This is also the case at the Politecnico di Milano, where women represent less than 30% of its 47,000 students and 1,400 researchers. The discrepancy is big, however, if we look closer, we can see an even greater imbalance among all engineering students, where only 1 in 4 is female.

If we focus in further still, the figure falls to 20% in the case of some courses such as Mechanical, Electronic, Computer and Aerospace Engineering. 

Read Alumnae - Ingegnere e Tecnologie

THE POLITECNICO’S ACTIONS FOR GENDER EQUALITY

POP – Pari Opportunità Politecniche programme (Polytechnic Equal Opportunities) is the strategic programme through which the University is committed to guaranteeing an environment for studying and working that respects gender identity, and different abilities, cultures and origins. Within it, there are various initiatives to promote STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) among girls in upper schools and incentivise them to enrol at Politecnico di Milano. Girls@Polimi, for example, funds academic scholarships for future students enrolling on engineering courses with a low percentage of females (mechanics, electronics and computing), which offer successful candidates € 8000 euros each, for each of the three years of the degree, in addition to free accommodation. 

Discover more about Girls@Polimi

“Awareness of gender diversity is a first step, which must be followed by concrete action not only within our universities, but at the wider level and in the international context. Building networks and supporting common causes increases our ability to influence decision makers”

comments vice rector Donatella Sciuto, stressing the international and systematic aspects of this imbalance.

To this end, to guide the actions that need to be undertaken, we have written two working instruments: the first is Gender Balance, an annual analysis of the University from the perspective of gender in academic programmes and work, among teaching and technical-administrative staff. It sets out objectives, tools and directions; the specific plan of action to be undertaken, over a three-year period, is described in the Gender Equality Plan: “we have set aside a specific budget”, says the rector’s office, with the objective of “recognising the dignity of every person in their work and studies, guaranteeing equality of treatment, promoting initiatives aimed at removing discrimination in training, access to jobs, orientation and during careers. 

Read the Gender budget and Gender equality plan

Credits home e header: Unsplash.com

Elda Sala, a student at the Politecnico di Milano, is the winner of the second edition of the scholarship worth Euro 5000 dedicated to the memory of Mario Buzzella. 

"My study programme is the Master's in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology - Sala tells us -.  I did my thesis at the CNST (Centre for Nano Science and Technology, belonging to the Italian Institute of Technology) and I dealt with organic semiconductors. The scholarship was assigned to me based on a ranking drawn up taking into account some factors: average grades, number of credits obtained compared to the time elapsed since enrolment and economic situation, all with the obligation to be in a LM programme." 

The award ceremony was held in the last days of June in the meeting room of Coim, the chemical multinational of which Buzzella was the founder, in the presence of his family and the leaders of the Rotary Club of Crema. 

Beatrice Buzzella, Mario's daughter, explains what prompted the family and the company to set up the scholarship for students of the master's degree programme in Materials and Nanotechnology Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano: 

"It has enormous significance for our family because it rewards a path crowned with success, the result of skill, commitment and sacrifice, in the field of research and development". 

This scholarship is in fact one of the many examples of iniziative di supporto agli studenti che il nostro Ateneo mette a disposizione grazie al prezioso contributo di donatori privati – tra i quali moltissimi Alumni – e aziende. 

THE POLITECNICO AND THE FUTURE 

Returning to Elda, when we ask her about the Politecnico she has no doubts about the most important lessons she has learned during the years of study: 

“Perseverance and adaptability, but I also learned the importance of organizing my time efficiently. I have always been a working student and it was not automatic to learn to manage many parallel commitments; the Bachelor’s was a training ground, in this sense. With a little determination, the difficulties are overcome and transformed into educational experiences." 

And what does the future hold? 

"In my plans there is a PhD project at the same facility where I did the thesis work, so for now I plan to stay in academic research. After that I would like to go to work in the Research and Development sector, possibly still in the field of semiconductors and electronics. In general, I like being in the laboratory and I would like to continue.".

FPM.US, Fellows of Politecnico di Milano.US, is the Foundation of Politecnico di Milano in the United States it is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it is recognized as a Public Charity. It will consolidate Politecnico’s US network , based on the work the Alumni Polimi North American Chapter has been leading for a the past several years.

Prof. Andrea Sianesi (Alumnus and President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano) describes how “this initiative adds strength to our internationalization strategy”, and he explains how this new element fits with Politecnico’s strategic plans: “The goal is to strengthen Politecnico’s North-American network, to support our University’s missions (education, research, and social and cultural diversity) while leveraging one of our major assets: the Alumni”.

2,000 Alumni of Politecnico live and work in the United States. “FPM.US will enable and accelerate partnerships with institutions and corporations in the US, where the environment and dynamics are so different from Italy that they require a dedicated counterpart.”
The roadmap to consolidate Polietcnico’s network is built on three elements, as Sianesi describes. First, FPM.US is a Charity that will collect donations. Today Politecnico already runs fundraising in Italy, to finance scholarships, educational projects, and specific research projects. American donors will receive from FPM.US the same fiscal benefits other American Foundations and Publich Charities offer. The goal is to collect funds to implement local projects in the United States, as well, like scholarships for studying, participating in internships, or conducting research projects in the US.

“The second element is Research, and FPM.US will empower scientific research collaboration between Italy and the United States”: on the academic side, FPM.US will support research projects developed in partnership with top research centers, that will grant access to NSF funds for academic research. FPM.US will also connect Politecnico with corporations (for example for JRC collaborations - Joint Research Center, find out more on MAP 10), Venture Capital funds, and new opportunities for tech transfers.

“The third element is Placement and Education, and FPM.US will offer Politecnico graduates new professional opportunities and a solid network of Alumni to lean on. We are building our response to this multifaceted challenge as a beta test for a strategy we could deploy in other countries all over the world”.

The President of the Board of Directors is Mauro Porcini, notable Alumnus; the Board also includes the Rector of Politecnico di Milano Ferruccio Resta, the President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano Andrea Sianesi, the President of Alumni Politecnico di Milano Enrico Zio, the General Director of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano Eugenio Gatti and prof. Luigi De Nardo, together with Alumni in the United States: Alessandra Carriero, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Annalisa Conti, Sebastiano Peluso, Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, Patrizio Sbaragli, Corrado Toxiri.

More than 15,000 Alumni live and work outside of Italy, and 2,000 of them are in the United States. They are the world ambassadors of Politecnico and its culture. FPM.US provides a great opportunity for Alumni who live in the United States to participate directly and play a key role in Politecnico’s future development. FPM.US will focus on internationalization, educational innovation, tech transfer, research, all to increase Politecnico’s brand equity and fund projects and scholarships. 

Enrico Zio, President of Alumni Politecnico di Milano

You enter as if secretly the classroom C.I.1 in Building 6, or the l"Giulio Natta" classroom in the "Giulio Natta" Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, an organic compound of wood, slate and Politecnico history.

From a small door you find yourself in front of a large audience: thirteen steep rows of large and solid wooden desks, a wall of blackboards almost to the ceiling, they rise and fall and multiply, but after years and years of lessons they always keep track and only of the last lesson held, in a cycle of rebirth that recalls the cycles of students, generations of fathers, children and grandchildren who studied here. The windows are almost completely shut out by thick curtains, as if the sunlight from Città Studi could steal something of the spirit of the time. The chair, in the same reddish wood as the desks, is the one from which Giulio Nattataught Industrial Chemistry, from 1938 to 1973, while in the laboratories around here he experimented and discovered the stereospecific synthesis of polypropylene. 

A classroom so large in every part seems to have been built for giant students. When they visit, the Alumni shrink, however, hesitating cautiously on the threshold, while the wives, the husbands and children explore and climb up the stairs, up to the summit, the window from which you can see a tree and the surrounding world. Family members wander and former students remain still in the memory of what it was: someone checks in the corners as when returning from a long vacation, looking for a detail out of place and finding everything in the usual order, others are looking for companions to remember. One takes a quick tour, regaining possession of an abandoned space, goes out and immediately calls a friend with his smartphone, tells him in amazement how "nothing has changed in Natta, while the Politecnico is a whole different thing, new". 

An endless list of programmes followed begins, "they now seem like just names - says an Alumnus - but at the time they were lessons, hours spent here": Chemistry, Construction Sciences, Information and Transmission Theory. Each remembers a legendary programme of a mind-blowing year, their own. If the desks were used as a carbon copy, tens of thousands of handwriting could be traced, millions of notes, billions of formulas. A father shows his son the blackboards. Some recognize themselves in the glasses they wear, showing them to each other:

The children lean on the desks to which their parents arrived breathless from home in the mornings of their youth, leaving scarves, hats, gloves and any other clothing to keep a valuable place in the front row. For once, the Alumni that are always early meet their classmates who are always late, those who arrived after the lesson had begun and remained outside to avoid the angry look of the teacher and the audience. 

An electrical engineer of the class of '87 tells of the best programme in history: Rational Mechanics held by Amalia Ercoli-Finzi, the first female aeronautical engineer in Italy, the "lady of the comets". Exactly on the stroke of the hour, without a speculative quarter hour, Amalia Finzi entered, greeted and began to write notes on the blackboard from bottom left, explaining with a clear voice that rose towards the entire audience, as if speaking and explaining to each one of the two hundred students, guiding the youngsters into the secrets of mechanical systems. When the bell rang, the professor stopped with the chalk, the last formulas were on the last blackboard at the top right. Every day a wall of formulas, for a season, until one of the last hours of one of the last days, from the fourteenth row of benches, the spell is broken: a student gets up and throws a paper airplane, the first of the programme. The first Italian aeronautical engineer looks at the glide and the ruinous landing and with an indulgent look forgives the thrower, it is not known whether for the lighthearted gesture or for the constructive errors. The programme ended without other airplanes, forty years after Amalia Ercoli-Finzi celebrated her 80th birthday at the Politecnico, the thrower maybe goes around the Natta looking for his desk, his scarf, his notes.