"The best of" MAP !
We feel a bit like rock stars, with a celebratory issue of the community. We have collected for you all the most read and commented articles of these past 5 years, reserving us the right to update some data (for example those of the university rankings: yes, we are still at the top) and we have add a little gem at the bottom of the issue: a gallery of champions of Politecnico in 2021 !
A must-read number if you want to peek the "behind the scenes" of some of the most curious laboratories in the world, if you love walking on the rooftops, going to the cinema, to the spas, if you love design and technology, if you are a surfers, sportsmen or if you prefer cybernetics books and math salads, if you have friends / children / grandchildren abroad or if you yourself are far from the Alma Mater, perhaps in space. Definitely, to read if you are proud of being an alumnus Politecnico.
This MAP, in the words of Enrico Zio, president of Alumni Politecnico di Milano, Rector's Delegate for Alumni and Individual Fundraising:
“It is a tribute to the work that Alumni do, to their contribution to society which is tangible, useful, beautiful, passionate and attentive. It is an ode to the activities and initiatives of the Alumni of the Politecnico di Milano who feed the research-companies-institutions ecosystem with ideas and energy, bringing the DNA of Politecnico's "know-how" out of the University laboratories and making it available to the industrial context and social".
You can preview it below. As you can see, for MAP's birthday we changed his clothes: let us know what you think!
MAP 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.
Sinergy Flow , the startup supported by Polihub and founded by Gabriele Panzeri and Matteo Salerno , Alumni Engineering of materials and nanotechnologies, won the National Award for Innovation 2021 (PNI) .
Already winner of the Start Cup Lombardia, Sinergy Flow took home the victory in this “business plan competition” thanks to its innovative battery at low cost, sustainable and high efficiency . The battery costs up to 30 times less than the solutions on the market today and does not use precious raw materials, since is based on by-products of the petrochemical industry rich in sulfur , in compliance with the principles of the circular economy.
"The high accessibility of the raw materials used will avoid the creation of geopolitical oligopolies in their supply, promoting the energy independence of the individual communities" declares to Repubblica Alessandra Accogli , Alumna Materials Engineering and CEO of the company - This award will allow us to accelerate the development and diffusion of this technology on the market and make a strong contribution to a completely sustainable energy transition “.
The PNI - to which the best Italian hi-tech business projects born in the university field compete, winners of the 15 regional competitions (StartCup) - in 2021 saw the participation of 63 innovative business projects, which challenged each other around the theme “From research to business for a sustainable future”
The total prize money amounts to 1.5 million euros: around 500,000 in cash and 1 million in services, offered by the universities and incubators members of PNICube.
“I want to get out of here better than how I came here”, says Filippo (fictional name), detained in the prison of Bollate. With project ACTS | A chance through sport, a group of students and researchers from the Politecnico enters the prison houses of Opera and Bollate and the "Beccaria" Juvenile Penal Institute to support him and many other inmates in the goal of promoting sport as a tool for growth, emancipation and personal responsibility.
Since 2019, students and researchers have been working side by side with inmates and prison officers to design spaces and practices of resocialization through sport: the departments of Architecture and Urban Studies, Design and Electronics, Information and Bioengineering are partecipating in the project. The group works on spaces, on communication strategies to build and facilitate relationships with inmates, prison officers, administration and on monitoring the physical conditions of inmates and agents through the use of wearable devices.
Credits: ACTS
"The field experience of the ACTS project was a great opportunity to meet both with a reality as distant from me as that of the prison system, and to do so with a project well structured and articulated on several levels. The desire for in-depth analysis that is present in the project is compelling and motivating every day to carry on this experience": these are the words ofTommaso Ripani, three-year student in Communication Design at the School of Design, who followed the field phase inside the Bollate prison and continued to work on it even in his spare time, transforming it into a voluntary activity.
With other students participating in the ACTS project developing communication projects, Tommaso turns to the Alumni to help him give voice to the project and its nature so close to the Politecnico soul of design: they help to collect stories of sports and life in prison and want to tell their experience - comments FrancescaPiredda, professor of the Department of Design – together , we are developing communication design tools that support research in the field, with a high social impact objective: our approach is based on the assumption that communicating means 'sharing' therefore that communicating is useful to prisoners, agents, but also to students who are the future of our civil society ". In practice, the group intends to shoot a documentary that tells the life of the detainees, the research and design work and the impact it is having on everyday life in prisons.
"we would need around 5000 euros to complete the documentary" concludes Piredda.
Prisons are “absolutely remote places in the perception of those outside, representing perhaps the greatest social removal of our times”, says the prof. Andrea Di Franco, scientific director of the project, to the editorial staff of Startup Italia.
“Those in prison say that few things like sport help them survive t heir miseries”, is the editor's opening words. “he Politecnico vision of architecture as a social practice is also taught through the impact that our studies and our research work can have on people's lives, concretely”, continues Di Franco. “With ACTS we have aimed at an ambitious project which, by intervening on the prison houses of Opera and Bollate, as well as on the Beccaria juvenile penal institute, promotes sport no longer as occasional practice, but as a broader and more organic project that makes physical and sporting activity also a tool for relating and socializing, for effective improvement of the physical and psychological well-being of people, and of course for the requalification of spaces."
Politecnico di Milano and STMicroelectronics,have inaugurated the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing capabilities at PoliFab, the University’s micro- and nanotechnology R&D center. A laboratory created to provide the highest technological standards for a wide range of applications and processes involving the five Key Enabling Technologies: photonics, micro and nanoelectronics, biotechnologies, advanced materials and nanotechnology.
Building on the long-standing collaboration between the two organizations, the PoliFab’s clean room – a facility where silicon wafers are made into semiconductor chips – has received state-of-the-art equipment from STMicroelectronics to boost joint R&D efforts in Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and motion control, as well as in power electronics and galvanic isolation.
The enlarged clean-room infrastructure will make Politecnico di Milano even more attractive for talented researchers and students, and contribute to fuel ST’s advances and development roadmap in semiconductor technologies including MEMS, dwhere the Company is a world leader with over 15 billion devices sold to date. With the core of ST’s global MEMS R&D operations located in Lombardy, close to Milan, the cooperation with PoliFab aims at setting up a center of excellence for studies and research on advanced materials for MEMS in the region.
Credits: Polifab
The ongoing collaboration also encompasses investments in staff and programs with ST supporting scholarships and the recruitment of professors and researchers, as well as financing joint research projects.
With the new spaces inaugurated today, the total classified area of PoliFab spans 610 sq metres, plus annexed characterization laboratories, thus making it comparable to analogous facilities of the best European research institutions.
We are pioneering a new model for “fast technology transfer” based on the realization of a joint research and innovation infrastructure where top-class semiconductor equipment, the very same used in a semiconductor fab, is made available to researchers and students.
said Riccardo Bertacco, director of Polifab.
Polifab 2.0 is a physical site where exciting scientific ideas can meet state-of-the-art semiconductor technology, thus speeding-up both fundamental research and its technology transfer.
The "Joint Labs" agreement between Politecnico di Milano, Pirelli and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano was renewed 10 years after the first signing. The agreement is renewed - in the words of Rector Ferruccio Resta - underlining “the importance of this long standing and constructive relationship between university and company, one of the keys indicated in the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza".
Joint Labs will last three years and will be focused on research projects for the continuous technological innovation of tires. Thanks to the investment of over 2 million euros , it will focus on three main thematic areas :
Simulation, through the integrated use of the static simulator, installed in the Pirelli’s research and development centre, and the dynamic simulator of the Politecnico, with the aim of optimising the development and testing of new tyres, reducing lead times and strengthening collaborations with car manufacturers;
Materials, with the development of innovative solutions, such as new materials with low environmental impact, and the modelling of mixing processes;
Product and Cyber Development, with innovations in areas such as tyre aerodynamics, automated tread modelling and intelligent vehicle control.
Credits: Drismi
In particular, five departments of Politecnico di Milano are involved in scope of this agreement:Mechanical Engineering; Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering; Mathematics; Electronics, Information and Bioengineering; and Civil and Environmental Engineering.
"Research and training are the prerequisites for an industrial development that looks to the future. The agreement between the Politenico di Miano and Pirelli is solid and this is the direction we wish to pursue"
continues the Rector.
"This agreement aims to consolidate enduring relationships for investments in the long term, which will enable the realization of advanced research with a high level of experimental and innovative content. Strategic partnerships like this create constant dialogue between companies and the university in order to shares needs, strategies and visions"
concludes Andrea Sianesi , President of the Polytechnic Foundation of Milan.
The third stage of the Best of 2021 brings us to the many awards and nominations from around the world, in which alumni and alumnae have distinguished themselves for their Made in Polimi factor.
"What a year for our ALUMNI!" - comments the President Enrico Zio - "A year that I can dare to say "normal", given the exceptional nature of our community of Alumni. The committment, professionalism, ethics and dedication of the Architects, Designers and Engineers of Politecnico di Milano, combined with the quality of their skills, "naturally" lead to these great results. So, let's continue to surprise the world with our "normal" work: I am the President of this community, and I am proud of it.
As of right now, the year is not over yet and the list could get longer. Surely, then, we will have lost someone along the way: in that case, let us know and we will correct it. What is certain is that these postcards from the podiums of the world, signed by Alumni and students of the Polytechnic, are a testimony of the strength of this community in the most varied fields.
April
An Italian wins the James F. Schumar Scholarship
Lorenzo Vergari, a Poli Nuclear Engineering Alumnus and now a PhD student at UC Berkeley, receives the prize that has been awarded annually since 1984 for research results in the field of materials science applied to nuclear power.
May
European Inventor Award 2021, Marco Donolato is a finalist
Magnetic nanoparticles used to diagnose diseases (including Covid19), cheaply and in minutes: a patent belonging to Italian startupper MarcoDonolato, Physics Engineering alumnus, can detect infectious diseases, including Dengue fever, Zika, and SARS-CoV-2.The test requires a single drop of blood and produces accurate results in less than 10 minutes, enabling timely treatment of patients.
Elena Bottinelli wins the Premio Bellisario in the Management category
Women at the heart of the recovery: this is the message of the 33rd edition of the Marisa Bellisario Award “Women making a difference”. Among the other winners of this 33rd edition, the Marisa Bellisario Award Committee picked Alumna ElenaBottinelli, in the Management category.
Valentina Sumini nominated Ambassador for Italian Design 2021
Alumna and visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano, Sumini imagines an “architectural vision of space” and designs houses and hotels for living on other planets. She was conferred the title in Washington during the fifth edition of Italian Design Day, promoted by the Italian Embassy to celebrate Italian design and creativity in the world.
The Giorgio Modena Medal 2021 was awarded to Professor Pierangelo Metrangolo at Politecnico di Milano, for his research into the chemistry of halogenated compounds
The entire scientific world associates the discovery of the halogen bond to the Politecnico di Milano. If you have no idea what this is, it’s because it takes us to the frontiers of science: we talked about it directly with Professor Metrangolo,from the “Giulio Natta” Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, at Politecnico di Milano, on alumni-polimi.itThe Medal, established in 2019, is awarded every two years to honour the memory and work of Giorgio Modena, one of the masters and pioneers of research in organic physical chemistry. “This is a great recognition for a scientist working on intermolecular interactions,” commented Professor Metrangolo. “And it is an honour that I share with my colleagues in the research group. In particular, with Giuseppe Resnati (of whom we have spoken on MAP 9, page 40) with whom I had the good fortune to discover something new in chemistry, which will be further studied and researched for decades.”
At the intersection of architecture and technology
The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) awarded the TEK Research Dissemination Prize 2021 toRobertoNaboni, architecture alumnus and Phd, now associate professor in Computational Design and Digital Fabrication at SDU, and founder and director of the CREATE research group working on Computational Research in Emergent Architectural Technology. “Researching at the intersection of architecture and technology is just so exciting these days, and this award motivates me to keep doing it, and continue speaking about it around the world and on social media”, comments Naboni.
October
James Dyson Award 2021 to three Politecnico students
Safer, more beautiful, sustainable roads: LucaGrosso, SilvanaMigliozzi and AlessioPuleo, three students on the Laurea Magistrale (equivalent to Master’s degree) course Intregrated Product Design, won the award with their Roadfix project, a tool designed to repair road surfaces at no cost to the public budget, instead involving sponsor companies through a design project. The idea was conceived during the Concept Design Laboratory held by Prof. Massimo Bianchini al at the Politecnico and resulted in a prototype. The James Dyson Award is an international design award for young engineers and designers. These three Politecnico students stood out as the best young inventors among more than 2,000 participants who submitted inventions from 28 countries.
Eni Award: The President of the Italian Republic awards two Alumnae of Politecnico
MonicaFerro and GretaColomboDugoni, Politecnico di Milano alumnae and researchers, received their awards at Palazzo del Quirinale in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella during the 13th edition of the Eni Award for scientific research, with the special mention “Eni Joule for Entrepreneurship”. Also known as the “Nobel Prize for Energy”, this award is considered an international benchmark for research in the fields of energy and the environment. The alumnae received it for their work in the startup Bi-Rex, which they founded.
Double silver for Politecnico Alumna Federica Fragapane
After winning second place at the European Design Awards in June, Fragapane, a Communication Design alumna, also received the Pierre Keller Award at the Hublot Design Prize 2021, the most important recognition in the design sector to support young talent. At London's Serpentine Galleries, 160 international art experts and gallerists gathered to present works by emerging and established artists from around the world. FedericaFragapane was picked as the winner for her data visualisation work that represents the complexity of data in organic and poetic forms.
2021 has been a year of silver for Fragapane, who also won second place at theall’European Design Awards in June.
Alumna Tiziana Monterisi wins Fortune's Italia Prize
Monterisi won the MPW2021 – Fortune Italiaaward, which she received at the Fortune Italia MPW (Most Powerful Women) International Convention. An Architecture alumna, she is CEO and co-founder of Ricehouse, a company focused on transforming rice production waste into building and construction materials. The company uses all the natural materials that usually end up as waste to create building infrastructures.
Nellie Award Italia goes to young female graduates with big social impact
Awarded by The Circle Italia and Tiffany & co., the first edition picked three winners based on their academic achievements and the impact of their proposed solutions:TracyBassil,a Product Service Design and Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering alumna, developed a proposal to tackle the housing crisis after the Beirut port explosion in 2020. MarineKerdaffrec, an Integrated Product Design alumna, designed a device that links asthma monitoring and air pollution detection. ElenaRedaelli, a Biomedical Engineering alumna, developed a method to improve the lives of people operated on using the TEVAR technique.
We continue on our Best of 2021 journey: from Forbes to Corriere della Sera newspaper, the international press and businesses around the world celebrate the year's greatest professionals. Including many minds from Politecnico di Milano.
"What a year for our ALUMNI!" - comments the President Enrico Zio - "A year that I can dare to say "normal", given the exceptional nature of our community of Alumni. The committment, professionalism, ethics and dedication of the Architects, Designers and Engineers of Politecnico di Milano, combined with the quality of their skills, "naturally" lead to these great results. So, let's continue to surprise the world with our "normal" work: I am the President of this community, and I am proud of it.
As of right now, the year is not over yet and the list could get longer. Surely, then, we will have lost someone along the way: in that case, let us know and we will correct it. What is certain is that these postcards from the podiums of the world, signed by Alumni and students of the Polytechnic, are a testimony of the strength of this community in the most varied fields.
March
11 Politecnico students on the Forbes list of young innovators
This is the famous list of under-30s to keep an eye on due to their ideas and the impact they will have on the world. They also included several Politecnico students: GiovanniPandolfiBortoletto, 29, Aeronautical Engineering, founder of Leaf Space, in the science category;MatteoMarzorati, 26, games category, founder of Cordens Interactive and a Product Service System Design Alumnus; DomitillaRapisardi, 29, art&style category, founder of IINDACO and a Fashion Design Alumna; FrancescaBona, 29, in the energy category, energy transition expert, Energy Engineering; AndreaEvangelista and ChiaraRiente, both 27, Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology and Communication Design alumni, founders of Piantando, for the social impact category;
MarcoLaganà, 29, e-commerce category, founder of Dog Heroes, Fashion Alumnus; ElisaPiscitelli, 30, and MariapaolaTesta,29, Management Engineering, education category, founded Orientami; EnricoBertino, Mathematical Engineering, and
GianlucaMaruzzella, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, founders of Indigo. ai, enterprise technology category.
World’s top 50 best designers of 2021 according to Marie Claire
Among the world’s top 50 designers, this renowned magazine numbers ElenaSalmistraro, an Industrial Design Alumna, designer, painter and illustrator for big names such as Apple, Disney and Ikea.
Shaping the future of business through AI: 40 women on IBM’s list
The list of the top 40 women in artificial intelligence includes two Politecnico students, both Electronic Engineering Alumnae: DonatellaSciuto, vice-rector of Politecnico di Milano and rector’s delegate for Research and Diversity, and ElisabettaBurei, an Electronic Engineering alumna and Senior demand&project manager at CheBanca!
5 Politecnico alumnae among Italy’s “inspiring 50”
Women at the top of the technological world in Italy: from digital, to artificial intelligence, robotics, life sciences and so on. 5 international alumnae on the list: CristinaCanavesi, Telecommunication Engineering, Co-founder & President at LighTop Tech Corp; ElenaBottinelli,, Electronic Engineering, today Head of Innovation, Digitalization and Sustainability at Gruppo San Donato; GuendalinaCobianchi, SVP Business Development & Partnerships in V-Nova, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering; MonicaDallaRiva, , VP Design & CX at Deutsche Telekom, Industrial Design;PatriziaCasali, Biomedical Engineering, innovation developer and team leader. And the UK list includes MarziaBolpagni, Architecture PhD alumna. She specialises in Building Information Modelling and also won the young engineer of the year award from the Royal Academy of Engineering, which each year selects 5 engineers, and she received the prestigious Sir George Macfarlane Medal, given to young professionals.
Still with Forbes, for the fourth consecutive year this magazine celebrates 1100 most successful female Italian leaders selected from scientists, sporting champions, business visionaries, and managers. They include two of our Alumnae:
Narvalo: a mask for urban use equipped with a system that regulates the flow of air to always provide maximum breathing comfort combined with the best filter protection against fine dust, smog, pollen, viruses and bacteria. Read more on the dedicated website at ADI DESIGN INDEX 2021, the annual selection of the best Italian design, made by the Permanent Design Observatory, which is the qualifying round for the Compasso D'Oro.
Narvalo was in fact selected in the ADI Design Index 2021. But it is an old acquaintance of ours ("old" so to speak: it arrived on the market in 2020): we also talked about it in MAP # 7 ( you can read the whole story of Narvalo Urban Mask at this link ), with an exclusive interview with Ewoud Westerduin , Alumnus Integrated Product Design and founder of the start-up that developed the product.
"The 3D fabric is obtained from a three-level weaving process, in which the upper and lower layers are joined to an intermediate layer, called a spacer layer, of variable thickness depending on the need," explains Westerduin. "The filtering part is composed of various layers of non-woven polypropylene-based fabric which, combined with a layer treated with activated carbon, are able to filter 99.9% of particulate matter, smog, pollen, bacteria , viruses and odors . The external part is water-repellent, while the internal band, in contact with the skin, in addition to being also water-repellent, is in hypoallergenic and self-sanitizing material ». We add: it also serves to prevent the glasses from fogging up, and this season is no small feat.
The crowning achievement of a whole year with the turbo for the Narvalo team, which earlier this year also won a Red Dot Design Award Product Design , one of the awards of the most prestigious international design since 1954 and which each year chooses design projects from three areas of the discipline: Product Design, Brand & Communication Design and Design Concept. The jury is made up of 50 international members representing the three categories who individually test and evaluate the various candidate projects. This year, projects from over 60 countries participated.
In this first "sneak peek" of the Best moments of 2021, we want to remember the victories that made us cheer with #orgoglioPolitecnico.
"What a year for our ALUMNI!" - comments the President Enrico Zio - "A year that I can dare to say "normal", given the exceptional nature of our community of Alumni. The committment, professionalism, ethics and dedication of the Architects, Designers and Engineers of Politecnico di Milano, combined with the quality of their skills, "naturally" lead to these great results. So, let's continue to surprise the world with our "normal" work: I am the President of this community, and I am proud of it.
As of right now, the year is not over yet and the list could get longer. Surely, then, we will have lost someone along the way: in that case, let us know and we will correct it. What is certain is that these postcards from the podiums of the world, signed by Alumni and students of the Polytechnic, are a testimony of the strength of this community in the most varied fields.
TOKYO OLYMPICS
A fantastic year for Italian sport, and also for Polimi sport, which contributed 7 Olympic medals to the many victories achieved.
—
Manfredi Rizzaa Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology alumnus, brought home a silver in the K1 200 metres at the Tokyo Olympics
AlbertoAmodeoan Automation Engineering student, silver medal in the 400m freestyle at the Paralympics
SimoneBarlaama Mechanical Engineering student, gold in the 50m freestyle, silver in the 4×100 freestyle relay, silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 4×100 mixed relay at the Paralympics
GiuliaGhirettia Biomedical Engineering student, silver in the 100m breaststroke at the Paralympics
The men’s track pursuit team won the gold medal and set a new world record (3:42:032) in a race that was tight to the very last second. This achievement was also thanks in part to Politecnico di Milano and the WindTunnel.
“To prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, the men and women's track pursuit quartets came to the Wind Tunnel to optimise their performance from an aerodynamic point of view, checking materials and position on the saddle,” commented Prof. Marco Belloli, Wind Tunnel scientific director.
Luna Rossa dominated the Prada’s Cup, beating the British crew 7-1 and earning a place in the America’s Cup for the first time in 21 years. The Italian team included four Politecnico di Milano alumni:
Alessandro Franceschetti, Head of Structural Engineering, Alumnus Polimi Ingegneria dei Materiali Fabrizio Marabini, Performance, Alumnus Polimi Ingegneria Aeronautica Stefano Baruffaldi, Drone – Electronics, Alumnus Polimi Disegno Industriale Andrea Romani, Base Operations Manager, Alumnus Polimi Architettura
Unlucky in the final, the Italian team paid tribute to their opponents: “We showed the whole world that we can do it,” commented helmsman Francesco Bruni. “This is not the end of Luna Rossa’s story in the America’s Cup, we'll try again with more experience”.
Great result for the boys and girls on the Polimi Motorcycle Factory team in the 6th Moto Student competition: after three years of hard work with Nyx, the #electric prototype, they won first place as Best Industrial Project, first place in the acceleration test and the highest speed in the championship, reaching 200.0 km/h.
IlariaBurattina Product Design alumna, and her teammates won the title and set a new Italian club record in the 4×400 relay, with a time of 3'31"16.
October
Following last year’s victory, the Polimi team also won the second edition of the “Leonardo Drone Contest. An Open Innovation Challenge”, a competition that is one of a kind in Italy, launched by Leonardo to promote the development of Artificial Intelligence applied to unmanned systems.
IndyAutonomousChallenge: oro mancato d’un soffio per il team Polimove, che conquista il terzo posto e il record di velocità: “252 km/h, col motore che andava a 6000 giri: abbiamo fatto il record e ci siamo schiantati 10 secondi dopo”, commenta il prof. Savaresi, capogruppo del progetto. Sulla pista di Indianapolis si sono sfidati 28 team di oltre 500 studenti universitari appartenenti a 39 atenei di 11 Paesi.
Footballamericano, un altro bellissimo risultato per l’Italia: Alessandro Vergani and Tommaso Finadri; Alumni Ingegneria Aerospaziale, insieme a Riccardo De Mas; Alumnus Ingegneria dei Materiali e delle Nanotecnologie, si sono laureati campioni agli europei battendo in casa la Svezia 41 a 14.
Foundation of the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre, the collection of the immense heritage left by this designer who graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 1969. Attending the presentation event were the Rector of Politecnico di Milano, Ferruccio Resta, the President of the Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré Alberto Ferré and the Director General of the Foundation Rita Airaghi.
After establishing the Foundation in 2008, the Ferré family has now decided to donate its archives and the headquarters in Via Tortona, designed by Franco Raggi, to Politecnico di Milano.
Credits: polimi.it/Fondazione Ferré
Rector Resta commented:
The value of heritage is that it resists, grows and looks to the future. Preserving means continuing to make thoughts and objects come alive in new forms. This is the objective of the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre, which we are inaugurating today, with the aim of promoting digital innovation in the creative and cultural industries.
As it stands, the Foundation’s heritage, almost entirely catalogued in a digital database, encompasses more than 150,000 documents and artefacts, including sketches, technical drawings, photos, clothing and accessories, objects, books, magazines, films, press reviews, writings, lectures, and notes by the designer.
This archive, recognised as being of “particular cultural interest” by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities - Archival Superintendence for Lombardy, is now part of the Politecnico di Milano Historical Archives system.
Coordinated by the Department of Design, the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre intends to merge the skills, technical-scientific knowledge and design culture of the Politecnico di Milano with the tangible and intangible heritage relating to the history, culture and techniques of fashion preserved and enhanced by the Gianfranco Ferré Foundation.
Gianfranco Ferré, a great fashion designer and artist, was an ambassador for Italy and for our university the world over: one of those names that makes us proud. What strikes us about all his work is its precision, perhaps due to the design skills inherent in his training as an architect, and its emotion. This combination of technique and art, method and inventiveness is something we encourage in our classrooms and laboratories with the experimentation that today happens thanks to the increasingly closer convergence of technology and creativity.
added Resta.
Credits: polimi.it/Fondazione Ferré
The Centre is based on an interdisciplinary vision capable of combining tradition with innovation and technology, and it integrates in-depth knowledge of design and fashion with digital skills.
One distinctive aspect is therefore the grafting of techniques and knowledge typical of the tailoring, craftsmanship and technical culture of the creative industries with advanced technological solutions—such as augmented reality and virtual reality; reverse modelling, digital prototyping and 3D printing; haptic and sonic perception; holographic rendering, animated graphics, and movie production.
Digital technologies have already been widely applied in the fashion sector, but it still lacks an integrated approach capable of exploring the full potential of hybridisation between the physical and virtual dimensions, in order to rethink the use of fashion artefacts from a viewpoint of cultural enhancement and “augmented narration”.
The Research Centre intends to launch a series of interdisciplinary experiments which, under the coordination of the Fashion in Process Laboratory of the Department of Design, will involve many of the university’s disciplinary components, from mechanical engineering to information engineering, bioengineering, and mathematical engineering, with a view to exploring some research and innovation trajectories.
The first year of activity will end with an initiative open to the public that will showcase some unique pieces from the Ferré archive set against the new scenarios of digital transformation of the creative and cultural industries.
The establishment of the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre at Politecnico di Milano makes me particularly happy and proud to have honoured my commitment to keep alive the memory and value of my brother Gianfranco.
comments Alberto Ferré.
We can now hand this task over to those who will certainly know how to use the most advanced tools to make raise awareness and further disseminate a cultural heritage of immense value, thanks to different projects and experimentation supported by new languages. A return home, to ‘his’ Politecnico, where teaching and research are the result of continuous experimentation, where the latest technologies can be used to interpret and lend contemporary form to the fruit of the poetry, creativity and dreams that underlie Gianfranco’s fashion, which has always combined these values with method and design “Made in Politecnico”.
Technological challenges more and more complex and rapidly evolving. This is the scenario described by the top management of the University to the 62 companies that were welcomed at Politecnico di Milano on the 1st of December.
In Aula Magna Pesenti, in the new Architecture Campus where, as highlighted by rector Ferruccio Resta , University and institutions meet periodically companies and Alumni, the first JRC Annual Meeting was held, a moment of discussion with the University's partners to showcase the results achieved thanks to agreements with companies.
The PNRR guidelines and the need to invest in research, education and innovation.
How?
“Complexity requires us to create a system”, comments Daniele Rocchi , delegate of rector of Corporate Relations , at the beginning of the event. On stage together with the rector, there was pro-rector and research delegate Donatella Sciuto , the Alumnus Renato Lombardi (VP Huawei Italia and R&D Director Huawei Italia), the Alumnus Renato Mazzoncini (CEO of A2A), the Alumnus Andrea Ruckstuhl (Director EMEA of LENDLEASE), Roberto Tomasi (CEO of Autostrade per l'Italia) and Francesca Zarri (ENI Director of Technology, R&D & Digital).
"Politecnico has in its DNA the inclination to applied research which involves the industrial world: in academic jargon we call it Third Mission (the first two are teaching and research), it is the ability to transfer research from laboratories to the social context ”, comments Rocchi.
From the departments, the heart of scientific development, to technology transfer, Politecnico makes use of various tools such as the Switch2Product ideas competition and the Polihub, one of the best business accelerators to the world, as well as a series of venture capital initiatives that serve to support the necessary growth in investment volumes.
The objective of these tools is measurable: to increase the TRL ( Technology Readiness Level , an index that measures the maturity of a technology with respect to the market) of polytechnic inventions and more, since these are initiatives involving start-ups and entrepreneurship from all over the territory.
Among the various models of collaboration with businesses, the Joint Research Center , strategic partnerships with immediate repercussions both in terms of research and training (in particular with the support for PhDs and young researchers).
“Between now and the next 3 months the first match of the PNRR will be played, for 6 billion euros ”, comments the rector Ferruccio Resta. "The first guidelines issued by the Government for Measure 4, the one intended for universities, pay particular attention to the university-business relationship. They indicate concrete tools for approaching civil society and the world of production in a supply chain perspective through the creation of public-private partnerships on cross-cutting issues; the establishment of national centers dedicated to key technologies; the strengthening of ecosystems for the development of territories and greater integration between research and innovation infrastructures to increase competitiveness on a national and European scale. A decisive step of openness and extended collaboration that our university has been pursuing for some time."
To date, in fact, 185 research agreements between companies and Politecnico are active, for a compressive value of 150 million euros per year . A tradition for the University, which with the meeting on 1 December wanted to share with the territory: in essence, to open the works to create a consortium of universities and companies that allow them to intercept resources and investments expected in the coming months, with a shared, multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach. Resta looks to the future of the country: "The goal is to go beyond the PNRR and ensure that this contribution creates lasting value for the system, even beyond 2026".
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