Passion, Multidisciplinarity, Innovation: the Alta Scuola Politecnica in Action

Workshop description
Innovation and knowledge are the core drivers of sustainable development. That’s why companies and public institutions are increasingly looking for talented engineers, architects and designers mastering their elective technology, but who also understand the socio–economic context and are able to pursue complex innovation projects in a team work context. To fulfill these expectations, the Alta Scuola Politecnica (ASP) was established in 2004 as a joint venture of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino, the largest and oldest technical universities in Italy. ASP selects 150 students per year, among the best Master’s students (Laurea Magistrale) in Engineering, Architecture and Design; students are young talents, with a passion for innovation, who wish to develop their potential in a multidisciplinary community.

The Alta Scuola Politecnica proposes to its talented students three keywords:

The educational program of ASP consists of courses and multidisciplinary projects. Courses are cross-cultural, covering topics such as modeling, creativity, sustainability, and the economic, managerial, ethical and socio-political aspects of innovation. Projects are focused on real-world problems, proposed by professors in collaboration with companies, public administrations and research institutions. Teams working on each project are multidisciplinary and consist of 5-6 students from different majors, under the supervision of tutors selected among professors and researchers from the Politecnici, and experts of the proposing institutions.

Information and Communication Technology is the essential ingredient of some of the ICT-driven ASP projects, but it is present in the majority of them, even when they deal with other fields, such as energy management, industrial automation, modern railways, and even the design of cultural exhibits or of strategies for developing territories. The multi-disciplinary nature of ASP projects is ideal for highlighting the pervasive nature of ICT and the influence of information management on most complex real-life problems and contexts. On the other hand, ASP projects offer to ICT students, who are well represented in the composition of ASP classes, the ideal framework for understanding how their discipline should come in contact with real-life application, in full respect of the user’s culture and habits, with an open mind for understanding users’ requirements and needs, but at the same time with the awareness that the best quality and best selected ICT solutions are fundamental in fulfilling user’s expectations.

Under these premises, the workshop will give a general introduction of Alta Scuola Politecnica, its mission, program, and achievements so far, introduce multidisciplinary projects and highlight the role that ICT plays within them, and then describe some of the projects where ICT has been widely used.

For its ambitious program, for the quality of its students, and for the prestige and tradition of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino, the two co-founding Schools of Engineering, the Alta Scuola Politecnica is a unique program in the Italian as well as international horizon. By spending half days with its managing directors, with the professors who are deeply involved in ICT-related projects, and with some of the ASP students, attendants of the workshop will come in touch with a new Italian school of excellence: a refreshing and stimulating experience.

For more information, see www.asp-poli.it.