Author: Marta Re Ferrè

International, responsible and nurturing: envisioning the future of our School

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on International, responsible and nurturing: envisioning the future of our School

Interview with Raffaella Cagliano, newly appointed Academic Director of the School of Management

 

Your recent appointment as Academic Director of the School of Management took place at the same time as the election of the new Rector of the Politecnico di Milano, prof. Donatella Sciuto. This is the beginning of a new phase for the University as a whole, which has to face various new challenges. Starting from your program, what is your vision and what are the School’s priorities for the next few years?

Taking on the role of Academic Director is a great honor and responsibility. Our School, together with the whole Politecnico di Milano and the University system, is facing relevant challenges that ask for a clear vision and considerable accountability.

Thanks to the constant improvement of the positioning of Politecnico di Milano in the international rankings, and the excellent results obtained by the School of Management in the last six years, many opportunities have opened up and need to be concretely exploited.

This is also a flourishing time for Italian Universities, thanks to the financing received for research projects and positions within the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) scheme, which outlines the goals, reforms and investments that Italy intends to pursue through NextGenerationEU funds to mitigate the COVID-19 socio-economic impact.

However, for their potential to be fully exploited these opportunities must be managed conscientiously. The new resources and collaborations resulting from this fast growth must be consolidated into a new solid base for further developments, while also keeping in mind that the pressing societal challenges and the recent developments in the geo-political scene are asking universities for a decisive contribution, that is, to provide answers and at the same time to also develop a culture of peace and sustainable development.

In this scenario, the School of Management’s main priority is to strengthen the excellence achieved, with the aim of becoming an international leader in responsible research and education, and of allowing our people, and especially the young professors, to thrive and develop their best capacities, for them to contribute to a general positive impact on society as well as to the success of our School.

 

To this respect, in recent years, the school has worked a lot to create awareness of the impacts generated by scientific research and to promote sustainability. How does it deal now with the complexities of the current socio-economic and environmental challenges that you have mentioned?

Sustainability and social impact continue to be central to the strategy of our School. We are aware of the challenges the business and economic system and the society as well are facing and, together with the whole Politecnico, we want to develop and disseminate the knowledge that is needed to transition to a greener and more just world, while producing and spreading wellbeing. We see our role as particularly important in contributing to the common good through a critical understanding of both the opportunities and the challenges offered by technology.

We pursue this mission by creating and sharing knowledge through high-quality education, the quest for scientific excellence and active community engagement.

 

The Department of Management, Economics and industrial Engineering, which is part of the School, has just been appointed as a “department of excellence” for the five-year period 2023-2027 by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, which will fund the HumanTech (Humans and Technology) project. The issue of man at the center of technological development has been one of the main areas of focus for the School (we talked about this in issue #6). Can you briefly tell us what the objectives of the project are?

The HumanTech project is a great opportunity for the School to foster collaboration between the different research groups and knowledge centers inside and outside the Department towards a common research objective. They will jointly develop relevant insights and knowledge about novel ways to approach and implement digital technology innovation with the aim of balancing two goals: improving the wellbeing of individuals and the whole society while also being economically sustainable.

In our view, there is a pressing need to evolve the current technological development model from maximizing economic results towards a more “human” form, that is, a model that in addition to the financial and economic implications also takes into account human, social and environmental ones from the very beginning.

Thanks to the financing obtained, the School will develop top-notch labs supporting behavioral and cognitive ergonomics research in virtual and immersive environments, which will ground the leadership of our School in the field.

We are setting challenging performance targets in terms of outcome, reach and impact of our research results in the next five years. If we will be able to fulfil this promise, these results will further consolidate the excellence and international positioning of our School among the top European schools of management within technical universities. You will read more details on the project in the editorial piece by Federico Caniato.

 

If you had to briefly give 3 keywords for the future of the School in the short term, what would they be?

Nurturing – We wish to nurture our Faculty by creating an inspiring and stimulating environment for developing excellent and impactful research and innovative teaching.

Responsible – Our responsibility stands in pursuing research and teaching oriented to have a positive impact on companies and the local community. By developing and disseminating knowledge on the role of technology and innovation, we contribute to a better and more just society.

International – We aim at attracting talents worldwide and becoming a center of excellence renowned for the quality and standing or our research and teaching activities.

Venture Capitalists in Italy? They are very cautious and focus on entrepreneurs rather than technology and product in 8 out of 10 cases

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Venture Capitalists in Italy? They are very cautious and focus on entrepreneurs rather than technology and product in 8 out of 10 cases


Here are the Italian results of a survey on VC practices in several European countries conducted by 8 prestigious business schools

 

Italian venture capitalists are much more cautious than both their US and European counterparts, at least compared to countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Sweden. In Italy, venture capitalists grant funding almost exclusively on the basis of the entrepreneur’s history of success, giving little or no weight to the product, technology and market proposed to them. They operate in consortium usually to divide risk (in 46.4% of cases), seek unanimous approval of investment decisions in 50% of cases and prefer to be paid with less risky annual financial bonuses than with percentages (usually 20%) on capital gain. These are the main results regarding Italy of a survey conducted on European venture capital practices by a consortium of prestigious Old Continent business schools, including the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, along with: Audencia Business School, Vlerick Business School/Ghent University, London Business School, Stockholm School of Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Univiersité du Luxembourg.

“In 2020, authoritative research was published that took a snapshot of the practices of US venture capitalists,” explains Massimo Colombo, Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano. “We wondered whether European investors behaved in the same way or whether there might be significant differences – given the historical and institutional differences, the smaller size of the market, for example in Italy, or differences in governance. We therefore presented a similar questionnaire to all known venture capitalists in Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Sweden, and collected 885 responses (corresponding to 44% of VC investments in 2022), of which 44 were Italian, representing a similar percentage of the total investments”.

According to the survey, far fewer proposals are received in Italy than in other European countries: the average Italian investor received around 400 in the last 12 months, compared to 500 in Europe. However, Italian investors are less selective, accepting one proposal in 43 instead of one in 51. And the key factor for them in deciding whether or not to grant capital is essentially the entrepreneurial team: in fact, 8 out of 10 times, they invest in those who have already demonstrated an entrepreneurial or managerial record of success. “In Europe, too, the entrepreneur is considered more significant than the technology, product and market,” Colombo says, “but if in Europe the percentages are 53.1% versus 27.6%, in Italy it rises further to 81.6% versus 7.9%. The fit between investor and start-up and the added value the VC can bring are also of little importance (5.3%), whereas in Europe they are considered in up to 12% of cases“.

Again, the qualities which Italian investors value most highly in entrepreneurial teams are passion and commitment (28.9%) and sector experience (23.7%), to which they give much more weight than their European colleagues, who place more value on competence (28.2%) and entrepreneurial experience (19.3%).

As for the VC’s added value, Italian investors, like others in Europe, provide most of their support to start-ups in building links with suppliers, customers and partners, in acquisitions and in monitoring as board members. Strategic and operational support, on the other hand, is less common.

It is rare for a venture capitalist to invest alone, generally preferring to invest through a consortium, but while in Europe they do so to find complementary expertise (38.5%) and to a lesser extent to share the risk (28.8%), in Italy the latter becomes clearly preponderant (46.4%), while complementary expertise accounts for only a third of cases. The need to overcome capital constraints then drops from a 22.4% average in Europe to 14.3% (in Italy the rounds are usually smaller).

When choosing consortium partners, reputation and past successes are the decisive factor, both in Italy (45.1%) and, equally, across Europe (44.9%), while sectoral experience counts significantly more in Italy (35.5% versus 22.5%). By contrast, previous collaborations have less weight (3.2% vs. 11.5%). When it comes to choosing which start-ups to focus on, Italian investors look for unanimity in half of cases (compared to 32.8% across Europe), whereas other European investors vote by majority (37.6% compared to 35%) and the search for consensus is even weighted twice as heavily (25.9% against 12.5%).

6 scientists from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering in the World’s Top 2% Scientist ranking

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on 6 scientists from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering in the World’s Top 2% Scientist ranking
They have been identified among over 8 and a half million researchers whose scientific authority is globally recognised

 

Enrico Cagno, Vittorio Chiesa, Massimo Colombo, Christine Harland, Giorgio Locatelli, John Rodney Turner: these are the 6 professors of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering included in the World’s Top 2% Scientist ranking, the global ranking of the scientists with the highest level of scientific productivity, drawn up by Stanford University in collaboration with Elsevier and the worldwide scientific research database ‘Scopus‘.

The ranking is the result of a bibliometric study, a discipline that uses mathematical and statistical techniques to analyse the quantity, quality and diffusion of publications within scientific communities. The authors analysed data relating to over 8 and a half million researchers from universities and research centres throughout the world. Among them, approximately 195,000 scientists stood out for their scientific authority and currently represent the best 2%.

Approximately 5,000 of these work (or have worked for the majority of their careers) in Italy, 185 of whom at Politecnico di Milano. Compare the downloadable data using this link

The citations and the relative h-index (an index that measures the productivity and scientific impact of an author, based on both the number of publications and the number of citations received) are evaluated for each researcher. The ranking also indicates the scientific discipline, ranging from astrophysics to zoology, and the respective ranking, according to a classification of the author’s profile obtained using advanced machine learning techniques to produce comparable results across different scientific areas.

 

For the complete list:

https://alumni.polimi.it/en/2023/01/10/185-scienziati-del-poli-nella-classifica-dei-200-000-migliori-al-mondo/

Innovation and Value Creation Research Seminar 2023 (IVC2023)

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Innovation and Value Creation Research Seminar 2023 (IVC2023)
Politecnico di Milano School of Management has recently hosted Professor Ralf Reichwald’s wide research community for this annual event that for the first time has taken place in Italy.

 

The Innovation and Value Creation Research Seminar 2023 (IVC2023) took place from May 4th to May 6th at the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano. Over 45 professors and PhD researchers from Germany, Austria and Italy joined the seminar to present and discuss their recent research results. IVC2023 joined intellect, curiosity, and openness, resulting in an intensive exchange of ideas between participants. With ten sessions spanning various domains, the seminar delved into digitalization and business models, open innovation, and innovation ecosystems, servitization and smart manufacturing, as well as sustainable transformation and circular economy.

The seminar started with a pre-conference dinner on May 4th where the researchers had the possibility to come together and have initial discussions before the beginning of the seminar sessions. Over the course of 1,5 days, this event provided an engaging platform for PhD candidates from Germany and Italy to present their research findings in the realms of innovation and value creation. So far, the research seminar with all its previous editions has taken place only in German and Austrian universities. The 18th edition of this year’s seminar is the first time the seminar is organized in Italy.

The PhD researchers highlighted the transformative power of digital technologies in shaping and disrupting traditional industries, emphasizing the need for organizations to adapt and innovate continuously and to accommodate new ways of doing business such as servitization models. The discussions centered around the strategies, frameworks, and new forms of leadership that drive successful digitalization efforts, with the objective of illuminating the path for companies seeking to harness the full potential of digital technologies.

Open innovation and innovation ecosystems illustrate the power of collaboration and co-creation in fostering innovation. The seminar participants explored the importance of creating conducive environments that encourage knowledge sharing, facilitate partnerships, and promote innovation by leveraging tools such as living labs and product service system demonstrators. The emerging models and best practices discussed during the sessions underscored the need for organizations to embrace a more inclusive and collaborative approach to innovation, while emphasizing the role of boundary spanning objects and investigating the exploitation-exploration dilemma that emerge in innovation projects.

In the area of sustainable transformation and circular economy, many interesting contributions have been provided, in particular regarding the emerging area of regenerative business models and bio-based materials, a growing field that promises less pollution and CO2-emissions. The participants showcased their research on business models and use cases to achieve sustainability, emphasizing the role of circular economy principles in promoting resource efficiency and reducing waste. The discussions touched upon various aspects, including sustainable business models, eco-design, and the importance of stakeholder engagement in achieving a circular and regenerative economy.

The research seminar was not only an opportunity for PhD candidates to present their research, but also a platform for networking and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. The engaging Q&A sessions and the intense discussions during the breaks provided valuable insights and generated thought-provoking ideas for future research endeavors. The exchange of experiences, methodologies, and perspectives among the participants fostered a stimulating intellectual environment, nurturing innovation and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. In the words of Prof. Dr. Kathrin Möslein, Friedrich-Alexander-UniversitaetErlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, the research seminar was a real innovation booster.

The research seminar was also an opportunity for the guests from Germany and Austria to get to know better the Italian culture. In addition to the pre-conference and conference dinners on May 4th and 5th organized in authentic Italian restaurants where the partcipants could enjoy the richness of the Italian cuisine, the research seminar’s program also offered a guided tour on May 5th in the city of Milan, starting from Corso di Porta Ticinese, 35 in front of Basilica di San Lorenzo and ended up at the conference dinner restaurant.

In conclusion, IVC2023 benefited from the passion and dedication of all participants in the fields of innovation and value creation. The presented studies provided a solid foundation for future advancements, in the areas of digitalization, open innovation, and sustainable practices as catalysts for economic growth and societal well-being. At the end of the event, the next seminar’s location has been announced. The IVC2024 will be organized at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt by Prof. Dr. Sabine Brunner and her team. We look forward to the next edition of this research seminar.

RITESSERE: silk by-product reborn into new materials

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on RITESSERE: silk by-product reborn into new materials

Recovering sericin to produce high-tech materials, in a circular economy perspective

 

The RITESSERE (Silk Sericin materials from textile industry by-products) project has kicked off, and it aims to use the by-product from the treatment of raw silk, sericin, for the production of new materials and devices in the field of life sciences.

RITESSERE will evaluate new technologies which, starting from the sericin obtained from raw material of Italian origin with traceability certification (cocoon or raw silk), will lead to the obtainment of both two-dimensional electrospun matrices composed only of sericin, and new materials based on specifically modified sericin. These products will be characterized from a chemical-physical and morphological point of view, and the impact of their introduction on the textile industry market and on other high-tech sectors will be analysed.

In particular, the advantages of the circular approach will be demonstrated through three actions:

  • sericin-based facial masks for the cosmetic industry
  • three-dimensional scaffolds of sericin for cell culture
  • modified sericin-based film for the packaging industry.

RITESSERE aims to demonstrate how sericin can be systematically recovered and used to produce high-tech materials. Starting from silk of Italian origin, RITESSERE will define and optimize a technological process aimed at giving nobility to this waste product, proposing a new sustainable and circular method for the silk production cycle.

The results of the project will also be conveyed and made available through continuous interaction with the Advisory Board, made up of players with a driving role in the silk industry, in the definition of new circular economy practices and in the involvement of civil society (Associazione Costruttori Italiani di Macchinario per l’Industria Tessile, Donne in Campo, Ufficio Italiano Seta, MADE-Competence Center Industria 4.0, Rigano Laboratories, Associazione per il Museo della Seta di Como).

The three-year project RITESSERE is a project funded by Fondazione Cariplo with the Economia Circolare – Promuovere ricerca per un futuro sostenibile program, and is led by professors Paolo Rosa and Sergio Terzi of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering and by Professor Simone Vesentini of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano.

The Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, will deal with the economic analyzes of the sericin market, the silk sector and the current circular strategies adopted in the textile sector.

Partners in the project, coordinated by our university, are Università degli Studi Milano Bicocca and Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis).

HumanTech: a new ambitious research project for the next five years

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on HumanTech: a new ambitious research project for the next five years

Our department has been awarded the “Department of Excellence” grant  for the HumanTech – Humans and Technology project, that aims to redesign the relationship between technology and people for a sustainable digital transition of the industrial systems.

 

Federico Caniato, HumanTech Project Manager

 

HumanTech – Humans and Technology is the project proposal of Politecnico di Milano ‘s Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of, which has been selected and financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) for the 2023-2027 period as part of the “Departments of Excellence” initiative.  The initiative rewards departments that stood out for the quality of their research and funds specific development projects, to support further growth and the achievement of ambitious research goals.

Ours is among the 180 Italian departments funded, across all scientific disciplines, and ranked first within the Industrial and Information Engineering area nationwide.

The HumanTech project aims at redesigning the relationship between technology and people for a sustainable digital transition of the industrial systems. The project is driven by  the pressing need to evolve the current technological development model from maximising the economic result towards a more harmonious form that, in addition to the financial -economic implications, also takes into consideration human, social and environmental ones.

Within the industrial systems, the new digital technologies pose formidable challenges, by virtue of their transformative capacity, their diffusion speed, and their pervasiveness, as they interact with these multiple dimensions. In this context, the project aims to propose new development models and processes capable of accelerating the transition towards industrial systems that are sustainable, inclusive, and attentive to the individual and collective well-being.

The project will investigate the complex relationship between people – considered in both their individual and social dimensions – and digital technologies, according to three main research lines:

  1. Digital technology development models and processes centred on the person. This theme will focus on how technologies are developed, to ensure that they are human centred since the very beginning.
  2. Resilient and sustainable production, logistics and supply chain processes enabled by digital technologies. This theme will investigate how innovative digital solutions can support the transformation of value chains to become regenerative and human-centred.
  3. Organisational models and work systems enabled by digital technologies and centred on the person. This theme will focus on the work environment, to develop digital technologies that support and empower human labour, benefitting both individuals and organizations.

The three research themes cover in a complementary and synergistic way the different levels in which the person-technology relationship affects the key features of industrial systems, i.e., the development of technology and its adoption in the transformation processes of organisational systems and in the reconfiguration of work systems.

The overall goal is to conduct ground-breaking research that will result in both scientific, educational and societal impact, assessed according to a number of specific indicators, to achieve ambitious targets in all of them.

The project will fund the development of three innovative infrastructures that will enhance frontier research in the three research areas:

  1. Behavioural Research in Immersive Environment Lab, for carrying out experimental research on human behaviour in physical, virtual and hybrid environments (e.g. metaverse and immersive virtual reality).
  2. Cognitive Ergonomics in Cyber Physical Systems Lab, for carrying out ergonomic, behavioural and cognitive studies in highly digitalised production contexts (e.g., cobots, virtual and augmented reality, exoskeletons).
  3. HumanTech Data Hub, a data repository for the professional and integrated management of the research data, including both the existing resources and those to be generated in the two new laboratories.

The project will also support the recruitment of additional faculty and administrative staff to complement the existing competences with new ones, not only in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, but also in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. In addition, PhD scholarships and new dedicated courses will also be funded, to develop research skills and competences.

The combination of existing and new competences, as well as the new infrastructures, will allow frontier research to be conducted, in order to achieve breakthrough results, which will be disseminated extensively to students, companies, policymakers and society in general, aiming to foster a systemic change in the way digital technologies are developed and adopted, pursuing individual and collective well-being.

QS Online MBA Ranking 2023: POLIMI Graduate School of Management is fourth in Europe with the International Flex MBA

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on QS Online MBA Ranking 2023: POLIMI Graduate School of Management is fourth in Europe with the International Flex MBA

The School of Management of Politecnico di Milano flies to fourth place in the European rankings and is placed first for the quality of Faculty and Teaching

 

The QS Online MBA Rankings: Europe 2023, Quacquarelli Symonds’ periodic classification of the quality of business schools at international level, has confirmed the excellence of POLIMI Graduate School of Management. Thanks to its International Flex MBA (Master in Business Administration) delivered in digital learning, the Milanese University’s business school is fourth in Europe out of 26 schools evaluated. Furthermore, particularly outstanding is the International Flex MBA’s placement as 1st at European level with respect to the “Faculty & Teaching” criterion (with the quality of lecturers and teaching measured annually by surveys on more than 100,000 academic profiles worldwide), achieving the best result ever since the school entered the league table.

From an analysis of the individual parameters on which the ranking is based, in addition to the European record for the quality of Faculty and Teaching, the parameters of Employability and Class Experience are also highlighted.  As regards Employability, POLIMI GSoM ranks 5th in Europe, whereas the Milan University’s business school is placed 3rd for the value of the Class Experience, understood as the digital learning experience offered to participants.

“This recognition comes just a few weeks after that of the Financial Times; being placed among the top European business schools with our digitally taught Executive MBA also by the authoritative QS rankings once again certifies our leadership in the field of innovation and digitalisation of management training”, remarked Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini, respectively President and Dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management. “The first place in Europe for the quality of our Faculty and Teaching is a historic achievement, which can only make us proud as it contributes to further enhancing the reputation enjoyed by our school.”

POLIMI Graduate School of Management has appeared in the QS Online MBA Rankings since 2018, when it entered directly in 20th place in the world. Since then it has remained a constant in the classification, already featuring in the top 10 in the following year, remaining there also in each subsequent year. If we consider that 2023 is the year in which the QS rankings have classified the largest number of business schools ever, this year’s result is the best since the Milanese business school entered the rankings.

Powered by one of the most advanced digital learning platforms in the world, POLIMI Graduate School of Management’s International Flex MBA is designed to prepare qualified and motivated managers to lead businesses in a market of disruptive and rapidly evolving technologies. The duration of the Master varies from 15 to 32 months and is accessible to managers with at least 3 years of work experience, also facilitating students with a flexible method and in perfect balance with work commitments.

POLIMI Graduate School of Management’s excellent educational portfolio includes approximately 40 Masters annually, including 7 MBAs and Executive MBAs, 300 management training programmes and various tailor-made projects for companies.

Giorgio Locatelli wins an IPMA Global Research Award 2023

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Giorgio Locatelli wins an IPMA Global Research Award 2023
With his project “The successful planning and delivery of megaprojects: a short and long term perspective”

 

Giorgio Locatelli, professor of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, has won an IPMA Global Research Award 2023.

The IPMA Awards recognise project managers who give their best to achieve the desired outcomes for stakeholders, organisations or society, dealing with ever-increasing complexity and volatility. The judges evaluated the applications based on the following criteria: research problem, research processes, research results, and research people.

The ten-year research work of Professor Locatelli finds a compendium in the project “The successful planning and delivery of Megaprojects: a short and long term perspective”.

Megaprojects are projects characterised by large investment commitment (often above 1 billion USD), vast complexity (especially in organisational terms), and long-lasting impact on the economy, the environment, and society.

Locatelli’s research was aimed at rigorously identifying the megaproject characteristics shaping project management success indicators (respecting time, budget, scope – phase 1) and long-term project success indicators (sustainability, value creation for stakeholders etc. – phase 2).

Phase 1 developed and applied an innovative benchmarking methodology combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to collect, select, and investigate good and bad practices and learn from a portfolio of megaprojects. The methodology has been applied to large transportation infrastructure, power plants, and nuclear reactor decommissioning.

Phase 2 leveraged a wider range of theories and approaches. For instance, a social identity perspective to investigate the impact of megaproject environmental responsibility on organisational citizenship behaviours for the environment, a micro foundation perspective to study people’s experience in megaproject; quantitative statistical methods as a structural modelling approach to study Firm and project innovation outcome measures in infrastructure megaprojects.

CFA Research Challenge 2023: Politecnico di Milano wins the Italian phase

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on CFA Research Challenge 2023: Politecnico di Milano wins the Italian phase
Five students from Politecnico di Milano beat Federico II University of Naples and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice with Technogym’s financial analysis and are now preparing for the EMEA regional competition. The world grand final will be held on 3 May 2023.

 

The School of Management team of Politecnico di Milano wins the Italian final of the CFA Research Challenge 2023, a global finance competition sponsored by CFA Institute and promoted in our country by CFA Society Italy with the support of PwC Italia and Kaplan Schweser.

The final involved 10 universities, 48 students and over 30 professionals and took place at the PwC Italia headquarters in Milan  on Tuesday 28 February. Teams from the following universities participated in the Italian phase, coordinated by CFA Society Italy: Università Cattolica of Milan, Politecnico di Milano, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Tor Vergata University of Rome, University of Florence, University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Pavia, Polytechnic University of Marche and Federico II University of Naples.

Under the guidance of professors Laura Grassi and Marco Giorgino and mentor Giacomo Saibene, Management Engineering students Alberto Giannetto, Gabriel Mazzante, Andrea Marconi, Giulio Galloni and Alberto Peccol presented their financial analysis on the Technogym stock to a jury of six financial sector experts: Roberto Sollevanti, Andrea Bonfà, Mauro Baragiola, Alberto Mari, CFA, Angelo Meda, CFA, CIPM, Pinuccia Parini.

Politecnico di Milano will continue directly to the EMEA regional semi-finals (Europe, Middle East and Africa), to be held next 6-7 April. As evidence of the high quality of our students and of the professionals who follow them, Italy already won the EMEA regional final in 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2022.

The world grand final will be held on 3 May 2023, where the EMEA, America and Pacific Asia winners will be competing against each other.

“This victory represents an important milestone in our professional careers, and we are proud of our hard work to achieve it. The CFA Research Challenge has given us the opportunity to measure ourselves against other students from other universities and to put into practice the topics we have studied during our academic careers.” These were the first words expressed by Alberto Giannetto, Gabriel Mazzante, Andrea Marconi, Giulio Galloni and Alberto Peccol, members of the winning Italian team. “We sincerely thank our teachers Laura Grassi and Marco Giorgino and our mentor Giacomo Saibene. Without them we would never have reached this milestone. We are looking forward to the next phase of the competition and feel confident moving forward.”

“Over the past 10 years, the Politecnico team has always been able to show its skill both at Italian and international level.” So said Politecnico di Milano professors Laura Grassi, Assistant Professor of Investment Banking, and Marco Giorgino, Full Professor of Financial Markets and Institutions. “As their professors, we are very proud of the skills that our School instils in them, allowing them to achieve these excellent results which are confirmed year after year.”

“After my experience of participating in the CFA Research Challenge as a student in 2011, it has been a great pleasure, as well as an incredible thrill, to mentor this time, helping this amazing team to challenge their limits and construct a solid critical analysis and careful financial evaluation.” said Giacomo Saibene, mentor of the winning team and member of the Italian team that won the world competition in 2011.

“The Research Challenge is an initiative that directs towards important objectives in the world of education and academia. Bringing students closer to the world of work by combining academic knowledge with the techniques and tools used by professionals in the financial sector is getting more and more relevant. Furthermore, we want excellence of our Italian universities to stand out at a European and global level.” commented Giuliano Palumbo, CFA, President of CFA Society Italy.

“In its work over the years, CFA Society Italy has forged a strong relationship with Italian universities to promote the principles of integrity and professional excellence among the younger generations.” said the project co-ordinator, Giuseppe Quarto di Palo, CFA. “We are happy to be able to offer universities and their promising students the opportunity to measure themselves in a realistic competition aimed at reproducing the experience of research offices at management companies or investment houses. The best students are also offered scholarships to access the CFA Programme: our wish is to enable them to obtain a globally recognised certification in the financial sector.”

 

Circular Economy: the CIRC-UITS project kicks off

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Circular Economy: the CIRC-UITS project kicks off
Digital solutions for the end-of-life reuse of electrical components in the automotive and domestic appliances sectors

 

The three-year project CIRC-UITS (Circular Integration of independent Reverse supply Chains for the smart reUse of IndusTrially relevant Semiconductors), co-financed by the European Commission under its Horizon Europe programme, and coordinated by professors Paolo Rosa and Sergio Terzi from the Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, kicks off.

CIRC-UITS intends to develop new technologies for designing, producing, disassembling and efficiently and sustainably reusing disused electronic components inside new products, but it also intends to define new business models to improve data sharing and standardisation among the industrial leaders involved in the supply chains.

In particular, the advantages of the digital circular economy will be demonstrated through 4 pilot projects:

  • Development of environmentally friendly electronic panels to be incorporated into inverters and battery management systems in electric cars
  • Development of new-generation tyre sensors
  • Development of environmentally friendly flexible processing boards
  • Classification and storage of obsolete printed circuits of various pieces of electrical and electronic equipment

In this way, CIRC-UITS will provide material support to businesses in the automotive and mass-produced electronics sector, demonstrating the benefits that can be obtained from the application of the circular economy paradigm both from the perspective of both the business and supply chain and from the technological and sustainability perspective, through the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in the processes through which disused electronic components are managed and in the design of new products.

For more information: www.circuitsproject.eu