Author: Marta Re Ferrè

Innovation and Value Creation Research Seminar 2023 (IVC2023)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

HumanTech: a 2023-2027 “Excellence Departments” project

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The Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering presents the Humantech project and becomes one of the excellence departments of the Italian Ministry of University and Research

 

The Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering (DIG) is among the 180 Italian departments selected and funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) for the period 2023-2027 within “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza” (Law 232/2016), the ministerial initiative aimed at rewarding the departments that stand out for the quality of their research and at financing specific development projects.

The DIG submitted to the MUR a departmental research development project focused on the topic HumanTech – Humans and Technology whose objective is to redefine the relationship between technology and human beings so as to enable a sustainable digital transition of industrial systems.

The rationale for the project is the pressing need to promote the evolution of the current technological development model – centred around the maximization of the economic result – towards a more harmonious model which takes into account the implications of industrial production for humans, society and environment, as well as the economic and financial aspects. The aim here is to propose new models and processes for the development and adoption of technologies, capable of accelerating the transition towards sustainable, inclusive industrial systems that make individual and collective well-being a priority.

For more information: https://www.som.polimi.it/en/humantech/

Studying Management Engineering thanks to a scholarship

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The number of students enrolling in the management engineering course increases every year: this multidisciplinary course is highly valued on the job market. Not everyone has the financial means to support this educational pathway, especially considering the cost of living in Milan. For this reason, and to ensure the university doesn’t lose talented potential students who would otherwise be unable to study at the Politecnico, the School of Management organizes a fundraiser every year in support of deserving students in financial need, so that they can fulfil their dream of studying Management Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.

In the three-year period 2020-2022 the Politecnico received over €10 million in donations from private individuals and companies.

Supporting merit is the primary objective of the community: indeed, around half of these funds were used to finance about 500 merit-based or needs-based scholarships awarded to Politecnico students.

Anuar Mancini, 22 years old,  is one of the ‘2022 scholarship holders’, one of the many young people who – thanks to the support of donors – are laying the foundations for their future at the Politecnico di Milano.

“After my Bachelor’s degree in management engineering, I will continue with a Master’s degree at the Politecnico: I really value the technical and quantitative approach of this university,” he says. “My Bachelor’s thesis was the result of a five-month internship at SNAM, where I worked on the implementation of an interactive monitoring system using KPI dashboards, to evaluate the impact of maintenance on CNG and LNG methane dispensing stations.”

“These scholarships, established thanks to donations by Management Engineering Alumni and all the friends of the Management Engineering Department, are a concrete way of helping deserving students to embark on a path of personal growth and professional development that will lead them to become skilled management engineers” comments Professor Marika Arena, coordinator of the management engineering course.



Click here to read the complete interview.

	


	





	

			

	

		
Gianluca Spina scholarships to study Management Engineering
		

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Continuing your studies after high school is an important investment in your future, both personally and economically.

To provide deserving young people with the opportunity to study Management Engineering, the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with the Gianluca Spina Association, offers four scholarships for the undergraduate course in Management Engineering, reserved for new students enrolled in the 2022-2023 academic year.


Thesee new scholarships were made possible thanks to the generous donation by Isabella and Raffaele Valletta to the Politecnico di Milano. The scholarships, by express wish of the Valletta family, are named after Professor Gianluca Spina.


One of the four scholarships – which cover the three years of study – is reserved for female students who want to pursue a career in Management Engineering, to promote gender equality.


Scholarship winners are also offered a Mentorship Programme, provided by Alumni and Management Engineering students.


To consult the call and the award criteria: click here.

For further details: Laurea Triennale > Studia con noi > Borse Gianluca Spina.


 


Why choose a future in Management Engineering?


People who choose to study Management Engineering acquire solid skills that allow them to operate in multiple business sectors, to respond to the changes in organization and innovation that companies have to implement in order to maintain their competitiveness.


In particular, management engineers design and manage systems in which technology interacts in a complex manner with economics and organization. Thanks to the multidisciplinary profile, management engineers can work in different sectors and roles within a company: consultancy, industry, manufacturing or services, as well as banking, insurance, utilities, public administration and non-profit sectors.


In 2021, 632 students graduated in Management Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano.

173 did not continue with postgraduate study at the Politecnico. Of these, 139 took part in the annual employment survey.






Source: GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT DATA BOOK 2021 – Management Engineering – Politecnico di Milano.