Marta Re Ferrè, Author at Politecnico di Milano School of Management

HumanTech: a 2023-2027 “Excellence Departments” project

Posted on 9 February 2023 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

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

Posted on 13 January 2023 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

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

Posted on 6 December 2022 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

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.

AIRIC: First Annual Meeting

Posted on 2 December 2022 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

Presentation of the Politecnico di Milano centre for applied research in artificial research

AIRIC, the Politecnico di Milano’s Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation Centre, held its first Annual Meeting on Monday 21 November.

The meeting was an opportunity to introduce the new centre which brings together the Politecnico’s core expertise in artificial intelligence and process innovation, and to share the results of the first research projects which were presented directly by the first businesses to support the initiative.

AIRIC positions itself as an extremely innovative research centre. Inspired by the best international experience, at the heart of AIRIC is its multidisciplinary approach: technical skills for the development of algorithms and artificial intelligence tools, which naturally sit within the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, and management and project management capabilities, provided by the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering. Likewise, AIRIC also draws on collaboration with all other departments, from both a technical and an applied perspective.

AIRIC’s mission is to help businesses to understand the potential of artificial intelligence, to guide them in the introduction of AI to their processes and products and to support them in the development of internal capabilities that are a match for future challenges. The crown jewel of the collaboration is the ability to develop ad hoc solutions, including by assisting the business with the transition and any technical training necessary: an essential combination for the creation of a competitive advantage and the expert use of AI in order to deliver business value.

AIRIC is directed by professors Nicola Gatti and Marcello Restelli from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and by Giovanni Miragliotta from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering.

NEXT GENERATION UPP: a project to improve the justice system in Northwest Italy

Posted on 20 October 2022 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

NEXT GENERATION UPP seeks to provide a more efficient method for managing judicial affairs and thus help reduce the backlog and the average length of judicial proceedings.

NEXT GENERATION UPP is coordinated by the University of Turin in partnership with eleven universities in Northwest Italy – including the Politecnico di Milano with the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies. The project is promoted by the Ministry of Justice within the framework of the NOP on Governance and Institutional Capacity 2014-2020 and carried out in synergy with the interventions envisaged by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) in support of justice reform.

Next Generation UPP aims to improve the justice system in Northwest Italy through the strengthening of Trial Offices (UPP), technological innovation, and trialling new collaborative schemes between universities and judicial offices. It is aimed at courts in the Macro Area 01, which includes the Appeal Courts of Brescia, Genoa, Milan and Turin, the Courts and the Juvenile Courts of the corresponding districts.

In particular the working group from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, led by Prof. Giancarlo Vecchi, is mapping the organisation of the Trial Office at the Appeal Court and the Court of Milan.
The analysis seeks to show in detail the organisational solutions put in place, the strengths and weaknesses and the impact in terms of reduction of backlog and disposition time, i.e., the time taken to reach final determination in judicial proceedings. In addition, it will design and trial innovative organisational solutions to consolidate, strengthen and transfer the obtained results.

The project, launched on 1 April 2022, will be concluded on 30 September 2023.

For more information:
Prof. Giancarlo Vecchi: giancarlo.vecchi@polimi.it

Food Policy. The fifth district hub against food waste opens

Posted on 26 September 2022 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

A new collection and storage centre for surplus food from various large-scale distribution chains to expand the network of district hubs that are taking action against food waste, set up by the City of Milan in collaboration with local partners and associations.

The new Centre Hub, which officially opened today, is located on the premises of Associazione IBVA, on Via Santa Croce 15, next to Solidando, the social market that has been committed to fighting food poverty for years.

Alongside the Gallarate, Isola and Lambrate Hubs, as well as the Foody Hub in the Milan agri-food market, the opening of the Centre Hub signifies a new point of contact in the City of Milan’s network that is fighting against food waste and supporting food aid initiatives in the city – a network which has already been awarded the Earthshot Prize in 2021 and is setting an international standard.

The opening of the Centre Hub was possible thanks to a tried and tested public-private partnership model. In particular, the initiative has been promoted by the City of Milan’s Food Policy department, IBVA, Municipality 1, Fondazione Cariplo, Assolombarda and the Politecnico di Milano through their Food Sustainability Observatory. The Hub was created thanks to the generous contributions of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Milano. A fair and green product collection and delivery service will be provided thanks to the partnership with So.De, the socially-conscious, supportive and sustainable delivery service.

District Hubs against food waste: statistics

A total of four hubs are already active throughout the Milan area: the Hub in Zone 4 at Foody – Milan’s agri-food market – which represents the evolution of the Fruit and Vegetable Hub, developed during the 2020 lockdown and thanks to which 138 tonnes of fresh produce were distributed over eight weeks; the Isola district Hub (Zone 9); the Lambrate Hub (Zone 3); the Gallarate Hub (Zone 8).

The initiative’s data monitoring is carried out thanks to its collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano’s Food Sustainability Observatory, as well as the support of Assolombarda with the Isola, Lambrate and Gallarate Hubs, and its collaboration with the University of Milan for the Foody Hub.

In 2021, the two hubs that had been set up in the Isola and Lambrate districts collected a total of over 170 tonnes of food, equating to about 340,000 meals. In the first half of 2022, these two hubs were also joined by the Gallarate and Foody hubs, which in the first six months of that year alone collected 130 tonnes, equating to over 260,000 meals.

In total, more than 3,000 households have been helped thanks to the work of the district hubs and the cooperation of a dozen brands involved across almost thirty outlets.

BUDD-e: a project to support citizens with visual impairments

Posted on 13 May 2022 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

The Budd-e research project is a programme committed to improving the quality of life of visually impaired citizens to help to build a more equal and inclusive society by taking advantage of technological innovations.

The SARS-COV2 pandemic has significantly impacted everyone’s life, changing our habits and how we interact with others and our immediate environment. Among those most affected are people with visual impairments, who are considered to be at greater risk of contagion due to their need for tactile contact with people and spaces to be able to move and orientate themselves more easily.
Therefore, without touch, these people have seen their autonomy and quality of life become increasingly limited.

Isolation was even more severe for those with severe degrees of visual impairment. There are around 2 million such people in Italy, while at the global level they represent around 4% of the population. It is a significant “slice” of society for which technology could play a significant role in improving quality of life.

How can technological innovation be exploited to ensure independent and safe access to various spaces such as shopping centres, museums, hospitals or even athletics tracks?

Improving the quality of life of citizens with visual impairments through the opportunity to enjoy these and other spaces independently and safely is the ambitious objective of the multidisciplinary “BUDD-e” (Blind-assistive Autonomous Drive Device) research project, which was among the winners of the Polisocial Award (2021 Edition) – the Politecnico di Milano’s social responsibility programme financed with “5×1000” funds.

BUDD-e is an innovative person-robot system that incorporates a self-driving robot and was conceived based on the specific needs of blind or partially sighted people and the design of spaces made accessible thanks to the functionalities of the robot. BUDD-e will contribute to building a more equal and inclusive civil society.
BUDD-e will be capable of guiding and supporting blind or partially sighted people during their day-to-day activities – including the possibility of transporting goods – while maintaining the required speed and/or trajectory, by transmitting relevant information on the available routes via audible signals, thus avoiding collisions.

The research project – which will last 15 months and is coordinated by Prof. Marcello Farina from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and Prof. Emanuele Lettieri from the Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial Engineering – is characterised by the integration of several distinct areas of expertise within the Politecnico di Milano, ranging from engineering to management economics, from architecture to service design.

The research group may rely on the involvement of partners such as the UICI (Italian Union of the Blind and Partially Sighted), the ASST Niguarda Hospital regional healthcare agency, the non-profit organisations ICM (Milan Institute for the Blind Foundation), DISABILINCORSA, Tactile Vision and GSD Non Vedenti Milano (NVM) amateur sports group, as well as ASP Golgi Redaelli, YAPE S.r.l. and POLIMISPORT.
Lastly, the project will be conducted under the clinical and medical supervision of Dr Luigi Piccinini from the Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care (IRCCS) Medea.

The team of researchers from the Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial Engineering, headed by Prof. Emanuele Lettieri and Mr. Andrea Di Francesco will be committed to assessing the social impact generated by the BUDD-e project through the development of a specific methodology that allows the relevant details to be understood.

For further information you might refer to the website of the project BUDDE-e and to the website of the Interdepartmental Laboratory “Engineering for Sport” (E4Sport).

Symplatform 3: the conference on digital platforms

Posted on 25 February 2022 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

There is a word that is appearing more and more frequently in the newspapers, in our meeting and in the LinkedIn feeds and that word is “platform”.

Whether talking about a new scandal by one of the big tech companies, the new innovation strategy of a large industrial group …or just a new digital service, the word “platform” appears in a variety of sectors.

But what does platform really mean? What do Uber, Amazon, Apple and any old daily newspaper have in common? Or why it is correct to consider an app like Strava, the famous service for tracking sports performance, a platform? These and many other issues are at the heart of Symplatform: an event where academic knowledge encounters the world of practitioners to construct a critical discussion on what platforms are, how they work and what they can become for people, organisations and our society as a whole.

We are pleased to launch the third edition of Symplatform, a symposium on digital platforms that aims to bring academics and practitioners together.

Symplatform is a joint project developed by Trinity College Dublin, the Politecnico di Milano School of Management and the Audencia Business School.

Here is a short video presenting the conference.

The event programme and registration can be found at this link: https://symplatform.com/

For further information, write to daniel.trabucchi@polimi.it and tommaso.buganza@polimi.it.

Neighbourhood Hubs against food waste win the Earthshot Prize

Posted on 18 October 2021 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

Dedicated to environmental protection actions, Milan’s anti-food waste project won £1 million and support from the Royal Foundation for the next few years.

Milan, 18 October 2021 – On the night of Sunday, 17 October 2021, Prince William announced that the City of Milan, with its Neighbourhood Hubs Food Policy project against food waste, is the winner of the first prestigious international Earthshot Prize for the best solutions to protect the environment.

A month ago it was announced that Milan was one of the 15 finalists in the “a world without waste” section, and yesterday, live on the BBC and Discovery Channel, Prince William unveiled the winners after an international panel of experts selected Milan from 750 candidate initiatives from around the world.

Along with Milan in the other four categories of the award were winners from the Republic of Costa Rica for the protection of forests, India for the reduction of smoke emissions into the air, Berlin for the development of hydrogen technologies for energy production, and the Bahamas for the protection of coral reefs.

In Milan, the BBC arranged a link to London from a terrace overlooking the Duomo, which was attended by Deputy Mayor Anna Scavuzzo, with representatives of all the partners who bring this project to life.

The £1 million prize will be used to further develop these hubs and open new ones, ensuring their long-term sustainability and replicating this excellent practice in the network of cities working with Milan on food policy, starting with the network of C40 cities and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.

Winning the Earthshot prize is the recognition of a great team effort that has involved the entire city: thanks to the City Council and many organisations from the third sector, universities, large-scale retail trade and philanthropy operating in the area, Milan now has 3 neighbourhood hubs at Isola (2019), Lambrate (2020) and Gallaratese (2021).

The project was born in 2017 as a result of an alliance between the City of Milan, Politecnico di Milano (with the research group of the Food Sustainability Lab, Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering) Assolombarda, Fondazione Cariplo and the QuBì Programme.
The creation of the first Hub then brought in Banco Alimentare della Lombardia and saved over 10 tonnes of food per month, ensuring a stream of 260,000 equivalent meals in one year, reaching 3,800 people, thanks to the contribution of 20 supermarkets, 4 business canteens and 24 Third Sector organisations.

In particular, the Food Sustainability Observatory conducted a network feasibility study and monitored the hubs’ operation and the impact generated by the project, thus making it possible to build an extensible logistic model replicable in other areas of the city.

Indeed, this was followed by the launch of the Hub in Lambrate, immediately after the first lockdown in spring 2020, also managed by Banco Alimentare della Lombardia in a space made available by AVIS Milano and with the support of BCC Milano. The third Hub, at Gallaratese, is managed by Terre des Hommes with the support of the Fondazione Milan.

Another one, currently in the planning stage, will be the neighbourhood Hub in Corvetto, managed by the Banco Alimentare della Lombardia and with the support of the Fondazione SNAM; while the City of Milan has recently started the co-design process for the Hub in the city centre with Associazione IBVA and the support of BCC Milano.

The team of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering:
Alessandro Perego, Marco Melacini, Giulia Bartezzaghi, Annalaura Silvestro and Andrea Rizzuni from the Food Sustainability research group.

Partners involved:
The project involves major retailers including Lidl Italia, Esselunga, Carrefour, NaturaSi, Erbert, Coop Lombardia, Il Gigante, Bennet, Penny Market with the support of Number1 Logistics Group who provided the vans for the Isola and Lambrate hubs. Also involved were the canteens of Pirelli, Siemens, Deutsche Bank and Maire Tecnimont, coordinated by Gruppo Pellegrini for the Isola Hub.
With Fondazione Cariplo and SogeMi, the City of Milan has also launched the Foody zero waste initiative to replicate the hub model at Ortomercato and recover fresh food together with Banco Alimentare della Lombardia, Recup, Croce rossa sud milanese, Università degli studi di Milano and many other supporting partners.

Announcing the start of the TREASURE project

Posted on 11 June 2021 | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment

New testing opportunities for new technologies to make the automotive sector more circular

1 June 2021 marked the start of the TREASURE project (leading the TRansion of the European Automotive SUpply chain towards a circulaR futurE), coordinated by Sergio Terzi and Paolo Rosa from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of the School of Management.
Co-funded by the European Commission with the H2020 programme, TREASURE is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) that aims to offer new testing opportunities for new technologies to make the automotive sector more circular.

Its main objectives are:

to guarantee sustainable use of raw materials in the automotive sector reducing the risks linked to supplies;
to apply the circular economy paradigm to the automotive sector, acting as examples for the manufacturing macrosector;
to deliver better economic, environmental and social performance for vehicles for all users;
to create new supply chains around end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), focusing on the circular use of raw materials.

In this way, TREASURE will deliver tangible support for companies in the automotive sector, providing a practical demonstration of the benefits obtainable from the application of the circular economy paradigm, from the point of view of both business and supply chains and also of technology and sustainability, through the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in the management processes of ELVs and their parts.

The primary results expected include:

the development of an AI-based tool for analysis and comparison of possible circular supply chains in the automotive sector;
the realisation of a series of successful cases for key players in the management of ELVs, such as car wreckers, scrap metal shredding plants, raw material recycling plants and vehicle manufacturers;
the integration of key enabling technologies for the design, dismantling and efficient sustainable recycling of electronic auto parts.

Partners in the project, coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano, are the Dutch research centre TNO, Zaragoza University in Spain, the professional school at the Università della Svizzera Italiana, the Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, the Dutch consultancy agency Material Recycling and Sustainability B.V., the Estonian company for social studies Edgeryders OU, the Lithuanian LCD screen manufacturer EUROLCDS SIA, the Spanish auto parts manufacturer Walter Pack SL, the vehicle demolition company Pollini Lorenzo e Figli Srl, the leading Spanish car manufacturer SEAT SA, the software developers TXT E-Solutions Spa, the Spanish scrap metal recycling company Industrias Lopez Soriano SA, the Italian National Unification Body, and the French automotive cluster NEXTMOVE.

Author: Marta Re Ferrè