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

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

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

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

 

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.

Ploutos: re-balancing the value chain in the agri-food system

Through data-driven technologies, collaborative business models and behavioural changes the project aims to make agri-food value chains more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

 

Agrifood systems are currently facing many interlinked challenges including the increasing world population, changes in climate conditions, the deterioration of natural resources and power imbalances along the value chain. The complexity of such challenges and the strong interconnection among stages of the supply chain imply the need to adopt innovative and systemic approaches, which can unlock the potential of the agrifood system to provide economic, environmental and social benefits. Innovative approaches must combine different forms of innovation: technological, organisational, social and institutional. Instead, systemic approaches require different actors across the agrifood value chain to cooperate with each other in the (re)design of more sustainable food systems.

Identifying, implementing and testing such innovative integrated approaches is the aim of Ploutos, a research and innovation project funded under the Horizon 2020 programme. The project, coordinated by the Greek organisation GAIA Epicherein, started in October 2020 and is now in its third and last year of execution.

The School of Management of Politecnico di Milano is one of the core partners of the project thanks to the deep knowledge about agrifood systems developed within the Food Sustainability and Smart Agrifood Observatories. The research team, led by Prof. Raffaella Cagliano, is primarily involved in the development of a framework for sustainability-oriented innovation that combines behavioural innovation, collaborative business model innovation and data driven technologies. This framework is currently being applied in 11 pilots covering a large variety of agri-food ecosystems across 13 countries. The design and implementation of innovative approaches follow a multi-actor approach and is supported by the “Ploutos Innovation Academy”, a virtual Academy where stakeholders are engaged in the co-design of innovative solutions and have access to a series of good practices regarding the sustainability of agri-food value chains.

The last year of the project officially started in October 2022, when the Ploutos Consortium met in presence at the premises of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering. More than 50 representatives from 33 organisations gathered in Milan on October 4-5 to share the results achieved so far and to plan the activities for the last year ahead.

During the meeting, the 11 Sustainable Innovation Pilots (SIPs) had the opportunity to showcase the results of their work. The innovations they are developing revolve around some key aspects that are shaping agrifood value chains: smart farming solutions, traceability and data sharing, reduction of food waste, consumer empowerment, climate change adaptation through carbon farming and parametric insurance, and synergies between agriculture and tourism.

Smart farming and traceability solutions play a central role for many SIPs. For example, SIP1 has launched a traceability app that is currently used by actors operating in a frozen fruit value chain in Greece to retrieve all the information about the product, from crop inputs to process packaging operations. With respect to food waste, SIP9 has developed a platform that connects businesses with frontline charities and community groups to streamline surplus food donations. A total of 150 stakeholders from Serbia and North Macedonia has been onboarded and the solution allowed to redistribute more than 80,000 kg of surplus food through more than 50 realized donations. To reward farmers who adopt carbon sequestration practices, SIP8 and SIP10 are working on the development of a system to calculate and trace carbon credits, tradable certificates quantifying the amount of carbon sequestrated and stored in the soil. “Without agriculture, there is no tourism” is the motto of SIP11, which is seeking to strengthen the collaboration between the agriculture and the tourism sectors in the Balearic Islands by promoting experiences designed around local varieties and products. An example is the organisation of guided tours to admire the almond trees in bloom, an important tourist attraction.

Regardless of the specific focus of each pilot, some important conclusions can be drawn from the experiences collected in Ploutos so far.

First, combining different forms of innovations prove to be key in the adoption and scale-up of sustainability-oriented innovations. Even a very useful and well-designed digital solution may be ignored if rational/non-rational reasons influencing technology adoption are overlooked, or if the business model is poorly designed. The strong interdependence among the three pillars of innovations (technology, business models and behaviours) leads to important research questions currently under investigation: what element triggers the innovation journey of the pilots and how is the process unfolding? Providing answers to these questions will be among the research priorities of the POLIMI team over the last year of the project.

Finally, a long-term win-win relationship must be established among actors of the value chain as more competitive and resilient food system can be achieved only if the stakeholders collaborate effectively towards common sustainability objectives.

 

Financial Times: Polimi Graduate School of Management continues to climb the rankings of best business schools in europe

Politecnico di Milano’s Business School is second in Europe among the schools belonging to “technical” universities, says the Financial Times in its European Business School Ranking 2022.

 

Milan, 5 December 2022 – POLIMI Graduate School of Management further improves its position among the foremost business schools in Europe again this year. According to the Financial Times European Business Schools Ranking 2022, published today, Politecnico di Milano’s Business School has confirmed its second place in Europe among the best business schools belonging to a technical university (Politecnico di Milano) behind only Imperial College Business School (UK). The excellent quality of the programmes offered at POLIMI Graduate School of Management is additionally reflected in its progress within the general ranking, where the Milan-based business school is now 31st out of the 95 classified, climbing 6 places from last year. In five years (from 2017), the School has gained 11 places, recording its best result since 2010, the year it entered the rankings, when 75 business schools were included in the classification.

“We are delighted about this new recognition included in such eminent league tables as those published every year by the Financial Times. This endorsement came at the end of 2022, a year full of changes for our School, including a new name and brand, and the inauguration of our new Navigli Campus in the heart of Milan”, said Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini, President and Dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management, respectively. “To cap this, our Master in Business Administration (MBA) – which was completely overhauled last year – and our Executive Education programmes have also improved their standings in the FT Rankings. Our success in Executive Education is the incentive to continue working closely at the side of companies, to respond to their needs in education and training with first-class programmes that are in line with the skills that today’s and tomorrow’s leaders must have in this period of transition and transformation.

A closer look at the rankings shows the position of individual programmes offered at the School. Our MBA (Master in Business Administration) is in 25th place, up by 9 places on 2021, and EMBA (Executive Master in Business Administration) reconfirms its 54th place. Taking the individual criteria that affect the School’s general position in the rankings, a point worth mentioning is the improvement in Salary Increase, which is the amount paid to managers three years after they complete their course and how this compares to their earnings beforehand. On average, the salary of POLIMI Graduate School of Management alumni rises by 59% post Executive MBA and by 94% post MBA.

Executive Education has also improved its position against last year.

In the Financial Times Ranking Top 10, limited to the business schools in the POLIMI GSoM “model”, in other words, those that are part of a technical university, Politecnico di Milano’s School of Business is placed ahead of Aalto University (Finland), TUM School of Management (Germany) and Institut Mines – Telecom Business School (France).

POLIMI Graduate School of Management has an educational portfolio of excellence, with about 40 Masters, including 7 MBAs and Executive MBAs, more than 200 open executive programmes and a series of training programmes customised for companies. Every year, the School works with 100+ companies, preparing 180+ customised educational programmes and delivering 4,000+ hours of teaching for 30,000+ company employees.

 

Gianluca Spina scholarships to study Management Engineering

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

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.

PhD Program: calls for scholarships starting in February 2023

 

The Politecnico di Milano published new calls of  the PhD School for the XXXVIII cycle (Additional, Interdisciplinary, INAIL , PNRR calls) starting in February 2023:

https://www.dottorato.polimi.it/en/prospective-phd-candidates/calls-and-regulations/38-cycle/calls-starting-february-2023/additional-interdisciplinary-and-inail-calls

 

Applications must be sent before 16 December 2022 following the guidelines in the above mentioned page .

A complete list of the scholarships offered within the Phd Program in Management Engineering are also available at  Admissions and Scholarships.