Innovation with a human touch

Conversation with Giovanni Valente, Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science in the Mathematics Department at Politecnico di Milano and Member of the inter-departmental Unit of Study META

 

The Politecnico di Milano, a technical University, has promoted the creation of an interdisciplinary network of scholars from its various departments of engineering, architecture and design with skills in human and social sciences to provide expertise in philosophical, epistemological, ethical and social issues related to processes of science, technology and innovation. Why was this decision made?

At international level, there is a relatively widespread tradition of promoting the presence of scholars working in the social sciences and humanities within the major polytechnical universities. In fact, some of the world’s leading academic institutions, such as the MIT in Boston, even feature entire departments dedicated to specific fields of humanities. The reason for this choice is that the humanities, if they are scientifically-informed, can complement technical knowledge by adding a critical and reflective perspective.

Research and teaching in the areas of philosophy and sociology of science and technology have been present at the Politecnico di Milano for quite some time. However, they began to acquire a systematic form of coordination only recently with the development of the Unit of Study META, which was officially created in the academic year 2017-2018 in the form of a collaboration between various departments. Throughout the years that followed, the group progressively expanded with the addition of more tenure-track faculty, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students, who have been recruited thanks to external funding as well as the direct endowment of the Rector. The current administration of the Politecnico di Milano has indeed realised the importance of developing the humanities in order to enhance interdisciplinary research and enrich the educational offer for engineers, architects and designers along the tradition of the most prestigious polytechnical universities around the world.

Specifically, META aims to produce and disseminate knowledge and offer expertise in the philosophical, ethical and social dimensions of science and technology by organising research and teaching activities as well as academic and public events, which have received a great deal of attention even outside the university itself. A distinctive feature of this network is that its members are based in different departments, so that, besides collaborating with each other, they can also interact directly with colleagues working in relevant fields of science and technology. Such an interaction thus fosters an interdisciplinary approach whereby expertise in the humanities and social sciences is well integrated in the research processes.

So, especially for an engineer, why is it important to have humanities skills and how do they fit into the training path?

As the British novelist and physical chemist Charles Percy Snow famously explained in his influential 1959 book on “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”, the alleged contrast between scientific and humanistic knowledge (namely, the two “cultures” into which the Western world seems to be split) can have dramatic consequences for society, especially in as much as the educational system tends to favour one at the expense of the other. The call for a properly balanced and multi-disciplinary preparation for our students is even more earnest now that we live in an era of high fragmentation of knowledge and hyper-specialisation, in that there often lacks a dialogue between different scientific fields, let alone between science and humanities.  Disciplines such as philosophy and sociology of science and technology are interdisciplinary by their own nature, and therefore they are suitably apt to bridge the gap across “the two cultures”, even more so when they are taught at a polytechnical university.

Indeed, philosophy and sociology prompt students to reflect upon the foundations of their own scientific and technological disciplines, thereby refining their critical thinking. To give an example, scientific models often resort to assumptions that are, strictly speaking, false, and yet they can be applied to concrete systems: that gives rise to outstanding conceptual questions about the justification of such unrealistic idealisations. Furthermore, philosophical and sociological studies put polytechnical students in a position to develop awareness of the ethical and social consequences of the use of the technologies they will employ in their future jobs. For instance, an extremely popular course META has introduced for engineering degrees at the Politecnico di Milano is called “Ethics for Technology”, which is the first course of its kind established in the Italian educational system.  Last but not least, since the courses designed by META typically require the enrolled students to submit written essays, they offer them the opportunity to practise and improve their own writing and communication skills, an opportunity they would otherwise seldom encounter in other more technical courses. This actually contributes to filling an important gap in the engineering curricula.

With reference to innovation processes that are increasingly data-dependent or data driven, what is the role of social sciences and humanities, in particular with respect to the implications of the use of artificial intelligence in the context of social phenomena?

In the current digital era, the massive and growing use of technological innovations that can process huge amounts of data with unprecedented power poses ever more pressing epistemological and ethical issues. In this respect, the long-standing discussion in philosophy and sociology about the nature of scientific data can be highly beneficial to the research on artificial intelligence, especially when it is applied to the analysis and prediction of social phenomena. Indeed, from an epistemological point of view, it is a recognized fact that there does not exist such a thing as “brute data”. For the process of collecting and elaborating data is not at all neutral but rather it is theory-laden, in the sense that the selection of the dataset relevant for the study of a certain phenomenon as well as the subsequent interpretation of computational outcomes are always driven by contextual background knowledge.

Accordingly, if we wish to draw meaningful and reliable conclusions from the available data, we ought to understand the extent to which they depend on the theoretical assumptions underlying the construction and implementation of the algorithms we employ. Moreover, from an ethical point of view, when we deal with sensitive data that reveal personal information, as often happens in the context of social phenomena, there arise delicate and controversial ethical issues, for instance, concerning the protection of individual privacy. Data security is actually one of the major problems stemming from the use of powerful computational algorithms, together with bias problem  namely the fact that AI systems are trained on data that are only representative of a limited sample of the population, and the trust deficit problem, namely the fact that the procedures by which deep learning models predict the outcomes remain largely unknown.

In order to face these outstanding challenges of artificial intelligence, the vast philosophical and sociological literature on epistemological and ethical issues concerning scientific data can thus be fruitfully combined with scientific and technological practice so as to develop an effective integrated approach.

A new era for academic partnerships: the (successful) ‘recipe’ of Politecnico di Milano in China

Conversation with Giuliano Noci
Professor of Strategy and Marketing and Vice Rector of the Chinese Campus of Politecnico di Milano

The Joint School of Design and Innovation Centre in Xi’an, inaugurated in 2019 in collaboration with Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), is the first physical campus of the Politecnico di Milano outside Italy. It is an unconventional choice for an Italian university. How did you manage to finalize this project?

Our relationship with XJTU began 12 years ago thanks to a Chinese student who had the opportunity to see the quality of our doctoral programmes, in particular the doctorate in electrical engineering under Professor Sergio Pignari. It was he who, working hard for many years and taking many trips, began to build this bridge between us and China, until he developed this strategic partnership.
We first initiated various exchanges and combined Laurea courses. The idea of having a physical presence on the new XJTU campus then arose and was realized with the construction of a building designed by architects at the Politecnico di Milano (Remo Dorigati and Pierluigi Salvadeo with studio wok, Chiara Dorigati, Francesco Fuoco), which we will fill with people very soon thanks to the numerous projects we have incubating.

What effects did the pandemic have on this project and how did you reorganize yourselves?

The pandemic did not stop the projects; it just led to a partial review of the objectives we had set.
The idea was to start in September of this year with a joint Laurea (Bachelor of Science) course in architecture with our instructors physically present in China. Since this is not possible, we have temporarily moved educational activities online, drawing on the expertise that the Politecnico has gained in recent years.
Secondly, we moved forward an important agreement regarding MBAs made between the MIP — our Graduate School of Business — and the XJTU School of Management, which is one of the most prestigious in the country.
Finally, on the new campus we would like to create a new Joint School accredited by the Chinese Ministry of Education.
This would therefore result in going beyond the goal of having a physical presence: building a true joint university venture abroad. In recent weeks we have been developing the concept of a new Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Product Design involving various Schools at the Politecnico di Milano (Design, Management, Mechanical Engineering, Information and Communication Technology). If the project wins the call from the Chinese Ministry of Education, it would, in fact, be the first pilot course at the new school, with unique distinctive features, above all interdisciplinarity.
Interdisciplinarity is essential in processes of innovation, about which Italy has certainly much to say. And China is strongly dedicated to this front, as shown in the Made in China 2025 plan that was launched recently.

So, education, but not only that: a university partnership that aims to be relevant for the country system?

Certainly. Our goal is also to support strategies for the international and technological development of our businesses. In this sense, Xi’an is one of the most important industrial districts in China, for the automotive and electrical industries in particular, and it is also a very important cluster in the ICT sector (Alibaba and Huawei have very important research centres there).
This is why we plan to have laboratories where we intend to carry out research together with Italian and Chinese companies. The Chinese market is complex but extremely attractive for our companies, and we can support them in their entrance into the market.

Let’s talk about students. The added value of international exchange during a course of university studies is indisputable, but how do students respond to the opportunity for a combined Laurea of this type?

The ambition of the Joint School is to go global. We intend to attract international students from around the world. But we also want to support growth and experience for our researchers and instructors, given that this is an opportunity for them to develop under multiple points of view.
Students’ reactions up to now have been enthusiastic. Faced with legitimate initial scepticism in studying on a continent that is so different from ours, Italian students have always had extraordinary appreciation for this cultural exchange. They are won over by the energy and dynamics characteristic of any Chinese university.
They realize the importance of interacting in an area with one of the highest rates of economic growth in the world, characterized by great encouragement and strong investments in digital technologies and artificial intelligence.

A partnership developed, as you said, based on continual work of visits to the host country. Now this specific historical situation imposes new forms of interconnection around the world.
What scenarios do you foresee in view of this? How do the distances bring us together or modify some means of interaction between us and China?

The topic of Hybrid Learning will further accelerate relations between the Politecnico di Milano and China. In recent months, when the number of trips has reduced to zero, we have actually interacted more frequently than before and have increased the level of objectives and results obtained. In this direction, with regard to both research and university/postgraduate teaching, previously little-explored perspectives are opening.
In China, during the period of quarantine due to COVID, a good 180 million students studied entirely online. For us, it is now natural to expand our educational programme beyond the physical presence of Chinese students, when students do not want to move. Applying the reasoning of Hybrid Learning (with in-person and remote lectures) also opens participation in new courses of study to Italian students who do not want to move to China, for example.
Paradoxically, at a time when physical connection was not possible, cognitive and relational interconnection was more frequent because on both sides we discovered the possibility of working with a never-before-imagined frequency of interaction precluded only by our sensory system.
For example, with Tsinghua University in Beijing — the most important university in China, which has a joint campus in Milan at our Politecnico — we are now launching three large educational projects involving the MIP Graduate School of Business (in addition to other university departments) which were developed in just six months. To obtain similar results in the past, four/five years of continuous trips would have been necessary.
This naturally does not mean diminishing the importance of physical contact and campus life.
It just implies new roads that are worth travelling.

One last question about the educational approach in Chinese management schools. Is the material taught evolving in a way more inclined to collaboration with the West, or are the two models radicalizing into different positions?

The perception I have always had about China is that there was curiosity about Western managerial models. What was interesting, however, were especially topics tied to managing innovation.
The approaches move in opposite directions. China is aware of the power of its economic system and is therefore self-referential, even in its means of management.
This, however, does not preclude different opportunities for us — as the Politecnico and as Italians — particularly for two reasons.
The first is the very high number of Chinese students that want to study abroad and who will move to Europe in significant numbers (and also to Italy, we hope).
The second is that Italy is very attractive for our capacity to both develop a system of small and medium-sized companies, and create luxury brands. This is a great reputation, on the level not only of design, but also of marketing.
As a result, our country and our management schools are decidedly interesting.

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

Consolidating the Joint School to favour paths of growth for young talent at the Politecnico.
Opening a couple of laboratories with companies: one in the automotive industry and the other might be exporting the Polifactory format to Xi’an.
Creation of a start-up incubator with the related establishment of a venture capital fund.