Elisa Negri wins the “Digital Twin Young Scientist Award”

At the international DigiTwin 2024 conference, Elisa Negri, a researcher from the Politecnico di Milano, was awarded the “Digital Twin Young Scientist Award” for her pioneering studies on the use of Digital Twins in industrial production management, contributing to improvements in efficiency, sustainability, and circular economy practices.

 

DigiTwin is a prestigious international event that brings together companies from various sectors to share their experiences and needs in industrial applications, promoting the adoption of Digital Twin technology across diverse fields such as design, manufacturing, biomedicine, urban planning, energy, civil engineering, and more.

The 4th edition of DigiTwin, held from October 14 to 18, 2024, at the Politecnico di Milano, saw Elisa Negri, a researcher at the POLIMI School of Management, receive the prestigious “Digital Twin Young Scientist Award” for her significant contributions to the use of Digital Twins in managing production systems.

Since 2017, Elisa Negri has been conducting research on the role of “Digital Twins” in managing and controlling production systems.

These so-called “Digital Twins” are gaining increasing interest from both academic and industrial spheres due to their potential applications. They are virtual models that include data, algorithms, and carefully designed simulators that allow for “mirroring” real-world events in the digital realm. This enables the exploitation of data processing capabilities, scenario simulation, and the monitoring of deviations from predefined pathways.

Negri’s work is part of a research stream focused on demonstrating and quantifying how Digital Twins can simplify, enhance, and accelerate decision-making in managing production systems throughout their entire lifecycle—from design and commissioning to operations, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning, with a focus on circular practices.

The role of Digital Twins in decision-making is multifaceted, ranging from supporting monitoring activities to predicting future scenarios, optimizing parameters, and prescribing optimal actions.

The demonstrated benefits of using Digital Twins for production management include improved productivity (particularly through integrated management of production and maintenance), enhanced environmental and social sustainability (by reducing material and energy consumption and improving the working conditions of factory personnel), and the facilitation of circular economy practices in manufacturing.

Alessandro Paravano has been awarded with “PMI Young Researcher Award 2024”

At the Project Management Institute Global Summit 2024 in Los Angeles, the largest in-person signature event of the year for project professionals dedicated to elevating our world through project success, with over 4,000 attendees, Alessandro Paravano was awarded the prestigious PMI Young Researcher Award.

 

The PMI Young Researcher Award, an annual global award based on a rigorous and competitive selection process, recognises and celebrates emerging leaders in the academic field of project, programme and/or portfolio management with potential achievements that have the potential to significantly impact the discipline and practice of project management.

The PMI committee recognised that the research of Alessandro Paravano, a Post-Doc at the POLIMI School of Management at the Politecnico di Milano, is outstanding for its rigorous contribution to the theory and practice of project management, amply documented in peer-reviewed papers. His ability to bridge the gap between theoretical advancements and their successful implementation in practice demonstrates his exceptional capacity to contribute to both academic knowledge and industry success.

The research makes significant contributions to the fields of project management and space economics by advancing the understanding of complex project value. Traditionally, project value has been assessed at the individual project level, focusing on short-term outcomes and direct economic returns for stakeholders. The author redefines and extends the project success conceptualisation, by shifting the focus to project ecologies, which consider the interconnectedness of projects and the broader context they inhabit. This shift enables a more comprehensive understanding of the long-term socio-economic transformations that complex projects, particularly in the space sector, can catalyse.

The study expands the traditional view of project success to include both tangible and intangible forms of value.

For instance, the value of complex space projects in responding to global challenges is explored and demonstrated like climate change through satellite technology or to advance human knowledge by studying life in extreme conditions. His research highlights how the value generated by these projects extends well beyond their immediate financial impact, creating lasting societal benefits.

The approach of the study is grounded in Value Theory and Systems Architecting, which allows him to analyse the dynamic and multidimensional nature of project value. He underscores the critical role of relationships between actors within project ecologies—such as stakeholders, end-users, and organisations—and how these relationships shape the evolving value of a project over time. This perspective challenges the traditional project management focus on individual project success metrics, advocating for a broader view that captures the transformative potential of projects at an industry or societal level.

Furthermore, the research provides novel insights into the Space Economy, a rapidly growing sector driven by technological innovation, commercialisation, and new stakeholders. He contributes to the limited academic literature in this domain by demonstrating that space projects, often seen through a technical or economic lens, hold the capacity to transform industries, enhance human life, and even reshape societal structures in the long term. This work thus bridges the gap between theoretical research and practical application, offering policymakers and industry leaders new tools to assess better and leverage the value of complex space projects.

 

More details: https://www.pmi.org/about/awards/research-academic

 

APM Conference 2024: Giorgio Locatelli and Tristano Sainati win “Research Paper of the Year” award

During the APM Conference 2024, entitled “Navigating Tomorrow: Future Skills for Project Professionals” on 5-6 June 2024, the winners of the Education and Research Awards were announced.

 

The Association for Project Management (APM) is an organisation dedicated to advancing the science, theory and practice of project and program management, and to benefiting the public through education, credentialing and research in the field of project management.

APM’s annual conference, “Navigating Tomorrow”, provided an important opportunity for delegates to explore the theme of the skills gap, discuss the continuing evolution of the profession and understand the profound impact it is having globally.

During the event, outstanding academic contributions in the field of project management were celebrated, with Tristano Sainati and Giorgio Locatelli from the School of Management at the Politecnico di Milano being announced as the winners of the “Research Paper of the Year” award.

Their research paper, entitled “Digging in the megaproject’s graveyard: Why do megaprojects die, and how to check their health?”, was selected for its in-depth examination of the termination of infrastructure megaprojects during the delivery phase.

The study analysed 30 megaprojects that ended during the delivery phase and introduced a new theory, “The Reverse Escalation of Commitment”, which clarifies the reasons why megaprojects are abandoned and the circumstances that lead to such decisions, and provides a practical checklist for assessing the health of infrastructure megaprojects.

This recognition underlines the importance of Sainati and Locatelli’s work in contributing to the understanding and improvement of megaproject management, providing valuable tools for the future of the profession.

 

Read more about the article: https://www.apm.org.uk/apm-conference/er-awards/research-paper-of-the-year/