key partner to the business community and public authorities in their
efforts to restructure industry and keep abreast of technological change
is Piedmont’s
main technical university, the Politecnico
di Torino, which has won a sterling reputation since its inception
in 1859.
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Apart from its main campus in Turin, the university has branches or programmes in various centres in Piedmont, reinforcing local specialist activities. It aims to be a centre of excellence in a wide range of technical and engineering fields and has forged partnerships with sister institutions abroad.
It is linked to Imperial College, London, through the CLUSTER consortium of universities focusing on scientific and technical education and research, and has in the past run a scheme whereby students could study for six months in Turin and six months at the University of Brighton.
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| The Politecnico is breaking down barriers between academia and industry |
“Research
is very important,” says the institution’s rector, Giovanni
Del Tin. “We have 700 contracts a year with commercial
companies – not only locally, but also nationally, and we operate
at a European level.”
Piedmont is Italy’s top investor in research and has recently been
concentrating on information and communication technology. Mr Del Tin
predicts that the region could become a kind of Silicon Valley. “There
is a great concentration of know-how in the sector of both fixed and
mobile telephony, as well as all kinds of software,” he says.
Mr Del Tin believes that engineering remains the driving sector at present. Even though some companies, including Fiat, may be moving their production to low-cost countries like Poland, Piedmont’s industrial base can fulfil many related requirements. “The point is to maintain engine and car engineering here,” he says. “To do that, we need the help of information and communication technology.”
The
Politecnico is concentrating particularly on strengthening ties with
small and medium-sized enterprises, where there is a growing awareness
of the importance of technical training. “In a knowledge-based
society, human capital is the most important element in a company,”
says Mr Del Tin.
As well as encouraging its own students to develop their ideas, the
Politecnico offers its services as a business incubator. “In Italy,
the universities used not to have an entrepreneurial culture,”
the rector says. “Now we are breaking down the barriers between
the university world and the entrepreneurial world.”
Strong focus on training and research
nformation
and communications technology (ICT) currently accounts for about five
per cent of Piedmont’s GDP, but the aim is to double that over
the next five to eight years. Training and research will be crucial
to ensure that happens, which is why the Politecnico di Torino and the
Compagnia di San Paolo got together in 2000 to set up a specialised
higher education centre, the Istituto
Superiore Mario Boella.
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“We
have certain key goals,” declares the institute’s president,
Rodolfo Zich. “A study
carried out by the Chamber of Commerce shows that the technology sector
needs 42,000 people with varying levels of qualification. And we have
seen many new start-ups emerge, such as Vitaminic (the digital music
distribution company), which was founded locally and has grown rapidly.
This year alone we are seeing 40 to 50 new starts-ups being launched.”
The institute focuses on research and forging more links between researchers
and companies. It is a keen proponent of technology transfer, and has
developed a network of relations with other academic and research institutions
on both sides of the Atlantic, not least with UCLA in Los Angeles.
“Our goal is to be among the top three or four centres for wireless
technology,” says Professor Zich. “In addition, we are looking
at boosting the efficiency of our laboratories by introducing joint
educational projects between the Politecnico di Torino and the Istituto
Superiore Mario Boella.”
He
considers that Italy currently suffers from a fragmentation of research
activities, which is damaging its competitive ability. “We have
tried to find a niche at the forefront of ICT research and development,”
he says.
Professor Zich believes Piedmont is the obvious location for such development,
because of the region’s long tradition in the field of telecommunications.
“This is where the telecoms companies started out and where they
based their corporate research,” he points out. “It therefore
seemed to us that the area of ICT was the most promising in terms of
the region’s competitiveness. So we began with the idea of creating
an ICT centre, under an initiative we have called ‘Torino Wireless’.”
Torino
Wireless is not intended to be just a geographical area but also a socio-economic
environment, in which there are policies aimed at promoting resources
for R&D, accelerating business growth and attracting venture capital.
The Ministry of Education, local and regional government, the Chamber
of Commerce and other bodies have all backed the initiative enthusiastically.
“The main objective is to create value, in particular business
value,” says Professor Zich. “This entails the creation of
new high-tech companies.”
The private sector will, of course, be heavily involved. “We have reached agreement with big companies like Motorola, STMicroelectronics, Alenia, Telecom Italia and Fiat to help us, not only in terms of venture capital, but also with research,” he says. “The role of the Istituto Superiore Mario Boella within Torino Wireless is to be a centre of excellence for research and higher education.”
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