Polytechnic University of Milan
Encyclopedia
The Politecnico di Milano is the largest technical
university
in Italy
, with about 35,000 students. The rector of the university is professor
Giovanni Azzone. In 2011 the university was ranked as the 48th technical university in the world, in the THE-QS World University Rankings. This was a 9-positions growth from the 57th position in 2009, and a 15-position growth since the 63rd position in 2008. In 2009 an Italian research ranked it as the best in Italy over indicators such as scientific production, attraction of foreign students, and others.
There are three Politecnici (Technical Universities, where only engineering and architecture are taught) in Italy (Milan
, Turin
and Bari
).
The logo of Politecnico di Milano is a sketch of Raphael's School of Athens
, an affresco which is located in the Vatican Museum, Vatican City
.
Founded on November 29, 1863, Politecnico di Milano is the oldest university in Milan. The original name was Istituto Tecnico Superiore ("Higher Technical Institute"), Francesco Brioschi
the leader, and the location was in the very heart of the city ('via Senato').
Architecture
, the second main line of study at Politecnico, was introduced in 1865. In 1927 the Politecnico moved to piazza Leonardo da Vinci
, in the district now known as Città studi (City of Studies). Politecnico's main facilities are still there today. At the time, it was named Regio Politecnico ("Royal Polytechnic"). The word Regio was removed as Italy was proclaimed a republic at the end of World War II
.
In 1954, the first Europe
an centre of electronic computation was opened in Politecnico by Gino Cassinis and Ercole Bottani. In 1963 Giulio Natta
received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for his research on crystalline polymers, polypropylene
in particular. In 1977, the satellite
Sirio, jointly developed by Politecnico and other companies, was launched.
Since the end of the 1980s
, the Politecnico has begun a process of territorial expansion that would have resulted in the opening of its satellite campuses in Lombardy
and Emilia Romagna. A university programme in industrial design
was started in 1993. In 2000, the politecnico's faculty of design was created with new courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programs of graphic & visual, fashion and interior design along with the already existent industrial design.
and Emilia Romagna:
The admission test for Architecture, Design and Construction Engineering schools is divided in five parts, each about one of the following general subject: Logic and General Knowledge; History; Drawing and Representation; Mathematics and Physics. The test is administered by the Ministry of Education.
The admission test for any Engineering school, except Construction Engineering, is divided in four parts, each about one of the following general subject: English Language; Logic, Mathematics and Statistics; Verbal Comprehension; Physics.
Admission to the graduate programmes in the Politecnico requires an undergraduate degree and a set of requirements specific for each school, such as the time spent in obtaining the undergraduate degree or the grade point average scored during the undergraduate programme.
The Politecnico also offers courses of study for the title of Dottore di Ricerca (Ph.D.), MBA courses, and other postgraduate courses.
This wide range of different curricula is tailored to the needs of its territory (the Lombardy
region), which is one of the most developed industrial areas in Europe. The number of students enrolled is approximately 35,000, making the Politecnico di Milano the largest institution in Italy for Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design.
Programmes at the Politecnico frequently feature additional parts of practical homework. This is believed to strengthen the knowledge, expertise and ability of students.
Politecnico maintains several relationships with international projects for student exchange, and encourages the enrollment of foreign students by providing many courses in English language. It participates in the ENTREE
network for student exchange among Electrical Engineering colleges in Europe. It is also a member of Top Industrial Managers for Europe
(TIME) network. It contributes to IMCC organisation.
The Alta Scuola Politecnica joint institution of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino, is addressed to young talents who want to develop their interdisciplinary capabilities for leading and promoting innovation, and runs in parallel to the two-year programmes of laurea magistrale.
From autumn 2004, the Politecnico owns a publishing trademark, Polipress, created mainly to publish researches by the Politecnico community. Polipress publishes also the free Politecnico periodical.
.
Many scientists working at the Politecnico di Milano have received awards and recognition by the scientific community: among them, the most famous is undoubtedly Giulio Natta
, the only Italian Nobel laureate
for Chemistry to date (1963), who was also the head of the Department of Industrial Chemistry at Politecnico. As of 2005, a number of professors at Politecnico are ACM or IEEE fellows.
The Politecnico participates in associations and consortia for applied research, has offices to assist technological transfers and continuing education for professionals. The university supports the establishment of research spin-offs, and also of high-tech companies during their start-up
phase, with a structure named Acceleratore d'Impresa (Start-up Incubator).
/year and 3000 €/year. Students with good grades are granted partial or full rebates, in addition to various kinds of scholarships. There are many scholarships for international students as part of its recent internationalization program.
Most Italian universities do not offer accommodation for their students on campus. Politecnico has a limited number of at most 1000 beds (also counting agreements with private institutions), and directly manages a 140-bed hostel for exchange students of the Erasmus programme. Most students from outside the city are either commuters or renting. It is customary for students to share flats in small groups of 3 or 4 people, as rent rates are very expensive in the city.
The campuses Leonardo and Bovisa are covered by a Wi-Fi network
. Politecnico's Wi-Fi system is composed by two networks: a non-protected net (SSID: polimi) and a protected one (SSID: internet). With polimi, students can freely log into a stripped-down network, getting the access to an institutional website where they can request a certificate to access the internet network. In fact, the access to the latter is regulated by the WPA
protocol, using an EAP
authentication and TKIP cryptography. The internet network grants access to all of Politecnico's private network (all the LANs of all campuses), and to the Internet in limited form (the HTTP(S) and FTP services only). The WiFi service is still work in progress but most areas of the campus Leonardo are now covered by it.
A well known structure is the ISU (a generic term which in Italian university describes additional student facilities such as open libraries, lending of portable PCs, cafeterias and study spaces), dedicated to Luigi Divieti. A legend talks of the "Pianist of ISU", a man who is supposed to be living there since he was born some 50 years ago, and to be a hopelessly old student of the university.
Inside the Leonardo campus students can find the seat of the Educafe. Educafe has been conceived as an innovative space inside the Politecnico, where students can meet up or freely surf the net. Educafe, despite its very limited size, is also a meeting center, where cultural events are organized every months.
Among the student organizations:
Other smaller groups (both right-wing) are:
Participation in student elections is, however, generally low, typically below 15%, as a result of generally a low interest in the issues and the low influence of elected students on the academy's decisions.
Faculty members of the Politecnico di Milano
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, with about 35,000 students. The rector of the university is professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Giovanni Azzone. In 2011 the university was ranked as the 48th technical university in the world, in the THE-QS World University Rankings. This was a 9-positions growth from the 57th position in 2009, and a 15-position growth since the 63rd position in 2008. In 2009 an Italian research ranked it as the best in Italy over indicators such as scientific production, attraction of foreign students, and others.
There are three Politecnici (Technical Universities, where only engineering and architecture are taught) in Italy (Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
).
The logo of Politecnico di Milano is a sketch of Raphael's School of Athens
The School of Athens
The School of Athens, or in Italian, is one of the most famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the , in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican...
, an affresco which is located in the Vatican Museum, Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
.
History
Francesco Brioschi
Francesco Brioschi was an Italian mathematician.Brioschi was born in Milan in 1824. From 1850 he taught analytical mechanics in the University of Pavia. After the Italian unification in 1861, he was elected depute in the Parliament of Italy and then appointed twice secretary of the Education...
the leader, and the location was in the very heart of the city ('via Senato').
Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, the second main line of study at Politecnico, was introduced in 1865. In 1927 the Politecnico moved to piazza Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, in the district now known as Città studi (City of Studies). Politecnico's main facilities are still there today. At the time, it was named Regio Politecnico ("Royal Polytechnic"). The word Regio was removed as Italy was proclaimed a republic at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In 1954, the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an centre of electronic computation was opened in Politecnico by Gino Cassinis and Ercole Bottani. In 1963 Giulio Natta
Giulio Natta
Giulio Natta was an Italian chemist and Nobel laureate. He won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 with Karl Ziegler for work on high polymers.-Early years:...
received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
for his research on crystalline polymers, polypropylene
Polypropylene
Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes...
in particular. In 1977, the satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
Sirio, jointly developed by Politecnico and other companies, was launched.
Since the end of the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, the Politecnico has begun a process of territorial expansion that would have resulted in the opening of its satellite campuses in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
and Emilia Romagna. A university programme in industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
was started in 1993. In 2000, the politecnico's faculty of design was created with new courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programs of graphic & visual, fashion and interior design along with the already existent industrial design.
Institution
The University is distributed over 7 main campuses across LombardyLombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
and Emilia Romagna:
- Campus Leonardo, located in piazza Leonardo da Vinci in Milan and active since 1927; from then on the campus expanded and today it comprises various smaller campuses close to each other (campus Leonardo, campus Bonardi, campus Clericetti, campus Mancinelli, campus Gran Sasso and campus Colombo).
- Campus Bovisa, located in the BovisaBovisaBovisa is a district of Milan, Italy, located north of the city center, in the Zone 9. The name is supposedly derived from the italian word bove, meaning ox, as the area developed from an ancient rural settlement....
district in Milan and active since 1989; campus Bovisa is today composed by campus Durando, opened in 1994, and campus La Masa, inaugurated in 1997. - Campus Como, located in the city of ComoComoComo is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
and active since 1987. - Campus Cremona, located in the city of CremonaCremonaCremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...
and active since 1987. - Campus Lecco, located in the city of LeccoLeccoLecco is a town of c. 47,760 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan, the capital of the province of Lecco. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como...
and active since the first 90s of 20th century. - Campus Mantova, located in the city of Mantova and active since 1999; the seat is the former Orphanage of the Mercy, designed in the late 18th century by the architect Paolo Pozzo.
- Campus Piacenza, located in the city of PiacenzaPiacenzaPiacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...
and active since 1997; the seat is the Barracks of the Snow, a building of the 16th century.
Admission
The admission in the undergraduate programme in the Politecnico is bound to an admission test, aimed to verify the starting preparation of every student. The main goal of this test is to point out the lacks of the aspiring students and, in case, to assign them an extra course. Only some programmes have a strictly limited number of places, even if the Academic Senate fixes an approximate maximum number of students for every programme.The admission test for Architecture, Design and Construction Engineering schools is divided in five parts, each about one of the following general subject: Logic and General Knowledge; History; Drawing and Representation; Mathematics and Physics. The test is administered by the Ministry of Education.
The admission test for any Engineering school, except Construction Engineering, is divided in four parts, each about one of the following general subject: English Language; Logic, Mathematics and Statistics; Verbal Comprehension; Physics.
Admission to the graduate programmes in the Politecnico requires an undergraduate degree and a set of requirements specific for each school, such as the time spent in obtaining the undergraduate degree or the grade point average scored during the undergraduate programme.
The Politecnico also offers courses of study for the title of Dottore di Ricerca (Ph.D.), MBA courses, and other postgraduate courses.
Organization
Politecnico di Milano is organised in 17 departments:- Architettura e Pianificazione (DIAP) (ArchitectureArchitectureArchitecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and planningPlanningPlanning in organizations and public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. As such, it is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior...
) - Bioingegneria (Bioengineering)
- Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica "Giulio Natta" (ChemistryChemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
) - Elettronica e Informazione (DEI) (ElectronicsElectronicsElectronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and Information technologyInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
) - Elettrotecnica (Electrical Engineering)
- Energetica (EnergeticsEnergyIn physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
Engineering) - Fisica (PhysicsPhysicsPhysics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
) - Industrial Design, Arti, Comunicazione e Moda (INDACO) (Industrial designIndustrial designIndustrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
, Arts, communicationCommunicationCommunication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
and fashionFashion designFashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....
) - Ingegneria Aerospaziale (Aerospace engineeringAerospace engineeringAerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
) - Ingegneria Gestionale (DIG) (Industrial engineeringIndustrial engineeringIndustrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...
and ManagementManagementManagement in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
) - Ingegneria Idraulica, Ambientale, Infrastrutture Viarie, Rilevamento (DIIAR) (Environmental, Hydraulic, Infrastructures and Surveying Engineering)
- Ingegneria Nucleare (Nuclear engineeringNuclear engineeringNuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of the breakdown as well as the fusion of atomic nuclei and/or the application of other sub-atomic physics, based on the principles of nuclear physics...
) - Ingegneria Strutturale (DIS) (Structural engineeringStructural engineeringStructural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....
) - Matematica "Francesco BrioschiFrancesco BrioschiFrancesco Brioschi was an Italian mathematician.Brioschi was born in Milan in 1824. From 1850 he taught analytical mechanics in the University of Pavia. After the Italian unification in 1861, he was elected depute in the Parliament of Italy and then appointed twice secretary of the Education...
" (MathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
) - Meccanica (MechanicsMechanicsMechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
) - Progettazione dell’Architettura (Architectural Projects)
- Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Ambiente Costruito (BEST) (Building and Environment Sciences and Technology)
Educational Activities
The Politecnico offers 32 first level (Bachelor) degree programmes. Among these, there is an on-line course in Computer Engineering, the first on-line academic course in Italy. It is fully equivalent to the traditional Computer Engineering programme; in fact all the lessons are explained on the web by the professors of the Politecnico and the final examinations are taken in the campus in Como.This wide range of different curricula is tailored to the needs of its territory (the Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
region), which is one of the most developed industrial areas in Europe. The number of students enrolled is approximately 35,000, making the Politecnico di Milano the largest institution in Italy for Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design.
Programmes at the Politecnico frequently feature additional parts of practical homework. This is believed to strengthen the knowledge, expertise and ability of students.
Politecnico maintains several relationships with international projects for student exchange, and encourages the enrollment of foreign students by providing many courses in English language. It participates in the ENTREE
European Network for Training and Research in Electrical Engineering
Exchange programs for Electrical Engineering students between 18 universities in Europe. It is also known as Entree. Their members are:* Chalmers Lindholmen University College * University of Aalborg * Heriot-Watt University...
network for student exchange among Electrical Engineering colleges in Europe. It is also a member of Top Industrial Managers for Europe
Top Industrial Managers for Europe
Top Industrial Managers for Europe is a network of more than fifty engineering schools and faculties and technical universities....
(TIME) network. It contributes to IMCC organisation.
The Alta Scuola Politecnica joint institution of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino, is addressed to young talents who want to develop their interdisciplinary capabilities for leading and promoting innovation, and runs in parallel to the two-year programmes of laurea magistrale.
Library System
The library system of the Politecnico counts more than 470.000 records distributed all over the libraries in the campuses. The system is made up of Central Libraries (amongst which the most important ones are the 'Central Engineering Library' and the 'Central Architecture Library') and Teaching Libraries, set up to help students preparing their exams. The titles registered in the library system can be consulted through a web search engine called OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue).From autumn 2004, the Politecnico owns a publishing trademark, Polipress, created mainly to publish researches by the Politecnico community. Polipress publishes also the free Politecnico periodical.
Research
The Politecnico di Milano participates to European and international networks of research. In year 2004 alone, about 60 large scale, multi-year international research projects have been initiated or participated by the Politecnico, just in the context of the European Research frameworkFramework Programmes for Research and Technological Development
The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 through FP8, are funding programmes created by the European Union in order to support and encourage research in the European Research Area...
.
Many scientists working at the Politecnico di Milano have received awards and recognition by the scientific community: among them, the most famous is undoubtedly Giulio Natta
Giulio Natta
Giulio Natta was an Italian chemist and Nobel laureate. He won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 with Karl Ziegler for work on high polymers.-Early years:...
, the only Italian Nobel laureate
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for Chemistry to date (1963), who was also the head of the Department of Industrial Chemistry at Politecnico. As of 2005, a number of professors at Politecnico are ACM or IEEE fellows.
The Politecnico participates in associations and consortia for applied research, has offices to assist technological transfers and continuing education for professionals. The university supports the establishment of research spin-offs, and also of high-tech companies during their start-up
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
phase, with a structure named Acceleratore d'Impresa (Start-up Incubator).
Student life
Student fees at the Politecnico depend on the income of the family of the student. They range between 150 €Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
/year and 3000 €/year. Students with good grades are granted partial or full rebates, in addition to various kinds of scholarships. There are many scholarships for international students as part of its recent internationalization program.
Most Italian universities do not offer accommodation for their students on campus. Politecnico has a limited number of at most 1000 beds (also counting agreements with private institutions), and directly manages a 140-bed hostel for exchange students of the Erasmus programme. Most students from outside the city are either commuters or renting. It is customary for students to share flats in small groups of 3 or 4 people, as rent rates are very expensive in the city.
The campuses Leonardo and Bovisa are covered by a Wi-Fi network
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
. Politecnico's Wi-Fi system is composed by two networks: a non-protected net (SSID: polimi) and a protected one (SSID: internet). With polimi, students can freely log into a stripped-down network, getting the access to an institutional website where they can request a certificate to access the internet network. In fact, the access to the latter is regulated by the WPA
Wi-Fi Protected Access
Wi-Fi Protected Access and Wi-Fi Protected Access II are two security protocols and security certification programs developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks...
protocol, using an EAP
Extensible Authentication Protocol
Extensible Authentication Protocol, or EAP, is an authentication framework frequently used in wireless networks and Point-to-Point connections. It is defined in RFC 3748, which made RFC 2284 obsolete, and was updated by RFC 5247....
authentication and TKIP cryptography. The internet network grants access to all of Politecnico's private network (all the LANs of all campuses), and to the Internet in limited form (the HTTP(S) and FTP services only). The WiFi service is still work in progress but most areas of the campus Leonardo are now covered by it.
Organizations
An interesting part of student life are "copy centers". During the 1970s, two copy centers were born: CLUP and CUSL (the former from left-wing student groups, the latter with a Catholic, conservative student base), as an effort from students to solve their own problems (such as the cost of books and sharing of lecture notes). They have been the only copy centres within Politecnico's premises for a long time, until 2001 when CLUP moved just outside it. They are important just for historical and political reasons, as nowadays there are plenty of alternative facilities in Politecnico's district, Città Studi.A well known structure is the ISU (a generic term which in Italian university describes additional student facilities such as open libraries, lending of portable PCs, cafeterias and study spaces), dedicated to Luigi Divieti. A legend talks of the "Pianist of ISU", a man who is supposed to be living there since he was born some 50 years ago, and to be a hopelessly old student of the university.
Inside the Leonardo campus students can find the seat of the Educafe. Educafe has been conceived as an innovative space inside the Politecnico, where students can meet up or freely surf the net. Educafe, despite its very limited size, is also a meeting center, where cultural events are organized every months.
Among the student organizations:
- BEST Milano (Board of European Students of Technology) a European non-profit and politically neutral organization, focus on Empowered diversity, done by students for the students and present in more than 30 countries.
- ESN (European Student Network) a non-profit organization, gathering exchange student and encouraging exchange project.
- Euroavia an organization founded to gather aerospace students of the Politecnico and make easy to contact other aerospace students in Europe.
- Associazione Ingegneri Ambiente e Territorio (Associazione Ingegneri Ambiente e Territorio) a student association composed by students in Environmental Engineering.
- Teatro delle Biglie (English translation: 'Theatre of the Marbles') an independent non-profit organization, born as theatre association.
- Poul (Politecnico Open Unix Labs) a student association composed by student interested in Unix-likeUnix-likeA Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
systems. - IEEE Student Branch of the Politecnico di Milano.
Professional opportunities
Politecnico Di Milano is a well known university in Europe. The last survey of graduates shows that 80% of graduates of the Politecnico di Milano finds a job within three months from graduation, and almost 95% within six months. The figures are similar for the bachelor and the masters level graduates. A specialized "Career Service" facilitates contacts between graduates and the industry, it invites companies for presentations and prepares statistics about the graduated students. It posts almost 200 job offers per month and arranges 90 recruitment events per year (which mostly consist of company presentations with arranged interviews).Student politics
Currently, the three main political groups in student's elections are:- Lista aperta per il diritto allo studio ("Open list for the right to study"), whose members are also usually part of the Catholic movement Comunione e Liberazione. The movement is arguably right-wing, even if it defines itself as "not politically oriented";
- La Terna Sinistrorsa—Liberi Studenti Democratici ("The left-hand coordinate system—Free Democratic Students"), the left-wing organization; both denominations are punPunThe pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s on the Cartesian three-dimensional coordinate system and LSDLSDLysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. - "SvoltaStudenti.it | La Students' Union del Politecnico di Milano" ("The Student's Union of Politecnico di Milano"), which takes inspiration from the Anglo-Saxon student-groups, is not politically oriented and its main purpose is to provide services to the students.
Other smaller groups (both right-wing) are:
- ''Terzopolo—Centro Destra Universitario ("Third pole—University centre-right"), connected to the right-wing political coalition Casa delle libertà;
- Movimento Universitario Padano ("Padanian university movement"), linked to the Lega Nord party.
Participation in student elections is, however, generally low, typically below 15%, as a result of generally a low interest in the issues and the low influence of elected students on the academy's decisions.
Criticism
The Politecnico is widely known for being a selective and very difficult university, and as such, many students take one or more additional years to complete their studies. Approximately 55% of undergraduates http://www.polimi.it/fileadmin/user_upload/Ateneo/Polimi_Indagine_2007.pdf that graduate complete their studies on time, and approximately 80% of them graduate within an additional year. Similar figures apply to graduate students.See also
Alumni of the Politecnico di MilanoFaculty members of the Politecnico di Milano
- List of Italian universities
- MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...