Politecnico di Milano is ranked as one of the major technical European universities in the world and first in Italy in six research areas:

• Computer Science & Information Systems
• Civil & Structural Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing Engineering
• Mathematics
• Materials Sciences

PoliMI is organised in departments devoted to research and education. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has been rated as one of the top scientific institutions at global level: according to the QS World University Rankings 2018, it is ranked 17th worldwide, 5th at European level in the Engineering – Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing domain. Methods and Tools for Product Design, Machine design, industrial engineering methods, systematic innovation, and PLM systems are some of the several research topics. The activities are mainly performed in collaboration with the main public and private research bodies, with regional, national, European and international public bodies, who fund most of the research projects carried out. In addition, PoliMI cooperates with several Italian and international companies constituting a network capable of addressing industrial needs and requirements.

The research group directly involved in this project, focused on engineering design methods and tools, has gained scientific and technological competences even through the participation in several research projects in the areas of design creativity, problem solving, engineering knowledge management, business process re-engineering, topological optimisation, virtual reality, virtual prototyping of industrial products, multi-modal interaction.

Key staff involved:

Niccolò Becattini – assistant professor at POLIMI