Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

30th anniversary of Engineering - Modena

A strongly rooted presence, also confirmed by the figures. 30 years after it was established, the Department of Engineering of Modena is a university that has been developing and strengthening over the time; today, it boasts more than 5,000 students, including several foreigners, over 100 full professors and researchers, surrounded by additional young PhD students, and permanently employed research fellows and scholars, supported by something like 40 units of technical and administrative staff.

A website has been developed for the 30th anniversary: http://www.30anniingegneriamodena.unimore.it/site/home.html

“We are confident – the Director of DIEF Unimore, professor Massimo Borghi states - that we will also be able to celebrate our recent history with joy and righteousness, awaiting to meet again and shake hands”.   

This exceptional time of the anniversary suggests a celebration in line with a simple and essential profile, aimed at focusing on the contents and mainly proposing to best assess the network of relations hold by what is now the heir of the engineering study tradition of Modena: the “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering, commonly know as DIEF.

“The Department – as its Director, professor Massimo Borghi, addressed in a recent message sent to students, colleagues, and personnel - wants to celebrate the importance of this event with the sobriety required by the moment, with initiatives mainly aimed at promoting the daily communication relations between the Department and its main interlocutors: students, institutions, businesses. It wants to operate without asking any economic support to Public Institutions and local Businesses that have always shown their closeness to the Department. By doing this, we prefer leaving all possible resources to be addressed where they are most needed: to hospitals, research, and distressed families, young people, and businesses”.

The celebrations, started on 12 February with a first and still only event dedicated to “Fluid machines, internal combustion engines, Hydraulics” were later suspended in accordance with the Government and healthcare provisions set to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the DIEF continued its activity.

In few weeks, and forced by circumstances, thanks to the joint effort of everyone, we have been able to ensure distance education, new engineers have obtained their university degree, smart working procedures have been activated, and the continuation of research activities has been ensured by implementing suitable safety measures.

During these weeks since the beginning of the quarantine, 230 examinations were taken by remote, all teachings of the second semester have been provided on-line, in streaming, or with recorded video classes, and 241 new engineers graduated in the ordinary session of 7 April 2020: 72 Bachelor degrees and 169 Master degrees.

The effort for the degree session was considerable, for the commitment of the professors and administrative technical staff involved, for a total of 16 degree Boards active on the same day.

On the 7 April session, the first Master’s Degree in “Electronics Engineering” was awarded within a Double Qualification programme developed with the UTFPR Brazilian University (Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Paranà).

After this latest graduation session, the number of graduates since 1990 has reached the remarkable total of 10,330.

Meanwhile, within the research activity, the will of the local entrepreneurial system - that thirty years ago had sponsored the project of the Department - to have an engineering school in Modena consolidated in a network of national and international relations that brings the Department to sign research contracts for over six million euro every year, also through the service activity offered by the various Interdepartmental Centres grown within the Regional high Technology Network.

The research activities are controlled by:

-       5 interdepartmental centres: InterMech-MO.RE., AIRI, CRIS, CRICT, e-GEA

AIRI, Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation Center AIRI (former Softech-ICT) (www.airi.unimore.it) promotes, coordinates and personally develops applied research activity and technology transfer in the ICT sector (IT, electronics, telecommunications) and research of the relevant organisational and business models. AIRI is a Laboratory of the High Technology Network of Regione Emilia-Romagna and wants to be a point of reference of business or Public Bodies willing to develop or implement advanced ICT solutions.

CRIS ( www.cris.unimore.it ) is the Inter-Departmental Research Centre on Safety and Risk Prevention. At national and international level, the theme of safety is a challenge that requires a global approach. The theme requires a considerable effort and has a cross and multidisciplinary nature.

CRICT-UNIMORE ( www.crict.unimore.it ) is the Interdepartmental Centre for Research and services in the sector of Constructions and Territory of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. CRICT-UNIMORE gathers technical and scientific skills in earthquake, hydraulic and civil engineering, as well as geological and environmental science engineering, to specifically support the post-earthquake and post-flood reconstruction of the territory of Modena.

e-GEA – Interuniversity Centre ( www.egea.unimore.it ) is an interuniversity centre that combines interdisciplinary skills and knowledge arising from the Department of History, Culture, and Civilisations (DiSCi) and the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences (BiGeA) of the University of Bologna; Enzo Ferrari Department of Engineering (DIEF) and Department of Chemical and geological sciences (DSCG) of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, of the Territory, and Chemistry (DICATECh) of the Politecnico of Bari. It offers new ways of interpreting the territory, functional to its valorisation and to the promotion of its historical and artistic heritage, as well as the environmental resources through the realisation of products.

InterMech-MO.RE. ( www.intermech.unimore.it ) is the Interdepartmental Centre for Applied Research and the Services to the companies in the Sector of Advanced Mechanics and Motor Engineering. The Centre is part of the Mechanics and Material Platform of the HTN (High Technology Network) of Regione Emilia-Romagna (http://htn.aster.it).

• 40 research groups: 3 operating in the civil and environmental area; 9 in the information area; 28 in the area of mechanics and materials.

The activities listed above can rely on: 45 research laboratories, i.e. 5 in the field of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 16 in the field of Information Engineering (Electronics and Information Technology), 24 in the field of Industrial Engineering (Mechanic, Vehicle, Materials), and on 5 teaching laboratories, of which one is based in Mantua (“Claudio Canali” Laboratory, Linda Laboratory, Multimedia Laboratory, Infomec Laboratory, IT Laboratory Mantua).

The “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering of Modena has currently 30 bilateral agreements in place with foreign universities in Spain, Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary, The Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom for the exchange of students participating in the Erasmus programme.  For some years, it has also been supporting students interested in the Vulcanus project In Japan ( http://www.eu-japan.eu/vulcanus-japan-0 ), which offers the opportunity to spend one year in Japan attending both an intensive language course and an internship in an important Japanese company.

“In thirty years – Unimore Rector, Professor Carlo Adolfo Porro remarks – the Engineering of Modena has been growing in terms of quality and quantity, and has become a pillar of the University and a strong interlocutor for the manufacturing realities of our territory in the fields of training, research, and technology transfer, with recognised top expertise and relations with the best national and international research centres. To my colleagues, to young people who have taken up research, and to all students I would like to wish all the best to continue their path combining skills, passion, and quality. I am sure that their effort will contribute to the further development of Unimore and of our society.” 

A LITTLE HISTORY (1990 – 2020): THIRTY YEARS OF ENGINEERING IN MODENA

The Department of Engineering of Modena starts as an independent university facility in the Academic Year 1990/1991 with a teaching staff of 13 professors and researchers and 453 students enrolled in the two degree programmes active at that time. Material Engineering and Information Technology Engineering.

In few years, thanks to ministerial reforms of certain impact, and to the drive of a progressive growth of the territorial system and a clear strategy of university management, the Department of Engineering, which in year 2000 moved to the new modern facilities of via Vivarelli and in 2012 became the “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering, has made progress until gaining a central position of top scientific and training excellence, within - in 2018 - of the School of Engineering of the University, that over the time has also become part of Unimore - University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Much has change since it was established. 

Those few dozens of students enrolled in the preparatory two-years of Engineering in the Eighties and attending in the classrooms of the then Department of Mathematical, Physical, and Natural Sciences, have now become thousands of students, of which 1700 new enrolled each year, divided in 16 bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes, 1 vocational degree programme, and 2 PhD Programmes ( PhD in industrial and territorial engineering “Enzo Ferrari” and in Information and Communication Technologies – ICT ) that attract students to a campus of over 140,000m². 

Categorie: International - english