About fifty students of the University of Trento, mostly from the master's courses in Computer Science, Mechatronics engineering, Information and communication engineering and Materials and production engineering, participated in the event to learn about the opportunities available in the current year. And they met the representatives of about thirty of the most innovative companies in Italy, who showed them what they do.
That is what Industrial Innovazione Day – I2D was about: jointly organized by Trentino Sviluppo, University of Trento and Fondazione Bruno Kessler, it aims to promote new on-the-job education programmes for students and to advertise innovation opportunities for local companies, thus strengthening the already strong and dynamic connection between university and industry.
In his opening address, Mauro Casotto, chief operating officer of Trentino Sviluppo, underlined that "Polo Meccatronica is our high-tech hub, it is where industry, education, research and innovation are all together to develop innovative projects. Since 2017, for example, the ProM Facility has been offering businesses an integrated platform for the design, development, implementation, verification and validation of systems and manufacturing processes, and has always been available to high school students, graduates and PhDs for research and excellence training. Today students were able to visit the ProM Facility to see its full potential".
Flavio Deflorian, prorector of the University for relations with the business sector, explained: "Synergies between the research and business sectors will open up many opportunities for students in the near future, including for internships, dissertation research, doctoral grants. In recent years relations between students and companies have become the norm in Trentino, changing from opportunity to reality".
Then Paolo Giorgini, director of the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, presented the new laboratories: "In these facilities students, researchers and businesses will be able to share experiences and develop highly innovative projects together, using state-of-the-art technologies in the areas of research of the department".
"The doctoral programme in Industrial innovation by the University of Trento and Fondazione Bruno Kessler was created to train highly qualified professionals for the industrial sector, people who can tackle industry-related issues in different sectors", explained Dario Petri, director of the Department of Industrial engineering of the University of Trento. "The programme, which has already received funding amounting to 800,000 euro from the participating companies, is tailored on students' interests and includes the supervision of two tutors (one from the University, the other from a company)".
Stefano Tonetta, vice-coordinator of the PhD programme in Industrial innovation at Fondazione Bruno Kessler, and Farid Melgani, coordinator of the programme at the University of Trento, illustrated the details of the new grants available for the current academic year.
To conclude, Paola Garbari gave an overview of the services offered to young people and companies by Agenzia del Lavoro of the Autonomous Province of Trento.
The participants visited the ProM Facility and then met with company representatives to find collaboration opportunities and explore new ideas, technologies and methodologies in industrial processes.
Businesses on the other hand, took advantage of the occasion to describe their work and meet new talents.