Politecnico di Milano is one of the most outstanding universities in Europe, ranked 31st in the world and 8th in Europe among technical universities, according to the QS World University Ranking – Engineering & Technology 2014. Founded in 1863, it is the largest school of architecture, design and engineering in Italy, with three main campuses located in Milan, the heart of fashion and design industries and the venue of Expo 2015, and five more premises around the Lombardy region.
The Design Department’s mission is to promote innovation, development and transfer of design culture and methodologies in the socio-economic system. Around 250 people work at the Department every day. Over the years the Department has developed into Italy’s largest research and education institution in the design field and one of the largest in the world in terms of numbers of permanent teaching and research staff (with over 100 internal staff).
The Design Department ‘s research objectives:
- to act as a place of theoretical, critical, scientific, and cultural debate about the relationship between design & industry, and design & society;
- to create a system of multidisciplinary connections with the whole range of the scientific and technical skills.
The Design Department ‘s educational objectives:
- to support the School of Design and other national and international School in the development of their educational programs;
- to collaborate (at International and National level) with other public and private subjects in order to develop educational initiatives.
The Design Departement’s professors are largely involved in the Politecnico di Milano Design School (http://www.design.polimi.it/?lang=en) offering among others curricula on product, interior, communication, digital and interaction design, whose students can be involved in the PUDCAD project.
Department’s facilities dedicated to research (http://www.dipartimentodesign.polimi.it/en/laboratories/presentation) like Ed-ME, Pheel and the Interaction & Experience Design Research Lab’s will also give appropriate support to the project.
The ED-ME (Environmental Design and Multisensory Experience Laboratory) interdepartmental lab promotes training, research and services in the Environmental Design; promoting a cross-disciplinary approach, focused on "smart environments design processes", which integrate the space design with the perceptual and technical factors of color, material and light. In the context of Multisensory Experience research it deals with representation of complex phenomena, including virtual and augmented reality, developing physical interaction with objects and within the environment through digital devices and its artifacts.
The Pheel (PHysiology, Emotion and Experience Laboratory) interdepartmental lab is aimed to apply neurosciences and biometrics to the investigation of the modes of engagement of users involved in the visualization graphic artefact, videos and games, and employing interactive artefacts such as mobile applications, smart products and web services. Together with the modelling of cognitive and emotional activities of the human mind provided by brain sciences, the functional measurements of physiological parameters provide knowledge about the intensity and modes of the involvement, and information useful for the design optimization of several different artefacts.