Polytechnic University of Turin

Overview

The Polytechnic University of Turin (PoliTO) is Italy’s oldest technical university. It is known for its high research output and has been recognized by the European Union for its efforts on internationalization. This public university is also one of the leading institutions for engineering in the country, as several of its programs were recognized by international university ranking organizations.

PoliTO is organized into 11 departments, under which are 15 colleges and four schools. It offers around 30 undergraduate programs, 30 postgraduate degrees, and over 20 doctorate programs. Among these, the most highly regarded courses include Electrical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Minerals Engineering, and Engineering and Technology. It also offers English courses for international learners.

Research in PoliTO is centered on four academic areas, namely civil, architecture, and design engineering; information technology; industrial engineering; and management and mathematical engineering. The school has 10 facilities that allow open-access research. It has also around 700 research contracts with large enterprises, the likes of which include Fiat, General Motors, IBM, and Microsoft.

PoliTO’s campuses are characterized by Anglo-Saxon architecture. The school’s main campus for architecture is a remodeled 17th-century building, spanning an area of 23,000 square meters. Meanwhile, its engineering main campus comes as a 170,000 square-meter complex in Corso Luigi Settembrini. PoliTO also has two central libraries and 10 departmental libraries, carrying over 950,000 downloadable resources and 103,500 eBooks.

Founded in 1859, PoliTO was once a technical school for engineers, which was eventually assimilated into a university along with the Italian Industry Museum. The university’s establishment led to the formal acceptance of technical studies as a field to be taken up in higher education. It centered on the industrial development of Italy as it erected facilities for a wide variety of subjects like architecture and chemistry.

PoliTO in 2020 welcomes over 35,000 students and 5,000 administrative personnel. It has gone on to establish an alliance of research universities in Europe called the University Network for Innovation, Technology, and Engineering (UNITE!). The university also has a special program called Stage&Jobs, which links students with the school’s industrial partners to boost their job acceptance rates.

PoliTO’s list of notable alumni includes Galileo Ferraris (physicist), Vilfredo Pareto (engineer), John Elkann (industrialist), Carlo de Benedetti (industrialist), Francesco Profumo (engineer), and Juan Carlos de Martin (columnist).

PoliTO aims to further its drive to innovate its delivery of knowledge and research in sharing and mediating development projects in its locality, country, and at the international level. It maintains its research partnerships with numerous local and international companies and even helps in the creation of high-tech enterprises.