03.12.2019  15:00

2019 Alumni Convention: Generation C

8th Convention dedicated to the generation that will have to understand and guide the era of complexity

The 2019 Alumni Convention, now in its 8th year, was held on November 30th at the Teatro Dal Verme, in Milan.

With the typical pragmatic approach of the Politecnico di Milano, this event provides an opportunity for sharing thoughts and stimulating reflection on the innovation and professional growth of the University’s Alumni, considered among the most influential players of Italy’s industrial and cultural scene.

This year’s theme is Generation C: C for complexity. A new sociological category, united not by age but by a marked aptitude for always being interconnected.

Complexity can only be dominated with Culture; a specialized culture, in order to understand what it means to look at a theme in depth, and a good general culture, so as to understand where the world is headed.

Our world is permeated with complex interconnected systems, and being able to navigate within them is increasingly becoming a fundamental skill.

This complexity will become increasingly prevalent in the future, and training professionals who can manage and exploit increasingly complex systems has become an extremely important goal.

The university world is currently facing a significant challenge: to train a generation capable of understanding and guiding the age of complexity.

Complexity means facing a problem that has no single solution, finding the key to the problem and, once solved, looking at it with the smile of someone who has understood that what frightened him at first will no longer be a difficulty in the future, because the frontiers have been shifted.

During the event, the Politecnico di Milano, its Alumni and the industrial world were given the opportunity to analyze the needs of the world with regard to Generation C, the necessary skills, any critical aspects and the role of the University in educating to complexity, through the contribution of several important speakers:

• Giordano Albertazzi, President for Europe, Middle East and Africa of Vertiv. Mechanical Engineering Alumnus. 
• Leonardo Cavalli, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of One Works. Architecture Alumnus.
• Giulio De Carli, Co-Founder of OneWorks. Architecture Alumnus.
• Valeria Falcone, Managing Director at Real Estate Barings. Architecture Alumnus.
• Grazia Vittadini, CTO of Airbus. Aeronautical Engineering Alumnus.

The event’s moderator, Maurizio Melis, scientific adviser, author and radio host, Electronic Engineering Alumnus, also interviewed the Rector, Prof. Ferruccio Resta, Mechanical Engineering Alumnus.

The Convention registered extraordinary figures: 1300 participating Alumni, 52% of which aged between 25 and 45. 75% were engineers, 20% architects and 5% designers.

Competence, because know-how is fundamental. A transversal approach, because innovation is interdisciplinary. An ability to listen, because others too can be right.

To date, the University is in contact with over 160,000 Alumni across 120 countries worldwide.
Over 10% live and work abroad (18,000). 96,000 are engineers, 52,000 architects and 12,000 designers.

This community includes over 200 CEOs and Managing Directors of important national and international companies.