History

The Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA) is a department focused on teaching, research, and third mission/social impact in the fields of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and Industrial and Information Engineering. Since its foundation in 2015, the Department has aimed to serve as a structure capable of responding to the expectations for technological innovation expressed by society and the local area. The Department hosts 121 faculty members and researchers, has 22 administrative staff members, and 15 laboratory technicians.

Sections

The DPIA is organized into three sections: Civil Engineering and Architecture; Electrical, Management and Mechanical Engineering; Chemical, Materials and Environmental Engineering.

Educational offer and research groups

The DPIA offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in the fields of Civil, Electronic, Management and Mechanical Engineering, and Architecture. It also manages more specific activities in the same fields, such as postgraduate master’s programmes established on the basis of needs arising from technological development and from relationships with society and the business world.

The DPIA organizes two PhD programmes, the highest level of education after a degree; it also participates in the inter-university Udine/Trieste PhD programme in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture.

The DPIA hosts 43 research groups and manages European, interregional, regional and ministerial projects, with an annual research income budget of approximately two million euros.

Department Vision

In line with the University Strategic Plan, the DPIA aims to serve as a point of reference for the local area in terms of research, teaching, and third mission/social impact. For each of the strategic areas identified by the University, the DPIA’s quality vision is as follows:

• For teaching, to be the centre for the provision of high-level educational programmes, including doctoral education, aligned with the best national and international standards, attractive and attentive to internationalization and to relations with the local area;
• For research, to be the centre for the development and promotion of internationally recognized high-level research, also fostering interdisciplinarity within its scientific and cultural areas;
• For the third mission, to be a reference point for the local area in supporting innovation and sustainable development pathways in the fields of energy, production processes, and territorial resilience.

Since its foundation in 2015, a strong interdisciplinary character has been common to the three areas of teaching, research and third mission/social impact. This character has recently found expression in the Department Strategic Plan 2022–2025 and, more specifically, in its main research project, ESPeRT, which integrates the DPIA’s polytechnic expertise into three interconnected research strands: sustainability of production processes; energy and green economy; territorial resilience. This project is fully functional to the achievement of the sustainability and ecological transition objectives of the University Strategic Plan.

These objectives, together with the digital transition, are also priorities in the proposal to expand and progressively update the educational offer presented in the Department Strategic Plan 2022–2025, both in response to the demand for specific professional profiles expressed by the local area and in response to new competitive challenges at the global level.

In the area of third mission/social impact, the DPIA’s objectives have recently been defined in a strategic planning document, “Third Mission/Social Impact Strategy of the Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture”, taking into account the University Strategic Plan and Action Lines, as well as the specific features and needs of the local area.

The Department Strategic Plan also highlights the intention to establish a strong connection between research, teaching and third mission/social impact by strengthening areas of interaction among researchers, students, and companies/local organizations within the DPIA laboratories, particularly those located in the Uniud Lab Village.

Promotion of the Department’s activities

The Department has adopted a system for recording research and third mission/social impact activities that enables automated procedures aimed at promoting activities on social media and on the DPIA news page. Recently, the process for communicating incoming student orientation activities has also been digitalized.