Politecnico di Milano is the largest technical university in Italy. It offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design.
Founded in 1863, it is the oldest university in Milan. In 1987 a territorial diffusion process of the university began, the Politecnico Network, which led to the opening of the regional campuses of Como (1987) and Lecco (1989), and regional facilities in Cremona (1991), Mantova (1994) and Piacenza (1997), with the aim of establishing a more direct relationship with the students and interacting with the community’s local businesses.
In the Bovisa area of Milan, where various disused warehouses and old gas tanks were found, starting in 1989 a university campus emerged with the new Schools of Civil Architecture, Design, and Industrial Engineering and some of the most advanced and innovative laboratories in Europe: the Wind Tunnel, for the development of research in the field of fluid dynamics, the Transportation Security Laboratory, where spectacular crash tests are performed, in addition to the Design Laboratories.
Beginning with the academic year 2000-2001 bachelor’s programmes were grouped into schools, based on their areas of interest. Each year the Politecnico offers numerous Master Degrees (first and second level) and PhD research courses on a wide range of subject areas and disciplines in the fields of Engineering, Architecture and Design.