The
Regio Politecnico di Torino (Royal Turin Polytechnic) was established in 1906. The present-day institution was preceded by the
Scuola di Applicazione per gli Ingegneri (Technical School for Engineers, which was founded in 1859 in application of the
casati law and the
Museo Industriale Italiano
(Italian Industry Museum) founded in 1862 by the Ministry of
Agriculture, Trade and Industry. The Technical School for Engineers was
part of the University, which led to technical studies being accepted as
part of higher education. In those times Italy was about to begin a new
industrial era, which the Industry Museum was to address more directly
thanks to famous scholars and researchers dealing with new subjects such
as
electrotechnics and
building science. The new school was deeply concerned with the needs of the Italian society and its development perspectives.
Like other well known Polytechnic Schools in the first years of the
20th century the Regio Politecnico di Torino had several goals and began
contacting the European academic world and the Italian industry.
Aeronautics
began as a subject. Students from all over Italy came to Turin and
found in the new laboratories built for the study of various subjects
ranging from chemistry to architecture in a positive and helpful
atmosphere. During November 1958 a large complex of buildings located in
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi was inaugurated in order to expand the volume
and the facilities offered by the historical headquarters of
Valentino Castle (Castello del Valentino), given in 1859 to the Technical School for Engineers.
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For more than 150 years, the Politecnico di Torino has been one of
the most prestigious public institutions at both the International and
the Italian levels concerning education, research, technological
transfer and services in all sectors of architecture and engineering. In
the 1990s, new teaching campuses were opened in
Alessandria,
Biella,
Ivrea,
Mondovì and
Vercelli.
A long history, which bore out the University as a reference point for
education and research in Italy and in Europe, a Research University of
international level which attracts students from more than 100 countries
and which activates about 800 collaborations per year with industries,
public institutions and local organizations. The attention to
theoretical and applied research, the knowledge and development of
cutting edge technologies, the concreteness and realism concerning the
management of a manufacturing process or the organization of a service,
the care of functionality without ignoring design, the analysis and
proposition of solutions to the challenges of the society of today in
order to plan a sustainable future: graduates from the Politecnico di
Torino receive an education that goes far beyond technical knowledge.
