The overall development goals of the department

The third millennium is to industry a period of great changes within what is commonly referred to as the “4th Industrial Revolution”. Recent developments in biotechnologies, cooperative robotics, 3D printing, big data, artificial intelligence, just to cite a few, strongly challenge standard practices in contemporary manufacturing and the socio-economic relationship amongst involved actors.

Differently from the XX, when machines aided man as tools, nowadays machines and software increasingly stand by humans in the decision and learning process (e.g. design, decision making, strategies, etc.). 

To cope with these technological paradigms change, DIGEP aims to lead its research on human-machine and technology interaction intermingling three complementary disciplinary areas which are rooted deeply within this department:

• The technological perspective , which related to the analysis and development of innovation in technologies and production systems.

• The management perspective , which copes with how technological change both requires and influences the evolution of models and methods for the operational management, work organization, production systems, logistics, research and development for innovation, marketing and finance.

• The economic and legal perspective , which studies the interaction between innovation and the legal, institutional and competitive context in which it is applied, i.e. focuses on law, markets and society.

By leveraging the strongly interdisciplinary profile of the DIGEP, we aim at developing research from both methodological and clearly applicative standpoints; the former being devoted to monitoring growing trends of technological innovation, and the latter being intended to test novel solutions for manufacturing within technological framework.