Agreement between Politecnico di Torino and SPEA for Research on Testing

The University and the Company have signed a partnership agreement to support the advancement of scientific research, technology transfer, and promote internationalization.

Politecnico di Torino and SPEA S.p.A., in the presence of Rector Stefano Corgnati and President and CEO Luciano Bonaria, have renewed their partnership agreement, committing to support joint research activities in the design and production of automatic machinery for testing microchips, MEMS, boards, and electronic devices.

As the world’s leading company in this sector, SPEA S.p.A. confirms its interest in enhancing high-level education and investing in university research in the field of electronics. Hence, the willingness to support and encourage educational offerings that contribute to the training of new engineering professionals, further strengthening the link between academia and industry.

Thus, a consolidated collaboration between two excellent Piedmontese entities is renewed and expanded, focusing on educational activities and employment integration on one side, and pursuing ambitious internationalization projects on the other.

In the first case, specifically, it will involve jointly coordinating the initiation and advancement of theses, projects, and degree dissertations; training and orientation internships; participatory teaching activities, master’s projects, and doctorates for acquiring cross-disciplinary skills useful for insertion into the corporate environment.

In practice, SPEA S.p.A. will involve students and recent graduates in its laboratories and activities, giving them the opportunity to acquire on-the-field specific skills required by the market and easily applicable for future employment. Moreover, SPEA S.p.A.’s commitment will also translate into financing scholarships, research grants, providing seminars on cutting-edge topics, and supporting the implementation of participatory teaching activities focused on specific Challenges, conducted mainly at the CLIK – Connection Lab and Innovation Kitchen laboratory, within Politecnico di Torino initiative called Challenge@Polito.

In the second case, recognizing the importance of an increasingly international dimension, both institutions commit to creating global collaboration networks through joint participation in European and extra-European projects. A shared challenge is to promote synergies between SPEA’s Italian and international network and the Polytechnic University, organizing events and initiatives that favor the dissemination of scientific-technological and entrepreneurial culture.

With this strategic collaboration, the Polytechnic University not only intends to enhance fundamental and applied research but also to underscore its definition as a full-fledged research university that promotes interaction with public and private actors operating at local, national, and international levels.

Lasting four years, this agreement is based on the ability to build a system at the research frontier, training, technological transfer, and knowledge dissemination in the electronics sectors that have made the Polytechnic University a renowned center of excellence and SPEA S.p.A. a hub of continuous innovation.

The signing was preceded by a meeting between the Rector, Professor Fulvio Corno, Vice-Rector for Education, Professor Gianluca Piccinini, Director of the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Engineer Luciano Bonaria, CEO of SPEA, Dr. Gianni Maria Stornello, and Dr. Sonia Martino, during which the development elements of the collaboration were detailed.

“The signing of this agreement allows us not only to consolidate common research trajectories but also to design new educational paths in a key innovation sector like semiconductors, which will experience strong growth in the coming years,” declared Rector Stefano Corgnati. “Full collaboration with the industrial world is the distinctive element of the Polytechnic University of Turin, a tangible reason that pushes students to choose us. The agreement with SPEA places an important piece for our local production system with a high density of innovation, aiming to build a solid supply chain in the microelectronics sector, creating a high-transit knowledge bridge between the university, the research world, and industry.”

“For several decades, SPEA has been profitably collaborating with the Polytechnic University of Turin, organizing several important successful initiatives that include pure research programs and joint research, as well as preparing multidisciplinary graduates in the most advanced technologies,” affirms President Luciano Bonaria. “The current significant evolution of the semiconductor and microelectronics sector requires an increase in cooperation between SPEA and the Polytechnic University of Turin, to allow SPEA to maintain the technological supremacy it currently holds worldwide in the sector of equipment and machinery for production testing of wafer devices, single dies, microchips, MEMS, sensors, power devices, batteries, and their integration into assemblies.

Increasing cooperation is even more necessary due to the strong demand for highly professional specialists who need to be trained and who are lacking in large numbers in Italy, but even more so in Europe and the rest of the world.

This important agreement with the Polytechnic University of Turin also takes place at a time of particular attention to the semiconductor sector, which has become highly strategic for Europe and of strong interest for Italy, Piedmont, and Turin.”