Motorvehicle University of Emilia-Romagna: the hub of learning excellence for the automotive industry is created in Italy

Two brand new master’s degree programs in Advanced Automotive Engineering and Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering will train the most motivated and talented young people from Italy and the rest of the world.

The project, advocated by the Emilia-Romagna Region, stems from a collaboration among the Bologna, Ferrara, Modena & Reggio Emilia, and Parma Universities and the automotive companies based in the region and most prestigious worldwide:
Automobili Lamborghini, Dallara, Ducati, Ferrari, Haas F1 Team, Magneti Marelli, Maserati, and Toro Rosso.

A whole territory teams up in the name of research, innovation and technological development, with one goal: growth and employment.

Bologna, 20 March 2017 – Young talents from Italy and the rest of the world with a passion for innovation in two- and four-wheeled vehicles are invited by the leading international automotive brands to develop the future of the industry, through two brand new master’s degree programs in a hub of learning excellence: Motorvehicle University of Emilia-Romagna (MUNER).

The project, which is one of a kind in the Italian and foreign landscape, was strongly advocated by the Emilia-Romagna Region, a territory that leads European rankings on innovation and standard of living, which has developed a synergetic connection among universities, research institutions and manufacturers. The Motorvehicle University of Emilia-Romagna association, in fact, includes the universities that are synonymous with advanced training – Università di Bologna, Università di Ferrara, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Università di Parma -, and the automakers that represent the excellence of Made in Italy in the world and are historically rooted in this territory: Automobili Lamborghini, Dallara, Ducati, Ferrari, Haas, Magneti Marelli, Maserati, and Toro Rosso.

“Four universities, among the oldest in the world, and eight global leading automakers united to attract motivated and talented youth. This is a one-of-a-kind project in the national and international landscape; it confirms Emilia-Romagna not just as the European center of the new manufacturing, which is being reshaped globally through the cooperation between science, research and production, but also as a platform for advanced training with great added value,” says Stefano Bonaccini, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region. “The land of motors, with its extraordinary vocation to combine industrial design, perfection in handicraft products and the frontier of technological innovation, has decided to build a system. Working together is the answer to the complexity of globalization and the challenges it poses, especially for local territories; these may play a role in the new environment if they manage to become hubs of those innovations, also related to the training of human capital, that feed the integration of economies. And the network approach – the choice we made as regional administration with the Patto per il Lavoro, the employment agreement we undersigned with companies, unions, universities, and associations with the main goal of fostering development and creating jobs – is proving to be a winning one, with Emilia-Romagna ranking as the highest-growing region in Italy, at the level of Europe’s most advanced areas. An important project for the region, then, but also for the country, which must know how to leverage the value of its examples of excellence and create a network among them to overcome divisions and start to grow and compete jointly again.”

Through universities and automakers, the Motor Vehicle University of Emilia-Romagna hub aims at attracting to the region the best university students from all over the world with the goal of training and introducing into the corporate world tomorrow’s engineers, the professionals who will design street and competition vehicles, sustainable propulsion systems and subsystems for smart features, and production plants in keeping with Smart Manufacturing.

Features of the master’s degree programs
Motor Vehicle University of Emilia-Romagna will offer two international and inter-university master’s degree programs, taught entirely in English, which will start from the next academic year, 2017/2018: Advanced Automotive Engineering and Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering.

The faculty will be selected, thanks to the collaboration of the Scientific Committee of the association, among university professors and experienced professionals, both Italian and foreign, through an international call aimed at ensuring the best technical and scientific skills and the highest teaching quality.

A maximum of 150 students will be admitted to the master’s degree programs each year: 120 for Advanced Automotive Engineering and 30 for Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering. They will be selected after a careful evaluation of their achievements and a technical and motivational interview. Besides, the possession of adequate English language skills (level B2) will be verified.

The teaching, which will be fully imparted in English, will include both a theoretical part and laboratory activities carried out in the universities and in the company labs of corporate partners, so that students may develop high-level professional skills, in the spirit of the “learning by doing” approach.
The mandatory internships will take place at the manufacturing partners’ facilities, while the dissertation activities, based on the “project work” format, will be carried out both inside academic and corporate research labs.

Advanced Automotive Engineering

The curriculum is structured as a common initial semester held at the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, followed by five specialized professionalizing paths at the Bologna, Ferrara and Parma universities.
The program aims at providing knowledge and skills related to the design of high-performance street and competition two- and four-wheeled motorvehicles. Advanced automotive engineers will acquire skills in the areas of the design and development of the main subsystems and parts related to: combustion, hybrid and electric motor propellers; energy storage and conversion solutions; ”cold” architecture of two- and four-wheeled street and competition vehicles; production systems with typical features of the new manufacturing 4.0 environment (manufacturing robotics, supply chain design and management, big data, etc.).
The training will follow five professionalizing paths, assigned based on students’ ranking positions and stated interests: “Advanced Powertrain” (25 people max in Bologna + 25 people max in Modena), “Advanced Motorcycle Engineering” (25 people max in Bologna), “Advanced Sportscar Manufacturing” (25 people max in Bologna), “High-Performance Car Design” (25 people max in Modena), “Racing Car Design” (25 people max in Modena, second year in Parma).

Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering
The first semester of the program will take place at the Università di Bologna; subsequently, the program will be divided among the Ferrara, Modena & Reggio, and Parma universities.
The inter-university master’s degree program in Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering aims at training electronic engineers with a professional profile oriented towards the design, development and production of the main subsystems that compose two- and four-wheeled street vehicles ­– with a special focus on the premium and motorsports market segments – and towards the development and management of the relative technological and productive processes. The specialization will transmit in particular professional skills in the field of information engineering, building the ability to design and engineer the most advanced electronic, IT and connectivity systems for the automotive industry.
Automotive electronic engineers, in fact, design and develop the subsystems that acquire and manage information, ensuring that vehicles are equipped with the smart features that will increasingly provide differentiation in the future of the industry, connecting with other disciplines in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (telecommunications, IT and automation).