The Alta Scuola Politecnica (ASP) promotes a two-year programme that runs parallel to the Master’s degree programme, in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano, reserved for talented students who are willing to broaden the horizon of their disciplinary training and are motivated to integrate it with additional cross-disciplinary elements. Each year, the ASP programme trains a multidisciplinary class of 150 Italian and foreign students (90 PoliMI and 60 PoliTO), from all the Master’s degree programmes of PoliTO and PoliMI.
The aim is to develop a cross-disciplinary project culture that complements the specialised technical learning of the Master’s degree with interdisciplinary skills and an active and experiential teaching method.
The course catalogue of the ASP is based on three intensive, cross-curricular schools based on lectures and group work, with a strong emphasis on innovation, the impact of technologies on society, complex systems, decision-making processes and current applications in which the latter elements are essential.
The second pillar of the ASP course catalogue is the participation in multidisciplinary innovation and development projects in partnership with companies, research centres or public administrations, under the scientific guidance of lecturers from the two universities. Finally, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and specialised seminars enable students to enrich their background on specific topics or broaden their cultural horizons.
At the end of the programme, students receive the ASP Diploma and become members of the ASP Alumni Association, which lives on beyond the programme itself.