The Italian Association of Management Engineering (AiIG) and the Gianluca Spina Association are announcing an award for excellence and innovation in teaching in memory of Gianluca Spina, Professor at the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, and past AiIG President, who died prematurely.
The objective of the award is to emphasize the importance and centrality of teaching activities and to promote commitment and dedication to education as the primary task of the Management Engineering community. The award is aimed at teaching initiatives that show traits of excellence and innovation, capable of capturing emerging trends in society, in young people, in learning processes, often a consequence of the pervasiveness of technologies, in all living and educational contexts.
Individuals or groups of individuals who have developed innovative and excellent initiatives in the field of teaching and training in management engineering or management training will be eligible for the award. Participation is limited to individuals with less than 15 years since obtaining a PhD; in the case of groups, it is required that the person in charge or the member(s) who carried out the preponderant activity in the design and implementation of the project have been awarded a PhD for less than 15 years.
Such initiatives may include, but are not limited to:
– Teaching materials (e.g., case studies with teaching notes, textbooks, simulations, serious games, software, supporting teaching materials)
– Teaching methodologies (e.g. teaching labs, project work, flipped classroom, …)
– Moocs or other educational products based on e-learning
– Innovative educational products in teaching format or content design (Courses, Masters, Executive Training, Didactics Training, …)
– Learning assessment methods
– Studies and research on the learning patterns of Millennials and generations to come, including operational guidance on how to modify teaching approaches
– Studies and research analyzing the skills needed by managers of the future and providing guidance on the changes needed in the educational content of management and management engineering courses
– Educational initiatives aimed at the dissemination of managerial culture characterized by particular relevance and social impact (e.g., initiatives attributable to the university’s third mission, educational activities for developing countries, ….)
To participate in the award, the following documentation (preferably in software format) must be submitted:
– Descriptive sheet of the educational initiative nominated for the award that includes:
- a concise description of the initiative, including the main educational objectives of the initiative
- an illustration of the most innovative and significant features of the initiative’s excellence
- a reflection on the reasons why the proposed initiative is more effective than other similar initiatives
- a summary of the main results obtained from the implementation of the initiative (objectives achieved, number of people trained, degree of satisfaction, effectiveness of learning, awards received, etc.).
- a selection of materials representing the initiative (e.g., the material itself in the case of educational materials, the link to the mooc or software in the case of digital materials, published articles and reports in the case of studies and research, etc.) and its outcomes and results achieved (e.g., evaluation of course participants, expert or third-party ratings and reviews, awards received, etc.)
- one or more references to possibly be used as a possible source of information on the effectiveness and relevance of the candidate initiative
- a curriculum vitae describing the teaching activities of the candidate(s)
A three-member committee, appointed by the Executive Board of the Italian Association of Management Engineering in agreement with the Gianluca Spina Association, will evaluate the submitted initiatives based on the following criteria:
– Innovativeness and excellence of the initiative
– Learning effectiveness demonstrated by the initiative
– Ability to respond to changes in the learning processes of new generations
– Attention to the social role of education
– Excellence of the teaching record of the applicant(s).
Submissions should be made by September 5, 2022 to the attention of President of AiIG at the following addresses: presidenza-aiig@polimi.it
and/or
Presidenza AiIG
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale
Politecnico di Milano
Via Lambruschini 4/B
20156 Milano, Italia
The award-winning initiative is to be presented by the winner in plenary session (possibly remotely) at the AiIG Annual Scientific Meeting (20-21 October 2022) and will receive an award of €4,000, co-funded by AiIG and Gianluca Spina Association.
The materials submitted by the nominees will be published, with the permission of the authors, on the AiIG website (https://www.ingegneriagestionale.it/) in order to establish a repository of excellent teaching practices for engineering management.
Gianluca Spina
Gianluca Spina (1964-2015) graduated with honours in Electronic Engineering in 1988. From 1990, he taught management and business economics at Politecnico di Milano in the Management Engineering, MBA, Executive MBA and PhD programmes. From 2000, he was Full Professor of Business Organisation and Management in the Department of Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. His research interests covered the fields of industrial production, purchasing and supply chain relationships, with a focus on strategy and organisational aspects. He wrote about 180 publications on these topics, including six books and more than 30 papers published in international scientific journals. He was President of the Italian Association of Management Engineering (AiIG) from 2011 to 2013.
From 2001, he was at the helm of MIP, the Business School of Politecnico di Milano, first as Director and from 2011 as President. While President, Gianluca Spina gave a massive boost to the school in terms of international recognition and standing and was the drive behind obtaining the European Foundation for Management Development certification and in developing many partnerships with prestigious business schools in Europe, Asia and America. Under his leadership, MIP entered in the Financial Times rankings of the top 100 business schools in the world. He was member of various international scientific associations and he was nominated to the Fellowship of the European Operations Management Association.
Gianluca placed education and training in Management Engineering and management in general at the core of his career, believing in its fundamental social value, both for individuals and for the development of society. In recent years, Gianluca often questioned himself about the future of education and pushed for continuous innovation in methods, content and training formats. Gianluca often pointed out the risk that “a person stimulated from all directions at once will be less inquisitive and less likely to analyse themselves or put things into mental order, so everything becomes an experience rather than a quest where research is based upon personal effort and elaboration. For those not used to research, analysis and synthesis, learning can become passive”.