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The master’s degree course in Nautical Engineering will start next academic year 2024-2025 at the Forlì Campus of the Alma Mater, one of the few in Italy, the only one on the Adriatic coast and also the only one focused on the shipbuilding of high-end pleasure boats, unlike other proposals from universities such as Genoa, Trieste and Naples. Behind the new course is in fact a brand that is a symbol of Made in Italy luxury yachts, Ferretti, which co-financed it together with local institutions (Emilia-Romagna Region, Fondazione CariForlì, Municipality of Forlì and Chamber of Commerce of Romagna) and the University of Bologna. The project can count on a total funding of almost 7 million euros and on a public-private partnership that does not limit itself to injecting resources but to creating and managing a real control room to bring together the demand of the nautical sector and the academic offer.
The specialist profile
From the two-year specialization course at the Forlì campus, a graduate will emerge capable of operating in the design and production of pleasure boats and related components, capable of interacting with the various professionals involved and of following all the phases, from the engineering of the ships to the large-scale production and distribution and diffusion in the market. Professional opportunities are not limited to shipbuilding, but include industries for the exploitation of marine resources, shipping companies, the technical bodies of the Navy and the Port Authority, and research institutes. Fluid dynamics, polymeric composite materials, naval architecture, computer aided yacht design, naval propulsion, on-board systems and fittings, are just some of the mandatory training activities within a program that ranges from mechanical and transport technologies to design, from innovation of materials to manufacturing 4.0, from sustainable mobility to big data. Synergies with the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering courses, already established on the Forlì Campus, will also be possible. Where Ciclope-Centre for International Cooperation in Long Pipe Experiments is also located, an international research infrastructure dedicated to the study of wall turbulence.
A path to attract international talent
The lessons of the new degree in Forlì will be mainly in Italian, but the aim of the project is to attract international students. In fact, it was awarded regional funding of 1.5 million euros by participating in the first call activated within Regional Law 2/2023 to attract and retain talent, i.e. highly specialized people who can find a job, a own professional or research space. Among the objectives to be pursued, as indicated in article 6 of the same law, there is in fact support, including financial, to universities, research bodies and other entities in the regional research and innovation ecosystem to encourage discovery, creation and valorization of highly specialized talents in line with the areas of the regional smart specialization strategy. And boating is one of the sectors with the greatest potential, especially in the segment of luxury boats larger than 24 metres, a typical product of Adriatic shipyards: it is worth more than 3.2% of the national GDP, over 3.3 billion euros exports and 200 thousand employees along the supply chain (Emilia-Romagna is in third place in the national ranking for employees in the nautical supply chain, after Lombardy and Veneto, according to data from Viale Aldo Moro).
