The festival della Tecnologia offered four days of public meetings - free to all - to discuss, using accessible language and in an interdisciplinary manner, the relationship between technology and society and to strengthen the dialogue between academia and society.
For PoliTo, the festival represented a gift to citizens and public opinion in a region with strong historical connections with the world of technology and innovation. The technological roots represent not only a fundamental basis for present and future economic prosperity, but also an important resource to articulate an in-depth and highly interdisciplinary conversation on one of the predominant features of our time, i.e. technology.
In times of social, cultural and technologic turbulence, the festival was conceived as one of the first large events specifically devoted to a broad reflection on technology and its role in society. The festival wanted to create an opportunity to understand technology through society and to explain people and society through technology, with the adoption of multiple languages (including literature, cinema, and music) and exploring many domains (including sport, disabilities and education).
PoliTo promoted and organised the festival with the collaboration of local and national public institutions, cultural institutes, etc. The result was an event that, while having its core on the PoliTo campus, involved many other locations and institutions throughout the city of Torino.
On 8 November, PoliTo launched a new transversal PhD teaching course on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) offered jointly with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Our Secretary General David Bohmert addressed the PhD students of PoliTo, stressing the importance of rethinking the teaching approach inside universities of science and technology and the need to include UN SDG and the contribution to ecological, social and economic sustainability in the research focus of PhD curricula.