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DESIRES: DEsign of SustaInable and REsilient production Systems

desires

I EDITION | ON SITE | APPLICATION


Deadline for Registration

April 26th 2026

Period
8th - 12th June 2026

  • Learning objectives 
    The Seasonal School will introduce participants to the extremely relevant topic of designing production systems that are sustainable from an environmental point of view and resilient to climate change and other environmental pressures.
    The learning objectives of the DESIRES seasonal school therefore include:
    present a review of the state of the Earth climate and its expected future evolution;
  • discuss the main design frameworks published in the peer-reviewed literature, in particular in the engineering field (life cycle design), in the field of design and planning (design thinking) and in the field of moral philosophy (ethical design);
  • develop the ability to understand and apply the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology (including introduction to an open-source software) as the main operational tool of life cycle thinking design;
  • rise awareness of the regulatory reference system in which the skills related to the design of sustainable and resilient production systems are applied and provide a structured set of knowledge and experiences functional to interpret the role of sustainability manager in an innovative, effective and modern way;
  • investigate the challenges linked to the management of transformation processes at the corporate organization level in a life cycle thinking logic and know how to apply the knowledge acquired in a functional way in the development of one's own skills

Teaching methodologies
Students will find an interactive and cross-disciplinary learning environment based on the Problem Based Learning (PBL) teaching methodology, which focuses on: i) activity-based learning, ii) interdisciplinarity, and iii) group-based learning. The use of business experiences will be privileged in order to immerse the student in the real world and to stimulate them to read the surrounding context.

Target participants
Undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students from different backgrounds from both experimental and social sciences (e.g. engineering, design, economics, management, environmental science, law, political science, life sciences) who are interested in knowing more about sustainable and resilient production systems.

Coordinator and key teaching staff

Coordinator: Prof.ssa Monia Niero
Co-coordinator: Dr. Filippo Corsini
Key teaching staff: Prof. Marco Frey, Prof. Roberto Buizza, Prof. Edoardo Chiti, Dr.ssa Chiara De Bernardi, Prof. Alberto Pirni, Dr. Federico Rossi, Dr.ssa Serena Fabbri, Prof. Fabio Iraldo, Dr.ssa Sara Tessitore

SDGs (https://sdgs.un.org/goals)
- Responsible consumption and production;
- Decent work and economic growth;
- Industry, innovation and infrastructure.