Last Spring, Dr. Gabriele Tebaldi, professor from the University of Parma and the integral person who helped establish the ESSIE and UF Memoranda of Understanding between the University of Parma and UF ESSIE, suggested that ESSIE get involved with the MUNER program. Upon his suggestion, two delegates from the University of Florida Engineering School of Sustainable School of Infrastructure and Environment visited the University of Parma in late November 2023. The two delegates, Dr. Lily Elefteriadou (Transportation Engineering) and Ms. Nancy McIlrath (ESSIE Graduate Academic Coordinator) visited to learn about and meet individuals involved within the MUNER program with the intent to form a dual Master’s degree program. MUNER is the Motorvehicle University of Emilia-Romagna and it brings together four universities (the universities of Parma, Bologna, Modena, and Ferrara) in the Italian motor valley region. Its goal is to utilize the strengths of the automotive companies within the region and train students on road design and racing cars, sustainable propulsion systems and subsystems for intelligent functions and production facilities in pursuit of Industry 4.0. Companies such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati, Dallara, Maserati, Marelli, Pirelli and Bosch are involved in this collaboration just to name a few.
The team’s goal is to build a partnership between ESSIE and MUNER and offer UF’s expertise on topics which are not currently covered within the MUNER program. The idea was well received. As part of our current Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Parma, we are moving forward with establishing a dual degree program where Master’s level students from any of the Italian partner schools could also obtain a degree from ESSIE. Dr. Elefteriadou will present this information to interested colleagues in other UF departments within the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering to expand this program’s outreach to those departments as well.
The delegates had a week’s worth of meetings and activities that were arranged by Dr. Roberto Menozzi, University of Parma’s new Department Head in Engineering and Architecture and Professor of Electronics Engineering, and Dr. Tebaldi. On the first day of the visit, the UF team met with Dr. Menozzi to discuss the fit of UF’s program with the MUNER program. He then escorted them to the University of Modena where they met with Dr. Francesco Leali, Head of the School of Engineering and several representatives from International Relations and a few faculty. As part of this visit, the UF guests were privileged to see the HIPERT lab which was a spin-off of one of the programs at the University of Modena and they spoke with the CEO, Marko Bertogna. Marko led the delegates through several key-coded doors of a highly secured facility and upon arrival to the main area, lifted a large garage door that opened to a lab filled with Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s and Maserti’s. In fact, their city lab performs research which aligns with Dr. Elefteridou’s research and their autonomous vehicle, unlike UF’s Honda Pilot, was none other than a Maserati. Yes, it was impressive!
On the following day, at the University of Parma, Dr. Elefteridou presented her research to a group of students in the program and Nancy spoke about UF and the ESSIE graduate program. The UF team also met with several key faculty who are directly involved with the MUNER program. In the afternoon they were fortunate to meet with Dr. Paolo Martelli, the newly appointed Rector of the University and other distinguished members of the University of Parma cabinet, including Dr. Cecile Mancini (Vice Rector for International Relations) and Dr. Giorgio Pelosi (Vice Rector for the EUGREEN Network). This meeting was extremely important as an additional discussion took place regarding the possibility of UF ESSIE being included in the EU Green programwith Dr. Pelosi and Dr. Bernazzoli, the Head of International Programs. Out of this meeting, Dr. Pelosi contacted his colleagues within the EU Green program and it was decided that UF ESSIE could be considered an associate partner, which is a great opportunity for UF ESSIE. The day was topped off with a dinner hosted by members of the University of Parma Department of Engineering and Architecture who included, the former department head, Dr. Antonio Montepara, Massimo Bertozzi, who is the MUNER program coordinator for the University of Parma, Associate Professor Annamaria Cucinotta, Dr. Tebaldi and Dr. Menozzi (our host coordinators).
Since the UF delegates were in the region at the time, they travelled to Bologna to attend the Futurmotive conference. The conference highlighted many types of electric vehicles like race cars, boats, semi- tractor trailers and many other types were represented. The pictures to the right represent several of these.
It was a fascinating day and Dr. Elefteriadou and Ms. McIlrath even got to meet the students from the University of Parma’s SAE student organization’s race car team.
On the final morning of the visit, the UF delegates met with Professor Massimo Bertozzi to discuss the possible course offerings for the dual degree program. He then escorted them across campus to visit VisLab, an Ambarella Company, to meet with Alberto Broggi who is the General manager. Dr. Broggi’s lab is another spin-off from a Parma research program. They are doing some interesting research and development on some of the autonomous vehicle components which would fit nicely into our Transportation Engineering program’s research as well. In the latter part of the morning, the UF Tean sat in on a webinar that Associate Professor, Annamaria Cucinotta, had arranged for her students about vehicle lighting components.
The final activity of the UF visit was traveling to the Dallara Academy, about an hour outside of Parma. Can the two UF visitors say this was awesome?...because it was! First, the team was provided a tour of the facility where many of the MUNER students are trained and take classes about race car development/design. Lily experienced firsthand how to drive a formula 1 car in a simulator and she was able to get up to speed as her results show in the pictures below. The UF duo then visited the museum (see pictures below) where they had several Formula 1 race cars that had won races over the years (Indy 500), a Roush NASCAR vehicle driven by Jimmy Johnson, a Dallara Zbike and the newest Formula E all designed and built by the Dallara Company. The UF team was quite honored to be allowed to experience this.
The final portion at Dallara Academy was meeting with a group of students in the race car design course who were absolutely delightful and engaged in the conversation about UF, the ESSIE Transportation Engineering program and future possibilities for exchange. Of course, a trip to Italy would not be complete without seeing some of the sights and tasting the wonderful cuisine and wine. Many of the evenings were filled with engaging conversation and hospitality from members of the University of Parma community and their families.
Lily and Nancy want to thank their Italian hosts and to them they say, “Fino a quando ci incontriamo di nuovo”. In addition they want to personally thank Dr. Gabriele Tebaldi for his insights and support, the UF International Center for supporting them in this venture and to Dr. Kirk Hatfield for his on-going support of international initiatives. Cheers to all of you!
