Ferretti involved with marine engineering master’s in Italy
A new master’s degree course in marine engineering, based in Forlì, gets under way in academic 2024-25. It aims to meet the needs set out by industry in general, and the yacht building sector in particular, and is being promoted by Ferretti Group, Bologna University, Cassa dei Risparmi Foundation, Emilia Romagna Regional Administration and Forlì Municipality, establishing a network of public and private partners.
Ferretti, which has five production sites on the Adriatic coast, is one of the main backers of the initiative which has been set up as Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo and Puglia report significant industrial and employment growth in the yacht building industry. Hence the constant need for professionals with high level technical and specialist expertise.
The degree is said to be just the first step in the creation of a centre of excellence in Forlì, The idea is to provide support for the creation and incubation of yachting industry startups driven by highly innovative technologies, increasing the attractiveness of these areas and fostering the development of the ‘blue economy’.
“This new degree course will generate energy and produce qualified resources who we enthusiastically welcome. Located here in Emlia-Romagna and on the Adriatic coast are some major shipyards that make a great contribution to the Italian yacht industry’s world leadership in pleasure vessels up to 60 metres,” says Ferretti Group’s CEO Alberto Galassi. “Transferring knowledge and sharing experience through a university-level project has the dual function of creating jobs and providing our industry with well-educated professionals who can rise to future challenges in the yacht industry.”
The work of the Industrial Engineering Department will focus on increasingly advanced research, including hydrodynamics and methods to reduce hydrodynamic and aerodynamic drag (performed at the international CICLoPE facility in Predappio).
The course will train post-graduates to work in the design and production of pleasure vessels and the relative components, in all stages of product development.
University Rector Prof. Giovanni Molari says: “The new course will be organised at the Forlì site, ensuring access to numerous laboratories and to the potential offered by aerospace and mechanical training opportunities, and our hope is that it will continue to exploit significant synergy in various areas of marine interest such as fluid dynamics (the Forlì campus’ CICLoPE is a very important international research facility), propulsion and composite materials. With this innovative educational project, the university confirms its focus on training that increasingly takes account of the needs of the local area and industry.”
