Politecnico di Torino

Politecnico di Torino

Politecnico di Torino
Established	1859
Rector	Prof.
Administrative staff	5308
Students	32,100
Location	Turin, Italy
Campus	Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, Torino 10129
Sports teams	CUS Torino (http://www.custorino.it/)
Affiliations	ESDP, TIME, CLUSTER, PEGASUS, NEREUS, CESAER, EUA, EASN
Website	http://www.polito.it

The Polytechnic University of Turin (Italian: Politecnico di Torino) is an engineering partially public university based in Turin, Italy. Established in 1859, Politecnico di Torino is Italy’s oldest technical university. The university offers several courses in the fields of Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design.

The Regio Politecnico di Torino (Royal Turin Polytechnic) was established in 1906. The present-day institution was preceded by the Scuola di Applicazione per gli Ingegneri (Technical School for Engineers, which was founded in 1859 in application of the Casati law) and the Museo Industriale Italiano (Italian Industry Museum) founded in 1862 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Trade and Industry. The Technical School for Engineers was part of the University, which led to technical studies being accepted as part of higher education. In those times Italy was about to begin a new industrial era, which the Industry Museum was to address more directly thanks to famous scholars and researchers dealing with new subjects such as electrotechnics and building science. The new school was deeply concerned with the needs of the Italian society and its development perspectives.

Like other well known Polytechnic Schools in the first years of the 20th century the Regio Politecnico di Torino had several goals and began contacting the European academic world and the Italian industry. Aeronautics began as a subject. Students from all over Italy came to Turin and found in the new laboratories built for the study of various subjects ranging from chemistry to architecture in a positive and helpful atmosphere. During November 1958 a large complex of buildings located in Corso Duca degli Abruzzi was inaugurated in order to expand the volume and the facilities offered by the historical headquarters of Valentino Castle (Castello del Valentino), given in 1859 to the Technical School for Engineers.