ESTECO and the academic world: 25 years of creating knowledge

I’ve been part of the academic world for most of my adult life, but I’ve always felt a strong connection to the corporate world. Looking back on my long career as an engineer, I think it all started with my first post-graduation work experience in the R&D department of a metalworking company. It only lasted a couple of years but it still influences the way I see the world today and it allowed me to navigate a hybrid professional path, building bridges between industry and academia. Just like ESTECO has been doing in its first quarter century of existence.

My first steps between corporate and academia

In 1983, as a recent graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Trieste (Italy), I got hired at the Ansaldo Componenti plant (now NIDEC) in the nearby town of Monfalcone as a Quality Service Engineer. I was excited to give my contribution to the company's research and development efforts, specifically in the nuclear field. Compared to the corporate world, being a student meant a different mentality and approach: methodology, deadlines, even relations, they all had a distinctive stance compared to what I was used to. And they all had different goals: education and research for the academic world; increasing production and its quality, innovation with a focus on the customer, for the corporate world. This is something that still applies nowadays and that I keep in mind when I need to relate with both worlds.

That work experience has left its mark on my mindset also because it put me in touch with the real world, which, in Italy of the 80s, was quite distant from now. Everything was quite political, and trade unions, specifically in the metalworking sector, were quite strong. Quite a shock for a freshly graduated engineer. A few months later, the Chernobyl disaster happened, and I immediately understood that the bright future of nuclear power wasn’t that bright anymore.

I decided to go back to academia, but still with an eye towards the industrial world. And this time I was planning a career: I joined the University of Trieste as a researcher in Applied Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer.

On the border of two worlds

At the University of Trieste, I had the chance to get to know Carlo Poloni, a brilliant researcher in Energy production and Turbomachines, who is now the President of ESTECO. Carlo and I got along almost immediately. He also got a taste of the corporate world, at Aeritalia Space Division, before joining the University of Trieste as a researcher in 1992.

We realized that we had some novel ideas on how to exploit our competences and our vision in a startup. Today startup, as well as spin-off, are quite known and (mis-)used words. Back in those days, especially in the academic world, they weren’t quite usual, and even frowned upon. At first, we wanted to offer services in the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) field, but our request for a loan with a local bank to set up a new company wasn’t successful. However, we never stopped dreaming about it and then we met another brilliant person, Luka Onesti, one of my students in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at that time and now the CTO of ESTECO. The EU funded project Frontier was the perfect ground to experiment and grow our knowledge in the rising domain of design optimization, hand in hand with real industrial partners. And the rest is history.

In 1999, we were one of the first startups in Italy to exploit the law that still nowadays regulates university spin-offs. The academic world at the end of the 90s was very different from now. Let’s say it was more rigid. It didn’t talk too much to the corporate world. Things are different now, and I’d like to think ESTECO played some role in this change.

In the early days, while Luka and a handful of developers were creating software at ESTECO, Carlo and I were working full-time at the university. From the very start of the company we both thought that it could also be an opportunity for the students. Thanks to our research network, many students could work on their theses within some of the companies that are either partners or customers of ESTECO, and that supported them. In many cases, the students were hired by the same company. The students’ experience at ESTECO, or in companies that are partners of ESTECO, has been a stepping stone to a different world for most of them. But at the same time, ESTECO managed to get a worldwide reputation as a trusted company that supports and partners with academia in terms of both higher education and research.

Corporate and university intertwine

Every students’ thesis we supported, every internship we hosted and every scholarship we sponsored has been like a seed sown to make this network grow bigger and stronger worldwide.

Corporate and academia, at least at ESTECO, have now become good friends, based on a healthy give-and-take relationship. With our roots in Trieste, we now have active academic collaborations in so many different sectors worldwide. Thanks to our ESTECO Academy offer, many professors and departments use our technology to empower new pathways in STEM education and to foster innovation in research projects.

One of the best examples of international cooperation in academia is the work at Purdue University, Indiana, by Professor Andrea Vacca, director of the Maha Fluid Power Research Center, the largest academic research center dedicated to fluid power research in the United States. Professor Vacca and his team have been long-term users of our flagship product modeFRONTIER, which was used in several research projects and PhDs on modeling and optimization of positive displacement machines.

Other professors use modeFRONTIER as an integral part of their courses. For instance Professor Mauro Valorani, at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Rome La Sapienza. Professor Valorani uses our technology to provide his students with hands-on optimization experience during his courses “Aeronautical Propulsion Systems” for BSc in Aerospace Engineering, and “Aeronautical Engines” for the Master's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

The research interests of Damir Vučina, Professor at FESB, University of Split, in Croatia, include 3D shape acquisition and parameterization, numerical analysis and computational optimization. He and his team are actively involved in renewable energy and energy transition, more specifically on the optimization of wind turbines. It is worth mentioning that a team of his students won the 2018 edition of the ESTECO Academy Design Competition.

Professor Michela Turrin at TU Delft, in the Netherlands, works in the field of building energy simulation and optimization. Through several research projects and PhD theses, she and her team have devised brilliant and original solutions applicable to the challenging case of high-rise buildings.

This is only a fraction of the widespread usage of ESTECO Technology in the academic world. As I write, we can count over 150 academic accounts in over 25 countries and on every continent. Italy has the lion’s share, followed by Japan and the United States, but academic licenses of modeFRONTIER are also used in Singapore, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. In some cases they count 50 seats or more, for extensive usage during the courses. It’s the case of Linköping University, ESTACA - École supérieure des techniques aéronautiques et de construction automobile, Politecnico di Bari, University of Rome La Sapienza and Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

Some of these are sponsored licenses. We sponsor several projects where students can learn direct usage of our software and even more important the benefits of multidisciplinary optimization. This applies to different teams all over the world working on students’ competitions. There are several ones in Brazil, USA and Europe with projects in Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). This is a student design competition with prototype cars which involves the departments of engineering of the Universities worldwide organized by SAE International.

Other teams are involved in aero competitions as well as sailing competitions, like the Audace Sailing Team. This is a group of engineering students of the University of Trieste who in 2019 gave birth to a team with the aim of designing, building and competing in student regattas. They are the winner of the 2023 Foiling SuMoth Challenge and the 2022 1001VELAcup regatta, and they also won the prize for the best design of the 2023 Foiling SuMoth Challenge. A flagship for our home town, where the biggest regatta in the world, Barcolana, is held yearly.

From global to local academic community

And it’s good to close the full circle in Trieste, where we were born and raised. Here, the twofold nature of our relationship with academia is more evident. While our technology empowers students, researchers and professors out there, our own doors are always open to let the academic world in, to keep learning and advancing our technology.

Every year we welcome several students for their theses or internships, in the software development, numerical and engineering areas. Since record began, 45% of the students who did an internship or scholarship with us joined ESTECO as an employee at the end of their experience. Many of them were from the University of Trieste, where some of our internal experts have often taught classes in specific courses or modules. Also, we’ve always taken the opportunity to sponsor PhD scholarships and recently we funded two Industrial PhDs, to support talented students and push our research efforts in promising directions.

So, we’re particularly proud to celebrate a double anniversary this year: 2024 marks our quarter century and the centenary of the University of Trieste. While we’re working to create a moment for a joint celebration, we’re getting ready for our International Users’ Meeting in Trieste, from 4 to 6 June. And in this framework we will announce and award the winners of the 2024 ESTECO Academy video contest - an initiative that turns the spotlights on students using modeFRONTIER for their projects worldwide.

Personally, I strongly believe in this kind of initiative. As a professor and as an engineer, I always say that staying in contact with students, supporting them in their projects and having young and skilled people around me really keeps me young. As the Scientific Advisor of ESTECO, I think this is one of the ingredients of the company’s success: it keeps us looking to the future, always eager to learn.