The "Technology for Human Beings" thesis competition has come to an end. The competition was promoted by Prysmian Group together with Human Foundation, an organization dealing with social innovation. The contest has been welcomed by many Italian Universities and a large number of students submitted their work. Six of these students have been awarded a prize during an event held in Milan February26th.

The Degree Thesis competition was dedicated to Bachelor degrees and Master degrees in Engineering and Physics, with the goal of identifying technologies likely to have a positive social impact within their area of application. This year's competition achieved very high level of participation, with a total of 26 candidates.

The six young winners (three for the "Bachelor degree" category and three for the "Master degree" category) were awarded at the Robert Bosch Foundation in Milan during an event organized by Ashoka, a global organization that identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs. The event "Innovate to restart" was aimed at stimulating the creation of an Italian ecosystem of social entrepreneurs, thanks to the participation of European leading experts on social innovation.

For the Master degree's category, the winners were: 1st Macrì Domenico on Chemical Engineering, 2nd Carulli Francesco on Science of Materials, and 3rd Bacalero Gregorio on Materials Engineering. For the Bachelor degree category, the winners were: 1st Massoni Enrico on Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, 2nd D'Agostino Bartolomeo on Electrical Engineering, and 3rd Ghidoni Vittoria on Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The winners were awarded by Lorenzo Caruso, Business and Corporate Communications Director, and a committee of three high profile experts: Marcelo Andrade, Prysmian Group Research and Development Director; Roberto Galimberti, Vice President of Human Foundation and electrical engineering expert; Bruno Castellini, Human Foundation Adviser and market and corporate law expert. The committee identified six theses which best answered to the issue proposed, considering all technical and practical aspects.

As Lorenzo Caruso pointed out: "In line with our Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy policy, we wanted to support studies on innovative and sustainable technologies related to the fields of application in which the Group operates, thus giving an economic and training opportunity to young people who distinguish themselves in this context."

"We are very satisfied about the excellent results obtained by the Technology for Human Beings project," commented Marcelo Andrade, "not only in terms of the number of candidates, but also the quality of the theses submitted. We have been really impressed by the simple solutions proposed by the students to solve complex issues. We are exactly looking for this kind of winning approach in young talents, and we strongly believe that this approach can be the key success factor in a tough field such as Research and Development."

"We are very proud of the results of this competition," stated Giovanna Melandri, President of Human Foundation. "Together with Prysmian, we outlined a very tangible offer for graduates. In this way, in addition to enhanced sustainable technologies that can actually have a positive social impact, we sought to provide Italian talents with the opportunity to put their skills into practice."

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