RMIT partners with leading Italian university

The global research opportunity is aimed at students across the engineering, aerospace and aviation disciplines.

The agreement will see PhD researchers awarded a doctoral degree from each of the universities.

Michael Candon, a current RMIT PhD student in engineering at RMIT, said the partnership was significant.

“It enables ideas and results in our discipline to be communicated on a global scale as well as building an important bridge between the two institutions,” he said.

The researcher, who is examining aeroelasticity and the mechanisms that lead to flutter in aircraft, recently worked alongside several Politecnico di Torino students.

“The students that I’ve had the opportunity to meet with are producing extremely interesting research,” he said.

“Their work spans across a broad range of topics as well as uses various experimental and computational techniques.”

Candon was one of four RMIT students and six from Politecnico di Torino to recently meet with the Consulate General of Italy in Melbourne as part of an event to endorse the partnership between the Australian and Italian universities.

It was hosted by the Consul General Dr Marco Maria Cerbo with RMIT’s Professor Denise Cuthbert, Dean of the School of Graduate Research, also part of the RMIT delegation.

Cuthbert said the partnership with Politecnico di Torino was a good example of how RMIT’s global networks foster an enhanced experience for RMIT researchers.

“It’s also fitting that RMIT collaborates with leading Italian institutes such as Politecnico di Torino given the strong synergies across select disciplines in both countries,” she said.

“Researchers in fields such as aeronautics, aerospace and mechanical engineering, as well as design and architecture, all have the potential to build long-lasting and beneficial research collaborations.”

Story: Karen Matthews