MATERIAL SCIENCE AND DESIGN NEXUS: A CASE STUDY

Over the years, materials have been studied through a multitude of lenses: from the technical analysis and characterisation of their intrinsic properties, to aesthetic and sensorial material attributes, until their extrinsic, intangible and cultural properties, mainly depending on the study field of investigation. Nowadays, knowledge becomes interdisciplinary, research becomes open and intersections between different fields of study is certainly evaluated as a positive attitude, to enrich studies and researches with several points of view on the threatened topic. Therefore, based on this consideration, the proposed work has been structured with the objective of bridging research activities conducted on materials studies emerging from different departments of Politecnico di Milano, to envision research on materials not as a multitude of silos, but as a prolific network. In doing this, a collaboration between Politecnico di Milano and ANSYS has been established to envision and structure a preliminary activity with the objective of building a network to share knowledge in a horizontal way. Through the study and application of the GRANTA MI software, it has been possible for the authors to build a working space in which diverse studies conducted in different university departments can converge. Finally, the usage of both case studies to support education projects will be discussed. Two case studies will be presented: one, preliminary, based on an iterative research activity. The second, showing the possibility of interlacing similar researches with different objectives. This exercise shows how, sometimes, researchers that build on a common knowledge background, when put together, can open up towards new scenarios and envisioning new research patterns, facilitating knowledge transfer between peers or to provide background knowledge for thesis works or superior teaching activities.