Last week, administrators from The Catholic University of America, faculty from the Polytechnic University of Marche (Università Politecnica delle Marche, UNIVPM), and representatives from the Italian Embassy celebrated the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that creates a dual-degree program between the two institutions.
Faculty from the universities began working together in 2015 and signed an MOU in 2017 to formalize and facilitate cultural exchange between faculty and students of each university.
Professor Francesco Corvaro of UNIVPM visited Catholic University in 2017 to teach a course on renewable energy, and the following year Catholic University professors Joseph Vignola, Ozlem Kilic, and Sen Nieh visited Ancona, Italy for two months to carry out joint research with UNIVPM faculty. The Italian school also hosted three undergraduate engineering students.
The most recent MOU, signed at the end of 2018, allows students in biomedical or environmental engineering to obtain two master’s degrees — one from each institution — by studying for a period of time with each university.
"The MOU will strengthen our collaboration for education and research with the Polytechnic University of Marche by allowing students from both institutions to take advantage of the faculty expertise at the partner university,” says John Judge, dean of the School of Engineering.