A Mentor and a Role Model: A Tribute to Emilio Gatti

My first year of college at the Politecnico di Milano was 1966, a year of turmoil in colleges wordwide, when the Free Speech Movement started in Berkeley. Students in Italy began acting on their restlessness in late 1967-early 1968 in schools of architecture. The Politecnico di Milano had two branches: architecture and engineering. Engineering students were traditionally more conservative with a slant towards liberal stances in society and life in general. On 5 March 1968, the Politecnico was occupied by architecture students who wanted to radically change the way exams were administered and curricula designed; they also proposed a radically different model for society. The engineering students opposed this political agenda and while agreeing on the occupation of the Politecnico, wished to push for more transparency in the university´s administration, for more access to faculty, and for deeper insight into how technology impacted society and industry.