Biographical note

Federico Rotini took a PhD in Machine Design at the Florence University in 2011. He works as Assistant Professor at the Florence University, Faculty of Engineering. His main topics of research deal with the development of tools and methods for Business Process Re-engineering activities, New Product Development initiatives, Product and Process Innovation. Other research interests concern the development of Computer-Aided techniques to support the Concept and Embodiment design phases. He is author of more than 30 papers published in authoritative Journals and presented in International Conferences and 2 patents. He collaborates as reviewer for the Proceedings of Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Computers in Industry and other scientific Journals and Conferences. He is involved in many national and international research projects.

He holds the courses of “Product Development and Engineering” and “Methods and Tools for Innovation” at the Florence University for the Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Yuri Borgianni took the master degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Florence University in 2005. He is a PhD student (since 2011) and a Research Assistant (since 2006) at the Faculty of Engineering in Florence.

His main fields of research deal with Methods and Techniques for Product and Process Innovation, New Product Development, Customer Perceived Value. Additional areas of interest regard engineering design, creative problem solving, CAD applications, Decision Support Systems, Intellectual Property. He is member of the Referee Committee of the Journal of Engineering Design. He is author of a dozen of paper published in international journals and proceedings of authoritative peer-reviewed conferences.

He is involved in several research projects having national and international interest. He currently cooperates for the University courses “Methods and Tools for Innovation” and “ProductDevelopment and Engineering”.

Gaetano Cascini took a PhD in Machine Design at the Università di Firenze in 2000. He has been Assistant Professor at the University of Florence from 1999 to 2008 and currently is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Faculty of Industrial Engineering. He is chair of the “Computer-Aided Innovation” workgroup and Publication & Events Officer of the TC-5 Committee (Computer Applications in Technology) of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) and board member of ETRIA (European TRIZ Association), after being its President from 2006 to 2009. His research topics deal with Methods and tools for inventive design and Computer-Aided support to the innovation pipeline, published on more than 90 papers presented at international conferences and in authoritative Journals and in 10 patents.

He holds the following courses at Politecnico di Milano:

1. Methods for Technical Representation (Ind. Eng.) 2. Design Laboratory on Computer-Aided Engineering (Ind. Eng.)

3. Product Virtual Modeling (Ind. Des.) 4. Methods and Tools for Systematic Innovation: Part A: Problem Solving and Inventive Design; Part B: Innovation and Intellectual Property Management - (MSc Mech. Eng.) 5. Design Methods (Alta Scuola Politecnica, course within the MSc special program in Engineering, Architecture and Design)