History of the summer school

The Multibody Summer School started as an initiative by Prof. Ettore Pennestrì (University of Rome – Tor Vergata), when he organized a first workshop on multibody dynamics in Paestum, Italy, on 27-28 April 2006. After that successful event, he suggested to hold a periodic summer school: this originated a sequence of summer schools that started in 2026 at the University of Parma, organized by Prof. Alessandro Tasora, and soon followed by other events in collaboration with Prof. Pierangelo Masarati from the Politecnico di Milano. Since then, the summer school venue alternates between places near Parma (campus of the University of Parma) and near Milano (Bovisa campus of Politecnico, Como, Lecco).

The summer school attracts an average of 40 students per year, from countries all over the world. Participants are mostly PhD students from international universities, but on average there is also a 10% of participants that work at aerospace/automotive/robotics companies (engineers, researchers, etc.).