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.