by ActivE³ – Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday is the Major Emblematic Project funded by Fondazione Cariplo and the Lombardy Region, led by UniverLecco. Its objectives are the promotion of an active lifestyle as a tool for well-being and prevention, accessibility and inclusion in sports practice and the support of physical and cognitive fragility for the well-being of the individual.
It is divided into three actions, focused on different ages of life and health conditions, and develops as many platforms: one for motor inclusion at school, one for personalized coaching and another for sport-therapy.
Professor Emanuele Lettieri tells us about the role of his research group and the Department of of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering in the project.
Good morning Professor Lettieri. Let us briefly retrace his academic career up to his current research group.
My academic career has been entirely at the Politecnico di Milano although with several international experiences. Here I graduated in management engineering and obtained my PhD.
Today I am a full professor at the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering and holder of several courses on innovation issues in Life Science and Health Care.
In line with teaching, my research activity has always focused on the issues of impact assessment and innovation management with particular attention to Life Science, Healthcare and Sport (as a tool for social inclusion and health prevention).
I am also a member of the Coordination Committee of the Human Tech project funded by the “Departments of Excellence” call which is investigating the complex relationship between the person – understood in its individual and social dimensions – and digital technologies, as for example in the ActivE³ project.
In the interview with Professor Galli, your collaboration in the ActivE³ project was widely emphasized. Do you participate only in WP1? Can you explain your role?
The participation of my research group (in particular of my colleagues Giovanni Toletti and Maria Pinelli) is broader within the ActivE³ project and is aimed at understanding how the solutions that are being developed in the different work packages (WPs) can reach the market. This activity – called exploitation – is essential for the project to have a real impact as requested by the Cariplo Foundation and the Lombardy Region.
In addition to this, in WP1 we are directly responsible for the development of an awareness-raising path for families and teachers of physical education in primary school through MOOCs, as well as for supporting other activities by bringing our economic-managerial perspective.
What is a MOOC? Why is it an essential part of this project for a platform for physical inclusion at school?
MOOCs are online awareness and/or training courses open to all and designed to be used by a very large number of learners. The Politecnico has a long tradition in the design and production of MOOCs thanks to the distinctive skills of METID, the internal organizational unit of Learning Innovation. Together with them and the project partners, we have created a training course to break down cultural barriers with respect to physical activity both in schools and in families.
This is very important because the first barrier to be broken down is not the technological or infrastructural one, but the cultural one for which motor activity (and sport) in primary school often becomes an opportunity for exclusion.
But your role does not end there, does it?
As anticipated, our main role is to support the exploitation of the technological solutions developed within the ActivE³ project, building service models and strategies to approach the marketing and adjudication of them. It is not an activity of secondary importance compared to the most technological research, on the contrary! Our task is to give indications to the researchers involved so that their innovations can really enter primary schools and be used.
Another important point in a project is “the after”. What remains after the project is completed?
We are thinking a lot about the “after”. Although the project will officially end in August 2025, we have been reflecting for some time on how to make an impact and leave a positive and sustainable legacy to the Lecco area. There are many ideas and we are evaluating their organizational and economic-financial sustainability over time.
Personally, I would like to group all the technological solutions we are developing in a single laboratory that can be made accessible to researchers from different universities. Looking at Milano Cortina 2026 it would also make a lot of sense!
E4SPORT is a virtuous example of a multidisciplinary laboratory, in which the skills of six departments of our university converge. What are the concrete advantages of systematizing the different skills and equipment in the field of sport?
Bringing together the different technologies – especially the most sophisticated and expensive ones – as well as the different skills is increasingly necessary to build an adequate critical mass that allows, on the one hand, a real advancement of knowledge and, on the other, competitiveness at European and international level.
But this is not enough. E4SPORT has embraced the logic of open innovation with the ambition to become a point of reference in innovation ecosystems that deal with sports engineering, involving multinationals and becoming the center of gravity of innovation ecosystems, especially involving startups in full collaboration with the Fondazione Politecnico and PoliHub.
Is working in the field of health management and in projects with social value an added value? An extra gratification?
Personally, I believe that research has as its ultimate goal the improvement of the quality of life of society. Thanks to technology, we can have a significant impact in this regard. The concept of “technology for humanity” that dominates the home page of our institutional website should inspire the activities of the entire Politecnico community.
In the specific case of ActivE³, having observed the joy of primary school students while practicing physical activity, regardless of the disabilities of some of them, taking advantage of the new technologies we have developed has confirmed, beyond any formal impact assessment, that we are on the right track and that projects with social value have an edge!
Do you already have plans for the future?
It is certainly important for us to enhance the legacy that the project will leave ActivE³ by budding new research projects that not only consolidate its results, but that can amplify them. In this sense, we believe that Milano Cortina can be an important driving force for developing research in the field of sport engineering.
The E4SPORT Laboratory is coordinating the construction of new project proposals that systematize the distinctive skills that the Politecnico can express.