Technical and Administrative Staff

The Department Manager supports the governing bodies of the Department by coordinating the staff of the administrative and technical structure and their activities. The Department Manager works in coordination with the other university structures and supports the Head of Department.

The Staff Services Unit provides support to the Head, the Department Manager and the Governing Bodies. The Office oversees the management of general and logistical services, through the control of departmental spaces, checking their condition and maintenance. It also manages stationery.

The Communications Office supports the Head, the professors and the Department Manager in communications regarding activities, news and events, also through its continuous dialogue with the university’s Communications Area. It manages and updates the Department’s communication tools and website. The Communication Office also deals with the organization of internal events and the preparation of promotional material for the Department and its initiatives.

The Administration and Accounting Unit oversees the operational supply and payment orders management as well as purchase management (RDA, order form release and invoice liquidation). Furthermore the office deals with petty cash reimbursement, inventoring monitoring, management of research grants and collaboration agreements and their payment. It also contributes to the administration of expenditure budgets, budget preparation and record keeping and it supervises the management of accounts receivable from invoicing to collection payments.

The ICT Unit implements and monitors the management of ICT services within the Department, together with those for scientific computing, for research and for the use of laboratory teaching activities.
It also provides technical and logistical support at various levels and for specific systemic or implementation needs, as well as consultancy for the drafting and for purchase orders revision for research purposes.

The Teaching Support Unit contributes to the management of teaching support services and of the educational offer (educational framework, commissions support, entry of Bachleor and Master of Science programs exam sessions, booking of exam classrooms). It oversees the management of graduation sessions and their commissions; it supports PhDs as a PhD secretariat by collaborating with the School of Doctoral Programs; it stipulates Doctoral grants agreements, it organises and handles selections calls and services for PhD students. It supports and makes arrangements for Visiting Professors.

The Research Support Unit's services support research by verifying and evaluating the formal and legal aspects of contracts. It supports professors within their participation in research calls, budget management,research evaluation and the accounting management of staff contract procedures.

The Experimental Aerodynamics Laboratory is equipped with different wind tunnels of various dimensions, typology and test regimes. The experimental equipment enables to perform a wide range of tests. The main plant is a closed circuit wind tunnel with a test section of 1.5m x 1m and a maximum wind velocity of 55m/s. The experimental activity mainly includes pressure and force measurements, hot wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry (PIV). Tests are carried out in various research fields, from basic fluid dynamics to industrial applications. A large part of the laboratory activities is also carried out in the GVPM wind tunnel (https://www.windtunnel.polimi.it/ ↗).

The Experimental Test Laboratory is at the service of thesis works, reasearch and tests for external customers; it is equippeed with testing machines, measurement instrumentation, data acquisition systems. It also performes extensometric tests.

The laboratory is able to carry out several kinds of tests:

• Material static, dynamic and fatigue characterization tests.
• Static tests; buckling tests; modal analysis tests; fatigue tests onmechanical components.
• Thermomechanical analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, viscosity measurements.

The Technological Lab of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology aims to support the internal teaching and research activities although it also offers its expertise externally.
The support provided ranges from the design of single parts or complete equipment, to the processing of metallic materials carried out with the use of CNC equipment and to the creation of tools and components in composite and advanced composite materials using different production technologies up to 3D printing.

La.S.T. is the transport safety lab of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology. It has been involved in passive safety since the 60s. Its mission is to improve passive safety in transport thanks to the synergy between the use of numerical simulation techniques and experimental activities.
Inside the laboratory there are a crash test sled, several drop test machines, some high-velocity impact launchers and several conducting static tests' equipment.

The Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPLab) operates in the field of space propulsion with reference to solid, liquid and hybrid propellant systems, from both experimental and numerical viewpoints. The research group is now committed to developing innovative solution, such as low environmental impact formulations of solid propellant, unconventional hybrid engine configurations for in-space applications and green oxidizer-fuel combinations designed for new generation storable liquid propulsion. Since 1976, year of foundation, it is also consistently active in the study of combustion of solid phase energy materials with research activities on stationary combustion rates, static and dynamic extinction, deflagration limit pressure, characterisation of the combustion products, ignition and transient combustion phenomena. The SpLab collaborates regularly both in the academic field and in the industrial sector with other research centers at a national and international level.In 2018 it founded ReActive-Powder Technology, a Politecnico di Milano spin-off, with expertise in making high performance energy materials through mechanical activation processes.