INGENIO AL FEMMINILE 2026: SOLESI STANDS ALONGSIDE YOUNG WOMEN ENGINEERS ONCE AGAIN
On 11 November, the CNR Conference Hall in Rome hosted the award ceremony of the sixth edition of the «Ingenio al Femminile» degree thesis award, which SOLESI supports as an Ambassador company for the third year in a row.
The award is promoted by the Italian National Council of Engineers (CNI) together with Cesop HR Consulting Company and recognises the best engineering theses by young women graduates and PhDs. It aims to bring out female talent in science and technology and to narrow the gender gap in STEM, in line with Goal 5 of the UN 2030 Agenda.
Innovating for the sustainable transition
This year’s theme, «Innovating for the sustainable transition», asked candidates to tackle four challenges: energy sustainability, smart urban systems, industrial decarbonisation, and resilience and adaptation to climate change. For a company that builds and maintains networks and infrastructure these are everyday topics. Seeing young engineers address them with such skill gives us confidence in the future of our sector.
The value of mixed teams
The sixth edition put teamwork at its heart, with the new «Ingenio Team» mention for projects by mixed teams led by a young woman engineer. As Giovanni Felici of the CNR put it during the ceremony: «Innovation comes out of diversity.» Enrica Porcari, Chief Information Officer at CERN, made the same point, describing how much curiosity, multidisciplinarity and networking count when it comes to innovating.
The winners
Five awards of €1,500 each:
- Civil and environmental engineering: Paola Vola (Politecnico di Milano)
- Industrial engineering: Rebecca Verlingieri (Politecnico di Milano)
- Information engineering: Giulia Gelsomina Romano (University of Naples Federico II)
- Giulia Cecchettin Award for biomedical engineering: Alessandra Merenda (University of Naples Federico II)
- PhD thesis: Elena Messinese (Politecnico di Milano)
Honourable mentions went to Siria Sannino (Sapienza University of Rome), Ilaria Pulvirenti (University of Pisa) and Elisa Rosella (University of Naples Federico II).
Why we take part
This year there were 28 Ambassador companies, from large industrial groups to firms from all over Italy. For SOLESI, being there means building a bridge between university and industry, and telling the young women who choose engineering that there is room for their talent in a construction company.
Congratulations to all the winners and to every candidate on their work.
🔗 Find out more: bando.ingenioalfemminile.it
