The course “Sustainable solutions: circularity and AI” took place on 7^th May 2026 in Rome, at the offices of the Fondazione MAIRE – ETS in Piazzale Flaminio; it was the last events scheduled as part of our series “Yesterday, today, tomorrow: a journey through engineering in the name of Made in Italy”, created to celebrate the Made in Italy excellence of the MAIRE “family”, including through the MAIREmpower project.

The initiative forms part of the wider programme of events organized to mark National Made in Italy Day 2026, promoted by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy to support and promote, both nationally and internationally, our Country’s manufacturing excellence and cultural heritage; this year marks the third edition of the event. 

The Fondazione MAIRE – ETS has chosen to take part in this year’s celebrations by combining this initiative with the mentoring programme – already underway – of the MAIREmpower project, offering young people an opportunity to engage with the Group’s engineering heritage on the one hand and its contemporary developments on the other, in an ongoing dialogue between technical heritage and innovation.

The training day thus completed the initiative “Yesterday, today, tomorrow: a journey through engineering in the name of Made in Italy”, structured around two sessions dedicated to the excellence of Made in Italy “at home” at MAIRE and designed to guide students through an educational experience that connects the past, present and future of engineering.

In the first meeting, our students of the MAIREmpower summer school discovered the history and evolution of engineering design from the twentieth century to today, through materials from the Group's historical Archive and 3D technologies; with this second appointment, instead, they were able to deepen their journey into engineering by projecting themselves towards the future: technologies, circularity, and Artificial Intelligence - in a path designed by and with some colleagues from NextChem (a subsidiary of the MAIRE Group).

To break the ice with the students, the story of the MAIRE Group was told, from its birth to its evolution up to its current positioning, through two core areas: Sustainable Technology Solutions and Integrated E&C Solutions. From here began the detailed storytelling of the STS soul, from strategic acquisitions to patents, illustrating the technology portfolio and the three pillars: sustainable fertilizers, low-carbon energy, and material recovery through recycling.

Young students were presented with a detailed focus on the business line related to circular solutions and sustainable materials, to explain how engineering can concretely contribute to the transition towards more circular production models. Through examples and case studies, it was shown how the technologies developed by NextChem allow giving a second life to various types of waste, transforming them into useful resources to be reintroduced into industrial cycles.

NextChem's circular technologies bring together innovative solutions capable of recovering value from a wide range of streams, from the most heterogeneous waste to more selected feedstocks, such as plastics, biomass, and electronic waste. Thanks to mechanical and chemical recycling solutions on an industrial scale, NextChem supports industries in transforming waste into new products and valuable materials, offering students a concrete example of how technological innovation can become a key driver for circularity and industrial development.

The second part of the training then focused on a module dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, within the broader perspective on global transformations: from geopolitics to the fragmentation of supply chains, from the energy transition to technological acceleration. Through data, concrete examples, and real cases, there was a discussion on how these changes are redefining the global economy and, above all, the world of work.

The dialogue with the students focused particularly on AI: how much does AI impact? How often is it used and in which sectors? It emerged that some companies manage to ride the change by integrating AI into their processes, while others risk falling behind; similarly, some jobs are more exposed to transformation, while others evolve alongside new tools. From this comes the key message addressed to the youth: not to undergo Artificial Intelligence, but to learn to understand it, design it, and use it consciously, becoming in some way its 'architects.' Developing adaptability, critical thinking, and strategic vision therefore becomes essential to leverage change to one’s advantage, while at the same time preserving that set of creativity, intuition, and humanism that remains a distinctive characteristic of humans.

To enrich the contribution, the story of the entrepreneur Pierpaolo Laurito, who has made the use of AI the basis of his business to design sustainable, innovative, and tailor-made energy for every need.

At the end of the sessions, the students were able to ask questions and engage in dialogue with the teachers about the impacts that AI and market developments in the energy transition sector may generate in their immediate future, also with a view to their final exams!

We sincerely thank Pierpaolo Laurito, Massimo Di Amato, Sustainable Materials & Circular Solution Senior Vice President at NextChem (MAIRE Group), and Martina Baj, Sustainable Materials & Circular Solution Specialist at NextChem (MAIRE Group), for having made their expertise and competences available to benefit our brilliant young students of the MAIREmpower summer school.

To discover all the details about our initiative dedicated to Made in Italy 2026, visit the landing page dedicated to the project.