FORMAT handbook team


Gaetano Cascini

Gaetano Cascini

Coordinator of the FORMAT project

He is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Faculty of Industrial Engineering. He coordinates a research team working on the following topics: Methods and tools for inventive design and Computer-Aided support to the innovation pipeline. His main fields of activity relate to methods and techniques for Systematic Innovation, Knowledge Based CAD/CAE tools, Knowledge Management and Patent Mining. He has been Coordinator and Scientific Responsible of the EU Project “Technology as Cultural Heritage”, ref. n. CLT/2005/A1/CH/IT-55. He is author of more than 100 papers, mostly presented at International Conferences and published in authoritative Journals, and 10 patents.

Bala Ramadurai

Bala Ramadurai

Project Manager, handBOOK

He is an inventor, independent innovation consultant and researcher. He co-founded TRIZ Innovation India and is an entrepreneurship mentor at Mentor Edge, India. He has mentored students in an entrepreneurship course facilitated by Carnegie Mellon University, USA. He was a systematic  innovation facilitator at MindTree Ltd, India. Prior to MindTree, Bala was a Research Scientist at General Electric Global Research, India. Bala has a PhD from Arizona State University, USA and a B.Tech from IIT Madras, India. He designed and crafted 5*50, a key innovation intrapreneurship program, at MindTree. He has been cited as an expert in innovation and creativity by Harvard Business Review. He has 3 patents to his credit and more than 10 publications in international research journals.

Mateusz Słupiński

Mateusz Słupiński

Assistant Project Manager, handBOOK

He holds a MSc in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Science and techniques of engineers, from ULP Strasbourg. Currently he is Assistant Professor at PWR Wroclaw, where he conducts researches on TRIZ and Technological forecasting applications in environmental engineering.

Mahmoud Rabie

Mahmoud Rabie

He is a materials engineer and innovator. He holds a PhD and a double MSc  in Materials Science in addition to a BSc in Metallurgical Engineering. He worked as a researcher at lead European institutes such as Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Technical University of Munich and Technical University of Berlin. Mahmoud works as an experienced researcher in the field of technology forecasting and innovation management at PNO Consultants N.V. in Belgium.

Niccolò Becattini

Niccolò Becattini

He is a research fellow of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano since 2009. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He also works as a teaching assistant for classes of Technical Representation Methods and Methods for Systematic Innovation. He is currently working on national and international funded projects. His researches focus on different topics concerning the domain of Innovation: Computer-Aided Innovation, Engineering Design, Problem Solving Theories and Methods, Technology Forecasting and Creativity. He has co-authored several papers, which have been published in authoritative journals and presented in international conferences.

Igor Kaikov

Igor Kaikov

Igor Kaykov has been recruited by Whirlpool Europe. He has been selected for this position through an open call. He is a researcher in the FORMAT project. He obtained a degree in Technology of Electrical Engineering, acoustic and ultrasonic tools in 1984 at the Leningrad Electro Technical Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). He has an experience of over 25 years of practice and research in the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (Russian acronym – TRIZ) as an engineer, researcher and consultant. In 2003, Igor Kaykov was invited to the European Institute for Energy Research (EIFER) in Karlsruhe, Germany – a daughter company of Électricité de France (EDF) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). From 2003 until August 2012, he consulted EIFER research groups about problem solving processes. His main field of activity relates to OTSM-TRIZ approaches for solving problems in various technical, technological, scientific, and sociological areas and projects. He is an author of 3 books, 6 patents and more than 50 scientific papers.

Dmitry Kucharavy

Dmitry Kucharavy

Dmitry Kucharavy has been recruited by PoliMI. He has been selected through an open call. He received his degree on Technology of Mechanical Engineering, metal machines and machine tools in 1988 from Belarusian State Polytechnic Institute (Minsk, USSR, now Belarus). He brings over 20 years of practical and research experience in Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (applied Russian acronym – TRIZ) as engineer, researcher, consultant, and teacher. In 2001, Dmitry Kucharavy was invited to officially join the Design Engineering Laboratory LGECO at INSA of Strasbourg. Since then and till December 2012, the regular participation in research projects has provided him with new and diverse opportunities for developing his research experience and for transferring his knowledge to young researchers. The main activities were related to research and development of a method and techniques for long-term technological forecasting. During his career, the research activities were suspended several times in favour of practical design and inventive problem solving activities. Currently he combines practical consulting with research in Technology Forecasting of systems evolution (Researching Future methodology) and Problem solving knowledge management.

Christopher Nikulin

Christopher Nikulin

He is a Mechanical Engineer and he received a Master in Science Mechanical Engineering from Federico Santa Maria Technical University (UTFSM, Chile) in 2009, Master of Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UTFSM), and he is currently candidate for receiving a double graduation program for International MBA in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain). Since January 2012, he started a PhD program in Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano with a scholarship from the Chilean government. His areas of research concern Forecasting Technology, Systematic Innovation, Product Life Cycle and Uncertain Modelation Systems.

Sebastian Koziołek

Sebastian Koziołek

Dr. Sebastian Koziolek is a young faculty in the School of Mechanical Engineering at the Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland. He is also a global scholar of Stanford University, George Mason University and Nottingham Trent University in the area of Inventive Engineering as applied to complex mechanical engineering problems.

Emanuele Festa

Emanuele Festa

He graduated at Politecnico di Milano in 2014, with a master degree in Mechanical Engineering. With experiences in the field of Finite Element Method (FEM), Emanuele has built a curriculum in design engineering.

Focusing his studies on systematic innovation, he approached TRIZ theory, intellectual property fundamentals and the most recent technology forecasting methodologies. He joined the FORMAT team participating in a case study for Whirlpool Europe SRL. Downstream this work, he performed the assessment of the FORMAT methodology, which was the main subject of his master thesis.