The Master's Degree Course (CdLM) in Engineering for the Safety of Critical Industrial and Civil Infrastructures (Engineering for Safety of critical Industrial and Civil Infrastructures) aims to train an engineer with specific knowledge and skills for an interdisciplinary and systemic approach to industrial and civil infrastructures, considering their relationship with the territory and society, and with attention to the cyber-physical aspects that characterize engineering systems. The proposal of the Master's Degree Course concerns the development of multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral engineering knowledge and skills in the sector of the safety of critical industrial and civil infrastructures, essential today to respond to the new technological and engineering challenges emerging in the national and international context.
The Degree Course is part of the class of the Master's Degree in Safety Engineering (LM 26), which constitutes - by its nature - a 'transversal' and interdisciplinary field between different engineering disciplines; in particular, the course aims to develop multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral skills in the field of safety of critical civil and industrial infrastructures, which is essential nowadays to respond to the new challenges emerging in the national and international context.
The Master's Degree in Engineering for the Safety of Critical Civil and Industrial Infrastructures aims to provide solid
skills on quantitative models for the assessment of "traditional" risks (e.g. plant engineering, structural) in complex systems, but also of anthropogenic risks linked to the territory, which characterize civil infrastructures (e.g. roads, bridges, water networks, buildings in urban areas, large works) and industrial ones (e.g. energy production and fuel storage plants, energy communities), together with the most effective tools, strategies and technologies for the prevention and management of such risks in normal operating and emergency conditions. The presence of specialized curricula that delve into specific topics in the field of specific risks and/or risk mitigation strategies that characterize critical civil and industrial infrastructures will allow to complete the training by providing skills in these specific areas of civil and industrial engineering. But there is not only the issue of risk and safety, but also the approach to the resilience of engineering systems, both in the design phase and in the management phase. This knowledge is then specialized for a more specific application in the sectors of industrial and civil engineering systems, with the proposal of specific curricula.
Therefore, the new CdLM essentially designs a professional engineering figure with a solid interdisciplinary preparation in the field of industrial and civil safety and resilience, who operates in the field of safety management in critical civil and industrial infrastructures by applying models, methodologies, technologies to ensure effective prevention of industrial, structural and anthropic risks, and resilient management of such systems, even in calamitous situations for which it is required to develop and implement mitigation and protection interventions from specific risks.
In the common path of the CdLM, skills related to:
the identification of risk (hazard) through the quantification of the dangerousness, exposure and vulnerability of the specific infrastructure through quantitative methodologies;
models for the quantitative analysis of structural risks in both civil and industrial infrastructures;
organizational models (such as high-reliability organizations) for managing the risk in a resilient and sustainable perspective that support both preventive and proactive approaches (business continuity);
to the basic models for the use of digital technologies for the analysis of information with cyber-physical approaches applied to the monitoring phases of civil and industrial infrastructures;
to the methodologies for the design and management of resilient infrastructures, with particular reference to energy infrastructures;
to international and national regulations regarding the issues of safety and resilience of civil and industrial infrastructures;
to the design of tools for the mitigation of specific risks characterising critical civil and industrial infrastructures and plans for emergency management.
The training course is divided into curricula taught in Italian (at the Polytechnic of Bari) and in English (at the University of Salento).
The division into curricula then allows the acquisition of specialist skills in specific thematic areas, such as plant and structural safety of industrial and civil infrastructures, the design of tools and strategies aimed at mitigating specific risks, with particular reference to anthropogenic risks that always involve more civil and industrial infrastructures.
The curricular internship allows the student to understand the links between theory and professional practice and the integration between theoretical knowledge, acquired in the Degree Course and concrete applications in professional practice, as well as
learning procedures and methodologies typical of the engineering profession.
The teaching adopts an innovative and multidisciplinary approach based on case studies, experiential approaches, active involvement of students in training activities, participation in openlabs and contamination labs, and laboratory and/or design activities, without excluding specific in-situ visits, aimed at combining traditional tools with more innovative ones, such as digital tools and latest-generation instrumental ones.
The course of study includes teaching characterized by strong integration with companies and institutions - which will be involved through the organization of seminars, conferences and company visits, laboratory activities and internships: in this way, teaching will be fully integrated with the needs of the labor market, improving the placement potential of outgoing graduates.
The training course was created as an inter-university project between the University of Salento and the Polytechnic of Bari: the two universities are already collaborating on these research topics with the establishment of an inter-university doctorate in Safety and Sustainability Engineering. The universities involved will promote activities aimed at entering the world of work through interaction with companies and organizations that operate both locally and nationally, and that are involved in various capacities in the management and protection of critical infrastructures.
The issue of the safety of Critical Infrastructures – particularly civil and industrial ones – is emerging in an increasingly evident manner; the training of highly specialized professionals in the definition of related strategies to guarantee their integrity, protection from physical risk and to ensure resilience to the entire system of national services is urgently needed, also in light of the changed weather and climate conditions, the impacts of hydrogeological and seismic phenomena and the problems of aging and wear of the structures themselves. In recent years, together with the traditional problems related to the physical safety of plants and buildings (for example, industrial safety, fire safety, accidental malfunctions, etc.), new types of risks generated by human and natural actions (e.g. earthquakes, climate change) are emerging with increasingly serious effects, which can influence the level of safety and reliability of civil and industrial infrastructures. These problems are amplified in critical civil and industrial infrastructures, where potential damage can have significant impacts not only on the single system but on the entire national and supranational territory. Along these lines, the European Union has recently issued Directive 829/2020 (CER, Critical Entity Resilience) and Directive (EU) 2022/2557 of 14 December 2022 on the resilience of critical entities, identifying strategic guidelines that each Member State must comply with, to create a homogeneous and resilient protection area coherent between all Member States. In order to increase awareness of these issues and reduce citizens' exposure to the damage that an accident to a critical infrastructure and the related lack of primary services - at all levels starting from the urban level up to a wider territorial extension - can cause, a is proposed. The proposal of the new training path, which represents the opportunity to train professionals capable of addressing and proposing innovative strategies to guarantee protection and resilience in emergency conditions.
The master's degree in Engineering for the safety of critical industrial and civil infrastructures aims to provide solid
skills on quantitative models for the assessment of "traditional" risks (e.g. plant engineering, structural) in complex systems, but also of anthropogenic risks linked to the territory, which characterize civil infrastructures (e.g. roads, bridges, water networks, buildings in urban areas, large-scale works) and industrial ones (e.g. energy production and fuel storage plants, energy communities), together with the most effective tools, strategies and technologies for the prevention and management of such risks in normal operating and emergency conditions. The presence of specialized curricula that delve into specific topics in the field of specific risks and/or risk mitigation strategies that characterize critical civil and industrial infrastructures will allow the training to be completed by providing skills in these specific areas of civil and industrial engineering.
Therefore, the new CdLM essentially designs a professional engineering figure with a solid interdisciplinary preparation in the field of industrial and civil safety, who operates in the field of safety management in critical civil and industrial infrastructures by applying models, methodologies, technologies to ensure effective prevention of industrial, structural and anthropic risks, and resilient management of such systems, even in catastrophic situations for which it is required to develop and implement mitigation and protection interventions from specific risks.
The course of study includes teaching characterized by strong integration with companies and institutions - which will be involved through the organization of seminars, conferences and company visits -, laboratory activities and internships: in this way, teaching will be fully integrated with the needs of the labor market, improving the potential placement of outgoing graduates.
The training course was born as an inter-university between the University of Salento and the Polytechnic of Bari: there is already an active collaboration between the two universities also on these research topics with the establishment of an inter-university doctorate in safety and sustainability engineering. The universities involved will promote activities aimed at entering the world of work through interaction with companies and institutions that operate both locally and nationally, and that are involved in various capacities in the management and protection of critical infrastructures.
The course is already born with a strong international projection, in consideration of the role of the University of Salento as coordinator of a network within UNIMED
– Mediterranean Universities Union that concerns the “Safety and Security of Critical Infrastructures” and that involves various

Universities from the southern shore of the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Europe, and with which a dialogue has already been started to create a single training space on the topic, which will hopefully lead to the definition of a European and Mediterranean University precisely on the topics of the training path in question.

Furthermore, this training project is
part of the PNRR MUR project “Territorial agreements for high-level training for businesses”, funded by the university system in the first place. Apulian, entitled “Open Apulia University”, aimed at bridging the skills gap in human capital and the mismatch between supply and demand of labor in Puglia in some critical areas for regional development, the need for training in the field of safety and resilience of infrastructures, buildings and territories was highlighted.
The training course will be divided into curricula taught in Italian (at the Polytechnic of Bari) and in English (at the University of Salento).
In the common path of the Degree Course, skills related to:
the identification of risk (hazard) through the quantification of the dangerousness, exposure and vulnerability of the specific infrastructure through quantitative methodologies;
models for the quantitative analysis of structural risks in both civil and industrial infrastructures;
organizational models (such as highly reliable organizations) for risk management in a resilient and sustainable perspective that support both preventive and proactive approaches (business continuity);
basic models for the use of technologies
The curriculum structure allows the acquisition of specialist skills in specific thematic areas, such as plant and structural safety of industrial and civil infrastructures, the design of tools and strategies aimed at mitigating specific risks, with particular reference to anthropogenic risks that increasingly involve civil and industrial infrastructures.
The curricular internship allows the student to understand the links between theory and professional practice and the integration between theoretical knowledge acquired in the degree course and concrete applications in professional practice, as well as
the learning of procedures and methodologies typical of the profession of engineer.
The teaching adopts an innovative and multidisciplinary approach based on case studies, experiential approaches, active involvement of students in training activities, participation in openlabs and contamination labs, and laboratory and/or design activities, without excluding specific in-situ visits, aimed at combining traditional tools with more innovative ones, such as digital tools and latest-generation instrumental ones.