IAAC Alumni Career Talks: From 3D Printing to Urban Data, Four Alumni Stories

Asked what from their student years still shapes their work, the four graduates gave complementary answers. Francesco Polvi estimates that most of his daily work in computational design and robotics is built on what he studied at IAAC, which gave him “the basis to continue growing.” Aishwarya Balsekar values the international perspective: working with people from many countries gave her a more holistic way of approaching a problem, which she now applies to timber and earth construction in India. Maria Augusta Kroetz describes IAAC as a testing ground where students invent new analyses and learn to accept mistakes, which gave her courage and resilience at work.

Alex Mademochoritis asked what the speakers did not understand at the beginning and now use every day. For Francesco it was robots and Grasshopper: in his first month he did not understand why everyone was so passionate about robotics. For Maria Augusta it was programming, which scared her at first and is now part of every project. Their shared advice: trust the process, because after a few months the different subjects connect.

Collaboration came up in every story. Aishwarya Balsekar wrote her thesis alongside two classmates working on very different topics, and they built prototypes for one another. Maria Augusta Kroetz found that the IAAC network helped her understand which companies to apply to, while the skills developed in the master made the difference with other candidates. Dana El Hajjar found her current job at BPA through a connection with another IAAC alumnus.

Answering a question from an applicant, the speakers gave different views. Aishwarya Balsekar and Dana El Hajjar suggest getting familiar with Rhino and Grasshopper and learning to read research papers quickly. Francesco Polvi and Maria Augusta Kroetz recommend arriving with an open mind, ready to absorb a lot of new information, and enjoying the summer before the master. The IAAC Admissions team added that international candidates should go step by step: application, interview, offer.

Looking ahead, the speakers named artificial intelligence as the question that concerns every field, from urban planning to computational design. Maria Augusta Kroetz sees it as a tool to be used with solid foundations, and the panel noted that the IAAC approach applies here too: test a new technology from first principles, push it to its limits and rebuild it, whether it is physical or digital.