Description, purpose, philosophy, and vision

The DICAM Teaching Excellence Award stimulates and rewards faculty for excellence in teaching within the Department's degree programs. The award is given through a procedure that follows an entirely bottom-up philosophy. 
Each year DICAM issues a call for proposals whose recipients are the students of the DICAM's CdSs (call for proposals). To propose that a lecturer be awarded the prize, students are asked to self-organize into small groups of at least 5 students and write a letter of recommendation with a detailed evaluation and appreciation note describing the quality of teaching, clarity of exposition, use of innovative elements, and the willingness and passion shown by the lecturer. Examples of the teaching material provided by the lecturer to students are also part of the evaluation. Lecturers belonging to other departments who teach within DICAM's CdS may also be nominated. 
On the other hand, winners from the previous year, the Department Director, the Chair of the Joint Commission, and the Delegate for Teaching are excluded from the award.
Proposals sent in by students in bottom-up mode are then evaluated by an independent judging committee that is typically composed of several faculty and student members of the DICAM's Joint Faculty-Student Committee (CPDS), the UniTN Dean of Education, and one or two DIPSCO faculty members with expertise in the disciplines of pedagogy.

The DICAM Teaching Excellence Award is typically between EUR 2,000 and EUR 3,000 and consists of an increase in the institutional funds of the winning faculty members. The judging committee is sovereign and can divide the prize into several awards.

The prize is inspired by Landeslehrpreis Baden-Württemberg in Germany, established in 1993 by the Ministry of Science, Research and Art. For information about the prize visit the official prize website.
The award's publicizing aims to motivate and incentivize all DICAM's CdS faculty members to comprehensively improve the quality of teaching in the long term, provide examples of best practice guidelines for university teaching to other faculty members, and explicitly invite faculty to experiment with innovative teaching methods.

List of winners of previous editions and laudatio

2024 - Marco Tubino, Diego Misseroni, Sandra Diré 

The award was given to Prof. Marco Tubino with his course Hydrodynamics in the LM in Environmental and Territorial Engineering for his clarity of exposition, for his great helpfulness shown towards the students, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course and for the passion for the subject transmitted to the students during the lectures. The lecturer was also suggested for his ability to engage students during teaching through lab activities (both computer and plumbing labs). The teaching activities with data collection conducted in the field and the study visit to AIPO in Mantua were particularly appreciated by the students. The committee also appreciates the use of innovative instant pooling tools such as Wooclap with instant feedback to foster learning.

The award was given to Prof. Diego Misseroni for his course Construction Science in the LMCU in Building Engineering and Architecture for his clarity of exposition, for his great availability shown to students, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course and for the passion for the subject transmitted to students during the lectures. The lecturer succeeded in making particularly difficult concepts accessible to students, with much attention paid to the student's well-being during classroom lectures. The lecturer was also commended for his ability to engage students interactively during teaching through practical examples through model structures that the professor uses directly during his lectures to make theoretical concepts more understandable. The committee appreciates the use of continuous assessment through weekly homework with possible feedback.

The award was given to Prof. Sandra Diré for her Chemistry course in the LT in Environmental and Territorial Engineering for her clarity of exposition, her great availability shown to students and her ability to listen, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course, and for the passion for the subject conveyed to the students during the lectures. The committee also appreciates the use of innovative tools such as weekly asynchronous self-assessment quizzes to foster learning, despite the large number of students.

2023 - Giorgio Rosatti, Stefano Siboni, Alberto Valli

The award was given to Prof. Giorgio Rosatti with his course Fluid Mechanics in the LT in Environmental and Territorial Engineering for his clarity of exposition, for his great helpfulness shown towards the students, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course and the passion for the subject transmitted to the students during the lectures. The lecturer was also commended for his ability to engage students during teaching through step-by-step exercises conducted on the blackboard. The visit to the hydraulics laboratory made during the last lecture, which allowed students to see in practice through experiments the notions and concepts explained during the theoretical part of the course, was particularly appreciated by the students.

The award was given to Prof. Stefano Siboni for his course Geometry and Linear Algebra in the LT in Environmental and Territorial Engineering for his clarity of exposition, for his great helpfulness shown to students, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course and the passion for the subject conveyed to the students during the lectures. The lecturer was also commended for his ability to engage students during teaching through step-by-step exercises conducted on the blackboard. The exercises and tutoring organized within the course were particularly appreciated by students. The tutoring in the course encourages students to solve mathematical problems independently, with the opportunity to engage with peers and tutors.

The award was given to Prof. Alberto Valli with his course Mathematical Analysis 1 in the LT in Civil and Environmental Engineering for his clarity of exposition, for his great helpfulness shown to students, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course and the passion for the subject transmitted to the students during the lectures. Sometimes the theory lessons are lightened up with jokes to keep the students' attention level high during the demonstrations. The lecturer was also suggested for his ability to engage students during teaching through step-by-step tutorials conducted on the blackboard and through questions asked to students that they could answer with a show of hands. The exercises and tutoring organized within the course were particularly appreciated by students. The tutoring in the course stimulates students to solve mathematical problems on their own, with the opportunity to compare themselves with colleagues and tutors.

2022 - Maria Cantiani, Nicola Tondini

The award was given to Prof. Maria Cantiani for her course Ecology in the LT in Environmental and Territorial Engineering, for the great helpfulness and empathy shown towards the students, for the clarity of exposition, for the care and completeness of the teaching material provided, and for the passion for the subject transmitted to the students. The outdoor exercises on the Marzola and in the Forest of the City of Trent were particularly appreciated by the students. During her teaching, the lecturer used innovative teaching elements such as participatory and interactive teaching, even involving students directly within the theory lessons: students could do part of the theory lessons on cells and organic chemistry (flip the class concept), making the students themselves protagonists of the teaching. The lecturer showed special attention to non-attending students. To further stimulate interest in the subject, the lecturer organized a photo contest “Fragments of nature in the City” within the teaching.

The award was given to Prof. Nicola Tondini with his course Steel Constructions in the LM in Civil Engineering for the clarity of exposition, for the great helpfulness shown toward the students, for the care and completeness of the teaching materials provided, for the excellent organization of the course and the passion for the subject transmitted to the students during the lectures. The lecturer was also commended for his ability to engage students during teaching through step-by-step exercises conducted on the blackboard and through a laborious and complex project developed by students in small groups, with periodic reviews and classroom discussions. As elements of innovative teaching, the course uses participatory teaching not only through exercises and projects but also through a study visit to the Pichler steel mill in Bolzano, during which students could see the elements covered during teaching in practice.

2021 - Simona Bordoni, Nadia Baldassino

Laudatio not available 

2020 - Not conferred during medical emergency COVID-19

2019 - Francesco Dal Corso, Diego Misseroni, Giorgio Rosatti

Prof. Francesco Dal Corso with his course Theory and Dynamics of Structures in the LM in Civil Engineering was proposed for his clarity of exposition, his availability, and his ability to engage students during lectures. In addition, the quality of the teaching and lecture material provided, as well as the use of innovative elements such as laboratory models during lectures are the lecturer's strengths particularly appreciated by students.

Prof. Diego Misseroni with his course Construction Science in the single-cycle LM in Construction Engineering/Architecture was proposed for his clarity of exposition, the availability shown toward students, and his ability to motivate students to study a difficult subject. As elements of innovative teaching, lectures are interspersed with experimental applications with models of structures and beams both to better explain sometimes very theoretical concepts and to show their application in the real world.
Prof. Giorgio Rosatti 's Fluid Mechanics course for LTs in Environmental and Land Use Engineering and Civil Engineering was proposed because the lecturer demonstrated a burning passion for teaching, which he was able to convey to the students. The complex and difficult course topics were developed with clarity, rigor, and logic. The lecturer was very helpful to the students and supplemented the blackboard lectures with innovative multimedia material, which was then also made available on the online platform.