Challenge@PoliTo_by Firms is an innovative teaching activity carried at the Politecnico di Torino. It is an integral part of PoliTo’s strategy to promote innovative education and entrepreneurial culture among the students. These activities are organized with external firms that provide a “challenge” coming from their real business. During the experience, 30 master students divided in teams, work, compete and develop their solutions. The Challenges are carried out as an experimental educational laboratory: the CLIK - Connection Lab & Innovation Kitchen, or similar space. At the CLIK lab, during the challenge phase, students can experiment and put into practice what they have learned during their lectures, in an informal and multidisciplinary environment that promotes the spirit of creativity and collaboration. Challenge@PoliTo_by Firms - A.I. 4 fashion trends Is it possible to predict successful fashion trends? With the emergence of Big Data, the biggest challenge for data scientists today is no longer accessing enough data. The difficulty is identifying the right data and data granularity to predict trends accurately, especially when what you’re looking at has high volatility. Also thanks to social media and other factors, fashion trends have become incredibly volatile and as such, increasingly demanding for traditional forecasting approaches that are based on historical data. In the fashion industry, all stages of the production process - from the acquisition of raw materials to the sale of the finished product - require careful planning and forecasting, because they are influenced by endogenous trends (popularity, prices, promotions and competition) and exogenous trends (seasonality and weather). For this reason, companies in the fashion industry are looking for new approaches in artificial intelligence to better anticipate demand. After all, unpredictable demand makes it almost impossible to effectively allocate resources to plan production. Evo, a start-up based in I3P and London that uses AI to help companies create more effective supply chain and pricing strategies, proposes a challenge to help companies in the fashion sector with resource planning by more accurately identifying emerging trends in purchasing behaviour, especially when it comes to style. The goal is to develop and implement innovative approaches to study this new market segment, collect data, and propose input factors for the development of an algorithm that foresees the evolution of fashion and future successful "styles". In this challenge, the primary goals will be to: ● Complete a market analysis ● Identify primary factors (garment type, style, colour, seasonality, product quality, etc.) that impact purchasing behaviour in fashion ● Identify the types and sources of data that will show these trends at the earliest possible stage ● Create an algorithm that will analyse this data and accurately forecast fashion trends, allowing companies to better plan production

The main goal is to involve students in learning initiatives capable of bridging the gap between the theory taught by the University and the skills required by companies to work in a team. Entrepreneurial Culture: Promote the Entrepreneurial culture/behavior on the PoliTo Students Multidisciplinary Teams: Collaborate in a complex and multidisciplinary context. Information research: Retrieval, Data collection and Utilization of information to support teamwork activities. Hard Skills: Put into practice what they have learnt during their lectures in order to solve a real problem coming from partner firms. Soft Skills: Teamwork under conditions close to the ones of a real business environment, self-assessment and work organization. At the end of this activity, students will be readier to work in multidisciplinary team, skill required by companies, and they will be able to analyze industrial problems having a more comprehensive view of technical and market issues.

The Challenge is open to every master students of the Politecnico di Torino. There are not specific competence requested to be eligible for participating. To apply to this activity, the students have to upload: ● Covering Letter in English: self-presentation and motivations of interest in the presented challenge; ● Curriculum Vitae. The selection of the students will be based on Cover Letter, CV and multidisciplinary required by the Challenge. The Challenge contents are provided in English.

The Challenges last 14 weeks, they start on the 28th September 2020 and end on the 23rd January 2021. During this specific Challenge, the students have to work in multidisciplinary Teams supported by a group of tutors, PoliTo and partner Firm, with complementary background and competences, under the lead of the Professor P. Brandimarte. Every team will self-organize its own working time and methodology, but will have to spend about 1,5 hour/week, supported by mentors, in the CLIK Lab, similar space or in remote (clarifications will be provided), in addition to the common alignment meetings (specified subsequently). According to the Rector guideline, the Challenges of the first didactic period A.Y. 20/21 will be provided face-to-face, pandemic condition permitting. However, all the meetings are guaranteed in remote mode. The teaching manner could change due to the future pandemic condition. Additional information will be provided during next months.

The event will take place at the Lab CLIK (Connection Lab and Innovation Kitchen) or similar space, located in the central building of the Politecnico di Torino (Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24), with the following program: ● Kick Off & Team Formation: the partner company and tutors will hold a session on the issues of the challenge. There will be the Team Formation and Team Building phases to the establishment of multidisciplinary teams. Common meeting of 2 days. ● Problem Analysis and Idea Creation: two weeks in which the teams will analyze the problem in details. A team of mentors will support the teams through weekly meetings. ● Idea Presentation – 1st Work Progress: each team will present (by a pitch) the problem and the proposed solution. Common meeting of 1 day. ● Prototyping and Development: teams will meet at CLIK on a weekly basis to meet with mentors who will provide support to the development of the project. 11 weeks of team work. ● Two Mid-Check Presentations – 2nd and 3rd Work Progress: two meeting of half day on work progress during the Prototyping and Development phase. ● Final Presentation: the teams will present their projects through the pitch of the idea. Common meeting of 1 day at the end of the 14th week. Furthermore, we will organize a visit in the partner company building. During the challenge, PoliTo will provide other educational content useful for the development of the Team ideas and personal culture. For example, Business Plan creation, Social Impact, Communication & Pitch Learning, etc. The dates will be defined during next months. Every team will self-organize its own working timeframe and methodology, but will have to spend about 1,5 hour/week, supported by mentors, in the CLIK Lab, similar space or in remote (clarifications will be provided). The Teams, during the challenge, have to hand in the following deliverables: • Three ppts Work Progress: Pitches to explain achieved outcomes and next steps of project, during work progress meetings; • One monthly report: a paper monthly report to describe achieved outcomes and next steps; • One ppt Final Presentation: final pitch, during final presentation, to present the whole work; • One final report: final report about whole work. PoliTo will provide a form. The explained structure as well as the dates are only an example, it could be modified during the challenge.

Modalità di esame: Accertamento (esame senza voto);

The Challenge is open to every master student of Politecnico di Torino. The student can register individually. The CFUs, curricular as well as extra, will be awarded at the end of the challenge and only if the student will have passed the course. The verification procedure is based on: • The development of project on an evaluation grid; • Quality of the presentation during the common meeting; • Reports (monthly and final); • Self-evaluation of team members. This activity does not have a grade, only passed/not passed.

Modalità di esame: Accertamento (esame senza voto);

The Challenge is open to every master student of Politecnico di Torino. The student can register individually. The CFUs, curricular as well as extra, will be awarded at the end of the challenge and only if the student will have passed the course. The verification procedure is based on: • The development of project on an evaluation grid; • Quality of the presentation during the common meeting; • Reports (monthly and final); • Self-evaluation of team members. This activity does not have a grade, only passed/not passed.