In 2020, a student of PoliTo, Mauro, took part in a Challenge@PoliTo, whose purpose was to solve a concrete problem using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Mauro came out with the idea of creating an algorithm capable of synthesizing and re-elaborating the texts in a completely automatic way. A few months from the start, the first prototype was born, able to create concept maps automatically and this allows Mauro to win the Challenge. The collaboration with the Italian Dyslexia Association, which began in the same period, was fundamental for the success of the project.Mauro says the program sparked an entrepreneurial spirit he didn’t know he had and decided to invest in the project presenting it to the Incubator of Innovative Enterprises of Politecnico di Torino which supported the idea and put Algor into a pre-incubation path. In 2021 Mauro founded 5 talented collaborators to join the team and gave birth to Algor Lab S.r.l., a social enterprise which uses AI to make educational material accessible for students with specific learning disorders. The founders are all alumni of PoliTo.

In the same year he collected 180K € from the Investors Club, one of the main business angel groups in Italy. Algor has gathered the trust of a large audience among the Club Members, both for the solidity of the idea and the product’s technology and for the marked connotation of social impact that the project brings with it. In 2022 the whole team is included in the Forbes Italia Under 30 ranking.

At the beginning it was really difficult to promote and start this new activity, especially to convince internal department commissions to recognize ECTS credits for the participation and also companies to pay to propose a challenge they had no guarantee would be solved. On the other hand, students have shown a huge interest in participating, so we advise other universities who would like to undertake a similar path to hold on because after the initial difficulties it would be very rewarding to see the results.

In fact, the challenges bring advantages both to students who develop innovation, entrepreneurial skills and enter a profitable network for their future career, as well as to companies which can scout young talents to introduce in the staff, and to the University itself, either when companies buy the property rights of the invention also bringing a major economic return, or in general from the collaboration which can lead to the development of further research or consultancy contracts.

To promote such kind of program in other universities, we would suggest to:

• present an overview of the issues with which entrepreneurs have to confront to stimulate in students the evaluation and discovery of their entrepreneurial attitudes;
• organize conferences or seminars presenting the benefits of this collaboration to local companies, especially small and medium enterprises, to engage them in the activity;
• cooperate with professors giving classes about entrepreneurship and with incubators, to provide information about the process and useful tools for creating an academic spin-off.

Following the European Union guidelines, which identifies entrepreneurship among the so-called "key competences" (necessary for all citizens’ personal development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment) that member countries are called upon to consider at every stage of their education and training, PoliTo aims to integrate the innovative program with the university study plan so that each student is guaranteed basic entrepreneurial training.

At this stage the program is still proposed as optional to students. The team CLIK desire is to integrate it in a journey lead by PoliTo’s technology transfer office, aimed at developing and promoting the entrepreneurial culture. The purposes are various and are not linked only to the creation of one's own business. In particular, the focus is on the ability to act with entrepreneurial spirit and skills. It is believed that entrepreneurship, together with other transversal skills, contributes to the employment prospects of young graduates with positive effects for both the economy and territory.

This approach to entrepreneurship allows students to exercise their "know-how" and helps them to transform knowledge into skills. In order to make the most of the potential of this program, integration with the other tools is crucial. In this way it is possible to build an entrepreneurship chain which can shepherd students from basic training to the possible establishment of a start-up and its subsequent entry into the market.

We hope our positive experience can persuade other universities to consider Challenges real learning activities to be worth having in the academic career path.