Paper—Empowering Talented Students: An Italian Experience of an Enriched Curriculum in Engineering Empowering Talented Students: An Italian Experience of an Enriched Curriculum in Engineering https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v9i3.10140 Maria Giulia Ballatore ( * ) , Laura Montanaro, Anita Tabacco Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy maria.ballatore@polito.it Abstract—This paper summarizes the design, the activities performed, and the main results achieved by an innovative teaching program, set-up for the tal- ented freshmen in Engineering Bachelor’s courses at an Italian technical Univer- sity, the Politecnico di Torino, starting from 2013. The project structure is here detailed, year-by-year, with a focus on both the reinforcement of an Engineering standard curriculum, and the hybrid activities, also in non-technical areas, such as soft-skills, critical thinking, humanities, and creativity. The strategies and methods for the students’ selection are discussed, and the University human resource efforts and the costs involved are justified. The results achieved during a three-year experience, based on a structured survey to collect students’ feedback, are then critically analysed with the purpose to sug- gest implementation and further development. Keywords— Top Bachelor Students; Action Research; Reverse Inclusion Pro- cess; Hybrid Learning; Soft-Skills Abbreviations—Academic Year (a.y.); Action Research (AR); Research Cen- tre of FIAT (CRF); FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobile); Politecnico di Torino (PoliTo); Talented Student (TS); Test in Laib (TIL). 1 Introduction The Politecnico di Torino, from now on referred to as PoliTo, is an Italian Technical University with Engineering and Architectural schools. Like the whole Italian univer- sity system, it undergoes to the Bologna process regulation that requires a Bachelor lasting three years and a Master of Science lasting two years. In order to obtain a degree, a student needs to acquire 180 ECTS during the Bachelor program and 120 ECTS for Master. The academic year (a.y.) is divided into two semesters and each subject has two calls in the exam section right after the classes end. Moreover, there are two recov- ery calls, one at the end of the other semester, and one in September. An exam is passed if the score is higher than 18/30; the maximum obtainable score is 30/30. 56 http://www.i-jep.org