The MRU offers education and research activities focused on three main themes:

1. Precision Manufacturing, where precision machines and processes evolution couples with a significant enrichment of design methodologies towards a more efficient management of continuous innovation.
   
   
2. Sustainable Production Systems development, focused on the design and management of new integrated processes, towards greener and customer driven manufacturing. This activity takes into account an holistic approach to the factory, that includes productivity, costs, quality, as well as environmental and social sustainability.
   
   
3. Bio & Environmental Technologies, devoted to the realization of innovative systems for energy production, waste treatment and sustainable industrial technologies.
   
   

This interdisciplinary program puts the emphasis on practical application and hands-on experience, where students are prepared for professional practice and are exposed to a full range of engineering functions. The MEL MRU draws on the large experience of researchers involved in many industrial projects at local, national, European and international level.
As a distinguishing element, the MEL MRU focuses on the international dimension of the above mentioned activities and thus the occurrence of multicultural classes are key elements of this programme.

Latest years witnessed a rapid growth in terms of technical and scientific evolution in precision manufacturing technologies. This paved the way for a radical transformation of the activities of engineers and promoted the creation of new professional roles within manufacturing companies. This priority theme, within the MEL MRU, is seen as a concrete answer to the growing need of professional figures meant to foster precision manufacturing evolution and growth, thanks to the capability to manage traditional and recent technologies from the design phase to production phase. Advanced topics in precision manufacturing fosters a practical hands-on approach and simultaneously promotes students participation to R&D activities. The students will be able to:

• Develop personal capabilities (problem setting/solving, complexity management, idea generation, team working and management)
• Simultaneously handle electric, electronic, mechanic aspects in precision manufacturing
• Manage and lead continuous technological innovation, evolution and R&D projects
• Learn and integrate new design tools
• Develop and design of automatic assembly machines
• Functional design of mechanical and mechatronic systems

The programme is held in Lugano except for a period in China, meant to introduce Chinese culture, economy, science & technology policies, as China is one of the largest marketplaces for Swiss Precision Machines.

Global competition and new production paradigms, such as mass customization and sustainable development, increase the importance of a suitable production system design and management.
This priority theme is devoted to the analysis and design of the various components of a production system as well as to the definition at various decision levels (strategic, tactical, operational) of the management policies to be applied. Moreover, the software tools and the ICT architecture, to be developed and applied for monitoring and managing these complex production networks, will be dealt with, also providing a roadmap for their effective application in various contexts. Students involved in this priority theme will be able to:

• Develop a systemic view of production systems and networks, applying in an integrated way various modeling methodologies and tools (business, process engineering, Value Stream mapping, IDEF, discrete event simulation, etc.)
• Apply integrated product-process-plant design concepts driven by mass customization and life-cycle management objectives
• Design and manage collaborative production networks and supply chain, developing new theoretical framework and specifying all the policies required for ensuring effective coordination among the partners
• Design and apply appropriate enterprise information systems and other ICT solutions for enhancing the configuration and management of production systems

Innovative systems for energy production and waste treatment are more and more key elements for successful industrial implementation. This priority theme collects and merge the research and educational activities devoted to sustainable energy production, energy saving in industrial processes, sustainable transports and logistics, waste treatments, pharmaceutical sector. Students involved in this priority theme will face several aspect of sustainable environmental technologies design, development and implementation, such as:

• Thermal fluid-dynamics for renewable energy systems
• Optimization of microbial-based waste treatment processes
• Dissolved Air Flotation wastewater treatment implementation
• Industrial processes analysis and improvement for energy saving
• Intermodal freight transport logistic implementation (new technologies and related business models)
• Synthetic and Organic products recycling