DATA SHACK 2026

Harvard-Politecnico di Milano Joint Program on Data Science

INTRO

We offer a two-part research collaboration coupled with an innovative "hands-on" educational experience. This collaboration will involve students and faculty from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences' Data Science and Computational Science and Engineering Master's programs at Harvard, as well as participants from the Master's Courses in Computer Science and Engineering, Communication Design, and Fashion Design at Politecnico di Milano.

Eight students, four from Harvard and four from Politecnico di Milano, will join together to solve problems within the data science context. Under the supervision of Harvard and Politecnico di Milano faculty, this activity will give students the opportunity to work collaboratively with real-world applications.

Problems will cross the disciplines of data management, machine learning, data analysis, statistics and mathematics, data visualization and user experience design. Students will craft their solutions by developing the methodology, software, visualization, and high-performance elements, testing, completing the solution, and finally producing final papers that may be submitted for publication.

This joint venture will provide an exciting research opportunity for graduate students in data science to apply their work to the problems of society.

INTRO

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

FOCUS OF THE PROJECT

Generative AI for Fashion

PROJECT TIMELINE

APPLICATION AND BENEFITS

POLIMI CONTACTS

HARVARD CONTACTS

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) -
Office of Master's and Professional Programs (OMPP)

At Harvard SEAS, the Office of Master's and Professional Programs (OMPP) administers and bolsters SEAS master’s programs along with a spectrum of non-degree courses. The current roster of terminal master’s programs includes:

Computational Science and Engineering (offering both S.M. and M.E. degrees)
Data Science (S.M), a collaboration with the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Statistics Department
MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences, jointly with the Harvard Business School
MDE: Master in Design and Engineering, a collaborative degree with the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The master's programs in Computational Science and Engineering, as well as Data Science (S.M), offer students a robust core curriculum that strikes a harmonious balance between computer science, applied mathematics, and statistics. This foundational training, when coupled with the opportunity to delve into elective subjects, readies students to address challenges across diverse fields of their choosing. The curriculum is further enriched with project-based courses, fostering hands-on experience and encouraging collaborative problem-solving.

Politecnico di Milano

The master school in Computer Science and Engineering and the master school in Communication Design of Politecnico di Milano share the mission of creating qualified professionals, capable of understanding, monitoring and mastering the pressing needs of a continuously evolving society. The two schools offer master programs that produce several hundreds of top-quality graduates yearly.

The two schools are increasingly engaged in promoting interdisciplinary educational experiences with mixed teams of students; the interaction between engineers and designers produces very powerful forms of innovation, thanks to the mix of information technology and sound computational and mathematical foundations from one side, and creativity, design thinking and effective interaction design from the other. Both schools are engaged in new programs and courses centered on data science, which includes data-driven management, analysis, and visualization, with a problem-solving approach to training.

FOCUS OF THE PROJECT

Two projects are defined for the 2026 edition:

Generative AI for Fashion

This project aims to codify the integration of AI image-generation tools within the creative development process in the fashion design field.

The project line will focus on the inheritance of the Gianfranco Ferré archive that, since 2021, has become the core of the “Gianfranco Ferré Research Center - Digital Innovation for Cultural and Creative Industries” established by Politecnico di Milano following the Ferré family’s donation of the former Foundation’s archives and headquarters.

Specifically, DataShack’s project assets will be based on the archival database that counts about 40,000 digital records witnessing the designer’s activity through digitized technical drawings and illustrations, patterns, runway show images and videos, press releases and ADV pictures, as well as texts, lessons, and notes written by Ferré himself. Managing digital records and archival metadata will serve as a catalyst for exploring human-AI co-creation during the creative development phase, bridging fashion cultural heritage with innovative design approaches.

The project will explore the use of generative tools, such as multi-modal models, LLMs, and alike, and will aim at generati pipelines that improve the performance of AI tools in the fashion domain, specifically including chatbots, fine-tuned LLMs, and so on.

Real-Time Regions Of Interest Tracking With Vision Transformers

This project develops a system for real-time detection and tracking of regions of interest (ROIs) in video streams. The approach blends modern vision transformers (ViTs) with classical machine-learning techniques and physics-based motion constraints to achieve stable, robust tracking in dynamic environments.

Reliable ROI tracking in real-world video is a challenging problem: scenes often include fast motion, blur, repeated textures, and partial occlusion. Transformer-based models offer improved consistency and robustness for identifying and following planar surfaces across frames. By integrating these models with lightweight tracking modules, the system aims to deliver smooth, accurate ROI localization suitable for a variety of downstream augmentation tasks.

This work is conducted in collaboration with the Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Center, whose insights and domain experience help guide the project at a high level.

The final system will detect planar regions, maintain stable trajectories over time, predict motion under camera changes, and support seamless visual augmentation—all while operating near real-time.

PROJECT TIMELINE

The project will be scheduled along the following phases:

Jan 22 - Jan 30, 2026: faculty and students kick-off the project jointly in Harvard.
Feb to May 2026: Student teams interact to develop their project under the osmosis of the capstone course, jointly tutored by Polimi and Harvard faculty.
March 14 - 21, 2026: faculty and students set up an intensive joint work week at POLIMI. As a result of this work, students deliver a mid-term presentation. Harvard students are scheduled to travel to Milano during their spring break.
May 2026: Final workshop and presentation of results take place in remote mode at Harvard and POLIMI.

APPLICATION AND BENEFITS

POLIMI

For the second project, this program will select two students currently attending the second year of the Computer Science and Engineering Master (Laurea Magistrale) of Politecnico di Milano; for the first project, students have already been selected. Applicants must have obtained at least 40 CFU during their first year of Master studies, with an average grade above 27/30. Applications must be submitted through this online form by December 4th.

The application must include, as attachments, an up-to-date record of exams and a CV (including a description of experiences of programming and of group projects, international experiences, competences in AI, ML, Datascience). All the documentation must be attached as PDF files. Some students may be interviewed.

Selected students must attend the two planned full-immersion weeks.

In addition to the full immersion periods, they are expected to work throughout the semester by using the format of the Capstone Course, by interacting with professors of Politecnico and Harvard. They are expected to deliver a public presentation of their results at the end of the program and to participate in the trip to Boston in January.

The main travel costs (flight and accommodation) will be covered by the program. Students are responsible for the cost of food, local transportation, and other local and personal expenses.

Activities will be rewarded as 5 CFU Multidisciplinary project course (if not achieved yet and if it's in the study plan of the student) plus a Passion In Action course.

HARVARD

Harvard students must be in a Harvard master’s or PhD program. The Data-Shack program is being offered as a part of the Capstone course, so students signing up for this program must commit to taking this course during the spring semester.

Students are required to be on campus and participate in program activities with peers from Politecnico from January 22 to January 30 (Note that this includes some days prior to the official start of the spring semester).
Students must be available to travel to Milan during the week of spring break in March. Students must commit to collaborating with peers at Politecnico throughout the entire spring semester and will be expected to deliver a public presentation of their results at the end of the program.

The four students chosen to participate will be required to pay a $150 deposit to secure their spot in this program. We will cover airfare and double occupancy hotel. Students are required to pay for meals and additional expenses.

A complete application includes submission of the form linked and emailing your resume as a PDF to Pavlos Protopapas, Scientific Director of Master's Programs at pavlos@seas.harvard.edu.