Grazie, Enzo: Engineering, Elegance, and the Art of Italian Design

This weekend, the Italian Grand Prix roars into Monza. It’s a stage where design brilliance and engineering mastery converge — where Ferrari, the most successful Formula One team in history, embodies not just performance but beauty, elegance, and heritage. As I write this on Friday evening, the two Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc have just secured first and second place in the opening practice session of the weekend.

After a very successful first week of the new academic year for STAR21, it feels like the perfect moment for us, as co-founders, to give a heartfelt thank you to our own Enzo — the lead engineer who has brought Starlight to life.

What Enzo has built is not just a platform that works near-flawlessly. It is something that carries the unmistakable qualities of Italian design: simple, elegant, and purposeful. Like the Roman aqueducts that still stand two millennia later, it is engineered for endurance. Like Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence, it combines technical audacity with aesthetic beauty. Like the Olivetti typewriter or the Vespa scooter, it is human-centred, intuitive, and timeless. And like a Ferrari, it performs at the very highest level while looking effortless.

He has also built Starlight with security at its core. For teachers and schools, GDPR compliance and data protection are absolutely essential — and Enzo has ensured that Starlight is not only elegant and intuitive, but also robust and safe.

From the beginning, our dream for STAR21 has been to create technology that belongs in high-performance environments. Many of the teachers we work with are passionate about Formula One, and we’ve often spoken of our aspiration to one day see our five-pointed STAR21 emblem carried into that arena. To see it on a Ferrari — with all the symbolism of British educational technology, shaped with Italian design excellence — would be the pinnacle.

But whether or not that day comes, what we know already is this: Starlight has inherited the very best of that design tradition, thanks to Enzo. His work has given teachers a tool that is not only powerful but beautiful to use, one that feels as though it was designed for them from the start.

Enzo, grazie. From Monza to Rome, from aqueducts to Formula One, the legacy of Italian design shines through your work — and we are deeply grateful. We look forward to a long journey of friendship and collaboration with you, as together we strengthen STAR21’s products, serve the teachers and students who rely on them, and advance our mission to make education better for all.

— Adam & Tim, Co-Founders of STAR21

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The Insight Engine is written by Adam Sturdee, co-founder of Starlight—the UK’s first AI-powered coaching platform—and Assistant Headteacher at St Augustine’s Catholic College. This blog is part of a wider mission to support educators through meaningful reflection, not performance metrics. It documents the journey of building Starlight from the ground up, and explores how AI, when shaped with care, can reduce workload, surface insight, and help teachers think more deeply about their practice. Rooted in the belief that growth should be private, professional, and purposeful, The Insight Engine offers ideas and stories that put insight—not judgment—at the centre of development.