University of Lugano

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Università della Svizzera italiana
Faculty of informatics
Established	1996
Type	Public
Endowment	CHF 60 million
President	Piero Martinoli
Academic staff	743^[1]
Students	2850^[1]
Doctoral students	258^[1]
Location	Lugano (main), Mendrisio (Accademia di Architettura), Ticino 46°00′40″N 8°57′29″E / 46.011°N 8.958°E / 46.011; 8.958Coordinates: 46°00′40″N 8°57′29″E / 46.011°N 8.958°E / 46.011; 8.958
Campus	Urban 15 acres (0.1 km²)
Athletics	(no teams)
Website	usi.ch/en/index.htm

Università della Svizzera italiana (USI; literally University of Italian Switzerland) is a public university located in Lugano, Switzerland, founded in 1996. USI has four faculties (schools), and follows the European standard of three-year undergraduate studies and two-year master's (in Italian or English).

Campus

The Lugano campus developed around an existing neo-classical structure that was originally the city hospital circa 1996. Several state-of-the-art buildings have been added, most notably Informatics (2007), Aula Magna, Aule, Library, and LAB.

The main building consists of four floors containing: Communications and Economics offices (1-3), the Executive Centre, four computer labs (1), classrooms (1-3), the ALaRI institute (4), dining-center (2)(Q1-2007), and third-floor auditorium (3)(Q3-2007). The library is four floors tall: study tables line the interior, and a moderate collection of books and periodicals extend to the periphery; books can be requested from other libraries (e.g. ETH Zurich). The LAB has six floors: three floors dedicated as partitioned study & research space for Economics students; its name originates from its purpose as ETH Zurich's Chemical & Applied Biosciences Department.

Campus Map

The Aule, informally known as "Palazzo Rosso" (Red Building), hosts six classrooms on its three floors, and is commonly used by Economics and Communications faculties. The modern-looking concrete & metal Informatics building finished in 2007 contains classrooms (1), offices and study areas reserved for CS students and mentors (2-3). The university parking lot is hosted underneath Informatics and Aule.

Aula Magna is a university's convention hall and capable of seating over 1,000 people; it is used to host university conferences, speeches, and classical music concerts; and solely the entrance to the hall is visible above ground. South of the main building, the Central Services offices houses the presidency and core services of the university, and the Institutes provide offices for PhD students, assistants, and other research students.

Infrastructure

On-campus buildings require student ID badges for access to university facilities. Campus-wide Wi-Fi and wired Internet access connects students to the Swiss SWITCH network.

There is an apartment building owned by the school in town (Casa dell' Accademia). Other apartments are obtained through local agencies.

Departments & Faculty

USI has four faculties, three of which are located on the main campus, namely, Economics, Communication Science, and Informatics. The faculty of Architecture is located in the nearby town of Mendrisio. The campus is also shared with a theology department which is not affiliated with the university.

Architecture

Led by Director Marc Collomb. With forty lecturers and twenty-five design studios (including the famous Mario Botta, Massimo Carmassi, Valerio Olgiati), the Accademia in Mendrisio trains 712 students for 3-year bachelor, and 2-year masters degree (2011).

Economics

Led by dean François Degeorge. 1029 students (2011). Topics: Banking, Finance, Management, Economics and International Policies (it); Financial Communication, Marketing; in English and Italian.

Communication Science

Led by dean Lorenzo Cantoni. 865 students (2011). Topics: Media, new media and journalism, Marketing, Corporate Communication, Public communication, Healthcare communication, Information and communication technologies, Education and Tourism, mainly in Italian and English.

Informatics

Led by Dean Michele Lanza (since 2013). Founded in 2004, it offers the only undergraduate program at USI, with English as the language of instruction. The founding dean was Mehdi Jazayeri, a senior member and fellow of the IEEE and author of several books.

The Faculty of Informatics at Università della Svizzera italiana stands out as a center of excellence in advanced, world-class research in many areas of informatics, including computational science, computer systems, geometric and visual computing, information systems, intelligent systems, programming languages, software engineering, theory and algorithms. With its award-winning, innovative curriculum, the Faculty aims to train informatics experts that are interdisciplinary in approach, with abstract thinking and generalization skills, a sound knowledge in the application fields of information technologies, as well as project-management and teamwork abilities.

First year students cover mathematical topics, computer architecture, networking, and fundamental concepts of programming. A further course persists throughout the 3 year undergraduate curriculum. Called the Atelier, it has the purpose of bringing the courses together and to provide exposure to real world tools that are useful to computer scientists, including Unix, LaTeX, HTML/CSS, CVS.

Students are expected to learn about a wide variety of topics, from big O notation and calculus, through networking protocols and layers, to computer architecture. A variety of programming languages are used. Programming is introduced through Scheme and functional programming throughout the first semester, in parallel with the computer architecture course (which uses MIPS assembly). Later on, C and mostly Java are used. The curriculum puts a strong emphasis on teamwork, with a major group project happening at the end of every semester.

Master topics include Software Design, Dependable Distributed Systems, Embedded System Design (see ALaRI), Intelligent Systems (with IDSIA), Applied Informatics.

Institute of Computational Science

Led by Director Rolf Krause. Founded in 2008 towards realizing the vision of USI becoming a new scientific and educational node for Computational Science in Switzerland, the Institute of Computational Science (ICS) in the Faculty of Informatics combines strong competences in Mathematical Modeling, Numerical Simulation, and High Performance Computing. The ICS hosts seven research groups which focus on Advanced Computing in Computational Science, High Performance Methods for Numerical Simulation in Science, Medicine and Engineering, Computational Time Series Analysis, Computational Shape Analysis, Multi Scale and Multi Physics Models in Computational Biology, computational modeling of cardiac Electrophysiology, and the simulation of biological and physical systems.

The Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Master of Science graduate program at the ICS emphasizes a mathematical and methodological framework as well as an application oriented education in modern Informatics and Software Engineering.

Student life and culture

View from the main building

Università della Svizzera italiana had 2852 students in 2010-2011;^[1] of these 1039 (37%) are Swiss, and 1813 (63%) are foreign - from Italy (38%) or from over one hundred other nationalities (25%). Exchange students (see Erasmus) for 2009-2010 were 104.

In leisure time, students participate in city-sponsored tourism events,^[2] school-sponsored sporting activities,^[3] and student associations,^[4] despite the town's small population. Twenty student associations have been established, with student clubs oriented around economics (AIESEC, Finance Floor USI), informatics (EESTEC, IEEE student branch), and communications (L'universo newspaper). Student clubs help orient students beyond the scope and purpose of the university orientation program, providing both professional guidance and information in career choices, and shorter-term personal experience sharing on services and entertainment within student financial means otherwise not advertised in Lugano.

Associated institutions

Swiss National Supercomputing Centre
In 2013 USI has been accredited a UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites

Notes and references

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Students in Numbers". Unisi.ch. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
↑ "Lugano Events". Lugano-tourism.com. 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
↑ "USI Sport Club". Sport.unisi.ch. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
↑ "Student Associations". Unisi.ch. Retrieved 2011-07-08.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Università della Svizzera Italiana.

v t e Universities in Switzerland

Public universities	University of Basel University of Bern University of Fribourg University of Geneva University of Neuchâtel University of Lausanne University of Lucerne Università della Svizzera Italiana University of St. Gallen University of Zurich ETH Zurich EPFL Lausanne

Public universities of applied sciences	Bern University of Applied Sciences College of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg Switzerland Zurich University of Applied Sciences Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland

Private universities of applied sciences	Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences LRG University of Applied Sciences

Other institutions accredited by CRUS	Franklin College Switzerland Graduate Institute Geneva Theologische Hochschule Chur

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