Twenty years of success: the Faculty of Informatics kicks off celebrations

Established in 2004 as the fourth Faculty of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), the Faculty of Informatics has grown to become a world-class centre of excellence. As it celebrates its 20th anniversary, the Faculty now has 653 students from over 40 countries and boasts 1,300 alumni worldwide. It has also gained international recognition for its innovative educational programs and its cutting edge research. This important anniversary represents a special occasion to strengthen and expand the proximity to the region.

On Thursday, 24 October, at the West Campus Lugano Auditorium, the inaugural event to kick off the celebrations will take place. The event will include a "sparkling" round table discussion with the Faculty's six co-founding professors: Mehdi Jazayeri, the first dean, Alex Wolf, Amy Murphy, Antonio Carzaniga, Michele Lanza, and Fernando Pedone. The following day, as part of the 20th-anniversary celebrations, a three-day Hackathon on artificial intelligence will take place from 25 to 27 October. The event is organised by a group of Master's students from the Faculty of Informatics with the support of USI.

The celebrations will continue throughout the academic year with exciting events, including Sportech 2025. The Faculty will participate in this annual technology fair at the Tenero Sports Center in January. A hands-on workshop on autonomous driving will be offered from the Software Institute (SI) to middle and high school students from across Switzerland, giving them the opportunity to explore artificial intelligence and machine learning by programming 1:16-scale cars.

Finally, the celebrations will conclude on Saturday, 10 May 2025, with the 29th Dies Academicus and UniVerso, USI's first open day.

More information about the programme for the evening of Thursday, 24 October, is available by downloading the attached invitation.