USI Alumni Reunion in Informatics 2025: An Evening of Celebration and Get-Togethers

The Alumni Reunion of USI Faculty of Informatics was held on Friday, 9 May, to celebrate the Faculty's first 20 years. Over 220 graduates from 34 different countries attended the event. It was an evening filled with celebration and connection, honouring the Faculty's 20th anniversary and the joy of reuniting with former classmates, professors, and friends.

It was a grand celebration for the Faculty of Informatics and its 1,386 alumni, most of whom have completed a Master's degree (63%) or a Doctorate (20%) and are extremely international: 20% are Swiss while the remaining 80% come from 100 other countries around the world. At the employment level, they are well integrated, with 97.6% of the employed, 55.4% working in Switzerland.

During Friday's reunion, the event began with an institutional welcome from Rector Prof. Luisa Lambertini and the current Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Marc Langheinrich. Following their remarks, the audience listened to a speech by Prof. Mehdi Jazayeri, the founding Dean of the Faculty of Informatics, as well as a talk by Switzerland's first astronaut, Prof. Claude Nicollier. After these presentations, alumni had the opportunity to participate in various workshops and learn about USI's involvement in space through its participation in the SXS - Space Exchange Switzerland consortium.

To celebrate this commitment to space visually, the artist Yuri Catania held an exhibition called "Astro.expositio" during the reunion. He graciously donated reproductions of one of his works depicting astronaut Claude Nicollier on a mission. Both the artist and Claude Nicollier co-signed these reproductions during the festive evening.

These artworks are being auctioned until the end of May to raise funds for scholarships for students of the Faculty.