Twenty years of events and innovation: the Faculty of Informatics and Ticino

On January 16 and 17, 2025, Voxxed Days Ticino, a well-known local IT event, will celebrate its tenth edition. This anniversary coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the Faculty of Informatics at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). Over the past two decades, the Faculty has frequently participated in similar projects, thanks partly to its strong connections with the community and the people of Ticino.

The double anniversary presents an excellent opportunity to chat with Mauro Prevostini, the Programme Manager of the Faculty of Informatics and a member of the organising committee for Voxxed Days Ticino. Below is an interview conducted by the Institutional Communication Service.

Mauro Prevostini, this academic year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Faculty of Informatics. It has been two decades filled with courses and various events, both within the Faculty and in the broader community. How has the landscape changed from 2004 to today?

"From an organisational perspective, I recall that in the early days of the Faculty, I was practically alone in my efforts. However, now we have developed into a strong team. Over the past twenty years, our staff structure has become much more defined. In terms of content, the topics discussed at our various events have naturally evolved over time. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) was rarely mentioned in the past, but it has now become a significant focus. It was already present but treated marginally, unlike other topics. This trend is no longer the case today. I've observed a shift in the nature of these encounters over the years, which also affects our role as the Faculty of Informatics. Previously, in addition to scientific conferences, we organised dissemination conferences as part of other events. There was, for example, "Ticino Informatica", which took place in autumn, or the "Lugano Communication Forum", which took place in the spring, and there were themed areas within them. They discussed not only technology but also information technology and its application in other fields. This was significant because people could only access advanced information by attending these events. Today, however, all information is readily available on the web, completely transforming the nature of such gatherings. As a matter of fact, they have become more specialised and mainly involve software developers and researchers, who get together to talk and hone their skills. What, however, has remained unchanged over the years is precisely this: the desire to come together. Even the pandemic period, characterised by online meetings, hasn't extinguished the desire to get together, share notes, discuss, and, why not, laugh and joke together, which is always beneficial.

Can Ticino today be defined as an IT canton? And if so, more or less than 20 years ago, compared to the early days of the Faculty?

"I would like to begin my response with a personal anecdote. When I was hired by USI in 2001 as a Project Manager to collaborate with Professor Mehdi Jazayeri on designing the Faculty of Informatics, an acquaintance-who was older and familiar with the area-remarked to me, "You know, Mauro, Ticino transitioned from using farming tools to computers rather too quickly." At that time, the necessity of a Faculty of Informatics in our canton was not immediately apparent. However, we believed that if we could establish a centre that was both local and international in scope, attracting world-class professors and researchers, we could achieve success and create something truly original. The advantage of having no particular constraints allowed us to create an innovative curriculum focused on project-based learning. This approach proved to be a key factor that led to Prof. Jazayeri, the first Dean of the Faculty, receiving prestigious international teaching awards. In collaboration with the Faculty of Informatics at USI, we saw a growth in existing institutions in the area, such as the Department of Innovative Technologies at SUPSI. As a result, Ticino now boasts a cutting-edge technological hub that ranks third in Switzerland, following Zurich and Lausanne, which are home to the two Federal Institutes of Technology with significantly larger enrollments than ours. Due to these developments, there is a growing demand for IT specialists in Ticino. We proudly introduce our Faculty, which is well-equipped to meet this need".

The connection with the region, we suggested earlier, also passes through the events organised there. What future do you envisage for these events and consequently, at least in part, for your connection with the population?

"Predicting what will happen in the future is always very complicated. The connection to the community will always be essential for communicating the findings from our research groups and for explaining to the public what our university does. Informatics, after all, is still a relatively young discipline, and it is not always easy to fully understand many sides. We often only recognise the importance of this discipline when something goes wrong, such as when an airport closes due to an IT breakdown. As a result, we tend to overlook how frequently it benefits us in our daily lives, almost unnoticed. With this in mind, we strive to ensure that our events are more widely shared. Although many resources are available on the Internet, it remains essential to understand what the local university offers. We should engage with its researchers, learn about their work, and grasp their insights on critical contemporary issues, such as ChatGPT. Returning to the initial question, I believe and hope this will be the direction we take in the future concerning our connection with the community".

In recent years, as mentioned earlier, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has dominated the scene and has now pervaded most industry events. It was not always the case, however, was it?

"Thanks to the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA), founded in the late 1980s, AI research was already well established at the beginning of the millennium. However, there was little discussion of AI because it had not yet reached the general public. In the early days of the Faculty, one of the research topics dealt with within it was pervasive computing, i.e. computing and related devices that - integrated into the everyday environment - become almost imperceptible, as wireless sensor networks were at that time. Computer applications were thus already geared towards supporting other disciplines such as finance, medicine or agriculture, sectors in which large amounts of data can be collected, which, with the advent of AI, can now be analysed more quickly and from which specific predictions can be extracted much more reliably than in the past. To draw a parallel with respect to twenty years ago and the concept of pervasion, it can be said that today AI, through machine learning algorithms, is in turn pervading many IT services or products to the benefit of numerous disciplines. At the same time, the way of teaching and learning informatics is also changing, embracing AI-based technologies. Let me give an example: in the past, the programmer worked hours and hours on lines of code. Today, on the other hand, thanks to the support of AI, precise indications are enough to obtain automatic and significant help in a matter of seconds, thus significantly reducing programming time. Sometimes, however, in my opinion, the use of the term "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" is a bit overblown, so much so that sometimes the general public tends to talk about AI even when it comes to a simple computer programme that helps automate some routine work, for which no AI algorithm is involved."

In a few weeks, Voxxed Days Ticino, an event focused on programming, will celebrate an important milestone: its tenth edition. The Faculty of Informatics at USI, we recall, is among the organisers - and participants - of the event. Can you tell us a little about what it is all about and what the 2025 edition has in store for us?

"First of all, I am very pleased to see that Voxxed Days Ticino is about to cross such an important milestone as its tenth anniversary. This year, a record was even set for the number of proposals for papers and workshops received, with more than 200 proposals being screened by the experts on the programme committee. The event is naturally a specialised event, for example - but not only - for developers using Java, a programming language that - by the way - celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Between Voxxed Days Ticino, the USI Faculty of Informatics and Java, it is indeed a special year full of anniversaries. As far as the Voxxed Days Ticino programme is concerned, on Thursday, 16 January 2025 - at the East Campus Lugano - workshops will be held, where timely topics will be explored in depth with experts in the field. On Friday, 17 January, on the other hand, the main event will take place at Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano, with high-level lectures by speakers selected by the programme committee, who will come from a dozen European countries and the United States of America. The event is therefore dedicated to a specialised audience, such as the community of software developers from the canton of Ticino and beyond Gotthard and northern Italy. Of course, it will not be exclusively about Java and programming, but room will also be given to other topics such as AI or cyber security. The aim of such an event is that participants can hone their knowledge and use it to further their own profession. Networking creates valuable contacts through the engagement of company representatives. It is precisely for this reason that students can take advantage of a reduced admission fee so that those already studying IT can meet specialists and come into contact with the world of work. As already mentioned, several companies in Ticino are looking for good IT specialists but are having difficulty finding any. An event such as Voxxed Days Ticino, in this sense, helps and inspires all parties. This is why it is important for USI, as well as SUPSI, to be part of the organising committee in order to support and encourage its students to enter a working world that offers excellent prospects for the future and, at the same time, to provide companies with cutting-edge skills through its researchers'.

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