Università della Svizzera italiana

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Università della Svizzera italiana
University of the Italian part of Switzerland
logo
founding 1996
Sponsorship state
place Lugano and Mendrisio
country SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Rettore dell'Università della Svizzera italiana e vice-presidente del Consiglio dell'USI Boaz Erez
Students 2,862
Networks Swissuniversities
Website www.usi.ch
Main building on the Lugano campus (2018)

The Università della Svizzera italiana ( USI , German  University of Italian Switzerland ) was founded in 1996 as the first state university in the canton of Ticino and is based in Lugano and Mendrisio . It is the only university outside Italy where you can study in Italian. The languages ​​of instruction are Italian and English.

The faculties for communication sciences, economics, computer science and biomedicine, the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio, are based at the headquarters in Lugano. With around 3,000 students, it is one of the smallest universities in Switzerland.

More than half of the students come from Italy, but also from numerous other European and non-European countries. The English-language master’s courses in particular are characterized by their high degree of internationality.

The founding president was the Swiss immunologist Marco Baggiolini .

history

USI was founded in 1996. However, there is a preserved document from the city of Lucerne from 1588, which testifies to the first steps towards a university project in Lugano by the Somaskians and then the Jesuits . Both attempts failed.

In 1844 Stefano Franscini's project for a Ticino academy was approved by the Ticino Grand Council , but could not be implemented due to financial difficulties in the canton and the rivalries between Locarno , Bellinzona and Lugano. In the following century, the idea was taken up again in various forms, first as a university of Italian culture, then as a university of Italian-speaking Switzerland and finally as an institute for the culture of Italian-speaking Switzerland. None was enforced.

In 1985 the Grand Council approved the University Center of Italian Switzerland (Centro Universitario della Svizzera italiana, CUSI), but this was rejected in the 1986 referendum. In 1992 Mario Botta took up Roland Crottaz (President of the University Council of Technical Universities) for an architecture academy again and proposed to the Ticino government that such a project should be implemented, together with Government Councilor Giuseppe Buffi. In the following year, the city of Lugano, under the leadership of Giorgio Giudici, Mauro Baranzini, Sergio Cigada and Lanfranco Senn, commissioned the detailed planning of two faculties in Lugano. Two years later, Luigi Dadda and Remigio Ratti joined them.

In March 1995, the Lugano Municipal Council approved the project for two faculties for economics and communication. In October, the Ticino canton parliament passed the law on the constitution of the Università della Svizzera italiana with the two faculties in Lugano and the Architecture Academy in Mendrisio. In 1996, the Swiss Science Council endorsed the establishment of the Università della Svizzera italiana, which began with lectures on October 21 of the same year. For the first diploma awards in 2000, it received full recognition from the Federal Council , which thereby granted Ticino the status of a university canton. In the following year, USI became the first Swiss university to adapt to the Bologna Process . The Faculty of Computer Science was added in 2004, the Research Institute for Biomedicine (IRB) was added in 2010 and the establishment of the Faculty of Biomedicine was confirmed in 2014. In June 2020, USI was included in the QS World University Rankings 2021 for the first time . USI was ranked 273th worldwide.

Faculties

The university offers Bachelor , Master and Executive Master programs as well as the possibility of a doctorate in the following subject areas:

  • Accademia di Architettura ( Academy for Architecture ) in Mendrisio (Director: Riccardo Blumer)
  • Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società ( Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society ) in Lugano (Dean: Andrea Rocci)
  • Facoltà di Scienze Economiche ( Faculty of Economics ) in Lugano (Patrick Gagliardini)
  • Facoltà di Scienze Informatiche ( Faculty of Computer Science ) in Lugano (Dean: Kai Hormann)
  • Facoltà di Scienze Biomediche ( Faculty of Biomedicine ) in Lugano (Dean: Mario Bianchetti)

Accademia di Architettura

In addition to the technical aspects of the architectural profession, the main focus of the training is humanistic education. This is the aim with various specialist courses in philosophy , art history , anthropology and sociology . The teaching staff consists of cantonal, national and international professors and assistants. The presence of representatives of the “Ticino School” also plays a decisive role, which shaped the modernization of architecture in the canton of Ticino from the 1960s onwards. Important representatives of this group are also on the teaching staff of the Accademia di Architettura, including Luigi Snozzi , Aurelio Galfetti and Mario Botta. In addition, personalities such as Leonardo Benevolo , Massimo Cacciari , Harald Szeemann and the architect Peter Zumthor , who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2009 , have shaped the development of the school and thereby strengthened its international response.

A rough distinction can be made between theoretical and practical training, whereby the two are also interdisciplinary depending on the course or studio. The practical exercises take place in the design studios. They focus on specific topics that vary from semester to semester. The studios are limited to a maximum of 24 students and are run by a professor with the assistance of two architects. They comprise around 50 percent of all didactic activities. In addition, the practical exercises also include so-called horizontal studios of shorter duration. These are primarily dedicated to disciplines that complement design and planning, such as urban planning , ecology , etc.

The course corresponds to the European standards of the Bologna Agreement and is recognized in the European Union. After three years and a compulsory internship year, the Bachelor of Arts is obtained. The Master of Arts in Architecture (AAM) can be completed in the following two years. For admission to the course, both the federal Matura and comparable foreign degrees or diplomas are recognized.

Directors of the Accademia di architettura were u. a. Aurelio Galfetti (1996-2001), Valentin Bearth (2007-2011) and Mario Botta (2011-2012).

Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society

Andrea Rocci is the Dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences. It has 791 students (as of 2019). Research and teaching focus are medium (communication) media , new media and journalism , marketing , corporate communication , public communication , health communication , information and communication technologies , education and tourism .

Faculty of Economics

Patrick Gagliardini is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics. It has 1026 students (as of 2016). Research and teaching focus are banking , finance , management , economics and international politics , communication in finance, marketing.

Faculty of Computer Science

The Faculty of Computer Science was founded in 2004 by Mehdi Jazayeri. The current dean is Kai Hormann.

The faculty conducts research on a world-class level in various fields of computer science , such as computer science , computer systems, geometry and visual computing , information systems , intelligent systems , programming languages , software engineering , theory and algorithms . With its innovative range of courses, the faculty aims to train experts who are interdisciplinary in their approaches, think abstractly, have generally applicable skills and in-depth knowledge of the application of information technology , project management and teamwork.

Institute of Computational Science

The Institute of Computational Science (ICS) at the Faculty of Computer Science was founded in 2008 and is now one of the largest institutes for scientific computing in Switzerland. The ICS has established itself nationally and internationally as a competence center for teaching and research in the areas of mathematical modeling , numerical simulation and high-performance computing . Rolf Krause has been the director of the ICS since it was founded.

The cooperation partners of the ICS include the Cardiocentro Ticino (a clinic specializing in heart diseases), the ETH Zurich , the University of Geneva , the EPFL in Lausanne and the Jülich research center . The cooperation with the CSCS , Switzerland's national high-performance computing center located in Lugano-Cornaredo, enables the ICS to use its supercomputer systems.

Faculty of Biomedicine

The Faculty of Biomedicine was founded in 2014. The aim was and is to make a contribution to solving an important problem in Switzerland: the lack of apprenticeships for doctors and physicists. The new faculty offers a Masters degree in Medicine with a three-year program that will start in 2020, in collaboration with ETH Zurich , the University of Basel and the University of Zurich , where the Bachelor programs are offered. On the private side, the faculty is supported by the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale and private clinics in Ticino for practical teaching.

education

The USI teaches according to the system of the Bologna Reform and provides for bachelor's degrees after three years and master’s degrees after another two years. In addition, doctoral programs and executive masters are offered. The bachelor's degrees are: Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Bachelor of Science in Communication, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Bachelor of Arts in Lingua, letteratura e civiltà italiana.

This is followed by 19 master's programs and various doctoral programs in the various fields of architecture, communication, computer science, economics, immunology, cell biology and biochemistry (the latter at the IRB in Bellinzona).

research

A total of 817 employees - lecturers, researchers and assistants - work at the USI and the affiliated research institutes (IRB, IDSIA, IOR) through national and international research programs in various scientific fields, in particular:

  • architecture
  • communication
  • Data science
  • economy
  • Health sciences
  • Computer science
  • Medicine and biomedicine
  • Computer science
  • Humanities

Well-known lecturers

  • Mario Botta
  • Mauro Baranzini
  • Francesco Casetti
  • Alvaro Cencini
  • Sergio Cigada (1933-2010)
  • Marcel Danesi
  • Martin Eppler
  • Walter Fust
  • François Grin
  • Paolo Jedlowski
  • Carlo Ossola
  • Paolo Paolini
  • Michele Parrinello
  • Remigio Ratti
  • Francesca Rigotti
  • Eddo Rigotti
  • Fabrizio Sabelli
  • Boris Uspensky
  • Pietro Balestra
  • Maurizio Viroli
  • Gilles Kepel

Institutes

The following research institutes are also affiliated with the university:

  • Institute for Research into Artificial Intelligence ( IDSIA )
  • Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB)
  • Institute for Solar Research Locarno (Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno - IRSOL)
  • Institute for Oncology Research (IOR)

See also

Web links

Commons : Università della Svizzera Italiana  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. https://www.usi.ch/it/universita/organizzazione/struttura/rettorato
  2. ^ Members. In: www.swissuniversities.ch. swissuniversities, 2019, accessed on August 31, 2019 .
  3. International university ranking - Swiss universities retain their top positions. June 10, 2020, accessed June 10, 2020 .

Coordinates: 46 ° 0 ′ 39 "  N , 8 ° 57 ′ 30"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred seventeen thousand six hundred and ninety-seven  /  96611