Genomics and Bioinformatics, Big Data, Smart Cities & Society, Personalized Medicine, Machine Learning and Deep Learning: these are some of the teaching areas of the second year of the doctoral school in Data Science and Computation, whose announcement has just been published, activated by the newborn Consortium founded by the Alma Mater of Bologna, the Polytechnic of Milan and the Golinelli Foundation of Bologna. Three different institutions which thus confirm their interest in a strategic and long-term national project: that of being a reference point in Italy for research in the field of Big Data and Data Science.
If in the first year, in 2017, 14 scholarships were awarded to as many researchers who have already started their four-year course, there are 16 scholarships available this year: 3 on free topics and the remaining restricted in various research fields, including: Genomics and Bioinformatics, Personalized Medicine, Industry 4.0, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Computational Physics and others. After the selection of candidates which will take place until July, the four-year course will begin in the autumn.
In addition to the founders of the Consortium, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the Italian Institute of Technology - IIT also adhere to and support the project. This second edition is also supported by some private companies interested in joining the initiative: in particular, this year, CRIF, a global company specializing in credit and commercial information systems, and YOOX will support the school, each for a research grant NET-A-PORTER GROUP, global leader in online luxury fashion. In addition to CINECA, the Oncological Reference Center of Aviano (CRO) and ALFASIGMA SpA who had already joined in 2017.
The teaching staff will reach 22 units and one will be created Steering committee of the founders based in Opificio Golinelli in Bologna.
Pier Francesco Ubertini, rector of Alma Mater Studiorum of Bologna
“The topic of big data has assumed a leading role in recent years. The need to interpret a large amount of data and to understand the impact of complex phenomena has become a need that goes beyond the confines of digital to embrace numerous areas of knowledge. From this innovative scenario, last year, the PhD in Data Science and Computation was born: a cutting-edge program that aims to become a point of reference in Italy. Born thanks to the collaboration between academic centers and leading companies in the sector, the course aims to train experts capable of carrying out university and industrial research activities at a qualitative level that abstracts from the individual academic-scientific components".
Ferruccio Resta, rector of the Milan Polytechnic
“The Politecnico di Milano believes in this initiative for at least two good reasons. Firstly, we believe it is essential to invest in higher education, and in particular in the PhD, in response to the desire for innovation of companies and of the country. Europe teaches us this, where this qualification is increasingly responsive to the needs of the productive fabric. Our students tell us, more than half of them outside the academic walls once they become PhDs. We also believe that great challenges can be won together. For this reason, a project such as the Doctoral School in Data Science and Computation, which sees the participation of research as well as industry, which invests in leading themes, which broadens its partnership and which thinks according to an inclusive and non-competitive logic , is the right path to take for the future of a system that knows how to network”.
Andrea Zanotti, president of the Golinelli Foundation
“It is a source of great satisfaction to record such a strong convergence and unity of purpose between academic realities and companies to give substance to a doctoral school. The theme, Data Science, is central and strategic: but it is also certain that the role of trigger and enzyme played by the Golinelli Foundation has had and still has a decisive function in this matter. Indeed, there is a need to make the best forces of our system work together: founding and sharing original and courageous visions of the future. And above all, there is a need for someone who takes the initiative and responsibility. We are confident that the big data sector relating to meteorology - which should find its European point of gravitation in Bologna, as announced some time ago - can enrich the spectrum of a research destined to be the beating heart of a knowledge that is already at the time itself, innovation and enterprise”.
Davide Capuzzo, senior analytics director, CRIF
“CRIF in the field of Data Science has always placed itself in a logic of innovation and experimentation, while complying with current and evolving regulations. In this context, CRIF has found in the Consortium the possibility of sponsoring research that combines increasingly complex and high-performance data analysis methodologies, such as machine learning and deep learning, with the intelligibility of the data by the end user. We believe that the achievement of this result necessarily passes from a wide-ranging study process, such as a doctorate, and can have important repercussions in the context of data-driven decision-making processes".
