Research Report Year 2003

Ph. D. Program in Computer Science

Ph.D. programs were introduced in Italian Universities in 1982. Since the very beginning the Dipartimento di Informatica of Università di Torino has been active in promoting and organizing the Ph.D. School in Computer Science at Università di Torino.

Since 1999 the Ph.D. program in Computer Science is run in conjunction with the Computer Science group of Università del Piemonte Orientale, which nominates some members of the Committee (Collegio Docenti). The majority of the Committee members are nominated by Dipartimento di Informatica.

The goal of the Ph.D. program is to provide Ph.D. students with a solid knowledge and understanding of different areas of Computer Science and with the ability to peform state-of-the-art research in one of the areas.

In order to fulfil this goal, the Ph.D. program has been organized according to these main characteristics:
· The Ph.D. program requires Ph.D. students to attend graduate courses offered directly by the Dipartimento di Informatica and by National and International Summer Schools (in particular the Bertinoro International Summer School for graduate studies in Computer Science, jointly organized by the Ph.D. schools in a number of universities: among them, Universita' di Torino).
· Joint research activity between the members of the Department and the Ph.D. students in projects of national interest and/or in international projects (particularly those projects supported by the European Union, since they provide an international context where universities, research centers and industries work together). The strong cooperation between members of the Department and the Ph.D. students is witnessed by many co-authored papers. The success of our Ph.D. Program is also shown by the high number of past Ph.D. students who have academic positions in Italy or in foreign countries.
· Attention to applied research and co-operation with industry and research centers. In the last few years a number of Ph.D. students have started to work in such private research centers or industry.
· The Department offers a wide range of international contacts via projects supported at an international level and via Networks of Excellence. Moreover, the Ph.D. students are encouraged to spend some months for visiting a foreign university or research center. The Ph.D. program in Computer Science of Università di Torino is open to co-operation with other Ph.D. programs. Since 1999 our PhD School is a member of the Italian inter-universitary Partnership (IP) of the European Educational Forum (EEF, http://www.tucs.abo.fi/EEF/ ). A number of formal agreements exist with other universities: Universite de Savoie (Chambery, France), University of Birmingham (UK) and University of Novi Sad (Yugoslavia).

In 2003 the Committee of the Ph.D. Program in Computer Science (Collegio Docenti del Dottorato) has been chaired by
Prof. Pietro Torasso (Università di Torino)
and its members were:
Prof. Anglano Cosimo (Università del Piemonte Orientale A.Avogadro)
Prof. Balbo Gianfranco (Università di Torino)
Prof. Balossino Nello (Università di Torino)
Prof. Bergadano Francesco (Università di Torino)
Prof. Coppo Mario (Università di Torino)
Prof. Dezani Mariangiola (Università di Torino)
Prof. Donatelli Susanna (Università di Torino)
Prof. Franceschinis Giuliana (Università del Piemonte Orientale A.Avogadro)
Prof. Giolito Piercarlo (Università di Torino)
Prof. Giordana Attilio (Università del Piemonte Orientale A.Avogadro)
Prof. Martelli Alberto (Università di Torino)
Prof. Ronchi della Rocca Simona (Università di Torino)
Prof. Saitta Lorenza (Università del Piemonte Orientale A.Avogadro)
Prof. Terenziani Paolo (Università del Piemonte Orientale A.Avogadro)

In February 2003 the following people obtained the qualification of Ph.D. in Computer Science:

PALANO Beatrice
PICARDI Claudia
SARINI Marcello
VALENTE Andrea

In April 2003 the following people obtained the qualification of Ph.D. in Computer Science:
BERNARDI Simona
ESPOSITO Roberto

The following Ph.D. students have concluded the Ph.D. before December 31, 2003 and the discussion of their dissertation is scheduled for Spring 2004

BALLARINI Paolo
BARAVALLE Andres
BOSCO Cristina
DE PIERRO Massismiliano
LANFRANCHI Vitaveska

In November 2003 the following people started the Ph.D. program (19th call)

Bottrighi Alessio
D'Aprile Davide
Falzetta Giuseppe
Micalizio Roberto
Pozzato Gian Luca
Robaldo Livio
Sorin Cheran
Schifanella Claudio
Schifanella Rossano
Torasso Laura

Among tha many activities organized by th Ph.D. Program in 2003, it is worth noting the Advanced Course on Information Society Technologies, held in Torino from March 24 to April 3, 2003 (details at http://www.di.unito.it/~acist) . This Spring School has been attended by over 25 Ph.D. students and young researchers coming from italian and foreign universities The school has been supported by MIUR- Coperlink and the Network of Excellence KDDnet