How is our University doing? A week of USI at Rete Due
Institutional Communication Service
8 March 2021
Throughout 2021, Università della Svizzera italiana will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation. The radio program of RSI Rete Due "Diderot - le voci dell'attualità" joins the celebrations by dedicating a full week of short interviews with various figures of our University to see "how USI is doing" - in general; how it is coping with the pandemic; its postition in terms of research and teaching; its future prospects... these are some of the topics discussed each day with a range of different 'voices' from within our University and from outside. An opportunity to reflect on the current situation in our community and, more generally, to get to know USI.
The 'USI week' of Rete Due opened with an interview of Prof. Luca M. Visconti, Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, who explained the thinking behind the new name of the Faculty (formerly 'of Communication Sciences') and above all of the new positioning that will see it come closer to the socio-cultural context of our society. In this regard, Visconti also spoke of "Convergence and Distance", the main theme of the Faculty's new two-year cultural project, an "event" of reflection on the one hand and of open dialogue (with citizens and stakeholders) on the other.
The second day of the series featured two interviews. First, Laura Pozzi, Full professor at the Faculty of Informatics, who addressed the issue of women and studies in science, emphasizing that the beauty of Informatics absolutely goes beyond gender, and illustrating the promotional activities such as Nuovo futuro, a nation-wide initiative aimed at young female (but also male) students to show them the many possible training curriculum available, regardless of gender. Later, Astrid Epiney, Rector of the University of Fribourg, offered an outside look at Switzerland's only Italian-language university and how USI is perceived in the rest of the country.
The series continued with the considerations of the current Director of the Academy of Architecture, Riccardo Blumer, who shared with the radio listeners considerations on his role as Dean, underlining in particular his will to embrace the multidisciplinary character of USI and to spread this spirit also on the Mendrisio campus. Then it was the turn of Patrick Gagliardini, Pro-Rector for Research, who explained what it means to do research, quantifying the "intensity" of the activities performed by researchers at USI.
Boas Erez, Rector of USI, closed the series with his final considerations, among which he confirmed the positive outlook provided both by those interviewed during the week and by the objective assessments coming from outside the University - referring in particular to the good positions USI has obtained in various international academic rankings.
The full interviews are available at the links indicated in the "Quicklink" section of this page (top right).
#USI25 #USIsU #facciamoconoscenza