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The doctoral school and symposium will take place in Selva di Fasano - Fasano (BR) at the "Hotel Sierra Silvana"

from September 20 to October 2, 2010.

Doctoral School

Ultra Large Scale Systems (ULSS) differ from systems and from systems of systems due to their dimensions. As so, they produce many challenges for the technologists that develop (produce and maintain), distribute and manage them, i.e. they provide many new research problems for who creates new knowledge, transforms it into technology and therefore transfers innovations in production processes.

The origins of ULSS derive from social problems that range from climatic changes to protection and security without omitting the continuously increasing complexity of transportation. these factors imply a continuous increase of information systems that evolve towards ultra-dimension systems, require digital communication networks that allow for communication between people, between objects, and objects and people. Being so, they integrate social, technical and economical aspects.

Due to the commission of ULS systems, information engineers, just to give a metaphor, are in the position of who builds buildings and must learn to build cities made up of buildings and networks of various types that influence one another and that are accessed by people, enterprises and institutions having different objectives, and therefore requesting all kinds of services.

ULS systems are characterized by dimension scales, that are quite different from current ones, like:

Number of lines of code.
Number of people with a large range of competences and capabilities, involved in development, management, and execution of the system.
Amounts of data stored, consulted, manipulated and elaborated.
Number of connections and interdependencies between software components.
Number of hardware elements included in the system.

Some characteristics that are dominant in ULS systems appear in an embryonic state in current software systems. As so, they mine many of the current assumptions of software system development (production and maintenance) and management.

Organization

The GII Doctoral School in Computer Engineering is organized by GII (Gruppo Ingegneria Informatica), in collaboration with GRIN (Gruppo di Informatica), as a common educational place for the doctoral university students from Italy and abroad with strong motivation towards Computer Engineering and Computer Science disciplines and applications. The GII school aims to be an international forum where doctoral students may meet, discuss and learn.

The school contributes to the education of students providing thematic lectures on relevant scientific and technological topics and occasions to meet and share experiences with colleagues and teachers. The model of the schools is that of a “full immersion” experience far from the usual activities of the students in their departments.

Every year a program is proposed that is focused on relevant topics covering foundational and research aspects as well as social and economic implications and their applicative fallout. In this respect, besides members of the academia, also experts from industry, public administration and private companies are invited as lecturers.The school comprises assessments of activity and involvement of the participants accordingly to suggestions of the teachers. The evaluations may be reported to the students' institutions to be converted in educational credits.

The school has been hosted in Rovereto (1995), Pavia (1996), Benevento (1997), Como (1998), Torino (1999 and 2000), Volterra (2002), Siena (2003), Benevento (2004), Siena (2005), Padova (2006), Palermo (2007), L’Aquila (2008) and Rende (2009). An average of 50 students per year has taken part to the school.