The Department of Informatics (DI) was founded in 2001 and promotes numerous educational and research activities based on skills ranging from mathematics to physics through computer science.
In DI there are 70 structured professors, and about 250 people among Professors, Researchers, Phd students and Administrative Technical Staff.
DI as a Department of Excellence
Since 2018 the DI is recognized as a Department of Excellence thanks to a computer engineering project for Industry 4.0.
The aim of this project is to target specific skills towards the industrial world by closing the current gap linked to digital transformation and by making available the figure of the IT engineer, which took on an increasingly central role with the advent of Industry 4.0.
The Role of the Department within IMPROVENET
The role of the University of Verona within IMPROVENET is linked to the promotion of research activities related to Industry 4.0, where computer engineering is precisely at the center.
Among the initiatives there is the ICE Laboratory (Industrial Computer Engineering), which aims to design solutions and computer methodologies to automate and optmize the different production lines. The lab was created to raise the current industrial standards and increase the adoption of high-level engineering technologies in different production contexts.
The ICE Laboratory was realized with 2 million euro investment and it is a real small production line, able to completely simulate real environments, where all computer tests are carried out.
What is DI developing with project VIR2EM?
Within the project VIR2EM the Department provides an environment where you can develop the IT techniques applied to the industrial sector with pilot tests. The production line is standardized and fully reconfigurable according to the needs.
The methodological approach used is in line with the needs of Industry 4.0, linked to the transition from large batch production to modular batch production focused on the customer.
This setting allows you to easily change the recipes and the respective configuration of the production line.
Moreover, among the lines of research within the project VIR2EM we find the Digital Twin (the double digital of a system). To realize the digital twin is fundamental for making prediction, for reconfiguring the production process, for the virtual commissioning (virtual predisposition of my machine) and for the optimization of the production.
On this topic DI is currently working with:
- Galdi to realize a part of digital twin product, so as to develop a replicable methodology
- Sperotto Rimar, together with Unipd to put together the most classic techniques of physical production processes with techniques related to the functionality of the machine.
What other collaborations have been activated?
Through the PREMANI Project, DI has collaborated with Edalab, a company that manufactures Iot devices. Together they joined IoT and IIoT, developing an architecture for data collection from the production line that unifies data from the surrounding environment.
What is the advantage of participating in these projects in partnership?
The DI is very involved and engaged in the projects promoted by RIR IMPROVENET. VIR2EM is a very beautiful example of excellence, functional to empower computer engineering in the industrial sector. The next investments are directed to the design and implementation of protocols and networks to convey data on the cloud.
Prof. Franco Fummi, Department of Computer Science
Information Processing Systems
Research Area (ERC) Computer architecture, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing Computer systems, parallel/distributed systems, sensor networks, embedded systems, cyber-physical systems