The University of Naples Federico II

The first publicly funded university in Europe and one of the oldest to be founded by a head of State, the University of Naples was established by Imperial Charter on 5 June 1224, by King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, in whose honour the University was named Federico II in 1987.

Over its long history, the University had among its teaching staff many notable professors including the philosophers St. Thomas Aquinas and Giambattista Vico, the mathematician Renato Caccioppoli, the economists Antonio Genovesi and Francesco Saverio Nitti, the physicists Ettore Maiorana and Macedonio Melloni, the physicians Antonio Cardarelli, Domenico Cotugno and Vincenzo Monaldi, the volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli to mention just a few. It counts among its graduates and Alumni three former Presidents of the Italian Republic.

Nowadays, the University with over 7,000 members of staff and approximately 90,000 students is one of the most prominent in Italy. It is divided into 4 Schools and 26 Departments. The University currently offers 141 courses in 13 teaching areas (Agriculture, Architecture, Biotechnology, Economics, Engineering, Humanities, Law, Mathematics, Medicine and Surgery, Pharmacy, Physics and Natural Sciences, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine). Its facilities include: fourteen highly specialised museums; two botanical gardens hosting unique species; the central library facility linking division/school libraries, runs digital programmes providing free access and wide dissemination of published materials to academic staff; 17 inter-departmental research centres open to scholars of all departments and schools; and 21 service and study centres. In striving to become a world university, Federico II places the highest priority in nurturing relationships, both within Italy and internationally, especially through cooperation with scientifically advanced international research institutions and promoting staff and student participation in exchange programmes within Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (DIETI) presently comprises about 120 fulltime faculty members, 8 research assistants, 41 research fellows and more than 70 PhD students. DIETI offers Master’s degree programmes in: Automation Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, Informatics, and Telecommunication Engineering. These are complemented by a PhD Programme in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and a new PhD Programme in Information and Communication Technology for Health.

DIETI members promote and participate in both interdisciplinary, interdepartmental collaborations and international collaborations, to cover the following research areas/themes:

• Control Engineering, Automation and Robotics
• Industrial Applications of Electrical Engineering and ICT
• Environment and Critical Infrastructures
• Energy, Telecommunications and Computing Infrastructures
• Design and Management of Services for Society,
• Public Administration and Private Firms
• ICT Applications for Healthcare Services and in the field of Medicine and Biology.

The department was recognized nationally as a Department of Excellence by the Italian Ministry for University and Research and selected for special funding in 2017.

The University of Sannio in Benevento

Originally established as a branch of the University of Salerno, the University of Sannio (UniSannio) has been fully autonomous since 1998. Unisannio is deeply immersed and integrated in the local community, with its various campuses, departments and facilities distributed throughout the beautiful, historically significant city of Benevento, capital of the homonymous province located in the Campania region in southern Italy.

The Department of Law, Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM) occupies premises in Piazza Arechi II (Law) and via Delle Puglie (Economics) close to the Villa Comunale. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is headquartered in Via Port’Arsa amidst the magnificent environs of the Roman Theatre. Finally, the Department of Engineering (DING) is located in the city centre, operating out of beautiful structures surrounding Piazza Roma.

Within Italy’s tertiary education sector, UniSannio is an accredited national centre for evaluating disciplinary fields through highly specialised education and training programmes, while also playing a vital role in promoting the economic and social development of the Campania region, particularly underdeveloped internal areas. Together its departments offer a wide variety of undergraduate, masters and doctoral degree programmes. Moreover, UniSannio has also entered into over 40 research/education cooperation agreements both with universities worldwide (Europe, Asia, the Americas) and prestigious international research institutions (eg CERN – European Organization for Nuclear Research). Benefitting from the agility inherent in its relative ‘youth’ and modest size, UniSannio has made signifcant inroads into internationalisation, attracting a growing body of students from around the world with its offer of a first rate education served against a backdrop of rich historical heritage and cultural traditions.

The Department of Engineering (DING), encompassing the macroareas of Civil and Environmental, Industrial and Information Technology Engineering, has established a solid reputation both for the depth and breadth of educational offerings and for undertaking cutting edge research in the aforementioned disciplines.

Moreover, being one of the 180 departments of excellence selected by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, its tireless pursuit of excellence among faculty and students is reflected in the achievements of alumni and former academic staff, among whom DING proudly counts ECC19 plenary speaker Francesco Borrelli, currently Howard Penn Brown Professor Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.

Covering areas of great scientific and technological relevance while also enhancing professional placement opportunities, DING offers four popular Master’s Degree Programmes in: Civil Engineering, Electronic Engineering for Automation and Telecommunications, Energy Engineering, and IT Engineering. These are capped off by the PhD in “Information Technologies for Engineering”, which addresses both the fundamental aspects of ICT, and development of applications thereof in various domains. The doctorate is characterised by a range of courses and research topics, complemented with opportunities to participate in research projects at national and European levels.

Additionally DING coordinates research structures, activities and programmes, promotes cross disciplinary cooperation through a multidisciplinary approach to obtaining and applying research funding from regional, national, European and international sources. Finally, it supports and verifies the quality of research carried out internally.

Benevento: The city, which according to legend, was founded by the Greek Diomedes after the destruction of Troy, may actually have been established by the Osci. Through its long and storied history, it has survived periods of conquest successively under the rule of the Samnites, the Romans, the Goths, the Byzantines, and the Lombards, before coming under the papal dominion in 1077. In more recent times its subsequent rulers included Frederick IV of Bourbon, the Neapolitan Republic, and Napoleon, before being annexed in 1860 to the Kingdom of Italy. Today, Benevento continues to bask in the enriching glow of its remarkable historical, archaeological and artistic heritage as evidenced in the surprisingly well preserved Roman monuments such as the Arch of Trajan, the Roman Theatre and the Leproso Bridge.

The European Control Association

In 1990, members of the Systems and Control community from across the European Union decided to set up an organization, named the European Union Control Association (EUCA), with the main goal of promoting initiatives that enhance scientific exchange, disseminate information, and coordinate research networks and technology transfer in the field of Systems and Control within the Union.

EUCA launched its first major initiative in 1991 with a series of wide-spectrum conferences called the European Control Conferences (ECC). The goal of these conferences was to promote the science and technology of control in the broadest sense – whether in engineering, physical, biological, social or economic, and in both theory and application. The first ECC was held in Grenoble in 1991, under the chairmanship of Professor Ioan Landau, and was attended by about 650 people. The ECC was subsequently held every two years until 2011. Since 2013 it has been held annually.

EUCA’s second major initiative came in 1995 with the launch of the European Journal of Control, a scientific journal that would serve as EUCA’s main channel for disseminating important contributions to the field of Systems and Control. The first issue of the journal appeared in September of that year under the editorial direction of Professor Landau. For a decade starting in 2003, Professor Sergio Bittanti was the editor-in-chief. In July 2013, he was succeeded by Professor Alessandro Astolfi, and then by Professor Thomas Parisini is 2018.

In 2012 the association was reformed as the European Control Association (EUCA) to reflect the growing scope of the organization.

The European Control Conference (ECC) aims to bring together academic and industrial professionals in the field of systems and control, and to promote scientific cooperation and exchanges within Europe and between Europe and other parts of the World.