ICT FOR SMART SOCIETIES (ICT PER LA SOCIETA' DEL FUTURO)

Politecnico di Torino designed the ICT for Smart Societies Master of Science degree as an interdisciplinary project to train engineers that will lead this smart revolution and shape the societies of the future. After laying the foundations of the core ICT topics, such as machine learning, smart networks, wireless communications and data management and distribution, the degree focuses on the key ICT applications for smart societies, including the following application domains:

Energy

By processing and transmitting information, such as the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, an electrical grid can be transformed into a smart grid, with increased efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity.

Transport

By connecting and coordinating transport means and by allowing passengers to travel using smart devices, improved transport and infrastructure efficiency, enhanced customer experience, reduced traffic congestion and pollution can be achieved.

Building design

By exploiting the digital infrastructure, a city and its buildings can become smart, with an improved quality of life, reduced costs and resource consumption.

Public health

Telemedicine is one out of many possible applications of ICT where collecting and processing information from remote monitoring devices, such as heart monitors, increases the quality of life of patients, while reducing costs and improving hospital resource allocation.

Environment

Sensor networks, connectivity and information processing can transform virtually any environment in a smart environment, whose inhabitants benefit from the continuous interaction of smart devices with the physical world.

Teaching approach

ICT4SS provides an innovative teaching approach with an interdisciplinary profile. The key elements of this approach are:

• Courses related to specific ICT domains, organized in such a way that an ICT expert and an application domain expert jointlyserve as course instructors. This ensures that the students will learn both domain-specific knowledge and the related ICT tools.
• Several projects to develop problem definition and problem-solving skills.
• Focused seminars offered in many courses, targeting specific aspects of ICT applications.
• Interdisciplinary activities and laboratories, performed during all courses, and specifically in one of the Interdisciplinary projects (10 ECTS), where students can get a practical knowledge of the techniques taught during the lectures and learn how to use those tools that represent the cornerstones of their professional expertise. These skills are reinforced by the Master thesis, which also has an interdisciplinary flavour. Throughout this process, teamwork is also fostered as a way to identify and implement solutions to technical problems, and to promote cultural exchange.
• Access to top-level labs in the Departments involved in the degree program.
• Courses given by professors with excellent track record in scientific research, warranting the most advanced and up-to-date course programs.
• Courses focusing on two main pillars:
  
  • ICT methodologies, models and programming techniques, including data management, analytics, distribution/delivery and optimization, as well as sensors and interconnection of complex networks and systems. These items provide the foundations for applying ICT technologies to specific applications.
  • ICT application domains: energy, transport, building design, health, and environment.
  The tight integration of courses on methodologies and applications provides the best platform to develop the engineering skills needed to successfully apply ICT tools in realistic scenarios.
• ICT4SS students coming from different Bachelor programs, including non-ICT programs, bringing diverse technical competencies.
• International environment that promotes cultural exchange.
• Courses given in English language, to foster interactions and increase cooperation opportunities among students and with experts in all technical disciplines relevant to ICT and its applications.