The course Social Media Analysis & Big Data starts on March 2^nd at the University of Turin, in the Culture, Politics and Society campus. This course will teach the students of the Master’s degrees of Communication and Media and of Public and Politic Communication how to analyse the content of the web and the social media; this course will focus on calamities.

Giuseppe Tipaldo, director of the course and researcher at the Culture, Politics and Society campus, says: “The most recent development in the market of technologies for communication have improved a lot the quality of information available to each part of society. Transforming this huge quantity of rough material into reliable data has become a competitive advantage which determines the success of a brand, the victory of an election or the government of a region. I have been insistent on wanting this course to start, since it is important to wean people who work with passion and expertise, by helping them becoming professional but creative workers who follow the methods of Data Science.”

This course is mainly practical, also thanks to the support of Quaerys, an innovative start-up of the University of Turin which works in the field of Big Data, and to the collaboration with two excellent partner companies: CELI, innovative PMI which in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, which will make available Sophia Analytics, the platform Text and Data Mining, in order to educate the students about the automatic analysis of the chats online about calamities; Blogmeter will guide the students towards the Media Listening, in particular towards the analysis and the interpretation of useful methods to measure the performances on the main social networks.

The students will be involved in the laboratory “Politica, media e scienza: fisica per cittadini” (“Politics, media and science: physics for the citizens”), which starts on March 1^st in the Culture, Politics and Society campus of the University of Turin and wants to focus on the social and political importance of scientific themes and contents, by using science as an example.

Professor Lorenzo Magnea says: “The students will make practice and will unmask pseudo-scientific hoaxes which are spread in social networks. They will analyse how some scientific pieces of news are hidden by the media and learn how to spread scientific news in the correct way”.

The centre Arnold-Regge for algebra, geometry and physics was inaugurated on February 27^th. It is an advanced laboratory for all the advanced scientific studies in the fields of theoretical physics and mathematics, which wants to attract many young talents.

This centre was created thanks to the collaboration between the University of Turin and the University of Eastern Piedmont; its seat is in the Physics campus of the University of Turin. Researchers of both universities are involved and there is an Advisory Panel of 30 well-known scientists, above all from Italy and Russia.

This centre is dedicated to Tullio Regge, a famous physicist and mathematician of the University of Turin, and to the Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold: two great personalities who made an important contribution to algebra, geometry and physics, and who influenced the following generations, too.

The study of theoretical physics and mathematics is the basis of the development of applied sciences in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry, civil engineering, electronic engineering, informatics, astronomy and geology.

Tullio Regge was born in 1931 and studied at the University of Turin, where he afterwards taught. In 1963 he became a member of the Princeton University, where he stayed for about 20 years. He spent the last 30 years of his life in Turin, before in the University and then at Politecnico. He was an important personality for Italy and Europe, and was also part of the Parliament during a whole legislature.

Vladimir Arnold was a Russian mathematician who spent the last 30 years of his life in France. Both Arnold and Regge awarded important prizes, among them the Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics (Regge got it in 1964 and Arnold in 2001).

The centre Arnold Regge was created as a new research centre where scientists and young recipients of scholarship (after their doctorate) can work together on physics and mathematics to encourage the exchange between scientists from Italy, Russia and many other countries, who work in the field of algebra, geometry and theoretical physics. Another objective is to promote the scientific collaboration, to organise workshops and conferences and to attract international visiting professors and young talented scientists to Turin.

In the working team there are highly qualified scientists, 5 researchers who have finished their doctorate and awarded a two-year scholarship and 12 experts from the University of Turin, the University of Eastern Piedmont, Politecnico and INFN.

The activities of this centre start in September-October 2017 and are supported by private citizens who are particularly sensitive in front of the theme of scientific, cultural and economic development: this is a particular feature for this centre, which deals with theoretical studies and not with applied sciences.

The influence of Tullio Regge in Piedmont in the field of physics and mathematics led to the creation of a strong group working on algebra, geometry and theoretical physics. This group is part of an internationally acknowledged School for Advanced Studies, which deals with Supergravity, Superstring Theory, Cosmology, black holes, relationship between Gauge and Gravity, Quantum Theories which can be integrated.

The University of Turin has collaborated with Russia since 1970s. Tullio Regge was well-known in Russia and visited that country many times.

The Aula Magna of the Physics campus of the university is dedicated to Tullio Regge; on March 1^st the work is moved to Alessandria, at the University of Eastern Piedmont; the workshop about the themes the centre is about finishes on March 2^nd with an open lesson of Eugenio Coccia at Teatro Colosseo of Turin.

“#hackUniTO for Ageing: project for the matching between research and institutes” takes place on February 27^th at 4 p.m. at Sala Lauree Rossa in Campus Luigi Einaudi of Turin (Lungo Dora Siena 100 A). This is the second event about the evaluation of research on healthy and active ageing promoted by the University of Turin and supported by Compagnia di San Paolo.

On this occasion the partners of this initiative show the results of their analysis on the matching between research and institutes and their 284 projects, uploaded by 825 researchers on the operating system.

Partners who speak are: Fabrizio Conicella (BioPMed) Laura Morgagni (Cluster) Riccardo Rosi (Mesap), Massimo Rusconi (Federmanager Torino) and Gian Paolo Zanetta (A.O.U.). Deans and delegates are present as well.

Before the meeting you can take part in the workshop “La regolamentazione della collaborazione tra ricercatrici/ricercatori e imprese” (Collaboration between researchers and institutes) from 2 to 3.45 p.m., where there are the representatives of the evaluation of research and technological transfer, coming from the 29 universities which in April 2016 joined the mission/network #hackUniTO for Ageing. The objective is to set new action politics and legal support, which can be shared by academies, public administration, institutes and supporters of research, according to the innovative model of Knowledge Interchange.

The University of Turin collaborates with Festival del giornalismo alimentare, which presents from 23^rd to 25^th February at Auditorium Vivaldi (Piazza Carlo Alberto, 3, Turin) some meetings, debates and workshops about the following theme: information about food and diet.

Some professors and researchers of the University of Turin are taking part in these meetings: it is a chance for them to underline the importance of the multidisciplinary research in university: the 27 different seats of the University are carrying out high-quality research and dealing with the spread of knowledge about the land development. The University of Turin has reached a positive result in the research field, according to the figures of the last evaluation about the quality of research (VQR 2011-2014): it has reached the first place in Italy for its Public engagement.

134 out of 500 research projects per year are about agriculture and diet, and they deal with themes like environment, economy and science.

33 projects are about food, primary and secondary production, food safety, medical and socio-economic questions – these projects gained European funds through the programmes Quadro and Horizon2020, but also thanks to specific programmes which deal with environmental protection, the creation of networks for the development and of innovative solutions for agriculture, water protection and management, and the promotion of healthy food solutions.

In addition, the University of Turin is the only Italian academy who is part of the union EIT Food, the European Institution of Innovation and Technology.

The thirteenth edition of the project “M’illumino di meno” starts on February 24^th. Also this year Politecnico of Turin is taking part in this initiative promoted by Radio Rai “Caterpillar” to encourage energy conservation and environmental sustainability.

This university has always promoted activities in favour of sustainability and carried out concrete actions for energy conservation in its structures and for the initiative “M’illumino di meno”. As concerns this project, there are two important events promoted by the Green Team of Politecnico, an organisation born inside Politecnico in order to promote activities in favour of sustainability and to make this university a sustainable campus.

On February 23^rd at 7 p.m. a flash mob called “Switchmob” takes place in Turin, thanks to a collaboration between “M’illumino di meno” and “Ingegneria Senza Frontiere” (Engineers without borders): the students and all the people working in the university will invade the rooms and the hallways looking for lights which are still on at the end of the day. The objective is to make the students and the university workers aware of energy conservation and conscious of its use. The results of this campaign will be monitored in real time by Living LAB, which will show the reduction of the energy consumption. Finally, there is a refreshment by candlelight for all participants.

Another initiative is “Aumentiamo l’efficienza energetica nell’illuminazione” (Let’s improve the energy efficiency in the field of lightning): it takes place on February 24^th at 10 a.m. in Sala Consiglio di Facoltà. This event is focused on “energy efficiency in the field of lightning”, an important theme for the present Public Administration, also supported by the many chances given by Conto Termico.

Politecnico encourages an experimentation with the use of LED lightning instead of the current devices, by adding, if necessary, motion and light detectors. To promote this initiative, Politecnico is going to show its interest during this event, to involve operators who will be ready to provide the material needed for this experimentation for free. At the Living LAB in the university, they will carry out measure campaigns before and after replacing the devices: the aim is to test the actual reduction of electric energy consumption. This experimentation is taking place in some rooms of the central seat (in some offices and a hallway).

The results of this experimentation will be then released and could be useful for future contracts of large-scale replacement of the devices.

The average evaluations of Politecnico are one of the best in Italy. Among the figures released by ANVUR we can see: Architecture in first place and Civil Engineering in second place in the ranking of the universities of big dimensions; Mathematic Sciences in second place in the ranking of university of middle dimensions; Law Sciences (represented by a few researchers but with a great scientific production) in first place and Economic Sciences and Statistics in third place in the ranking of small universities.

These results allowed the university to increase the Ordinary Financial Fund of 2016, and it’s a result that only 20% of public universities reached.

The second element that allowed the increasing in the FFO is the scientific production of the new-employed; in this field, Politecnico is in the first places in the Italian ranking. This shows the prudent and meritocratic recruiting policies of the last years, both for young researchers and for ordinary professors. In the field of Industrial and Information Engineering, Politecnico is in first place for its ability of selection of its staff in the ranking of universities of big dimensions. In the scientific areas we can find Mathematic Sciences, Architecture and Civil Engineering in the first places.

Finally, Politecnico of Turin has been mentioned this morning as “best practice” during the presentation of a report about the figures of Terza Missione (that is Technological Transfer and Public Engagement), and ranked in second place for its patenting activities and for giving value to the intellectual property.

The dean Marco Gilli says: “The results about our university are extremely positive. There are research fields which are already strengthened for what concerns their quality and their competitiveness, but other must be strengthened and supported, in order to have a faster development process. The politics of this university (both the ones of the past and the ones we will put into practice in the future) want to support these strategies and make our results better.”

On February 21^st ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems) showed the figures coming from the survey about the quality of research (VQR), carried out considering the data between 2011 and 2014, and the tables representing the evaluation areas and the results of Terza Missione.

In December the results had already been positive for the University of Turin, and now we can see the same: 3^rd place among all the other Universities, with positive results also in educating and recruiting highly qualified professors. In particular, UniTO is at the first place in Italy in Public engagement, it makes the impact of research in the region better and improves the scientific production.

The section dedicated to Terza Missione honours the politics of the University in the region for the development of the territory and the activities of research and teaching. It underlines the importance of the activities that allowed to evaluate the openness of the University of Turin to the socio-economic situation and it measures the many interactions the University has with business, schools and the society, in order to create more and more opportunities of social development.

VQR 2011-2014 compared around 96.000 research products, which are the result coming from professors and researchers in the 16 scientific areas, in order to evaluate 96 universities, 12 research agencies coordinated by the Ministry of Education, MIUR (University and Research) and 26 agencies which decided to take part in this evaluation.

So Gianmaria, Ajani, dean of the University of Turin: “The success of our University comes from the excellent job of our researchers in the universities and the selection of products. We are one of the few university in the North of Italy that still are improving their performance. The evaluation is extremely positive also for the awarding of the FFO (Ordinary Financial Fund), which is higher than in the last year by 8%. The first place of UniTO in Public Engagement honours many years of work of the whole university community, but above all it shows the openness and the recognizing of the key role the university can and must have for the region and the country today”.

The University bets on the courses in English. Now there are six degree courses in English, but next year there will be 10 of them.

The greatest news is that you will be able to become a “doctor” thanks to the English degree course of medicine at the hospital San Luigi – Orbassano. This opportunity will be presented to the students of Capus Luigi Einaudi who attend the 4^th or the 5^th class at high school until Friday 24^th during the “Orientation days”. This year the courses will be presented by professionals, notaries, advocates and social workers that will talk about the job perspectives.

The English language offers more possibilities. Another great piece of news is that until now the only courses in English had been the two-year specialising degrees. In September the first three-year course starts – Business and Management – and also the first five-year course begins – Medicine. The two specialising degrees that will start are European Legal Studies and Business Administration. There will be also an English curriculum of Philosophy. Last year «Stochastics and data Science» started: the number of subscriptions was 35 – not few for a specialising degree.