The University of Lugano (Università della Svizzera italiana-USI) was founded in 1996. As a public institution independent of state control, it joined the nine cantonal universities and two federal institutes of technology that form the Swiss university system. It distinguishes itself as the only university outside Italy where the official language of tuition is Italian.
Today, USI comprises four Faculties: Economics, Communication Sciences and Computer Science in Lugano, and Architecture in Mendrisio, for a total student population of approximately 1550 from 35 different countries, and a total teaching staff of 300 professors and assistants.
Benefiting from a unique geographic, political, and cultural location, USI has gained distinction as a multilingual and multicultural university, with a broad international outlook. It enjoys privileged relations with several Italian universities, particularly with those located in Northern Italy, and has built special collaborative or exchange partnerships with a number of foreign universities in Europe and elsewhere.

The institute involved in this project is the Faculty of Informatics.

The University of Zurich was founded in 1833, though its origins stretch back as far as 1525 and the days of protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli. Today the University enjoys international renown as a place of education and research. Two thousand lecturers in 140 special institutes provide the broadest range of subjects and courses available from any Swiss seat of higher education. With 24,000 students and 1,900 graduates every year, Zurich is also Switzerland’s largest university. The University provides academic services, works with the private sector and considers itself part of a national and global network for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge.
Zurich’s international reputation is based on groundbreaking research, particularly in molecular biology, brain research and anthropology, and on the work of the University Hospital and Veterinary Hospital.
The University’s researchers, lecturers and students benefit from the infrastructure that Zurich provides as a center of teaching and research. Apart from its own institutions, the University offers its members access to archive collections, libraries and the facilities of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), as well as to the city’s private institutions. Nine museums and collections, covering subjects from anthropology to zoology, constitute yet another valuable academic resource.

The institute involved in this project is the Department of Informatics (IFI).

The University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) is one of the 7 Universities of Applied Sciences in Switzerland (Fachhochschule, haute école spécialisée, university of applied sciences). It has a university statute, focused on professional training and applied research. Together with the University of Southern Switzerland (USI), to which it is closely linked in terms of collaboration activities and common institutions, it is the only Italian language university pole in Switzerland, with almost 4,000 students in the Lugano region.
The distinguishing features of SUPSI are that it provides study opportunities to those who have already gained some professional experience and who continue to operate in a professional capacity, that the teaching program incorporates full-time lecturers-researchers and part-time professional operators, that it offers a wide range of continuous courses to those operating professionally, and that it conducts applied research projects in collaboration with companies and institutions in the region.
The service contract stipulated with Canton Ticino specifies that SUPSI continuous courses, third party services and much of the research work is financed by participants and commissioning parties. The Canton and the Confederation finance the basic teaching and some of the research. Excluding the affiliated schools, SUPSI has more than 400 collaborators, equivalent to almost 300 full-time posts, and a budget of CHF 50 million, roughly half of which comes from the Canton, one fifth from the Confederation and one third from other sources. Counting the affiliated schools, there are almost 2000 students in Bachelor degree cycles, more than 4000 attending continuous courses, and approximately 100 current research projects.
Having affiliated the Fernfachhochschule Schweiz (FFHS) in 2004 - this is a distance learning university of applied sciences, funded by Canton Valais and recognized by the Confederation - SUPSI basically pursues two complementary strategies:
– a regional strategy, as the only Italian language SUP in Switzerland, collaborating closely with the University of Southern Switzerland (USI) and creating a bridge toward Italy;
– a national strategy, as leader in SUP distance education, by means of the FFHS, to help overcome the problems of isolation and critical mass, and to emphasize the unique multi-lingual nature of SUPSI.

The institute involved in this project is the Department of Technology.