#USI25 Main themes

Pokemon, Tamagotchi and the Spice Girls made their debut and Take That broke up. Switzerland participated in the European football championships for the first time, Michael Jordan and the Bulls returned to conquer the NBA title, while the centenary Olympics were celebrated in Atlanta. Novartis was formed and Dolly, the cloned sheep, was born. Only 250'000 websites existed globally, and the Motorola StarTAC was conquering the mobile phone market. The Tinguely Museum designed by Mario Botta was inaugurated in Basel, a computer beat a world chess champion for the first time, AIDS therapies took a decisive step forward and Wisława Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for literature. It was 1996 and the Università della Svizzera italiana was created with 326 students starting their studies on the Lugano and Mendrisio campuses. A "gamble" in which few perhaps really believed.

25 years have passed and USI has come a long way: today it counts 3'350 students, 100 countries represented, 5 Faculties, 10'000 alumni worldwide. It receives competitive research funding of CHF 20 million per year, ranks 20th in the world among small universities according to Times Higher Education, and is among the top 300 overall in both the Times Higher Education and QS rankings. It offers 6 Bachelor's degrees, 24 Master's degrees and 13 PhD programs in five Faculties and on four campuses, it’s a real "knowledge lab", always active and on the move, where knowledge is created and ideas are shaped in the fields of architecture, communication, law, economics, medicine and biomedicine, computer science, public health, computational science, data science and the humanities.

 

This year, its 25th birthday wants to be an opportunity to (re)present this richness, continuing the mutual understanding with the region. The #USI25 program thus proposes a wide range of contributions, initiatives and events that will follow two intertwined main subject matters:

#Shaping knowledge

"Shaping knowledge” proposes a series of contributions and events aimed at making USI better known ("shaping knowledge" in the sense of "becoming better known") and at highlighting its contribution to the development of knowledge ("shaping knowledge" or "we are a place where knowledge takes shape").

#USI25 #shapingknowledge

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#USIsU

"USI is U" brings together a series of initiatives aimed at portraying USI as a place of opportunity, a personalised and original university where everyone can cultivate their uniqueness through interaction and dialogue.

#USI25 #USIsU

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