Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca

The Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication (DISCo) opened on January 1, 1999 with a teaching staff and technical administration staff who transferred from the Computer Science department of the Università degli Studi di Milano to the new Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca. Since then, the department has grown and now has a teaching staff of more than thirty professors and more than forty doctoral students and researchers.

The primary objectives of DISCo are to develop teaching and research in order to significantly contribute to the innovative processes of the European and Italian productive systems and, to initiate re-launching of European research for the Information Society in the field of technology. 

Currently, DISCo offers one first level and one second level degree in IT ("Corso di laurea in Informatica" and "Corso di laurea specialistica in Informatica"). Diversified plans of study are available to allow students to choose courses that will enrich their core program. 

The research topics of the department are strongly linked to the teaching activities. The teaching activity of each of the heads of the research labs is directly connected to the research of the individual labs. Internships and dissertations are part of the numerous projects which produce innovative and original research. Most of the Ph.D. students are actively involved in the research labs in addition for their doctoral thesis. 

Research takes place inside the university, although there are numerous industrial and academic collaborations on the national and international level. Research is organized into four areas developed by the research labs. 

The labs dedicated to education, separate from the research labs, are a strong point for the Department. They are managed using industrial techniques and offer the students an environment equal or better than what they could find in company IT labs.