Capability Building Workshop

Reporting Date: 
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Partner reporting the Activity: 
University of Cagliari
Type of activity: 
Workshops
Date of Activity: 
Monday, July 8, 2019 to Friday, July 12, 2019
Place of Activity: 
University of Cagliari
Summary of the activity: 

The Capability Building Workshop held in Cagliari within the framework of the PENS project comprised four different speeches coming both from the academia and the industry that covered topics strictly related with Enterprise Systems Engineering. A particular focus has been devoted to the exploitation of research results in the market through the establishment of spin-off and startup companies.

In total, 6 topics have been covered: Blockchain Technologies (Prof. Michele Marchesi and Prof. Roberto Tonelli from the University of Cagliari. Flosslab company); The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the University of Cagliari (Prof. Chiara di Guardo, Vice-Rector for Innovation, Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre); DXP Platform (Mr. Walter Ambu, CEO Entando company); IoT, Smart Mobility and ITN (Prof. Luigi Atzori, University of Cagliari)

Blockchain Technologies

Prof. Michele Marchesi (University of Cagliari, Italy) is the head of the Agile Group (http://www.agilegroup.eu/en/) at the University of Cagliari, whose primarily interest is in the investigation of Agile software development methodologies. During his career, he founded the spin-off company Flosslab (https://www.flosslab.com/?lang=en) with the mission of bringing to the market the results of the research activity in the field of software development, with particular emphasis on open-source software. Recently, he focused on the development and application of blockchain technologies in multiple domains. In his talk he presented the activities of the Agile group and focused on his most recent research activities.

Prof. Roberto Tonelli (University of Cagliari, Italy), member of the Agile Group (http://www.agilegroup.eu/en/) at the University of Cagliari, presented the activities carried out within the framework of a research and development project carried out in partnership with companies for the certification of agrifood products through the use of blockchain technologies.

Ms. Georgia Sanna     (Flosslab, https://www.flosslab.com/?lang=en) presented the company, its mission, its products and its business model.

The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the University of Cagliari (CREA-UniCa)

Prof. Chiara di Guardo, Professor of Innovation Management at the University of Cagliari and Vice-Rector for Innovation, presented the activities of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (CREA-UniCa, http://crea.unica.it/en/) at the University of Cagliari, that she heads. The aim of the centre is to foster the capability of students and researchers at the University of Cagliari of turning their knowledge and their research results into business initiatives. The most visible initiative of the University of Cagliari in this field is the so-called “Contamination Lab” (https://clabunica.it/en/), i.e., a cross-fertilisation activity that involves for one semester a group of selected students from all faculties of the University in designing a new innovative business activity. Researchers of the University are available for inspiring and tutoring. At the end of the path, a regional and then a national competition will award the most interesting ideas with a grant that allows turning the idea into a start-up company. This initiative is available in a number of Universities in Italy (http://clabitalia.it), and the network of Contamination Labs is coordinated by the University of Cagliari.

DXP Platforms

Walter Ambu, CEO Entando (https://www.entando.com) presented the company that he founded many years ago, after being a student of the University of Cagliari focusing on software engineering. The company started developing an open source CMS (content management system) that evolved in the next years towards being a platform for UX integration of multiple enterprise applications. The technological aspects have been discussed as well as the business model.

IoT, Smart Mobility, ITN

Prof. Luigi Atzori, Professor of Communication and Internet Technologies at the University of Cagliari, presented the activities of the research lab the he heads (http://mclab.diee.unica.it) both from a research perspective and a business perspective. He is also a co-founder of the startup company Greenshare (http://greenshare.it/en/). Finally, he presented the ITN project QoENet (http://www.qoenet-itn.eu), where he is involved as the coordinator.

In the first part of his talk he presented all the activities of the research group in Multimedia and Communication (MCLab), then focusing on the IoT research topic where most of his activities are currently focused. In 2010 he authored a survey on IoT with more that 11k citations making him one of the most renown researcher on the topic in the international community.

He then presented the activities on smart mobility both from the perspective of the current research activities, and from the business perspective of the spin-off company he is involved in.

Finally, he presented the activities of the EU project QoENet that has been funded under the ITN framework. He highlighted the characteristics for a successful proposal, as well as the activities carried out throughout the project.

During each presentation, all partners interacted with the presenters through questions and comments. Discussions allowed putting the basis for further collaboration between the University of Cagliari and the other partners of the project.

Talks from Researchers and Entrepreneurs: