RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research Centre on Software Technology (RCOST)

Università degli Studi del Sannio di Benevento

Abstract

This is a proposal to setup a multidisciplinary research Centre on software technologies. The Centre activities will focus on: process engineering for software systems and services production; business organization and management approaches for software enterprises; economics and legal issues of software and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the information and knowledge society. RCOST will be located in the internal area of the Campania Region. It aims to become an international excellence Centre, while providing an answer to the high request for medium and long-term research in the software related areas raised by a variety of actors. These actors include, but are not limited to, medium and large software enterprises grown in Campania and multinational corporates, which have branched - or are planning to branch - in Campania. The constantly increasing number of local software and software services SMEs also demands research and technologies.



The University of Sannio, Faculties of Economics and Engineering, will aid the Centre start-up with preexisting scientific competences and resources (human resources, laboratories, ongoing research projects, publications, prototypes and technological platforms), well and widely recognized at the international level. These local competences will be completed and complemented by contributions of other research Centres that operate in other Universities and are well recognized at the international level.



RCOST will also aim to integrate and make permanent other ongoing initiatives in the software technology sector, such as: the high education courses (first and second level Masters on software, training for spin-off companies in the ICT sector) carried out by the "Centre for the development of human resources on software technologies" with the involvement of a number of important software enterprises (these same enterprises have already signed an agreement with the University of Sannio for the development of scientific partnerships); resources and research activities developed thanks to scientific partnerships and collaborative projects with large, medium, and small software enterprises; resources and research results of the LINK laboratory, developed in Benevento in collaboration with the SSS Anna, Pisa, and a number of software and software services enterprises located in the Benevento area.



RCOST will be integrated in the ISERN international research and excellence network. ISERN promotes collaborations and synergies among software engineering research laboratories and currently includes the most important research Centres in the world. RCOST will also foster visiting positions and fellowships for internationally recognized researchers and for Italian researchers that operate in foreign Universities. The Centre will intensively cooperate with other national research groups and will seek the contribution of well-recognized personalities on specific themes and projects.



The University of Sannio is committed to deserve to the development of RCOST a high priority, as it has been identified as a strategic goal for the development of the University (this statement has been approved in the meeting of the Senato Accademico held on April 27, 2000). The University of Sannio is also committed to continue the RCOST after the three years period during which the MURST will provide economic assistance; the past experiences and a preliminary analysis of the demand for research in the software area indicate that the Centre will be able to fund itself with industrial contracts and by submitting research proposals to national and international calls. <<<

Principal Investigator

Aniello CIMITILE Università degli Studi del SANNIO di BENEVENTO

International Relationship

RCOST will directly collaborate with other research structures, in particular:

· Software Engineering Research Group of Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica of the University of Naples "Federico II" (Coordinator Prof. De Carlini);

· Software Engineering Research Group of Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemi e Produzione of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" (Coordinator Prof. Tucci);

· Managerial Engineering Research Group of Dipartimento di Ingegneria Economico-Gestionale of the University of Naples "Federico II" (Coordinator Prof. Raffa);

· Research Centre in Pure and Applied Mathematics - University of Salerno (Coordinator Prof. Salerno);

· Research Centre "Link" of Benevento;

· Research Centre of Benevento (CRB).



In addition, the following research groups will collaborate with RCOST:



· Software Engineering Research Group of Dipartimento di Informatica University of Bari, comprising: Prof. Giuseppe Visaggio (Full Professor), Prof. Filippo Lanubile (Associate Professor), dott. Alessandro Bianchi (Researcher), Dott. Danilo Caivano (Phd Student);

· A research unit of the Software Engineering Research Group of Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione of Politecnico di Milano, comprising: Prof. Alfonso Fuggetta (Full Professor), Ing. Luigi Lavazza (Researcher);



RCOST will be part of the ISERN international network of software engineering research laboratories and will cooperate with the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal (Canada) and the Research Institute on Software Evolution of the University of Durham (UK) and the Software Engineering Research Group of the Department of Computer Science of the Wayne State University (Detroit, MI, USA).

RCOST will also cooperate with the Centro Sviluppo Risorse Umane sul Software, which is running high education programs on software technologies.

The following companies are interested to establish a scientific partnership with RCOST:

· SEMA group

· Lucent technology

· FINMATICA

· TELIT

· Elasys

· Engineering

· EDS Italia Software

· Advanced Systems

· People's Network <<<

Research Objectives

The goal of RCOST consists of becoming one of the Italian leaders for the research and study on software technologies, able in particular to attract research contracts. It also aims at achieving an international acknowledgement as Centre of excellence in this field and promoting a world-wide interaction with well-known Italian and foreign researchers, through hospitality and mobility.

The Centre will establish:

· The Statute, defined and approved within three months by the academic committees of the University of Sannio;

· The International Scientific Committee, composed of 3 foreign and 2 Italian experts, with the aim of approving every three years the operative research themes and plans and verifying every year their execution;

· The Administrative Committee, chaired by the Chancellor of the University of Sannio, the Scientific Coordinator, the Deans of the involved Faculties or their delegates, and finally by a representatives of companies and enterprises, whose number and role will be defined by the Statute;

· The site;

· The administrative department and secretary (max-3-years contracts; 1 administrative director, 2 secretaries, 1 helper);

· The network, research laboratories, and technical staff (max-3-years contracts; 2 with laurea degree and 1 with a diploma degree);

· The non-permanent researchers, the PhD students (10 total; 4 in the software engineering area, 3 in the economics and managerial area and 3 in the low area).

The non-permanent personell will be specifically choosen for RCOST needs and will work full-time for RCOST projects and inivitatives.

Each research theme will have as Scientific Supervisor an University of Sannio Faculty member (or of another University), nominated by the Chancellor of the University of Sannio; the Scientific Supervisor will submit the three-years research programs to the Scientific Coordinator and the International Scientific Committee and will define the annual verifications the International Scientific Committee will make on the program execution; the Scientific Supervisor will coordinate the activities of the research groups involved in the execution of the program.

The Scientific Coordinator, supported by the Scientific Supervisors, will be in charge of defining the participation to national and international scientific research projects and programs, preparing public and private research contracts, technological transfer programs and cooperation to enterprise spin-off.



The scientific coordinator for the first 3 years of RCOST will be the proponent of this proposal himlself; the statute will determine the rules and procedures for selecting and appointing the scientific coordinator after the first 3 years. <<<