The Department of Information Engineering (DINFO), one of the 24 departments of the University of Florence, is the leading department in the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector, where it conducts advanced research in automation, electronics, computer science, telecommunications, electromagnetism, as well as in operations research, bioengineering, and electrical engineering.
It studies and designs telecommunication systems and networks, radars, sensors, and electronic devices, advanced software, ultrasound, satellite, control, and remote sensing systems, multimedia content processing and interpretation, decision support systems, information security and protection systems, and telematics.
The department conducts research in seemingly diverse fields, all characterized by the acquisition, processing, transmission, and use of information and knowledge, essential resources in the modern society.
DINFO is also part of various inter-university centers and consortia, including CNIT (National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications), MECSA (Microwave Engineering Center for Space Applications), MIDRA (Multidisciplinary Institute for Development Research and Applications), and TICOM (Consortium for Information and Telecommunications Technologies), which play an important role in the national landscape of high-level scientific cooperation between universities and industry.
The MICC (Media Integration and Communication Center), an excellence center established by MIUR in 2001, is also affiliated with DINFO.
DINFO employs more than 210 people, including professors, researchers, technical/administrative staff, postdocs, and PhD students. It is actively and successfully engaged in securing significant public and private research funding. The department oversees two bachelor’s degree programs (Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering, Computer Engineering), five master’s degree programs (Biomedical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical and Automation Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering), and a PhD program in Information Engineering, with a total of around 1,400 students, who are the ultimate focus of its teaching and research activities.
DINFO is an important Italian institution, forward-looking but with deep roots in the history and tradition of the University of Florence.
In the early post-World War II years, Nello Carrara, a classmate of Enrico Fermi, founded the IROE (Institute for Research on Electromagnetic Waves) of the CNR in Florence. This group of pioneering researchers in electronics and microwaves would later, in 1972, significantly contribute to the founding of the Faculty of Engineering in Florence, which has always maintained strong ties with high-tech industries.
