Surfing the internet in a fast way and for free by connecting to it from one's own room in a university residence building, from the libraries, the study rooms and didactic centres and, soon, from gardens and other open spaces belonging to the University. With the completion of the connection in optic fibre of the Praticelli area, this possibility will be available to University of Pisa students thanks to the plan coordinated with 'DSU Toscana' which aims to improve and broaden services for students in response, in particular, to the technological demands of the young generation.
The results achieved by Pisa University in the field of information technology infrastructures (which place among the most avant-garde centres in Italy) were illustrated in the month of April at the 'Palazzo alla Giornata' by the Chancellor, Massimo Mario Augello, by the President of 'DSU Toscana', Marco Moretti in the presence of the Vice Chancellor for Students, Rosalba Tognetti, the DSU territorial director of Pisa, Magda Beltrami, delegate for the University telecommunications systems and network services, Riccardo Cambini, delegate for IT and telecommunications, Stefano Suin and the person in charge of the projects, Stefano Ciuti.
The projects realized over recent months are diverse. The principle project aimed at achieving a specific metropolitan circuit based on optic fibre with very high velocity available from the Pisa D.S.U. which connects all the seven Pisa University resident buildings: Compaldino, Don Bosco, Fascetti, Mariscolgio, Nettuno, Praticelli and Rosellini. This system allows around 1,500 students to connect to internet from their residences just as if they were in the University libraries or study rooms, with the possibility of using all the on-line services that the University of Pisa offers on its own network. This circuit, created thanks to the competence and professionality available within the University, and with a contribution from DSU, will allow the offering of services calibrated for the specific needs of DSU Toscana consumers.
The creation of this network has proved to be a large commitment, especially for the University residence at Praticelli – the largest in Tuscany with more than 800 beds – because the optic fibres have had to cross through two council area boundaries and other zones which have turned out to be complex from a logistic point of view. The traffic generated by the DSU and its residences network has already overcome all expectations, since it uses 20-25 percent of the general traffic of data that is created on the entire University network.
This project came along after 'wireless' was installed in the most frequented University centres used by the students such as classrooms, libraries, didactic centres and snack bars within various faculties. With a suitable technical equipment, wifi is being installed also in certain open spaces belonging to the University like, for example, gardens off the libraries and departments, with the aim of transforming these places into study spaces and spaces for aggregation adherent to the students' technological expectations.
And for the future? If it succeeds in establishing synergy with the Pisa Council, the University will be able to offer wireless connection also outside its own jurisdiction, in the nerve points of the city, thus offering its own students the chance of being connected on line to their own faculty site at, say, the railway station or from their lodgings or from their classrooms.