Seven databases, three thousand entries, 1,500 experts surveyed, one repository open and available to anyone: these are the numbers of UniTrento Digital University, the innovative web platform that aims to make information on research skills at UniTrento more transparent and accessible.
This new platform launched by the University of Trento will be useful to students, professionals, business people, journalists and citizens, who will be able to query the database through simple keywords.
You just have to write the object of your search in the search field in the Experts and competences section of Digital University, and the system will give you a list of the people who are doing research in that area. Users have access to further information by clicking on the experts' curriculum, their studies and publications, the theses and dissertations they have worked on, etc. But, most of all, they have access to their contact details.
UniTrento Digital University has no equals in Italy and not many platforms worldwide are as complete and advanced; with it, the relationship between academic world and society is turned upside down.
For the first time, anyone can find information on subjects they are interested in by browsing through the wide range of skills and studies conducted at the University of Trento with no direct knowledge of anyone and no mediators.
This will bring the University closer to people and to their world.
UniTrento Digital University, which is very easy to use and was very complex to build, was presented today in a press conference by Vincenzo Maltese, who leads the division responsible for managing and making the most of the University's information assets.
Users can search through over three thousand entries, both in Italian and in English. They span from terms that we read in the newspaper every day, like "climate change", "genomics", "neurodegenerative diseases", "China" or "populism", to more scientific or specific terms like "data science" and "big data". The vocabulary, with so-called "tags", can be expanded to include new words based on future research or needs.
UniTrento Digital University will be useful to the University governance too, to help decision making on research investments, for example by highlighting staffing shortages in a given area.
But it will also be useful to the University's students: with this new system, they will be able to consult the timetables and the programmes of courses held by teaching staff, find information on their publications, read their notice board, learn about what they are working on or find the right supervisor for their final dissertation.
For further information or to use the new UniTrento Digital University platform visit the website of the University (click "people") or https://www.unitn.it/du
More details in the press release