On Monday, November 28, 2022, in the Aula Magna of the Antonio Ruberti Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering at Sapienza, the PhD program in Cybersecurity was inaugurated. The program is sponsored by Sapienza in collaboration with Luiss Guido Carli University. 

Speakers at the inauguration included Antonella Polimeni, Rector of Sapienza; Andrea Prencipe, Rector of Luiss Guido Carli; Paola Severino, Vice President of Luiss Guido Carli; Tiziana Catarci, Director of the Department of Automatic and Management Information Engineering; and Leonardo Querzoni, Coordinator of the PhD Program in Cybersecurity.

Roberto Baldoni, Director General of the National Cybersecurity Agency, was in attendance. The keynote address was delivered by Elisa Bertino, director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University.

The doctoral program, which kicked off earlier this month with twelve enrolled students—six young women and six young men—aims to train researchers who can work in academia as well as in public and private research institutions. The goal is to develop new technologies and methodologies for cybersecurity and to produce highly skilled specialists with engineering and management expertise who can drive technological and methodological innovation in key areas of cybersecurity application.

Training individuals with these skills addresses a clear need in our country, where there are very few startups offering innovative, Made in Italy solutions for cybersecurity. This reality effectively limits Italy’s ability to become independent in this field from software and hardware products designed and developed in other countries.

“In an increasingly connected world, cybersecurity training plays a crucial role in protecting the digital life of critical infrastructure. The PhD program in Cybersecurity launched today is part of the cultural shift that we, as a country, must make. The Agency recognizes that research plays a fundamental role, which is highlighted in no fewer than 14 measures within the National Cybersecurity Strategy,” stated the Director General of ACN, Prof. Roberto Baldoni. “We reiterate that, as an Agency, we aim to be the catalyst that brings together the expertise found in universities, research centers, and public and private entities to further enhance the country’s cyber development.”

“Rector Antonella Polimeni emphasized that the collaboration between Sapienza and Luiss to create the PhD program in Cybersecurity, which we are pleased to launch today, is aimed at providing highly transdisciplinary education. And I am certain that the faculty from our two universities, who come from diverse fields and each bring their own expertise, will contribute through excellent teaching to help future researchers in the field of cybersecurity achieve the best results.”

 “The diversity of disciplines and cultures is what makes this program unique,” said Andrea Prencipe, the president of Luiss Guido Carli. “By bringing together engineering and the social sciences, it embodies the idea (quoted from Einstein) that you can't solve problems with the same thinking that created them.”