Swissengineering Award Ticino 2024

The PREMIOSWISSENGINEERINGTICINO Foundation aims to recognise the work of recent graduates in engineering and architecture and provide financial support to young talents from vocational schools and universities in the Canton of Ticino. In the 2024 edition of the prize, celebrated on 24 May, Daniel Travaglia, a graduate of the Master in Software and Data Engineering, won in the "USI Faculty of Informatics" category. Eva Barnett received the award in the "USI Academy of Architecture" category. Additionally, David Natanael Radu and Victoria Jabbour were also awarded the USI TALENTICINO Scholarships.

Daniel Travaglia earned a Master's degree in Software and Data Engineering from the Faculty of Informatics at USI. His thesis, titled "Mining a Century of Swiss Trademarks," was supervised by Dr. Marco D'Ambros and Dr. Andrea Mocci from the CodeLounge at the Software Institute, with co-advisors Prof. Raphaël Parchet from the Faculty of Economics and Jesper Findahl from CodeLounge. The thesis focuses on converting unstructured data from the Swiss Business Register, currently stored in a digital archive of PDF documents spread across various cantonal registers comprising about 430,000 pages of text, into a structured and searchable dataset. The goal is to facilitate search activities by using advanced techniques to identify trademark sections, locate relevant entries, and extract associated information. This structured dataset will provide answers and insights to various search queries, demonstrating the potential of the extracted information.

The USI Master Prize, Academy of Architecture category, was awarded to Eva Barnett, a Master of Architecture graduate, for her thesis "A school among the trees". Her project imagines a new technical school in the redeveloped Guissani Park in Milan. In doing so, the proposal enriches the neighbourhood with a new community and activities that take place at all hours of the day: a celebration of Milanese craftsmanship, fostering sociality, well-being and integration.

The prize awarded to Daniel Travaglia and Eva Barnett is CHF 1,000 each.

Also for the Academy of Architecture, David Natanael Robu and Victoria Jabbour, Bachelor of Architecture graduates, were awarded the TALENTICINO Study Grants, a prize of CHF 3,000 each intended for deserving recent graduates of a USI Bachelor's degree in informatics or architecture, of Swiss or foreign nationality, who intend to continue their studies to obtain a Master's degree in Switzerland and enrolled in the 2023/2024 academic year.

For USI, Maryia Sidorenko and Stuart Porzi, graduates of the Master's programme in Architecture, were also awarded Best Presentations.

The jury of the PREMIOSWISSENGINEERINGTICINO Foundation used the candidate assessment platform developed by the CodeLounge Research Centre and the USI Software Institute.