A few days ago there was some talk of the first graduate of Italy in quantum computers (who then perhaps was only the first graduate of Pisa, because in other universities, it turned out later, there had already been). Today it should be remembered that on November 17, 1969 the inaugural lecture of the first degree course in Computer Science (i.e., Information Science). Always in Pisa, of course.
The merit of this innovation goes to two mathematicians: the then rector Alessandro Faedo and professor Gianfranco Capriz, who headed the Cnr Institute for Information Processing. It should be borne in mind that they had also built the Cep (Electronic Calculator Pisana) in Pisa in 1961 and established the Cnuce in 1964: in short, Pisa was (and remains) a center of excellence in this area. In 1969 388 students were enrolled in the Pisan courses; among the teachers, says the university website, “there are physicists Milvio Capovani, Giuseppe Gestri and Piero Maestrini and computer scientists Alfonso Caracciolo di Fiorino, Giovanni Battista Gerace, Antonio Grasselli and Renzo Marconi, with the younger Giorgio Levi, Ugo Montanari and Carlo Montangero, the economist Paolo Manca ”.
The first graduates, the Pisan site always tells, are dated July 14, 1972: “Giovanni Barbati (Lizzano), Antonio Ciccarone (Palmoli), Mario Citernesi (Vecchiano), Dario Conti (Pontedera), Cataldo Gigantesco (Taranto), Maurizio Grasso (Latina), Michele Piracci (Vieste)” . In the same academic year 1971-1972, Giuseppe Attardi (Padua) graduated, among others, who will play an important role in Internet development in Italy.
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