The University of Pisa was officially founded on the 3rd of September 1343 with the bulla ``In Supremae Dignitatis'' by Pope Clemens VI, recognizing the longtime existence of a complex organization of studies at the university level and granting to Pisa the privileges of studium generale, namely that its diplomas should be valid in the whole Christian world. The first faculties established were Theology, Law and Medicine. The University of Pisa alternated periods of good and bad fortune due to the sorts of the Republic of Pisa which lost its freedom in 1406 when it came under Florentine rule. In the 16th century the Botanical Garden (the oldest in the world together with the one of Padua) was founded, in the 18th century the chairs of Chemistry and Physics were created. There have been many famous scholars in the sciences including Galileo Galilei, Antonio Pacinotti, and, in the last century, Enrico Fermi, Enrico Bombieri and Carlo Rubbia. The University now has about 35,000 full-time enrolled students.
In 1955, the University of Pisa with the financial support of the local public administrations of Pisa, Livorno and Lucca founded the ``Centro Studi Calcolatrici Elettroniche'' (Center for Studies on Electronic Computing Machines (CSCE)). The CSCE brought together a group of mathematicians, physicists and engineers with the aim of designing and constructing what would be the first Italian scientific computer. The project was successful, and the computer was actually constructed and employed in scientific computations. The CSCE became a research institute of the National Research Council (CNR) with research groups in the major areas of Computer Science. In 1970 the CSCE was renamed ``Istituto per l'Elaborazione dell'Informazione (IEI)''.
In 1969, a number of researchers of CSCE joined the University of Pisa and the ``Istituto di Scienze dell'Informazione'' was established. With the new institute within the University, a four year undergraduate study program in Computer Science (``Laurea in Scienze dell'Informazione'') was organized and put into action. In 1982, the institute was transformed into the actual Dipartimento di Informatica.
In 1983, a postgraduate school in Computer Science was launched and in 1986, a two year undergraduate study program in Computer Science (``Diploma della Scuola a Fini Speciali in Informatica'') was organized.
In 1993, the undergraduate study program has been rearranged, with the introduction of two levels of undergraduate curricula: a three-years undergraduate study program (``Diploma Universitario in Informatica''), and a five-years undergraduate study program (``Laurea in Informatica'').
More recently, the undergraduate study program has been rearranged again, to meet the new requirements by Italian/European laws. We currently have two three-years undergraduate study programs (``Laurea in Informatica'', ``Laurea in Informatica Applicata'', based in La Spezia), and three five-years undergraduate study programs (``Laurea Specialistica in Informatica'', ``Laurea Specialistica in Tecnologie Informatiche'' and ``Laurea Specialistica in Informatica per l'Economia e l'Azienda'').
The department also offers different post graduate study programs. Master studies on Management of open source software and Geographical information systems are offered to three-years graduate students, while five-years graduate can access a three year postgraduate program in Computer Science.
At present the department has 77 employees and 46 postgraduate students. There are 26 full professors, 18 associate professors, 4 assistant professors (assistenti), 18 assistant professors (ricercatori) and 20 administrative and technical staff members (see Appendix A and Appendix E).