[PhD School] Designing and Assembling Smart Cyber-Physical Systems

Dealing with nowadays complex systems is very difficult. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are even more
critical as they need to cope with software (in some sense something people are used to) with hardware
(typically geographically distributed, among different domains). Future systems will always be a
combination of physical and cyber parts, and thus it is mandatory to know how to deal will them and, in
particular, consider IoT devices as full-fledged resources to play with, as we usually do with computing,
storage and networking.

The summer school will introduce the participants to deal with such systems where there is no
distinction among the different parts: computing, storage, networking and Internet of Things (IoT) all
contribute to setting up the modern processing environments and for this reason it is mandatory to keep
them simultaneously under control. In particular, the school intends to offer a comprehensive approach
to design, implement and use CPSs, i.e., computing systems with a strong interaction between the
physical environment (equipped with sensors and actuators) and the cyber part (the Fog and Cloud in a
wide sense). Sensors, boards, edge devices, computing, storage, networking resources are seen as
elements of a whole picture where everything can be virtualized and composed to create the
infrastructure on top of which services and applications can be deployed. Infrastructure continuum
represents our environment, where we can move from edge computing (by exploiting remote resources)
to the Cloud, going through Fog resources to set up the entire framework for services deployment.

This summer school proposes a new approach to the design and programming of CPSs by considering
them as complex “systems of systems” that need a specific methodology for their design and
management. Better to say, all current systems are seen as CPS by nature and for this reason the
interaction among the physical and the cyber parts has to be managed since the very first phases of
their design. The IoT dimension is part of the overall infrastructure and IoT resources have to be
considered since the very beginning, and kept at the same level of consideration of other more
traditional resources such as computing, storage and networking. The school will teach how to design
a network architecture with all the virtualized resources in place, how to optimise their interaction and
keep everything under the full control of the system manager.

The school will drive students, researchers, practitioners, professionals to learn theory behind CPS and
concretely work with CPSs putting into practice what they have learned with concrete examples and
hands-on experiments. Furthermore, we contribute to improve the quality of education being the
lectures also supported by the text book “Assembling Smart Cyber-Physical Systems: heterogeneous,
diffuse and green technological infrastructures for cities and industries”1 authored by Z. Benomar, F.
Longo, G. Merlino and A. Puliafito and a software repository with modules, components and app. This
will simplify the learning process and support remote and continuous learning.

The Summer School will take place from Monday 14th to Friday 18th of July 2025

The school will take place at the Grand Hotel Ortigia, a historic residence of the late nineteenth century,
completely renovated in 1995, that with its refinement without excesses has kept alive the charm of its
origins, the architectural lines and the charm of its Art Nouveau style.

Early registration (before June 15, 2025): 500 €
Late registration: 650 €
The website of the school is: https://portale2.unime.it/sosmartcps