Nexa Center for Internet & Society

The Nexa Center for Internet & Society studies the developments of digital technologies with an interdisciplinary approach, i.e. mixing the computer science perspective with the point of view of economic, civil and cultural development. The Center involves software engineers, jurists, philosophers, economists, sociologists and professionals from civil society. The characteristic of the Nexa Center is to conduct analyses of the current and potential impact of digital technologies on different aspects of society and producing, in addition to scientific research in the strict sense, proposals for policies and tools. With this approach, the Nexa Center also conducts an intense activity of public meetings, dissemination, and education both at Politecnico and for external entities. The Nexa Center has formally collaborated with local (Piedmont Region), national (Chamber of Deputies, Senate of the Republic, AGID-Digital Italy Agency) and international (European Commission) institutions and has also a framework partnership agreement with Harvard University (Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society). Between 2014 and 2016 the Nexa Center coordinated the global network of Internet centers and organizations (about 80 worldwide). 

Skills

Ethics and governance of Artificial Intelligence and automated decision systems:

  • Data bias and algorithmic fairness 
  • Ethics of technology
  • Fundamental rights and freedom
  • Data protection law
  • Accountability and transparency by design and methods
  • Value-driven software development

Support for digital policy :

  • Research reflections on the long-term implications of digital-technology on different aspects of society;
  • Prototypal development of models, tools, and methods for specific application environments; 
  • Empirical studies and experimentation, using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
  • Legal aspect regarding copyright, licenses, online privacy, data protection

Experimentation, evaluation, and simulation of digital and internet technologies in the following areas: 

  • Peer to peer systems
  • Blockchain and distributed ledger systems
  • Semantic web
  • Machine and deep learning
  • Network measurement
  • Internet of Things
  • Software and data quality modeling, measurement and standardization 
  • Higher education
  • ICT for Development and Cooperation 
  • ICT for the future of cities 

Projects and publications