Ph.D. Course: From Philosophy of science to meta-design

Content in short

In the era of hyper-specialization of knowledge, it is of utmost importance to have an overall and multidisciplinary vision concerning the practice of both science and technology. The course aims to integrate specialized skills of engineering with high-level cross knowledge, to stimulate and improve the abilities in rigorously formulating and analyzing problems, defining models, and cooperating in multidisciplinary contexts. In this regard, the course will cover fundamental topics such as the birth and the evolution of human knowledge, the development of scientific methods and the construction of models, up to the methodologies underlying Artificial Intelligence, interpreted as a meta-design framework.

Main topics:

•         Knowledge

·         Prescientific knowledge and philosophy

·         Scientific knowledge

·         Other types of knowledge

•         Models

·         Theory, practice, praxis

·         Theoretical and empirical mathematical models

·         Deterministic and probabilistic models; randomness

·         Information, Causality and Correlation

·         Reductionism: computations, algorithms and simulations

•         Theory of Complexity

·         Systemic thinking

·         Simple and complex systems

·         Complexity, Chaos, biological systems

•         The evolution of science and technology

·         The crisis of the foundations and the new physics.

·         The origins of Science and technology

·         A theory of technological evolution

·         Technological paradigms and Industrial Revolutions

·         Technology and man

·         Ethics of technology and technology of ethics

·         Adriano Olivetti: an Italian engineer who loved to surround himself with humanists

•         Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence and Complexity

·         Artificial Intelligence yesterday and today

·         Artificial Intelligence and the Theory of Complexity

·         AI, machine learning and meta-design

·         Mind, brain and AI

·         What is AI really? The man in the center

•         Doing science: how to write a scientific paper

Schedule 2023

Classroom: DIET 09

 

Course Material


Schedule 2024

Room: DIET-09

Recommended Readings

In memory of Prof. Giovanni Iacovitti who held the PhD course: Epistemological Roots of Science and Technology

Giovanni Jacovitti received the Dr. Ing. degree in electronics engineering from the University of Rome, Rome, Italy,  in 1970. He is a former Full professor in digital signal processing with the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy. He has been also a Professor in communications with the University of Cagliari and with the University of Bari, and the Professor of digital signal processing with the University Campus Bio-medico of Rome. His main research activities include the fields of signal processing and communication and estimation theories. His current interests include epistemological issues about the fundamentals of information science and technologies. He promotes educational activities and conferences on these topics 

**These introductory notes were written by Prof. of Circuit Theory Elio Di Claudio. Although they are an introduction to the Circuit Theory course, this paper is a valuable epistemological examination of scientific and engineering theories. What is reported here was also an inspiration for this course. 

Prof. Di Claudio was an eminent scientist and professor of the DIET department (Sapienza University of Rome) who also collaborated for a long time with Prof. Iacovitti. 

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