Between 9 and 15 September 2025, lecturers, PhD students, and undergraduate students from the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (UNIBIT) participated in a short-term academic mobility at the University of Messina (Italy) under the project ExcellCity – Strengthening the Scientific Excellence and Innovation Capacity in the Area of Smart City through Twinning (BG-RRP-2.005-0003), funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of Bulgaria.
The mobility focused on the themes “Intelligent Cloud Continuum” and “AI Agents & Edge Continuum”, emphasizing the development of intelligent and scalable infrastructures for smart cities.
The program was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Massimo Villari, Prof. Maria Fazio, and Prof. Antonio Celesti, with the active participation of seven additional researchers, PhD candidates, and experts from the FCRLab, who presented innovative projects in cloud computing, IoT integration, Cloud–Fog–Edge continuum architectures, and AI-based automation systems for urban environments.
The week included lectures, hands-on sessions, and demonstrations of real-world solutions, covering:
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the design of intelligent systems and infrastructures for smart cities;
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FIWARE architectures for interoperability and IoT connectivity;
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deployment of Big Data Warehouse and OLAP solutions in cloud environments;
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application of Agentic AI models for autonomous decision-making;
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Edge–Cloud Continuum scenarios optimizing computation and energy efficiency.
During the program, participants took part in practical exercises at the Papardo campus, including simulations of smart city systems, management of IoT data streams via FogFlow, and implementation of digital twins using Eclipse Ditto.
They also visited the FCRLab Control Laboratory for the Intelligent Campus, where integrated solutions for energy efficiency management, sensor networks, and AI-based environmental control were demonstrated.
A key highlight of the program was the PhD Research and Project Panel, where doctoral students from the University of Messina presented their research topics and discussed methodological approaches and potential collaboration and idea exchange with PhD students from UNIBIT.
The mobility strengthened the scientific and educational collaboration between UNIBIT and the University of Messina, contributing to:
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deepening expertise in AI-based architectures and Cloud–Edge integrations;
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developing joint research initiatives in FIWARE, Big Data Analytics, and Intelligent City Infrastructures;
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preparing participants for the upcoming ExcellCity Winter School 2025, which will expand on these topics through practical demonstrations and a dedicated PhD panel in Sofia.
This mobility was part of the strategic actions aimed at enhancing research capacity and fostering international collaboration in the field of intelligent and sustainable urban systems.
