Italy-Usa innovation forum 2019 - Stanford, california, usa

An Italy-United States Innovation Forum was held in California at Stanford University on October 18, 2019. The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and by the Italian Trade Agency with the support of Confindustria, and in collaboration with the Schools of Materials Science and Engineering and Medicine of Stanford University. The Forum was part of the official visit to the United States by President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, who attended the conference.

The conference, the first of its kind organized by Italy in the United States in general, represented a strategic moment to strengthen relations between Italy and researchers in the scientific and technological fields. At the center of the symposium the discussions between representatives of the Italian Hi-Tech sector and executives from Silicon Valley companies, along with scholars and students. The Forum represented an opportunity to encourage collaborations between researchers and leaders in advanced technological, industrial and scientific fields, and to further our understanding of academic research in a number of technical fields and the state of technological innovation in Italy and Silicon Valley.

The Dean of Stanford's School of Engineering, Jennifer Widom opened the first session, which included speeches by the Minister of Technological Innovation and Digitization Paola Pisano, the President of the "Research & Development" working group of Confindustria Daniele Finocchiaro and the President of the Italian Trade Agency, Carlo Ferro.
The Forum was then divided into 3 panels respectively dedicated to "Big Data & Machine Learning in Life Sciences, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence", "Advanced Manufacturing & Industry 4.0, Mobility & Smart Cities", "Space Industry, Science & Technology". In the afternoon the Forum featured three round tables on business and research in the fields discussed in the morning panels.