ISS - Institut de science des services
Institute of Services Science
We are witnessing today a paradigm shift from tangible products' development to services' development. Services represent the most growing sector of the economy in industrialised nations and are becoming the main activity on which businesses co-operate with their customers to provide value for each other. Examples include advanced services for mobile users such as alert services on car traffic, e-banking or more traditional services such as parcel delivery tracking.
Services Science has emerged and matured as a trans-disciplinary and global approach to the study, design, implementation and management of service systems. It encompasses management and engineering disciplines, drawing also from fields such as social and cognitive sciences, law, ethics or economics, in order to address the theoretical and practical aspects of the challenging services industry and its economy. Services Science leverages methods, results and knowledge stemming from these disciplines towards the development of its own concepts, methods, techniques and approaches. In this context, systematic service innovation and value co-creation in a knowledge based economy supported by increasingly complex and loosely coupled services exhibit tremendous opportunities for the future of our society.
The mission of the Institute of Services Science (ISS) of the SES faculty at the University of Geneva is to engage with industry, public administration and the public in order to lead and shape the international landscape of research in the domain of Services Science. As a team of 60 staff members, the Institute of Services Science is active in research, technology watch, creativity and teaching since many years and its international network includes many academic institutions, public administrations, creativity and innovation consultants, think tanks and services providers across Europe, Asia, North America.
- Research: ISS is currently participating to more than 19 research projects (EU/Cost/SNF/CTI/AAL) amounting to more than 2M CHF per year. Our major areas of research cover e-Health, pervasive computing, indoor positioning and indoor navigation, object localisation, mapping, GIS, mobile sensors analysis, security and privacy, risk and compliance, service level agreements, cloud computing, Internet of Things, service innovation, formal methods and design, systems evolution, quality and interoperability, autonomous and self-adaptive systems, trust-based systems and data science and predictive analysis. Application domains include transdisciplinary business services, Ambient Assisted Living, services for mobile users, travelling and mobility, gaming, data protection, intelligent documents, digital rights and policy management, e-government services and smart society, finance and banking services.
- Technology Watch: With a strong involvement in interdisciplinary think groups addressing issues as varied as data protection or design and development of public services, ISS is at the forefront of the technology watch in Services Science in Switzerland.
- Creativity and Innovation: Through innovation games and living labs sessions, ISS regularly contributes to creativity and innovation hands-on experiments targeted at industry.
- Teaching: ISS members participate to and manage a full range of academic programs in Services Science (BSc in Information Systems and Services Science, MSc in Management – option Services Science, Executive MSc in Services Science, Service Security and PhD doctoral school). is currently participating to more than 13 research projects (EU/Cost/Swiss funding) in service domains as diverse as: services innovation, large-scale services, social networks services, services for seniors and services for mobile users.
