The Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, and Photonics Institute (TeCIP) of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa was created in 2001 as a Centre of Excellence funded by the Italian University, Scientific and Technological Research Ministry.

The core research domains in the TeCIP Institute are:

• Telecommunication networks, systems and components implemented with partial or full use of photonic technologies and relevant software control techniques;
• Cyber-physical systems, real-time computing, artificial intelligence and cyber-security.
• Photonic Integrated Circuits for datacom, sensors and networks and biophotonics.

Scientific and technological research follows an interdisciplinary approach and it is developed in Laboratories equipped with the utmost leading-edge instruments and infrastructures. The research staff consists of nearly 100 people, including professors, researchers, technicians, Ph.D. and graduate students, who conduct a large variety of research activities that span from fundamental research to high-TRL technology and innovation transfer, including field trials and product developments.
The Institute research is supported by an annual average budget of a few million euros that includes a combination of National and European competitive research programs, as well as industrial contracts.

The research activities are complemented by extensive training initiatives, which include several courses taught in English, in line with the highest international standards, including Masters of Science degrees, professional Masters, and PhD programs. The quality of the training is evidenced by the high employability rate of the students, who rapidly find qualified job positions in either service/production companies/enterprises or public/private research structures. In addition to several formal agreements for scientific collaborations with European universities and companies, the TeCIP Institute has also formal partnerships with many institutions outside Europe, where the most notable are University of Glasgow (UK), University of Southern California (USA), IIT Hyderabad and IIT Dharwad (India), University of Illinois (USA), University College in London (UK), and many others.

The collaboration among the research Units and the co-located National Lab of Photonic Networks and Technologies (PNTLab) of the National Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT), the National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics (CINI),and the Italian R&D Centre of Ericsson AB forms a worldwide recognized Centre of Excellence in ICT.
The TeCIP institute is scientifically subdivided into three large Research Units, namely: Telecommunication, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Photonics.