The PhD in Aeronautical and Space Engineering represents the highest level of university tuition in the aerospace sector provided by the University of Rome La Sapienza.
The PhD course aims at training the necessary skills to carry out highly qualified research activities in the aerospace field. It is a course primarily aimed at the best graduate students in the fields of aeronautical and space engineering, but candidates with specialist or master's degree in the fields of engineering and science (or equivalent degrees or degrees obtained abroad and recognized as suitable) can also be admitted.
The educational path of the PhD course involves performing original research work, to be completed over a three- years time span.
This path includes an initial phase of completion of the technical-scientific preparation of the candidate acquired in the degree courses followed, then the development of research activities carried out by the candidate under the guidance of a team of professors belonging the PhD course, and finally the development of the thesis.
The objective of the PhD course is to train candidates able to successfully enter the field of research and development of innovative solutions typical of industrial sectors, such as aeronautics and space, which have always required frontier technology.
In these sectors, research is strongly intertwined with the industrial fabric, as demonstrated by the significant funding provided to companies by local, national and EU institutions. The characteristics of pure and applied research in the aerospace industry have led over the years to the establishment of strong ties between major companies and national and international institutions, especially those based in Lazio. As part of this collaboration, several scholarships have been funded by institutions and companies of importance in the sector (Thales Alenia Space Italia, Leonardo, AVIO Colleferro, General Electric, Piaggio, ENEA, CNR, CIRA, INAF, ENAC, ENAF, ASI, ESA, NASA, DLR ...).
The main areas in which research is carried out by faculty and students of the PhD program are:
๏ Aeroelasticity, dynamics and control of aerospace structures.
๏ Combustion, efficiency and emission control in aeronautical propellers
๏ Helicopter dynamics and control
๏ Numerical and experimental fluid dynamics
๏ Mechanics of aeronautical and space flight
๏ Space missions
๏ Design of space launchers for access to space
๏ Design and testing of innovative materials and structures
๏ Aeronautical and space propulsion
๏ Turbomachines for aeronautical and space applications
Word Cloud of the most frequent keywords in doctoral dissertation titles.
The international characterization of the research projects in the field consequently makes the Ph.D. course naturally linked to universities, research organizations and foreign agencies such as: European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC, The Netherlands), Italian Space Agency (ASI), Von Karman Institute for fluid dynamics (Rhode-St-Genèse, Belgium), ONERA (France), DLR (Germany), CIRA, Georgia Institue of Technology (Atlanta, USA), Purdue University (West Lafayette, USA), Carleton University (Canada), Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), NASA Langley (USA), Combustion Research Facility/SANDIA National Laboratory (USA), University of Notre Dame (USA), CCRC/KAUST (Saudi Arabia), University of Illinois (USA), Princeton University (USA), US Air Force Office for Scientific Research (USA).
In some of the mentioned institutions, Aeronautical and Space Engineering PhD students have had the opportunity to successfully carry out part of their research activities.
Experts from the above mentioned agencies and research institutes are part of a "Research advisory board" specifically established for this PhD.