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The first-year Doctoral Program includes a total of 60 Credit Formation Units (CFU), assigned as illustrated in the Table above. In particular:
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The doctoral student takes courses of the “Advanced courses” category, for a total of 12 CFU. The PhD Advanced Courses offered "ad hoc" by the PhD in ICT sum up to 42 CFU: 23 CFU strongly recommended for the first year and 19 CFU recommended for the second year, but also avaliable for first-year students.
PhD Advanced Courses offered "ad hoc" strongly recommended for the first year
1 |
Job Scheduling and Dispatching
Prof. Andrea Baiocchi |
6 CFU |
January – February |
2 |
Convex optimization: Theory and Applications
Dr. Stefania Sardellitti |
4 CFU |
February |
4a |
Wideband and Robust Sensor Array Processing. Part
Prof. Elio Di Claudio |
3 CFU |
March |
7 |
Perturbative and qualitative methods:
tools to solve nonlinear problems
Prof. Sandra Carillo |
4 CFU |
May- June |
8 |
La scrittura tecnico-scientifica (in Italian)
Prof. Emilio Matricciani |
4 CFU |
June |
9 |
Generative Deep Learning
Prof. Danilo Comminiello |
3 CFU |
June |
12 |
Multidimensional SAR Techniques for Earth Observation
Dr. Marco Lavalle - NASA- JPL |
1 CFU |
July |
PhD Advanced Courses offered "ad hoc", recommended for the second year, but also available for first-year students.
3 |
Quantum Computing and Quantum Machine Learning
for ICT Applications
Prof. Massimo Panella |
1 CFU |
March |
4b |
Wideband and Robust Sensor Array Processing. Part II
Prof. Elio Di Claudio |
1 CFU |
JMarch |
5 |
Innovative Systems for biomedical signal processing
Dr.. Arrigo Palumbo |
2 CFU |
April |
6 |
Nonlinear Optics and Applications
Prof. Stefan Wabnitz |
6 CFU |
April - June |
1o |
Complex Systems Modelling by Granular Computing
Prof. Antonello Rizzi |
2 CFU |
June- July |
11 |
Machine Learning for Networks
Proff. Paolo Di Lorenzo, Sergio Barbarossa |
2 CFU |
June- July |
13 |
Cognitive/Bioinspired Radar
Prof. Alessio Balleri |
2 CFU |
September |
14 |
Analytical Techniques for Wave Phenomena
Prof. Paolo Burghignoli |
6 CFU |
September - October |
The courses can be selected among the Doctoral Courses listed above (see section Offered PhD Courses), or among specialized Master courses. To be credited as advanced, a course must mandatorily be completed by an evaluation exam with final evaluation provided by the course instructor. If not completed in the first year, these credits can be completed in the second year. The choice of the courses should take into account the background of each student, in order to complete, when necessary, the formation in the specific area of the doctoral student topic.
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Seminars and laboratory activities shall be included for 6 CFU, with the aim to be open to innovation and to get confidence with experimental activity (see section Seminars). The attendance of 3 seminars (certified by the speaker) is equivalent to 1 CFU.
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The research activity will be a major part of the activity (quantified in 36 CFU). The aim of the research activity in the first year is mainly to acquire the method towards a scientific approach, to learn how to work in a team, and to get acquainted with the national and international research community of the selected research area.
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Additional independent formation and research activities shall be carried out for 6 CFU, with the aim to be open to studies and practice not necessarily strictly related to the personal research topic
Note that 1 CFU of research and laboratory activitiy can be roughly quantified as 20 hours.
At the beginning of the first year, the doctoral student is required to select an Advisor among the members of the PhD Board and a broad topic of interest for his/her research activity. He/she is presented to the whole PhD Board during the month of December.
The first few months of activity are dedicated to exploring the area of interest, to becoming confident with the state of the art, starting to acquire the skills required to carry out a research activity in the selected area. After this initial period, the doctoral student will prepare a plan for his/her annual activity together with the Advisor by filling the first year Doctoral Program Form (DPF). The proposed Plan will be submitted for approval by the whole PhD Board.
Based on the selected area of interest. the PhD Board assigns to every doctoral student a PhD Advisory committee that is formed by two members of the PhD board plus a third member who can also be an external expert. The activities of the doctoral student are monitored during each year by his/her PhD Advisory committee through periodic meetings that end with a written short note with suggestions and/or warnings for the student. The student is required to ask for the date of the meeting to his/her Advisory committee when getting close to the planned meeting times.
By the end of the first academic year, the doctoral student is required to write a report of the activity carried out, by completing the first year Doctoral Report Form (DRF). At the same time, he/she will be asked to prepare the activity plan for the second academic year, by completing the second year Doctoral Program Form (DPF).
The temporal planning of the first year of Doctoral study is sketched below.
The plan for the first year of activity must be presented by the student not later than February 28th.
A minimum of two meetings with the PhD Advisory committee are planned during the first year:
- during the first two weeks of June (Intermediate Meeting)
- during the first two weeks of September (Preparatory Meeting in view of the admission to the second year)
By October 1st, the doctoral student must submit:
(i) a report of the activity carried out during the first academic year,
by filling the first-year Doctoral Report Form (DRF)
(ii) the activity plan for the second academic year,
by filling the second-year Doctoral Program Form (DPF)
Analytical Techniques for Wave Phenomena
Prof. Paolo Burghignoli |
6 CFU |
September - December |
Analytical Techniques for Wave Phenomena
Prof. Paolo Burghignoli |
Cognitive/Bioinspired Radar
Prof. Alessio Balleri |
Method of choosing the subject of the thesis
At the end of the year, it is expected that the PhD student has identified the subject of his/her Doctoral thesis or at least his/her broad research area.
The selection of the research topic will benefit of all the activity carried out during the first year, there including the attendance of the advanced courses and of the seminars, the laboratory activities and the initial (even exploratory) personal research activities.
The subject of the thesis, selected by the Doctoral Student together with the Advisor, must be included in the second-year DPF and approved by the PhD Advisory committee and by the PhD Board during the month of October.
Admission to the second year
The activities of the doctoral student are monitored during the year by the doctoral student PhD Advisory committee. The written short notes prepared by this committee after Intermediate Meeting and Preparatory Meeting report are available to the PhD Board for its evaluation. In particular, the note of the Preparatory Meeting reports both on the coherence of the activity described in the first year DRF with respect to the first year DPF and on the proposed second-year DPF.
Admission to the second year is subject to approval by the PhD Board. This approval is based on the following elements:
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a report (first-year Doctoral Report Form) presented by the doctoral student that reports which courses and seminars were actually taken; it must also contain a synthetic description of the research and formation activities of the year, as well as, when present, the list of scientific publications that have been published, submitted, or are in preparation
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an oral report presented by the PhD Advisor to supplement the report presented by the doctoral student
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an oral presentation of the student on the achievements to the PhD Board
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the written notes of the PhD Advisory committee
Together with the admission to the second year, the PhD Board approves (with appropriate modifications, where needed) the second-year Doctoral Program Form containing the proposal of the subject of the PhD thesis.
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