Information Technology – (Ph.D.)

Contents

DEI's scientific activities are distributed along many areas and organised in four sections:

* Computer Science and Engineering
* Electronics
* Systems and Control
* Telecommunications

PhD students are free to investigate topics matching their scientific interests, by drawing on the different curricula and complementing, when necessary, their previous graduate training, in order to produce successful and original research.

Research training

The PhD studies at DEI are structured in teaching and research activities. During the first two years the students have to choose about 6 post-graduate courses, offered by the Department or by other POLIMI Programs, University, or national and international schools, for a total of 40 credits. The participation to local and external courses provides advanced knowledge, and gives the students the necessary training for addressing research issues in a professional and competitive way. Should it be necessary to fill in any gap from their previous training, PhD students may follow preparatory courses, which are normally chosen among the wide choice of graduate courses in Information Technology offered at Politecnico di Milano.
Individual research activity involves two research topics under the guidance of a scientific supervisor. During the three years students are often required to give talks in front of foreign professors or to attend international scientific conferences and present the results of their research. PhD students are thus led to develop their ability for public speaking and improve their communication skills, in both writing and speech.

Research Activities

During the first year, PhD students will choose a main topic for their research, which is to be carried out under the guidance of a scientific supervisor. This topic, called "major topic" leads to the Doctoral thesis, whose results will normally be presented at international congresses and journal papers. At the beginning of their studies, the PhD student will be offered counselling by a tutor, who will explain the range of possible research topics at the DEI and will get them in contact with the teachers and researchers involved in them.

However, focusing on only one research topic would not allow young PhD students to widen their scientific knowledge and would expose them to two main risks, on the one hand of possibly ending up unprepared in the event of sudden and unexpected technological advances, and on the other hand of overly narrowing their interpersonal relationship spectrum. Therefore, PhD students are required to choose a second research topic, the minor topic, and possibly a third one as well.
The minor topic has a complementary or synergic value as opposed to the major one. It has a more limited duration (usually one year). It is carried out during the first or the second year and results in a public seminar, a written report, and, possibly, scientific publications. The major topic results in preparing the Doctoral Thesis, finalized in the whole third year. The topics for the major and minor research activities must concern completely separate research fields so as to widen the PhD student's scientific training, offer joint research opportunities with more teachers and research groups, and extend the student's network of international acquaintances.

Research and study work is predominantly individual, but students are strongly encouraged to participate in the DEI's research groups. Projects are often awarded external funding by industrial companies or research programmes by the European Community, or other research agencies. Many projects are carried out jointly with other European institutions or companies.

Every PhD student is granted the necessary resources (PC, connection to the internet, scientific computing and library services, etc.) so that they may access documentation and communicate. Furthermore, there are scientific laboratories at DEI. The research laboratories pertaining to the consortium structures (in particular, Cefriel) and to the CNR are also available for the PhD students. Joint scientific research projects, both national and international, with academic and industrial institutes and laboratories are very intense.

PhD students may take part in schools and congresses and visit, or stay at, other research centers both in Italy and abroad.

The Doctoral thesis

Normally during the first year the topic and the general objectives of the major research are identified. Subsequently, the necessary scientific background knowledge has to be acquired more in depth through an extensive work of bibliographic study and analysis of international research. Finally, during the third year, the research will yield its results, which must be a significant progress over the state-of-the-art. The scientific quality of the work is guaranteed by the thesis supervisor's assistance, the daily exchanges with the other research project participants, and by the periodical seminars. PhD students will learn how to promote their own research and disseminate their results to the scientific community.

While working on the thesis, it is recommended for PhD students to get in touch with laboratories abroad, where they may spend part of their three-year course of study. They will thus be able to compare scientific points of view and get to know other ways of thinking and operating at universities or industrial laboratories.

The thesis body is an organised and accurate collection of the comparisons, the experimental or theoretical studies, the original results and the projects that have been worked on during the major research. The ability to write an effective scientific piece of work thus complements the attitude to research the student has given proof of by obtaining valid and original results.

The final evaluation of the thesis by the commission marks the final step of the PhD study course with a qualified assessment.

More precisely, the process of writing the thesis evolves along the following steps:

* the submission of the thesis outline within the first year;
* the intermediate results to present each year;
* the final discussion.

Faculty

PolitecnicodiMilano is one of the top European Universities in Engineering, Architecture, and Design. In 1963 a Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Giulio Natta, professor at the PolitecnicodiMilano.

At the PhD School of the PolitecnicodiMilano, 25 high-quality programmes in engineering, architecture, and design offer the possibility of studying and performing research in qualified laboratories and research groups.