PhD Overview

This doctoral program lies at the interfaces of engineering, the applied sciences, and technology. Ph.D. candidates will have the opportunity to work with faculty members in new and emerging fields of research in laboratories equipped with advanced instrumentation. The Ph.D. program comprises four curricula identifying four major research areas.

Technologies for Energy and Environment
In this area, research activities target advanced technologies and machines for the production of energy, the rational use of energy, renewable energies, applied thermo-fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer and multiphase flows in porous media at the microscale, the interaction of production processes with the environment, technologies for emission control and reduction. These activities are enhanced by the contribution of research activities in the fields of experimental physics and biomedical engineering. Advanced courses are organized for Ph.D. students on mathematical and numerical methods, thermo-fluid dynamic phenomena and processes, combustion, instrumentation and measurement.

Technologies for conservation, protection, restoration and environmental sustainability
This area concerns research activities in the fields of the conservation, protection and restoration of materials and structures and of the environmental, urban and building sustainability. These activities include the study of structural and functional materials and of corrosion protection and the analysis of chemical phenomena and processes.

Technologies for computer science, automation, electronic engineering and mechatronics
This area includes research programs in the fields of computer security, formal methods and system theory in computer science, robotics, design of control systems, advanced microelectronic systems and sensors. Mechatronics and the design of advanced mechanical systems are also included in this unit of the Ph.D. program and take advantage of dedicated laboratories at the KilometroRosso facility in Stezzano (BG).

Mathematics and Applied Statistics
This area concerns the resolution, through the techniques of mathematics and statistics, of the numerous problems that arise in the applied sciences and in engineering. In this process, the methodological aspects and the applicative aspects complement each other allowing to train people able to describe a problem through appropriate mathematical and statistical models, to analyse complex data (object oriented statistics) distributed over time and space, even large ones, optimize systems and complex networks.