Industrial and Information Engineering PhD Programme

Training Programs

The following are the specific training programs for the currently active PhD cycles.

Training Programs

Training Activities for PhD Fellows

The IIE-PhD offers a wide range of training activities organised on three levels as detailed below.

  1. Scientific Skills Training (at least 60-hours training in 3 years required)
  2. Transferable Skills Training (at least 40-hours training in 3 years required)
  3. Applied Training – Combining Scientific and Transferable Skills (at least 20-hours training in 3 years required)

PhD fellows are encouraged to attend all activities relevant to their projects. In particular they are requested to attend no less than 200-hours training in three years. Fellows should keep record of the courses they have attended in the training data sheet, which should be handed in to the IIE-PhD administration office at the end of the three years.

The scientific and applied training activities are managed by the IIE-PhD Doctoral Board and are normally advertised in the IIE calendar and via email. The Transferable Skills Training is instead provided by the University Research Office Centre, which advertises the events via the following link (when possible adverts will also be insert in the IIE calendar).

PhD candidates are also encouraged to attend dedicated lectures from external invited speakers.

1. Scientific Skills Training: requested at least 60-hours training in 3 years

Three types of scientific skills training activities are offered:
a) Four Intensive 3-day technical courses (compulsory)
b) Seminars (optional)

PhD fellows are requested to participate in all four intensive 3-day technical courses and should plan which seminars they would like to attend with the proviso that at least 96-hours scientific training must be attended in three years.

Four Intensive 3-day technical courses

Each Module lasts three days and is organised in six sessions of three hours each, i.e. they provide 18-hours training each. The sessions are normally organised as demonstration-sessions, computer-sessions, lab-sessions or team-work-sessions.

Each module has a multidisciplinary layout that covers topics of interest for electric, mechanical, information technology, management and electronic engineering. Also, it is taught by academics with backgrounds in either of these disciplines. The objective is to offer a broad spectrum of topics taught from different perspectives, which should widen the scientific background and promote the so called “lateral thinking”.
Normally PhD fellows should attend Module 1 and 3 during year 1 and Module 2 and 4 during year 2 of their PhD.

Scientific Skills Training Courses, 2025 edition
Scientific Skills Training Courses, 2024 edition
Scientific Skills Training Courses, 2023 edition

Seminars

Finally PhD fellows could also attend the short seminars offered by the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Gestionale e Meccanica and by other Departments of the University of Udine and by the associated universities of INP-Grenoble and INSA-Rennes, which are normally offered via videoconference.

2. Transferable Skills Training: at least 40-hours training in 3 years required

PhD fellows are also requested to attend the “transferable skills training” activities offered by the the Research Services Area (ARIC) to all PhD fellows of the Università degli Studi di Udine. The transferable skills training aims at developing the Fellow’s “soft skills”. It includes courses on project planning and management, grant writing, academic writing, IPR management, entrepreneurship, spin-off creation, innovation management, networking, ethics etc. Each PhD fellow should chose the modules that would better enhance his/her own expertise in the management of human, technical, and financial resources, in the exploitation of computing networks, software and information-technologies and the setting up and management of experimental facilities and laboratories or spin off companies. The duration of each module will vary according to the taught syllabus. Fellows are expected to accumulate at least 68-hours of transferable skills training in 3 years.

The transferable skills training courses offered by the University Research Office Centre have been organised in the following four areas:

  1. General background on Doctorates and scientific research
  2. Language competences
  3. Information-Technologies competences
  4. Planning and management of scientific research
  5. Communication skills
  6. Job opportunities and entrepreneurship

A detailed list of the modules activated each year, with dates and places, can be found at the following link. Also more information about the modules and the yearly planning can be obtained from the Research Services Area (ARIC) dottorato.rice@uniud.it

3. Applied Training – Combining Scientific and Transferable Skills: at least 20-hours training in 3 years required

Each year the IIE PhD fellows are requested to attend the “PhD conference”, which assign 12-hour training each year. This involves the preparation of a technical presentation, which is then delivered to the other fellows and to the Doctoral Board during the PhD conference. Also it involves the preparation of a stand with a poster presentation and a multimedia presentation or practical demonstrator, which are presented to delegates from local industries and companies.

Besides the purpose of dissemination, these two events are offered as an applied training opportunity where the scientific and transferable skills developed by the fellows are combined together and put in practice. Fellows will be assisted by their tutors during the preparation of the event. Moreover they will receive feedbacks on their presentations from their colleagues and members of the Doctoral Board who will attend their PhD conference presentations.