UPDATE: The selection committee has concluded its evaluation. The outcomes of the interviews held on July 31 are available at http://phdict.disim.univaq.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/XL-interviews.pdf

The PhD Program in ICT at the University of L’Aquila offers 14 scholarships in the context of a graduate school of excellence around the major topics in Information and Communication Technology. In particular, the available grants will be as follows:

  • 7 grants in collaboration with companies
  • 1 grant funded by HORIZON DigInTraCE project
  • 6 grants funded by the University of L’Aquila on all research topics treated in the PhD Program in ICT

The program is open to national and international students. The goal of the PhD Program is to provide a flexible and stimulating environment for enabling effective connection/integration between academic curricula and industry needs.

The 7 grants in collaboration with companies aim at carrying out research concerning:

  • Electric propulsion systems for highly reliable industrial vehicles and systems for their testing in collaboration with TEKNE S.r.l. (contact Prof.ssa C. Buccella)
  • Efficiency of refrigerated warehouses through the adoption of artificial intelligence techniques and newly developed circulator pumps and power compression units powered by photovoltaics in collaboration with SOLIS S.p.A. (contact Prof. C. Cecati)
  • Intelligent decision support system, in natural language, for the supervision of digital monitoring event management in collaboration with SPEE S.r.l. (contact Dr. G. De Gasperis) [Abstract]
  • Cybersecurity for operational Technologies in collaboration with S.EL.ME.C. S.r.l. (contact Dr. A. Marotta)
  • Fraud detection via ML-based image processing in collaboration with Reiss Romoli S.r.l. (contact Dr. A. Marotta)
  • Study of theoretical aspects applied to reconciliation procedures of satellite quantum key distributions in collaboration with THALES ALENIA SPACE ITALIA (contact Prof. Fortunato Santucci)
  • Management of data generated by the internal activity of a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organisation) using AI techniques in collaboration with BCC Studio S.r.l. (contact Dr. G. De Gasperis) [Abstract]

The grant funded by HORIZON DigInTraCE project aims at developing new algorithms at the intersection of control theory and machine learning, aiming to detect events related to the production of defective parts from the process data of injection molding machinery. These techniques will be validated using the data provided within the framework of the European DigInTraCE project.

Applications for the grants funded by the University of L’Aquila are invited from candidates interested in working in the following topics:

  • Heterogeneous complex systems modeling and control
  • Autonomous systems and intelligent agents 
  • Identification, learning and data enabled control
  • Networked Control Systems
  • Resiliency, robustness and security in cyber-physical systems
  • Modeling and control in intelligent transportation systems, smart energy systems, smart buildings, smart factory, biological systems
  • Fiber-optic communications and photonics
  • 5G and beyond-5G wireless communication systems
  • Service-aware networking and cybersecurity
  • Communication technologies for intelligent transport, smart cities, and Industry 4.0
  • Power Converters and intelligent energy systems for industrial applications, e-transportation, smart grids and smart buildings
  • Embedded systems
  • Human computer interaction
  • Algorithmic game theory
  • Algorithms and optimization for complex networks and applications
  • Algorithm engineering
  • Operations research models and methods
  • Artificial Intelligence: Intelligent Agents, Cognitive Robotics, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Neurosymbolic AI, Applications
  • Autonomic computing and automated software synthesis
  • Software engineering
  • Model-driven engineering
  • Machine learning
  • Bioinformatics 
  • Data science

This wide combination of topics stems from the richness of research interests of faculties in our department (http://www.disim.univaq.it/main/index.php), in the Center of Excellence DEWS (http://www.dews.ing.univaq.it/index.php?id=dewshome), and in the Center of Excellence EX_EMERGE (http://exemerge.disim.univaq.it/), which combine Information Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics.

Our PhD program in ICT also offers opportunities to spend training periods in world-wide renowned schools having a formal institutional agreement with the University of l’Aquila, such as: University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles, Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), ETH Zurich, University College London, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, University of Tabriz, Tianjin University, and Harbin Institute of Technology e University of Wuhan.  

Our PhD students will also enjoy a wide choice of courses and a rich schedule of seminars held by scientists of international reputation.

📣 The call for applications is available:

  • In Italian – details related to the PhD in ICT positions are at pages 20-22
  • In English – details related to the PhD in ICT positions are at pages 19-21

🖊️ Application instructions are available in Italian and English

📅 The deadline to submit applications is 22 July, 2024.

For more information, perspective candidates can visit this page or write to the Program Coordinator (Prof. Davide Di Ruscio) at davide.diruscio@univaq.it