Courses and Examination

Description of the formation and research activities that are common to the branches of the School, including the formation offer of the first year (60 credits) and
the overall contents of the following years (120 credits).


The fundamental teaching activities are:

Systematic teaching activity, which in practice represents the basic structure on which the doctorate rests.
This activity is mainly offered by the professors and researchers belonging to Modena University. In addition, seminars are given by qualified Italian and foreign researchers on advanced and innovative research themes.

National and international schools will present topics belonging to the Doctorate research programs.
Schools from USA will be particularly welcome.
Internationally recognised experts will offer conferences on specific themes.

As a result of the close relationships with the mechanical enterprises of the territory, it is possible to promote not only basic courses, but also high level seminars. The main aim of such advanced talks is a brainstorming effect, and round table seminars.

The formation path of the first year (60 credits) will be discussed by the council of teachers of each single doctorate course.
As a norm, 20 - 40 credits will be chosen so that the basic knowledge of each student can be enriched and become suitable for carrying out
the studies.

The council will decide courses and the amount of credits that each single students has to get in the following years.

The courses are selected from the following Table:

	Design of high performance materials	Mechanical modelling and design methods	Vehicle technology	Private and commercial right: contracts and industrial property Right of commercial contract
Industrial right	X	X	X	X
Right for working conditions	X	X	X	X
Right for trade unions	X	X	X	X
Economy and Industrial organization	X	X	X	X
Safe conditions	X	X	X	X
Applied and computational mathematics	X	X	X
Metallic materials	X
Thermo-structural interaction in internal combustion engines		X	X
Technical-commercial English	X	X	X	X
Advanced technical-commercial English	X	X	X	X
Advanced thermo-fluid-dynamics		X	X
Vehicle chassis design			X
Chassis design	X	X	X
Advanced computer aided design	X	X	X
Contact problems in structural mechanics	X	X	X
Institutions of private right				X
Seminars on "Contract and market", with particular attention to the responsibility of the producer, to the protection for the selling of goods and oriented towards the contracts of the workers.	X	X	X	X
Mechanical technology	X	X	X
Tribology	X	X	X

The above courses are transverse and interdisciplinary, so that the first year is similar and, therefore, unifying, for all PhD students belonging to
the four branches of the Doctorate school.  Some of these courses belong to the University courses of first and second level, whereas other courses will be specifically founded for the Doctorate school.

Concerning the specific courses, a calendar for lessons and seminars has been planned.

The formation patches needed to complete the number of credits of the first year will be decided in agreement between doctorate students and their tutors, during a preliminary meeting to be held at the beginning of the doctorate period. The presentation of the research themes and of the formation patches will be public.
The formation patches will help in defining the research themes.
In addition, meetings between tutors and students will be held every 4/6 months, to practically assess the planned activity.
Annual, more exhaustive meetings will be held every 12, 24, and 36 months, starting from the beginning of the activities. During such meetings, the students will present to the public the development of  their scientific results, and will report on the formation courses followed.

The students must follow, during the first two years, specific courses organized by the college of the professors, for an amount of 12 credits.

The presence to the courses and the assessment of the understanding of the courses will be certified by the professors offering the courses,with a written opinion. The remaining 60 credits of the third year will beobtained by following seminars, stages, and by spending periods at qualified research institutes whose activity be consistent with the themes of the doctorate.

It is planned that the students will attend national and international meetings, to present and discuss the results obtained by the students in the various research themes, in the presence of specialists of the above research fields.
An assessment in front of the international community is considered as qualifying and unavoidable growth period of the student.
A table has been compiled, that summarises the formation, research, and teaching activities that PhD students have to follow.
for each activity, the maximum assignable number of credits has veen evidenced.

MODALITIES FOR GETTING THE CREDITS

The PhD students have to get 60 credits per year; the activities of the students are divided into three groups:formation activities, scientific (research) activities,
teaching activities.
The above activity groups are segmented into sub-groups, to each of which a number of formation credits corresponds, as specified in the following scheme:
The credits for each activity are to be understood as maximum number of assignable credits.

AF Formation activity

• AF1. to follow topics of the doctorate school (1 credit versus 4 hours)
• AF2. to follow university courses (the credits of the degree will be assigned)
• AF3. to follow internal seminars (1 credit versus two hours of seminar)
• AF4. to follow courses, schools or seminars at other centres (1 credit versus two seminar hours or 5 credits per week)
• AF5. Comparative analysis among different approaches to a scientific topic (4 credits)
• AF6. to follow advanced schools of foreign languages (1 credit per month)
  

AS - Scientific or research activity (including applied research):

• AS1. to join a meeting without presenting a paper (2 credits if Italian meeting;4 credits if international meeting)
• AS2. Periods spent abroad at schools or research centres (5 credits per month)
• AS3. To offer seminars (1 credit per seminar hour)
• AS4. Technical report on applied research projects (6 credits)
• AS5. Report on the research activity (8 credits)
• AS6. Publication of the results:
  

• AS7. Writing the doctorate thesis (40 credits)

AD - Teaching activity:

• AD1. Practical exercises (1 credit per exercise)
• AD2. teaching support (1 credit per 10 hours)
  

The following table provides the indications of the distribution of the credits, divided into activity groups, depending on the PhD year.
The intervals reported are not strict. On the other hand, global limitations on the number of achievable credits within the three activity sectors:

The formation activity is valid only for the two years of the school;
to it a maximum of 60 credits within the first two years is assignable;
Concerning the teaching activity, a maximum of 20 credits is assignable within the three years.
Concerning the scientific activity, a minimum of 100 credits has to be reached.

Year	I	II	III	TOTAL
AF	20-40	20-40	-	60 max
AS	20-40	20-40	50-60	100 min
AD	0-10	0-10	0-10	20 max
TOTAL	60	60	60	180

                         
    
            
MODALITIES FOR GETTING THE CREDITS

AF - Formation activity

• AF1. to follow courses of the doctorate school (the teacher should organise a fina exam)
• AF2. to follow university courses (the teacher should organize a final exam)
• AF3. to follow internal seminars (frequency document)
• AF4. to follow courses, schools or seminars at other centres (frequency document)
• AF5. comparative analysis among different approaches to a scientific topic( 4 credits)
• AF6. to join advanced schools of foreign languages (frequency document from the school, assessed by the tutor)
  

AS - Scientific or research activity (including applied research):

• AS1. to follow meeting (without presenting a paper) (frequency document/Inscription documents)
• AS2. to stay abroad at schools or research centres (Tutor or branch director)
• AS3. to offer seminars (Tutor or branch director)
• AS4. technical writing of applied research projects (Tutor or branch director)
• AS5. Document presenting the scientific research activity (Tutor or branch director)
• AS6. Publication of the results:
  

• AS7. Writing the doctorate thesis (activity assessed by the branch professors)
  

AD - Teaching activity:

• AD1. Practical exercises (Tutor)
• AD2. teaching support (Tutor)
  

The calendar of the courses is available in excel format within Public Download of the Web page.