The PhD in Automotive for Intelligent Mobility is a course proposed by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering and the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi" of the University of Bologna also participate in the PhD course.
The consortium campuses of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and of the University of Parma also participate in the PhD course.
The following disciplinary sectors contribute to the PhD program in Automotive for Intelligent Mobility:
INFO-01/A - Informatics (INF / 01)
CEAR-03/A - Highways, railways and airports (ICAR / 04)
IIND-06/A - Fluid machinery (ING-IND / 08)
IIND-07/A - Thermal engineering and industrial energy systems (ING-IND / 10)
IIND-02/A - Applied mechanics (ING-IND / 13)
IIND-03/A - Mechanical design and machine construction (ING-IND / 14)
IIND-03/B - Design methods for industrial engineering (ING-IND / 15)
IIND-04/A - Manufacturing technology and systems (ING-IND / 16)
IIND-05/A - Industrial mechanical plants (ING-IND / 17)
IIET-01/A - Electrical engineering (ING-IND / 31)
IIND-08/A - Power electronic converters, electrical machines and drives (ING-IND / 32)
IINF-01/A - Electronics (ING-INF / 01)
IINF-02/A - Electromagnetic fields (ING-INF / 02)
IINF-03/A - Telecommunications (ING-INF / 03)
IINF-04/A - Systems and control engineering (ING-INF / 04)
IINF-05/A - Information processing systems (ING-INF / 05)
The PhD in Automotive Engineering for Intelligent Mobility aims to train highly qualified personnel with disciplinary and multidisciplinary skills, capable of directing the development and research, even in the industrial sector, of innovative vehicles, creating a meeting point in the third level of education between mechanical, industrial, electronics, telecommunications, controls, electrical, IT, logistics and civil engineering. The objective is to train PhD students with a cultural profile aimed at the design, development and production of innovative road vehicles and their integration into new intelligent and interconnected mobility systems.
The Doctorate is centered on the development of the most innovative technologies serving topics of great interest and relevance for this sector, such as: powertrains and vehicles with reduced environmental impact; innovative combustion systems, reduction of polluting emissions, energy storage in electrochemical and chemical form; connected vehicles; self-driving vehicles; “Industry 5.0” model for the production system; management of "Big data" for intelligent and safe mobility. To combine the needs of developing multidisciplinary skills, which allow a systemic approach to the design and production of innovative vehicles, with the need to train highly specialized professional figures in specific fields, the Course is divided into three curricula which vertically delve into the following areas: 1) Vehicle Design, Manufacturing and Systems Integration; 2) Energy Systems, Powertrains, Vehicle Performance; 3) Vehicle Informatics and Connectivity.
Finally, a further objective of the Course is the possibility of expanding the opportunity to access third level training and research courses, while maintaining a rigorous selection during the selection process. This is made possible by two fundamental and very characteristic elements of this specific Doctorate: first of all the number and size of the Departments (7) and Universities (3) involved, which is also reflected in a Board that is still agile but of significant size ( 25 members, distributed in a balanced way across the skills and specificities of the various Departments/research groups). The other enabling factor is the very strong connection with the industrial world, the Motor Valley in particular. This has allowed, since the birth of the Doctoral Course, to be able to count on important private funding to activate a very high number of additional doctoral positions, and to validate a balanced and profitable relationship between University and Industry, as many of these positions involve research periods at the industrial partner, and in any case a strong interaction on the research carried out by the doctoral student. The Course is also structured to effectively manage a very high number of PhD students (45-50 per year were foreseen during the planning phase of this PhD Course), both from the point of view of the number of teachers/tutors/disciplines/skills, and physical spaces such as classrooms, offices and laboratories.
In general terms, and for various educational aspects, the Doctorate course also contributes to the pursuit of the following Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030: 7 Clean and accessible energy; 9 Business, innovation and infrastructure; 11 sustainable cities and communities; 13 Fight against climate change.
The PhD course in Automotive for Intelligent Mobility is organized into three curricula:
In addition to being supported by professors who, in the Departments and Universities involved, have been dealing with the topics of interest for this doctorate for many years, the proposal fits fully into the production context of Emilia Romagna - where the Automotive sector is the first industrial sector in terms of turnover, number of companies and employees, and is represented by companies of primary global importance in the production of high-end cars and motorbikes, agricultural machinery, cars and motorbikes for sports competitions, and vehicle components. PhD students who complete the course will find a high-profile job placement both in the academic field, in public and private research institutions, and in the industrial field, and the reference context will be regional, national and international. These figures will be the global experts, both in the private and public sectors, capable of driving innovation in the Automotive and intelligent, autonomous and connected vehicle sectors in the coming decades. These include: research fellow or university researcher; postdoctoral fellow or researcher at research institutions; researcher/designer in the R&D sectors; engineer responsible for testing the engine and vehicle; software design engineer; communication and control systems engineer; …, of companies in the automotive sector.
Two elements must be further highlighted in this context: the very close relationship with industrial partners in the automotive sector, which also determines many of the topics that are investigated (the definition of the topic to which each grant is associated is the responsibility of the Department, and often derives from existing research relationships with industrial partners, even when the grant is not financed externally), and the multidisciplinarity of the Course structure, from the SSDs involved to the definition of the three curricula that characterize it, which cover the entire supply chain and entire life cycle of the vehicle, from design to recovery/recycling of materials.
The first element in particular means that employment and professional opportunities often overlap and "coincide" with the profiles of outgoing PhDs, as they are "exactly" the specialists needed in a strategic problem/technology/knowledge in the industrial sector, in which important investments have often been made, starting with the financing of the doctoral scholarship. An example is given, as noted in the previous point, by the attempt to offer more PhD positions in the electrical/electronic sector, stimulating and encouraging the training of specialists in particularly sought-after fields.
The second element ensures that, in parallel with an inevitably vertical specialization almost always linked to industrial problems, doctoral students are offered multidisciplinary training, which supports them in a particularly dynamic context such as that of mobility in recent years.
Finally, the most recent Almalaurea data (2023 data) indicate that, for the 15 Doctors in Automotive interviewed out of the 24 who completed their course in the AY 2022, 100% of them are employed in activities specifically identified at the end of the doctorate in an average time of 1.3 months from the end of the doctorate itself. 66.7% also declare a high use of the skills acquired and report a high effectiveness of the doctorate in the activity carried out.
A Joint Program between the University of Bologna, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and the University of Parma