The course is aimed at the acquisition of advanced multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary knowledge and skills, which are expressed in the main research areas attributable to Information Engineering applied to Intelligent Systems, such as Computational Architecture, Bioengineering, Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems.
The Ph.D. Course is motivated by the need to train people with a high level of specialization in the context of the methods and tools typical of engineering and physics, applied to the integration of intelligent systems in the industrial and medical fields.
The objective is, in particular, to train professional figures who, in these fields, are able to coordinate and conduct both basic and applied research activities, manage managerial activities in companies, institutions, and public and private research centers, and encourage scientific and technological transfer within them relating to the context of intelligent systems.
The Ph.D. course aims to prepare professionals who, equipped with high decision-making autonomy and a strong critical sense, can play a leading role in the research and application fields related to the doctorate. In particular, in the design and creation of physical, bioengineering and cyber-physical devices and systems that, also thanks to the use of artificial intelligence, allow an increasingly advanced, collaborative and sustainable interaction between the environment, people and robots in their respective interaction contexts.

The proposal to establish a doctorate in Intelligent Systems is supported by labor market surveys, for which research doctors show employment levels higher than second-level graduates, with an average employment rate of 93.2% in Engineering. The demand for work shows an increase for engineering and high-skilled professions, linked to information technology and technology applied to the industrial sector and to sectors linked to care and personal services.

The doctoral course is divided into the following two curricula, at the basis of which there is advanced common training relating to enabling technologies for the design and creation of intelligent systems:

• Bioengineering and Physics
  The curriculum focuses on the acquisition of advanced skills in the fields of electronic and computer bioengineering, physics applied to medicine and biology and materials science and technology in the biomedical and industrial fields. These include analysis and acquisition of biosignals and bioimages, in silico, in vitro and in vivo biological and physiological models, precision medicine, rehabilitation engineering, surgical robotics, artificial intelligence, development of biosensors and biomedical instrumentation and bio- and nano-materials for applications in the biomedical and industrial fields, structural and functional properties of materials and nanomaterials, as well as analysis techniques of their electronic, optical and magnetic properties.
• Cyberphysical Systems
  The curriculum focuses on the acquisition of advanced skills in the field of Information and Automatic Engineering applied to both the industrial and medical fields. These include: robotics and controls, embedded systems, artificial intelligence, advanced computing architectures, automatic system design and verification, human-machine interaction, visual computing, machine/deep learning, Internet of Things and big data.

Employment and professional opportunities

The research skills provided by the Ph.D. in Engineering of Intelligent Systems allow for broad employment opportunities, both in the academic and industrial fields, which will be favored thanks also to the collaborations maintained by the members of the College and the Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine with companies, universities and national and international bodies. The main employment opportunities foreseen are in particular university careers and management and research activities at companies and institutions active in the biomedical, ICT services for healthcare, manufacturing and industrial automation, and consultancy in the field of intelligent systems sectors, which require high specialization in information processing systems, automation, bioengineering, applied physics, and matter physics.

Research facilities and services for PhD students

Several research laboratories are available:

• ALTAIR Laboratory (Automatics and Robotics)
• BraiNAVLab Laboratory (Bioengineering)
• ESD (Electronic System Design) Laboratory
• ICE (Industrial Computer Engineering) laboratory
• PARCO Laboratory (Parallel Computing)
• IoT4Care Laboratory (Internet of Things for Healthcare)
• Computer and cyber-physical laboratories
• High-performance Computer, Univ. Verona
• Center for Technological Platforms, Univ. Verona.
• Intelligo Laboratory (Artificial Intelligence)

Students will be able to access the libraries:

• University centers:
• Frinzi Library (Periodicals: 3986; Monographs: 181289)
• Meneghetti Library (Periodicals: 2309; Monographs: 30246)
• From the Dept. of Computer Science: Bruno Forte (3430 monographs)

The university library system (also via VPN connection) makes all the databases available in the University available to doctoral students. Of particular interest to computer science PhD students are the following databases:

• Scopus
• Current Protocols in Bioinformatics
• IEEE Xplore Digital Library
• International Law in Domestic Courts (Oxford)
• ISSN Portal
• ACM - Association for Computing Machinery
• Meddling
• Springer Journals
• Web of science

In addition to the University's wired and Wi-Fi network and the various department LAN networks, all the above laboratories are equipped with computers and IT equipment to allow doctoral students to carry out fruitful research. Furthermore, the department finances the purchase of electronic materials (laptops, monitors, etc.) for all first-year doctoral scholarship holders.

Each doctoral student in Intelligent Systems has at his disposal a work area equipped with table, chairs and chest of drawers in the spaces of the Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine. In addition to the Department's servers for web pages and email, the Department provides each student with a PC of their choice and the basic software to use it. Finally, each research laboratory is equipped with servers and computing tools dedicated to specific research areas.