About AESI

The doctoral program in Advanced Engineering Systems for Industry (AESI) is promoted by the University of Minho in cooperation with Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal and is co-funded by the Portuguese Government under the PD-F Program from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). It is specially targeted for preparing PhDs students for an advanced engineering career in industry.

The AESI doctoral program is devoted to train PhD students to work in industry with the role of leading innovation and technological development in advanced engineering systems for industrial organizations, namely in:
. manufacturing systems and logistics;
. information and software systems;
· information visualization and CAD systems;
· embedded systems and industrial informatics;
· modeling, simulation, and optimization.

The specialization in these engineering topics empowers the AESI students to promote the adoption of worldwide-recognized business excellence and quality reference models in industrial organizations. Thus, AESI students will be skilled to explicitly manage the industrial property, the innovation private strategy, and the organizational projects and change management. AESI students should appreciate the potential of an industry-based career and realize that their research capabilities can be useful for market-driven purposes.

AESI is a “normal” doctoral program in the sense that when awarding a PhD, it is guaranteed that the student has a broad foundation in the field, has advanced the field by performing significant original research, and has reported that work in a scholarly fashion (including the publication of scientific papers in journals and conference proceedings).

This doctoral program follows a recent trend in PhD programs that train students in non-science skills (such as networking, writing, presenting, working in group, collaborating with industry), by providing appropriate tools for helping students when looking for a job outside academia as 3rd-cycle engineers.

Industry cooperation and affinity with real industry needs is a dominant concern in this doctoral program and all activities are aimed towards reaching application in industrially relevant contexts. Therefore, ambitious framework agreements have been entered with industrial organizations, thus ensuring that specific plans for the exploitation of results are present across the doctoral program activities. Currently, Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal is the main industrial partner of this doctoral program. Other industrial organizations with international scope are planned to integrate this consortium.

This doctoral programme leading to the Doctoral Degree in Advanced Engineering Systems for Industry (AESI) follows the Bologna system and is organized in 4 years to accomplish a two-step advanced training programme (curricular year and research period). The first curricular year, designated “Doctoral Course in Advanced Engineering Systems for Industry”, refers to a probationary period, which includes a curricular section of 60 ECTS credits, comprising 12 5-ECTS courses that are distributed according to the following typology: 6 technical and scientific courses, 3 industrial management and innovation courses, and 3 interpersonal skills courses. The second step of the study cycle (180 ECTS) corresponds to a 3-year during which an original thesis shall be elaborated.

This doctoral program is intended to strengthen the interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and multicultural collaboration skills for the students with distinct technical backgrounds. The multidisciplinary approach is obtained in three ways: working teams during the first year are constituted by students with different technological backgrounds, from different universities (implying different teaching methods), and from different countries (different cultural habits).

The AESI doctoral program was selected for funding under the scope of the extremely competitive call from FCT. A total of 40 FCT scholarships for the first four editions was awarded to outstanding candidates. Additional scholarships from industrial partners may be awarded for specially selected candidates.

PhD Program Diretor: Professor Paulo Sampaio (dir-phdaesi@algoritmi.uminho.pt)

Study Plan: here.