For a Human-Centered AI

FBK International PHD Program

February 20, 2017

Fondazione Bruno Kessler is presenting the project involving more than 100 students from around the world, in collaboration with Italian and international universities.

Monday, February 20, 2017 Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento presents its program for the training of doctoral students dtarted in collaboration with a wide network of Italian universities (Trento, Padua, Bologna, the Florence-Pisa-Siena Consortium, Genoa, Pavia, Brescia) and international universities (University College London, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Queen Mary University Imperial College London, University of Luxembourg, TU Wien).

The project, called FBK International PhD Program, Is headed by director Paolo Tonella (FBK) and vice-director Claudio Piemonte (FBK) and currently involves over 100 students with an average age of 29 years old, from all over the world (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Mauritius, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, USA) that on 20 February are meeting at the FBK Povo Hub for the first PhD Day.

“Fondazione Bruno Kessler”, said president Francesco Profumo, “has consistently invested for several years in doctoral students. With this new program, we aim to further the strategic management of the quality of students and the relationships with affiliated universities, starting from a close collaboration with the University of Trento. The pillars of this project of excellence are the high quality of the research, the network of international collaborations and the training oriented toward the research conducted at FBK laboratories, in contact with an innovative organization which cooperates with companies. The program is part of FBK’s approach to drawing the younger genereations closer to the world of research and to strengthening the research-industry ecosystem. ”

The doctoral program takes place in the Foundation’s laboratories under the supervision of senior researchers and, under the new program, it will be recognized by an FBK certification which will also show any potential achievement of results of excellence. For affiliated universities that join the program, the certification will be replicated in the Diploma Supplement that will be earned in addition to the PhD.

Besides the accurate selection of candidates, the quality of research will be ensured through a periodic evaluation process conducted by an internal committee composed of researchers specialized in the topic of each student. Other initiatives provided include a Research Internship, designed for final year students of the Masters Degree program, and the Alumni Association to keep members of the community in touch.

The presentation of the program of the FBK International PhD Program coincides with the first PhD Day, the event dedicated to FBK doctoral students, that will be hosting – in the Povo location – a poster session presented by third and fourth year students and talks by alumni and students that will take their final exams in spring 2017. The event includes as well the award-giving ceremony for the best 2016 doctoral thesis, awarded to Andrea Micheli who conducted his research at FBK’s Embedded Systems Unit, led by Alessandro Cimatti, and who, with the publication entitled “Planning and Scheduling in temporally Uncertain Domains “also won the European EurAI 2016 prize for the best doctoral thesis in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Speakers include the president of Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Francesco Profumo, the Councilor for University and Research, Youth Policies, Gender Equality, and Cooperation to Development of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Sara Ferrari, the director of the FBK International PhD Program, Paolo Tonella, and FBK PhD alumnus, Alfio Gliozzo (IBM research).

The new fbk.eu portal and the new FBK online magazine will be presented as well. The magazine features, among other things, the stories of PhD alumni, who, thanks to the experience at FBK, now hold leading roles at research institutions and international companies. Among these: Alfio Gliozzo – Research Manager (IBM Research, New York, USA), Elena Cabrio – Assistant Professor (University of Nice, Sophia Antipolis, France), Leo Braga (EFFECT Photonics, Eindhoven, Netherlands), Daniele Pighin – Research Scientist (Google, Mountain View, California, USA), Sergio Mover – Postdoctoral Researcher (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA), Yashar Mehdad – Research Manager (Yahoo), Heorhi Raik – Software Engineer at Facebook (London, UK). A joint call at the Queen Mary University, London, for a position in the field Computer Science is now open: http://phd.fbk.eu/

For more information:

– FBK International PhD Program: http://phd.fbk.eu/

Photos by John Cavulli


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