Final Exam | Doctoral Program - Information Engineering and Computer Science

Final Exam

PhD students who have been admitted to the final examination by the Doctoral School Committee shall submit their thesis for evaluation to two external referees.
Both referees will propose either admission to the final examination/PhD defence or Postponement for a period of no longer than six months in the case of major revision.
In the case of major revision, the student must submit a new version of the thesis together with a rebuttal letter before the deadline. The referees will then submit a new evaluation according to the changes made to the thesis by the student. 
In any case the student is admitted to the final examination

For the PhD Students who have their covid-19 extension approved, all the deadlines are postponed for the same period (up to 3 months)

DEADLINES FOR PHD STUDENTS

Step 1 - Thesis review procedure (Final examination) or Postponement , by the end of September 2024 
  • Request for admission to the thesis review procedure (Final examination)

Before applying, the student must discuss the state of the thesis with his/her advisor.
Mandatory for admission to the final examination is the completion of a period of research of at least 3 months’ duration spent abroad and publication of at least two ISI- or SCOPUS-indexed publications.
The request for admission to the final examination must be submitted online by means of the Esse3 system http://www.esse3.unitn.it/Start.do
The request implies the payment of a contribution (“final examination contribution”) of € 72,00 (which includes two duty stamps of € 16,00). PhD students must have regularly paid all the three-year PhD course fees when they submit the online final examination form.
Information about the online application is available at https://www.unitn.it/en/ateneo/1932/final-examination
PhD students are asked to fill in the AlmaLaurea questionnaire together with the request for admission to the final examination, in order to gather their opinions about the services provided by our university.

  • Award of the label “Doctor Europaeus” 

The additional label of "Doctor Europaeus" may be awarded to those PhD students who fulfil the prerequisites proposed by the European University Association as follows: 

  1. positive judgement on the thesis by two referees from two higher education institutions of two European countries, other than the one where the doctoral thesis will be defended; 
  2. at least one member of the final examination committee comes from a higher education institution in a European country other than the one where the doctoral thesis will be defended; 
  3. period abroad of at least 3 months spent in another European country; 
  4. the doctoral thesis must have been partly prepared as a result of a period of research of at least one trimester spent in another European country. 

PhD students interested in obtaining the title of “Doctor Europaeus” should indicate their interest in the AlmaLaurea questionnaire (see the previous point)
Information is available at http://www.unitn.it/en/ateneo/50322/doctor-europaeus

  • Request for Postponement 

Just for important reasons that do not allow to submit the thesis on schedule, the student can request a postponement period.
The student can request a postponement of 3, 6 or 12 months
All the deadlines are postponed for the same period requested.

Step 2 - Submission of the thesis and of a report on the PhD activities, by January 20, 2025

The IECS Doctoral School Secretariat will send PhD students all details about their referees as well as the instructions on the submission of the required documents 
PhD students have to upload to Easychair a single pdf file (file extension .pdf) containing:

  1. thesis;
  2. a report on the research/study activities that he/she has carried out during his/her Doctoral Programme and a list of his/her publications. The report should contain:
  • list of publications
  • periods spent abroad for study/research reasons
  • Summer/winter schools, Conferences
  • participation in research projects
  • other

A template will provided by the IECS Doctoral School Secretariat

As soon as the student has uploaded the required file to Easychair, he/she informs both his/her referees, as well as the IECS Doctoral School Secretariat, about his/her submission.
Referees submit their evaluation for the thesis within 30 days from when the thesis is available on Easychair.  

As an overall evaluation of the student's thesis, referees may propose one of the following results:

  • MINOR Revision: admission of the student to the final examination/PhD defence
  • MAJOR Revision: the student must resubmit to Easychair a new version of the thesis with a rebuttal letter within 3 months (Final Exam to be discussed by July 31, 2025)
  • MAJOR Revision: the student must resubmit to Easychair a new version of the thesis with a rebuttal letter within 6 months (Final Exam to be discussed by October 31, 2025)

Each PhD student will receive the reviews via email as soon as both referees have submitted their evaluations.
 

Step 3 - Delivery of the final version of the thesis to the final examination committee and to the referees, no later than 10 days before the date of the final examination

PhD students send the final version of the thesis (.pdf) to each member of the final examination committee and to both the referees via e-mail. No hard copy must be submitted.

Step 4 - Upload of the final version of thesis and of the Deposit Disclaimer, no later than 10 days before the date of the final examination

PhD students must upload the final version of the thesis (.pdf) and the Deposit Disclaimer to the online open-access archive IRIS https://iris.unitn.it/ PhD students may decide to let the thesis be made public or to restrict its access. ‘Embargo’ is a period during which the thesis is kept secret. Only bibliographic metadata are made visible. PhD students can request a period of embargo (up to 24 months).

NB: PhD students who have been awarded a scholarship funded by other institutions (e.g. research centres, companies, European Commission) should contact the IECS Doctoral School Secretariat to determine whether any imposing secrecy restriction is foreseen. Once the thesis has been submitted to the online University archive, it can no longer be replaced with another version.

Those PhD students who do not self-archive both their thesis and Deposit Disclaimer in the online University archive, will not receive the PhD diploma on the date of the final examination.

Intellectual property rights: https://www.unitn.it/en/ricerca/1767/protection-and-valorization-of-intellectual-property

Step 5 - Delivery of the abstract of the final version of the thesis, no later than 10 days before the date of the final examination
PhD students should send title and abstract of the thesis to the IECS Doctoral School Secretariat. The PhD defence will be advertised via Facebook and on the IECS Doctoral School and DISI website.
Step 6 - Return of the university computer, on the day of the final examination
PhD students who have received a computer from the university must return it to the IECS Doctoral School Secretariat on the day of the final examination. The computer must be formatted before being returned.
Step 7 - Final examination,
a.  By April 30, 2025 (Minor revision) 
b.  By July 31, 2025 (Major revision - 3 months); 
c.  By October 31,2025 (Major revision - 6 months )
In the case the referees require minor amendments to the thesis, the final examination must be held by no later than April 30, 2025.
If referees ask for relevant integrations or changes that must be completed within:
- 3 months: the final examination must be held by July 31, 2025;
- 6 months: the final examination must be held by October 31, 2025.
The Final examination will take place before the examination committee and will consist of a public discussion of the thesis. The PhD School organizes a proclamation ceremony for each PhD student who concludes the doctoral programme. The advisor should introduce the candidate as well as the committee members. The candidate will then present his/her thesis (around 45 minutes), which will be followed by questions from the committee (around 30 minutes). The defence is open to the public.
In the case of negative judgement by the final examination committee, the PhD student is excluded from the PhD Programme.

For those PhD students who obtained a period of suspension during their PhD Programme, all deadlines concerning their final examination will be postponed for the same period of their suspension. The IECS Doctoral School Secretariat will send them all new deadlines.

PhD students on a co-tutelle programme

In order to obtain the double doctoral degree, PhD students must fulfil the requirements foreseen by both institutions. 
PhD students are therefore invited to check with the hosting institution in regard to any further requirement which must be fulfilled in order to be awarded the degree.

DEADLINES FOR ADVISORS

Step 1 - Approval of the request for admission to the thesis review or for postponement of the thesis evaluation , by October 10, 2024 (at 12:00 PM)

Advisors should approve their PhD students’ admission to the thesis review procedure (final examination) or its postponement.
In case of request for admission to the thesis evaluation (final examination), advisors should submit an evaluation on the research carried on by the candidate during her/his PhD leading to the thesis proposal to the Doctorate Student Career http://dsc.disi.unitn.it/

Step 2 - Suggestion of two referees, By December 4, 2024  (at 12:00 PM)

Advisors should send all the details below concerning the two referees who will review their PhD students’ thesis by inserting all the required information in the form at the link https://forms.gle/uZLdf9autSps8Efd7

Advisors should suggest referees who have already confirmed their availability.

Referees eligibility criteria:

  • experts selected among highly qualified tenured academic staff or tenured lecturers belonging to other institutions (NO UniTrento)
  • at least one referee must be academic staff (professor or researcher) 
  • researchers who work for companies that deal with research
  • no previous collaborations with the student (e.g. thesis co-tutorship, internship, research collaboration)
  • adjunct lecturers/instructors are not eligible
  • possessors of titles such as Emeritus Professor, Emeritus Reader, Senior Fellow are not eligible unless they have a teaching contract or are in service at a foreign research institute or university.

Referees submit their evaluation for the thesis within 30 days from when the thesis is available. The two referees may be part of the final examination committee as well. In this case they may be reimbursed (only travel expenses).

Step 3 - Proposal of the final examination committee and date of the final examination, no later than 30 days before the date of the final examination

Once the student has been admitted to the final examination by the two referees, the advisor should send to iecs.school [at] unitn.it:

  • composition of the final examination committee;
  • date of the final examination.

The final examination session are the last two weeks of each months; the date of the final examination.

The final examination committee should be composed of:

  1. from three to five members selected among tenured academic (university) staff and/or researchers at Italian and/or foreign institutions, specialized in the topics of the dissertation;
  2. “two-thirds” of the commission must be external to UniTrento and “two-thirds” must be academic staff; 
  3. up to two external experts may be added. They can be lecturers/researchers or experts selected from universities and public and private research centres.

NB: Advisors should suggest a committee whose members have already confirmed their availability.

  • The advisor cannot be part of the committee.
  • Referees can be part of the committee (they can be any of the 3 - 5 + additional 2 members, see above).
  • Researchers who work for companies that deal with research may be part of the committee (they can be any of the 3 - 5 + additional 2 members, see above).
  • Possessors of titles such as Emeritus Professor, Emeritus Reader, Senior Fellow are not eligible unless they have a teaching contract or are in service at a foreign research institute or university.
Step 4 - Final examination,
a.  By April 30, 2025 (Minor revision) 
b.  By July 31, 2025 (Major revision - 3 months); 
c.  By October 31,2025 (Major revision - 6 months )

The advisor should support the committee during the entire proclamation ceremony of the candidate. The IECS Doctoral School Secretariat will send advisors all details on the ceremony and in particular on the advisor’s duties.