General Information about the PhD Program in Computer Science

The Computer Science Department (DISI) at Genova University runs a PhD program in Computer Science as part of a PhD School which includes nice PhD programs.
The PhD program lasts 3 year (which may be extended to 4, but without financial support). Each PhD student has a supervisor (who is a member of the Collegio dei Docenti), and when necessary a second person acting as thesis advisor. In the first year students are expected to take courses, in order to complete their computer science background and/or to deepen their knowledge in specific areas. At the end of the first year students should submit a thesis proposal. The last two years are mainly devoted to research activity and the writing up of the thesis. At the end of the last year a student must submit a thesis (in English), which will be judged by a committee (nominated by the Collegio dei Docenti) also on the basis of written reports by external reviewers.

Research Areas in the PhD Program in Computer Science

Below you can find the list of the research areas available within the PhD program in Computer Science and the faculty members at DISI who are doing research in each area (and possibly more specific topics within the research area)

  1. computer graphics and geometric modeling (solid modeling; multi-resolution geometric modeling; analysis and structuring of geometric shapes)
    researchers: De Floriani, Magillo, Puppo
  2. data bases and information systems (advanced data models: object-oriented databases, deductive databases, active databases, constraint databases; management of temporal, geo-spatial and semistructured data; Web and databases; indexing techniques and database security; data mining and knowledge management)
    researchers: Catania, Guerrini
  3. distributed systems (prototyping and performance evaluation; low-cost and high-performance distributed platforms; development environments for distributed applications; security; mobile computing)
    researchers: Chiola, Ciaccio, Gianuzzi, Ribaudo
  4. image processing
    researchers: Boccacci
  5. programming languages (foundations and design; object-oriented, functional and logic programming languages; integration of paradigms; reflection; applications of logic programming to knowledge representation and artificial intelligence)
    researchers: Ancona D., Delzanno, Martelli, Mascardi, Moggi, Zucca
  6. soft computing
    researchers: Masulli, Rovetta
  7. techniques and methods for software system design (UML-based technologies and their extensions; methods for automatic verification of protocols and concurrent systems; formal methods)
    researchers: Cerioli, Delzanno, Martelli, Mascardi, Reggio
  8. theoretical foundations of computer science
    researchers: Moggi, Rosolini
  9. theory and applications of statistical learning from examples
    researchers: Barla, Odone, Rosasco, Verri
Please consult the DISI web page for up-to-date overview of the active research topics within the Computer Science Department and its faculty members. If interested in the ddmission process, please visit the Admission process page
For general advice you might contact the PhD program Director: