Course Topics
The course provides an introduction to the most important research approaches and to the main research-related activities that PhD students will have to carry out during their PhD, and also if they later pursue a career as researchers in academia or industry. The main objective is to teach PhD students important basic skills that are needed to autonomously conduct research. The course covers general aspects that are relevant to research in any scientific discipline, and specifically focuses on Computer Science for illustrating the main notions and for the exercises and assignments assigned to the students.

Teaching format
The course consists of six units, taught in six different weeks by different lecturers from the Faculty of Engineering. Each unit foresees two lectures, one at the beginning of the week and one at the end of the week, of 2-4 hours each, for a total of 6 hours. For each unit, the first of the two lectures is based on frontal teaching by the corresponding lecturer, who presents the important notions for that unit and gives to the student an assignment. The students carry out the assignment in the time perido between the first and the second lecture, and the assignments are presented and/or discussed and/or commented in the second lecture of the unit.

Educational objectives
The course belongs to the type “area affine integrativa”. It is compulsory for all students enrolled in the PhD program in Computer Science, to fulfill the credit requirements for the 1st year of the PhD. The course introduces the most important research approaches and to the main research-related activities that PhD students will have to carry out during their PhD, and also if they later pursue a career as researchers in academia or industry. The main objective is to teach PhD students some basic skills they will need when autonomously conducting research. The course covers general aspects that are relevant to research in any scientific discipline, but specifically focuses on Computer Science when illustrating the main notions and for the exercises and projects assigned to the students.

Assessment
Each unit foresees an assignment, which will be communicated to the students during the first lecture of the unit. In the time period between the first and second lecture of the unit, the students should complete their assignment, and (part of) the second lecture will be devoted to discussing the assignments. The form of the assignment may vary for each unit, and is specific to the topics of the unit. The time estimated to complete each assignment is 19 hours, which, when added to the 6 hours required to attend the two lectures of the unit, results in 25 hours of work. These correspond to 1 ECTS credit. Hence, upon completion of all assignments, a student can be granted 6 ECTS credits.

Evaluation criteria
The evaluation criteria may vary for each unit and depend on the form of the assignment.