PhD Programme in “Intelligent Systems”

“Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.”

Jon Bon Jovi

We help people getting up

The current trend for Ukraine, supported and promoted by the Nation and State, is its steady movement to the membership in the European Union (EU). One of the important objectives on this way is to become an important player and integral part of the knowledge-based EU economy. To meet this objective, the system of higher education in Ukraine has to be systematically improved, refined, and strengthened in order to meet the required level of quality and share common values. One of the commonly used markers, indicating the quality of education, is the ability of the graduates to take part in and run research and development at international scale and corresponding quality level. To enable the movement towards research orientation in higher education, Ukraine requires professionals possessing increased and refined capabilities. Those could be produced at Universities, UCU in particular, using their Ph.D programmes. 

Background

In the last decade, UCU has proven to be successful in providing well-educated and motivated professionals for national and international labour markets in Academia and the IT sector of industry. This success has been achieved via the establishment of the high-quality educational environment at the B.Sci and, especially, M.Sci levels. This environment is composed of the Bachelor Programme in Computer Science and International Masters Programme in Computer Science with a focus on Data Science. Both programmes are implemented using competent UCU and international academic staff and in strong cooperation with the constellation of IT companies that operate at international scale. Due to these achievements, both B.Sci and M.Sci Programmes are highly reputable and popular in Ukraine, and gain reputation internationally, via extensive and effective collaboration with Academia and Industry in Europe and overseas.

The Gap and Opportunities

To facilitate the achievement of the aim of European integration, Ukrainian Universities have to strengthen their facility toward producing motivated and research-oriented professionals. At the UCU Faculty of Applied Sciences, the gap, to be narrowed toward the aim, is completing the design of the educational environment by designing and deploying its 3-d level – a research-oriented Ph.D Programme in Computer Science with a focus on Intelligent Systems. Remarkably, the transition period, though complex, offers numerous opportunities related to international academic and industrial cooperation and funding. This is valid because both Ukraine and international partners, including the EU, share common goals with respect to the integration of Ukraine.

Programme Objectives

With a goal to bridge the outlined gap and actuate opportunities, the Programme is designed in a way to serve as a facilitator and organisational hub that helps reach several important objectives by a motivated student, UCU as a University, Ukrainian academic and relevant industrial sectors at national and international scale, given the contemporary societal, sectoral, and professional contexts.

For a Student, the relevant objectives are seen as follows: Receive a Ph.D in Computer Science that strongly facilitates having competitive advantage while applying for senior research positions in academia and IT industry. Obtain the necessary competences and skills for successfully building their career and produce contributions to the State of the Art and Technology in academic or industrial research and development. Build professional contacts and peer network via taking active part in collaboration with Academia and Industry at national and international scale.

For UCU, the relevant objectives are seen as follows: Complete the full cycle of higher education by introducing the third (Ph.D) level. Enable further improvement of education at B.Sci and M.Sci levels via forming the pool of research-oriented staff graduating from the Programme. Improve and strengthen the competencies of the faculty due to the emerging competition with the new colleagues coming from the Programme. Systematically broaden and strengthen the professional networks of the faculty via international academic and industrial cooperation, facilitated by the Programme. 

At national scale, the relevant objectives are seen as follows: Contribute to the modernization of the economy toward knowledge-based industrial development. Offer highly qualified and proactive research scientists and engineers, with strong and extensive international professional links, for National Academia and Industry sectors to provide for their competitive advantage. Contribute to the increase in the impact of value-based mind-sets and human-centric attitudes in private and public sectors. Based on these, further increase and strengthen the reputation of UCU as one of the valued actors within the National and International Academic sectors.

At international scale, the relevant objectives are seen as follows: Facilitate to the creation of the environment that systematically enables steady transition and integration of Ukrainian Academia and Industry into the common European space by producing well-educated research and development professionals in Computer Science. These professionals will possess highly demanded competences and skills, their international professional network of peers, and have motivation and experience for the effective and efficient use of international collaborative instruments, such as projects, programs, exchanges, etc.

The Three Pillars

In contrast to the lower level educational programmes, which are more heavily based on instruction and supervision, at the Ph.D level we aim at bringing students up through guiding, suggesting, mentoring, and providing opportunities. This is approached in a fair, clear, and logical way that ensures equal rights, inclusiveness, opportunities, and responsibility for students and the involved academic staff in partnership. The conceptual design of the Programme, outlined below, is organised in a way to promote this fairness, inclusiveness, clarity, and equality. 

Basement – Ramp-up: Ramping-up students of differing backgrounds to the aligned entry level of world and professional outlook, based on human values, ethics, philosophy, and methodology of science. Providing the required set of professional and soft skills and capabilities for the further productive advancement in the Programme. Offering an opportunity to select the direction and focus of Ph.D research in consultations with potential mentors. Shaping out a Ph.D project proposal together with the selected mentor, including a thorough review of the related State-of-the-Art in the selected field of research.

Pillar 1 – Research Orientation: Learning how to propose, apply for, and take part in research projects. Organising individual Ph.D research as a project, also by providing the required facilities. Monitoring the progress in Ph.D research projects in regular internal meetings and workshops. Cooperating with partner research groups in joint national and international research projects.

Pillar 2 – Networking and Dissemination: Offering student secondments as short research visits to partner research groups at the Universities that cooperate with the Programme. Publishing in relevant international scholarly journals. Presenting and publishing at relevant international scholarly conferences and workshops.

Pillar 3 – Involvement in Academia and Industry: Orchestrating properly balanced part-time engagements or secondments at the academic institutions and industrial companies that cooperate with the Programme. Enabling this work in industry helps collect practical requirements for the further technology transfer of the results of a Ph.D project to industry. Facilitating the elaboration of the use cases for the evaluation of Ph.D project results in real-world settings. Consulting students on the opportunities of potential industrial professional carriers.

Crown – Successful Accomplishment: Ensuring and controlling that the Programme Pillars are successfully erected on the proper Basement by each Ph.D student, following their individual trajectory. Consulting on Ph.D Thesis writing, following the best academic practices and traditions. Assisting in organising Ph.D defences and further certification at the relevant national bodies.

New:

PhD Seminar

The seminar is held be-weekly. The details are provided at: https://apps.ucu.edu.ua/en/phd-seminar/

PhD Students admitted in 2023

New:

  • PhD Students can apply for annual stipends offered by the Faculty of Applied Sciences  (details)

Useful Links

Key Facts

Sorry, this information is available only in Ukrainian

Potential Mentors

Questionnaire for Candidates

Contact Information