Ph.D. programme in Civil Systems Engineering

HYDRAULIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

• Hydraulic measurements, transportation and turbulent mixing in open channel flows
• Two phases exchange processes (air-water)
• Dynamics and morphology of hillsides and rivers
• Soil erosion and qualitative and quantitative evaluation of solid transport to rivers, artificial reservoirs and coastlines
• Prediction and modeling of debris flows and mud flows
• Water distribution networks and wastewater systems in urban and rural environment
• Pressure management and renewable energy production in water distribution networks
• Seismic reliability of hydraulic structures
• Design of pumping systems under the European Directive on “eco-design”
• Qualitative and quantitative control and management of surface and ground water resources
• Sustainable management of artificial reservoirs and dams
• Modeling of aquifers at different observation scales
• Environmental and energetic issues related to groundwater utilization
• Flood protection policies
• Planning of water courses and watersheds management works
• Climate change impact on water resources and on extreme hydrological events
• Maritime and coastal engineering
• Innovative biological and physico-chemical processes and technologies for water treatment
• Sustainable management of nutrients in wastewater
• Evaluation and detection of microplastics in water and sewage sludge
• Biological waste-to-energy valorization
• Circular economy and production of high-value commodities from residual organic feedstocks
• Recovery of critical metals and rare earths from wastewater and solid waste
• Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and storage (CCS) technologies for the mitigation of greenhouse gases and climate change
• Technologies and processes for soil remediation

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS AND INFRASTRUCTURES ENGINEERING

• Decision-making process and role of transportation systems engineering
  • Planning, design, management and monitoring of infrastructures and services for passenger and freight transport
  • Public engagement
• Analysis and modeling of passenger and freight transportation systems
  • Discrete choice models for travel demand estimation
  • Models and methods for travel demand estimation through traffic measures
  • Development of macroscopic and microscopic models and decision support systems
  • Simulation, optimization and control of transportation networks
  • Analysis and modeling of drivers’ behavior
  • Analysis and modeling of pedestrian and vehicular flows
  • Paradigms, approaches and methods for the development of digital and sustainable freight transport systems
• Theories and techniques for design, construction and management of highways, railways and airports
  • Models and methods for design, construction and management of transportation infrastructures
  • Models and methods for design, construction and management of pavements and railroad track structures
  • Monitoring, control and maintenance of transportation infrastructures and pavements
  • Building Information Modeling (BIM) for road, rail and airport infrastructure
• Models and methods for sustainable mobility
  • Methods and models for networks safety management
  • Energy and environmental sustainability
  • Environmental effects of infrastructures construction and operation
  • New forms of passenger and freight transport (mobility-as-a-service, freight-as-a-service, …)
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • Impact of technologies on systems design (smart, lean and green infrastructures)
  • Advanced systems for traveler information, traffic control and driver assistance

URBAN AND LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND DESIGN

• City, mobility and environment: from the building up of a shared scientific paradigm to the definition of integrated design techniques
• Resilience and vulnerability of urban and territorial systems to natural and man-made risks
• Processes of urban transformation/requalification and enhancement of the real estate asset
• Smart Cities: from the interpretative paradigms to the evolution of the urban transformations management tools.
• Sustainability analysis and assessment of urban and territorial development
• Energy saving and efficiency in the planning and management of urban transformations
• City and energy: planning and management of urban and territorial transformations for environmental sustainability and energy saving.
• City, mobility and energy for building up climate change resilient cities
• Ecosystem services
• Urban and region adaptation to Climate change
• Landscape planning and management
• Historic areas and urban change
• Policies of territory governance
• Recovery, requalification and transformation of city e regions
• Public spaces as common landscapes
• Planning and territorial development

BUILDING DESIGN, RE-DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

• Design, construction and management of sustainable buildings
• Sustainable residential typologies: Social housing
• The “shapes” of the expanding city: characters and intervention methods
• Environmentally friendly building techniques with low environmental impact
• The envelope in contemporary architecture between language and construction
• Technological and architectural characters for sustainable urban design
• The retrieve of deteriorated environmental contexts with non-structural landscape interventions and environmentally friendly technologies
• Architecture and the visual arts in the design of contemporary public buildings
• Complex infrastructural places: characters of permanence and retraining opportunities
• The design of infrastructural terminals: new spatialities and typological models
• The reuse of derelict railways
• The architectures for the health service: new users and building typologies
• Design characters for high maintainability buildings
• Evaluation of durability for building components
• Climate change impact on the degradation of building envelopes
• New technologies for the safe management of construction sites
• Building Information Modelling
• Innovation and sustainability in mortars and concretes
• To recycle for sustainable building

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING GEOLOGY

• Mechanical behavior of geomaterials: experimental analysis and modeling of the static and dynamic behavior of saturated and unsaturated soils, of continuous rocks and those crossed by discontinuities.
• Geotechnical works: analysis and monitoring of the static and dynamic soil-structure interaction in shallow and deep foundations, support works, open pit excavations, tunnels and underground works, earth constructions, embankments and dams; analysis and monitoring of the interaction between geotechnical works and existing buildings; geotechnical works such as heat exchangers in geothermal heat pump systems (GSHP).
• Earthquake geotechnical Engineering: analysis of the local seismic response and seismic microzonation; assessment of the susceptibility to liquefaction and the triggering of earthquake-induced landslides in a large area and at the scale of the building; monitoring and analysis of the behavior of geotechnical works under seismic actions.
• Ground improvement: consolidation and reinforcement of soils and rocks; seismic geotechnical isolation and active and passive protection techniques from anthropic vibrations; liquefaction risk mitigation techniques; innovative biological and physico-chemical systems for soil consolidation.
• Slope stability: slope behavior of unsaturated pyroclastic soils and in complex clayey formations; rock landslides and rapid flowslides; assessment of the susceptibility, hazard and risk of landslides in a large area and on artifacts and related thematic cartography; applications of remote monitoring techniques to the stability of the territory.
• Rock masses: geometric and mechanical characterization of discontinuity systems and failure mechanisms; remote sensing techniques, photogrammetry and 3D models; karst-collapse sinkholes and anthropogenic sinkholes.
• Hydrogeology: characterization of aquifers in different geological settings; assessment of groundwater resources, including  the climate change scenarios; hydrochemistry of groundwater and isotopes; mineral waters; geothermal; groundwater protection from contamination at a territorial level (assessment of vulnerability and pollution risk) and site (well protection areas).

First Year
In the first year, to each student is assigned a tutor who will follow him throughout the three-year period. In this period, the research theme is identified and the state of the art is mostly completed. Moreover, the first year is also mostly devoted to educational activities, including both general topics propaedeutic to scientific research activities, and specific courses to deepen the specific sector of interest. Each course presents a final test. At the end of the year, the Ph.D. scientific committee evaluate the work done by each candidate on which bases his/her passage to the next year is discussed.

Second Year
The second year is mainly devoted to an in-depth study of the state of the art of the subject matter of the assigned scientific application and to the development of the methodologies needed to accomplish the thesis project. Reasoned synthesis of the state of the art in relation to the research topic and first results of this methodology development can be brought to the knowledge of the national and international scientific community.
In addition to the year-end evaluation, a further mid-year evaluation is scheduled, after around six month.

Third Year
In the third year, the methodological aspect related to the issues identified for the PhD dissertation will be thoroughly refined and results and conclusions of the research work will be finalized and presented to a main journal of the sector (10% percentile).
Even in the third year, there are two checkpoints. In particular, in the final evaluation concerning the whole Ph.D. path, the reviews received by the above journal will have to be showed. The thesis dissertation is also evaluated by two external reviewers.
Each candidate has to spend a period of at least 3 months abroad where improving his/her research through international cooperation.