Ciao!

This is a page for prospective PhD students, specifically those that are interested in doing a PhD with me.

First, congratulations :) Doing a PhD is a good idea. Under every perspective. it opens your mind, it allows you to meet a lot of interesting and smart people, and you have the opportunity to travel. In most countries it also gives access to a better salary and more exciting work, but most importantly it teaches you how to work. If you have a PhD you will move ahead faster in your career even if you want to go to industry.  Not because you have a degree, but because you learn how to work and study, and how to carry out challenging tasks.

Now, for some discouraging opinions about the phd, read here, and below :)

About you

there are certain characteristics that a phd student should possess, especially if you do it with us.

Ideally, you:

• Are curious. Love to learn. Love to study. Love to solve problems, especially challenging ones
• Are independent and proactive. You bug us with new ideas, things we can do, problems we can solve, etc... 
• Enjoy discussions in a creative and stimulating atmosphere 
  
• Are reliable and professional. While research requires creativity, PhD work often requires being professional: when there is work to do, it needs to be done properly and on time. When this is not possible it is important to raise the issue as soon as possible. 
• Are persistent. Do not give up easily on problems. 
• Are willing to work hard. PhD is to a large extent a creative activity but it typically (not in all cases, but in the large majority) requires a lot of work. this is also why you need passion
• Are polite and collaborative. While there are excellent researchers and geniuses that are rude, our group can live without them. Quality of life and a pleasant working environment are of utmost importance
• Are pragmatic. We like to test and build things, not "just" develop theories. We like to build things that work and are usable in practice. We also publish in top places, but we do NOT write papers for the sake of writing papers and getting credit. We do not build tools that only run on PowerPoint.  We do not do research that is useless just because it is "publishable". we do it because it is useful, and eventually may lead to a better world.
• Are intellectually honest
  

About me

I think from the above requirements you know a bit of the style of work i like. One thing you need to know is that i am not....structured. I proceed through research in a completely messy way, following ideas and passions. I like changes more than following a plan. 

Duration

PhD studies with our group last 3-5 years. On average i expect people to graduate in around 4 years. This also typically depends on how the amount of studies and work they did before starting the PhD.

Six-months review

We like to do a six months review with the students. This is something that does not require preparation (for the review), it is something that comes naturally with your phd work.

• mini-abstract of research project, possible objectives: Here you should have an "elevator pitch" that clearly defines your phd
• begin to state some of the core problems you need to face
•  list of papers you read and your understanding of the state of the art, including
• which problems have been solved
• where there is space for new contributions
• papers written

For the state of the art, please prepare some structured explanation, for example (just as an example) a matrix that has problems/goals on one side and approaches/tools on the other. Try to put each paper in a cell  or if there is no cell, create a new cell. 

• exams and marks done during the phd
• report on other work you did,
• implementations
• projects
• talks given
• collaborations
• internships, summer schools, etc...