Doctoral Program in Nautical, Marine and Naval Radioelectronic Engineering

Training activities

Cross-curricular training course
  • Number of hours: 80
  • Description
  • In a changing world, it is necessary to expand and update knowledge, so it is important to develop the personal and professional skills of researchers in training.
  • The training activities of the Interuniversity Doctoral Program in Nautical, Marine Engineering, and Naval Radioelectronics will be jointly developed and updated by the participating universities through the Interuniversity Academic Committee.
  • Cross-curricular training activities will be offered at each of the signatory universities, in accordance with their own regulations.
  • In this regard, the doctoral schools at the Universities of Cantabria (EDUC), the Basque Country (MDE), and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (EDUPC) offer cross-curricular training programs that trainee researchers must complete. Similarly, the Universities of La Laguna and Oviedo, whose doctoral schools are in the process of being established, offer teaching programs for their trainee researchers.
  • In any case, the course will last 80 hours, which must be completed, taking into account the courses offered by the participating universities, as indicated below.
  • If a student completes their studies at several universities, they will not be required to retake courses with similar characteristics to those they completed.
  • a) Transversal Training offered by the University of Cantabria.
  • Brief description of the activity:
  • In general, UC doctoral students must complete the "Transversal Training Course" organized by the EDUC.
  • The course is divided into two modules. Each module contains theoretical and practical components (workshops). Full-time students will complete both components intensively over two weeks, in the morning and afternoon. Part-time students will complete the theoretical component part-time. The practical component can be adapted to each student's specific needs and their work and schedule. The modular nature of the course facilitates this organization.
  • Each course lasts one week and covers 40 hours, with the following titles:
  • Module I: "Basic Course on the New Doctorate and Techniques for Presenting Scientific Work." This course is specifically aimed at newly admitted doctoral students. Its specific content includes:
  • a) General framework of the doctorate
  • b) Method and Ethics in Science
  • c) Writing and publishing scientific articles
  • d) Public presentation of scientific results: Oral presentations and posters.
  • e) Scientific dissemination
  • f) Techniques to improve oral presentation.
  • Module II: "Advanced Course on the Professional Future of Doctoral Students." This course is specifically aimed at doctoral students about to submit their doctoral thesis or recent PhD holders. Its specific contents include:
  • a) The Future Professional
  • b) Development of R&D&I research projects
  • c) Coordination and transfer of knowledge
  • d) University-Business collaboration
  • d) Entrepreneurship from the University
  • The detailed program of these two cross-curricular activities is available at the following address on the EDUC website.
  • The skills to be achieved with the course include:
  • – Ability to perform critical analysis and evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
  • – Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their areas of knowledge in the methods and languages commonly used in their international scientific community.
  • – Ability to promote, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic, or cultural advancement within a knowledge-based society.
  • b) Cross-curricular training offered by the University of Oviedo.
  • The University of Oviedo has developed a cross-disciplinary doctoral training program that aims to offer doctoral students training complementary to their research activities.
  • The program aims to develop communication and research dissemination skills, as well as job placement and employment. To offer flexible, optional training, the program is structured into courses and the 2nd Doctoral Conference.
  • 1. Courses: They consist of four seminars of 5 hours each and are organized into three large thematic blocks:
  • – Skills for disseminating and communicating research (New Course: Skills for scientific dissemination and communication).
  • – Skills for quality professional integration.
  • – Employment guidance.
  • 2. 3rd Doctoral Conference: Aimed at all doctoral students at the University, they combine presentations, panels and participatory sessions, as well as the exhibition of posters explaining the contents of the theses and the progress of the research being carried out by the doctoral students with the following objectives:
  • – Facilitate mutual understanding among doctoral students.
  • – Disseminate its research activities to companies and Asturian society as a whole.
  • – Offer doctoral students possible professional alternatives to developing a university research career.
  • – Highlight the role of doctoral students as carriers of innovation for companies.
  • More information at the web address: Training process agent in charge of controlling cross-curricular training: International Postgraduate Center.
  • c) Cross-curricular training offered by the University of La Laguna.
  • On September 26, 2013, the University of La Laguna's Governing Council approved the creation of the School of Doctoral and Graduate Studies, which is currently pending. However, it is planned to offer cross-curricular courses in four areas: bibliographic research and document management, scientific report writing, intellectual property, and project applications and funding management.
  • d) Cross-curricular training offered by the University of the Basque Country.
  • Activity title: Course on Tools and Information Resources for Doctorates
  • Transversal / Specific: Cross
  • Scheduled hours: 12 hours
  • Time planning: They will be held over three days (four hours per day) and will be taught during the first months of each academic year. Doctoral students will take this seminar only once during their entire doctoral period, over the three or five years, depending on whether they are full-time or part-time students. Given its methodological and instrumental nature and short duration, this activity will be taken during the first year (resources permitting) by both full-time and part-time students.
  • Justification. This training activity promotes the acquisition and use of the information tools and resources necessary for doctoral students to successfully address their research projects. In this sense, the University Library fosters information literacy, that is, the mastery of the skills necessary to obtain, evaluate, use, and communicate information, both in more conventional formats and in electronic format. Therefore, the objective of this course is focused on developing these skills.
  • Brief description of the activity. It is designed as a mandatory course, with a theoretical explanation of each module accompanied by a series of practical exercises that participants must complete throughout the sessions.
  • Learning outcomes. The doctoral student will acquire the necessary tools to access, evaluate, use, and disseminate information ethically.
  • Languages of instruction. Spanish / Basque
  • Other clarifications:
  • Program:
  • 1.- Millennium and Encore (2 h)
  • – Bibliographic searches in Millennium, the BUPV catalogue.
  • – Encore, the metasearch engine.
  • – BUPV services: acquisitions, reservations, inter-center loans, etc.
  • 2.- Databases and electronic resources (6 h)
  • – Search strategies.
  • – Multidisciplinary electronic resources: Web of Science and Scopus.
  • – Specialized electronic resources: brief presentation by areas of knowledge.
  • – Main e-journal platforms.
  • – Indicators and tools for evaluating research activity: JCR, SJR, and other national and international resources.
  • – The Open-Access movement and ADDI, the BUPV’s institutional repository.
  • 3.- Bibliographic managers (4 h)
  • – Brief introduction to the different managers.
  • – Managing bibliographic references with Refworks.
  • Activity control procedures. The seminar is in-person, so attendance is mandatory and will be monitored by signatures for each module. At the end of the activity, the tutor will be given a report that will allow them to assess the acquisition of the skills associated with this activity.
  • Mobility actions and criteria. The seminar will be held on the three UPV/EHU campuses (Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Bizkaia), so both full-time and part-time students can attend the seminar on the campus most convenient for them.
  • Activity title: Cross-border doctoral programs
  • Transversal / Specific: Cross
  • Scheduled hours: 40 hours (5 days)
  • Time planning: They will be held during the month of October each year, lasting a full week. Both full-time and part-time students will be accepted.
  • Justification. In today's societal model of change toward a sustainable economy, PhDs are key players, participating in the generation, transfer, and adaptation of R&D&I. Therefore, doctoral training must adapt to this reality, and the University must ensure that doctoral students receive appropriate training in transferable skills (teamwork, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, project management, etc.), developing professionals with a critical mind, the ability to work in multidisciplinary groups and open to the world, capable of assimilating and transmitting other values and ways of thinking. Thus, the focus of doctoral programs is on preparing PhDs to enhance their employability and professional integration in the public or private sector (R&D&I in companies, research centers, administrations, associations, foundations, etc.).
  • Brief description of the activity. These are intensive, one-week residential seminars. They are conducted in English in an interdisciplinary and multicultural environment. Forty researchers from each university, in their second year of doctoral training, receive comprehensive training aimed at their future professional integration in a socio-labor environment not exclusively linked to university research and/or in public or semi-public centers. All activities are facilitated by staff specialized in organizing doctoral programs and facilitating teamwork.
  • Among the planned activities are visits to selected companies, research centers, and cultural institutions on both sides of the border, testimonies from executive doctors and entrepreneurs, and teamwork to jointly prepare an innovative project to be presented at the end of the meeting.
  • Participation in the doctoral programs does not entail any registration fee. All living expenses, accommodation, and transportation will be covered by the organizing universities, with the help of funding obtained from the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Aquitaine-Euskadi Cooperation Fund of the Basque Government.
  • Learning outcomes. Doctoral students gain practical training in communication, innovation, teamwork, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Through the testimonies and experiences shared by various professionals working in companies and associations in the fields of culture and language, as well as visits to companies and associations, doctoral students gain direct exposure to professional experience.
  • These seminars are interdisciplinary in nature, grouping students into units that combine different home universities and areas of expertise. The experience should provide a wealth of knowledge about how to articulate their future professional project both within and outside the university.
  • Training process agent in charge of controlling Transversal Training: UPV/EHU Doctoral School.
  • e) Transversal Training offered by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
  • Aware of the importance of developing the complementary personal and professional skills of research trainees, and in light of the need to expand and update knowledge in a changing world, the Doctoral School of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, in collaboration with other services, the UPC Libraries, Publications and Archives Service, the UPC Language and Terminology Service, UPC Alumni, and the UPC Innova Programme, offers cross-curricular training courses and activities aimed at doctoral students, classifying them according to their thematic area. These areas are not static and may vary depending on the training offered.
  • The investment in these cross-curricular training activities is covered by the various UPC services that organize them. These activities are free of charge for doctoral students, with some exceptions indicated in the corresponding activities.
  • For the organization of this training, the following Access Requirements will apply:
  • 1. You must be enrolled in thesis tutoring to be able to take any cross-curricular training course.
  • 2. Places will be assigned in strict order of registration.
  • 3. In order to optimize the use of resources and ensure the smooth running of the activities, it is essential to confirm your attendance. If you are unable to attend, please remember to inform the Unit or Service organizing the activity of the reasons for your non-attendance well in advance. This way, the UPC services responsible for organizing the activity can decide whether or not to carry out the activity, assign your place to another person on the waiting list, or cancel it if the minimum number of registrations is not reached.
  • 4. All cross-curricular activities will be recorded in your academic record with a grade of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory based on attendance and/or evaluation of the activity. Failure to withdraw from an activity you were ultimately unable to attend will result in it being recorded in your academic record as Unsatisfactory.
  • The transversal training program organized by the UPC Doctoral School in collaboration with various UPC units and services, which covers various areas (information skills, communication skills, entrepreneurship and innovation, and socio-professional skills), can be viewed at the following link. Most of it is free.
  • Agent of the training process in charge of controlling Transversal Training: UPC Doctoral School.
  • Control Procedures:
  • 1. Individualized attendance records will be kept at all training activities.
  • 2. When appropriate, the student's performance in these activities will also be assessed through an exam (topic development or multi-choice/question assessment) or through the submission of a project, the precise instructions of which will be provided by the director of the training activity.
  • 3. All these controls will be part of the doctoral student's activity document (DAD), which will be regularly reviewed by the tutor and the thesis director and evaluated by the Interuniversity Academic Committee responsible for the program.
  • Mobility: Not applicable, as this is a local activity.

Participation in conferences, meetings, seminars and workshops (UC, ULL, UNIOVI, UPV/EHU and UPC)
  • Number of hours: 30
  • Description:
  • It is an optional activity
  • Periodicity: annual
  • Brief description of the activity:
  • The training activity consists of learning how to prepare the material to be presented at a conference, meeting, seminar, or workshop, regardless of whether attendance at the event is impossible for any reason (e.g., funding availability). Active participation in scientific conferences is generally recommended. Full-time doctoral students are advised to participate in at least one conference each year, while part-time doctoral students are recommended to participate in at least one conference every two years.
  • The conference should preferably be of high prestige in the doctoral student's field of research and of an international nature. At these conferences, the doctoral student will present a scientific contribution in the form of an oral presentation or poster. The selection of the conference, seminar, or similar event will be planned with the supervisor's approval. The student must learn to distinguish the scientific quality indicators of the different conferences, as well as their other added scientific values. The preparation of the presentation or communication will require the study and discussion with the supervisor of what are considered the best recommendations and best practice guides for writing scientific manuscripts. The preparation of the presentation or communication will undergo an initial review process by the supervisor. The student will thus learn and understand the peer review procedure. The oral presentation of the communication will require a prior rehearsal with the supervisor, discussion and refinement, time control, and the quality of the auxiliary media to be used. If the presentation is not oral, it will be subject to verification and discussion in the same manner. Students will thus learn and understand the value of scientific debate and the values that govern or should govern it. Students will strive to participate in at least one conference throughout their doctoral studies.
  • The basic data, control procedures, planning and organization of this activity are the same for full-time and part-time students.
  • Participation in the congress will be given preference. Maritime Transport, organized by the CEN department of the UPC. The importance of this event lies in the opportunity to share with international experts the knowledge acquired during the doctoral students' training stages and, in turn, promote its publication not only in the proceedings of the conference itself, but also in specialized journals in the area indexed in JCR (ISI), SJR (Scopus), Elsevier or Latindex, such as the Journal of Maritime Research.
  • This activity will serve to develop the skills CB11, CB14, CB15, CB16, CA05 and CA06.
  • Control procedure:
  • 1. The learning process will be assessed by the Tutor who will prepare a report.
  • 2. The same paper prepared for the conference will be presented by the doctoral student at the "Seminars on the Program's Research Lines" and evaluated by a committee of professors appointed by the Academic Committee of the program.
  • 3. These reports will be part of the doctoral student's activity document (DAD), reviewed regularly by the tutor and the thesis director and evaluated by the program's Academic Committee.
  • Mobility: The proposed mobility program is intended to be carried out in accordance with the indicated activities, so its duration will vary. The goal is to encourage doctoral students' mobility activities from the outset by providing travel grants in accordance with the calls for applications from the participating universities and available resources.

Research stays at other national and international centers (UC, ULL, UNIOVI, UPV/EHU and UPC)
  • Number of hours: 480
  • Description:
  • It is an optional activity
  • Frequency: To be defined with the tutor
  • Brief description of the activity: The doctoral program promotes the completion of Type A theses, that is, those that include a stay abroad (which allows them to obtain the international citation for the doctoral degree) and high-quality scientific publications. Therefore, it is recommended that all students complete at least a three-month stay at an international research center during their doctoral studies. These stays will primarily serve the purpose of conducting part of their research, but are considered a fundamental element in the doctoral program's training, as they will involve: exposure to other educational and research systems, access to seminars and courses offered at other universities, improving their knowledge of a second language, and developing their own network of contacts. All of these are fundamental aspects of a doctoral student's training.
  • The student's tutor must develop or supervise the work plan to be completed by the student during the stay. This work plan must clearly state the set of objectives to be achieved and how to verify them.
  • Dedication regime: The basic data, control procedures, planning and organization of this activity are the same for students with full-time or part-time dedication.
  • It is expected that with this activity the student will be able to demonstrate the acquisition of the CB12, CA03, CA04 and CA05 competencies.
  • Control procedure:
  • 1. The tutor or director will monitor the activity through the report issued by the doctoral student's supervisor at the institution where the mobility stay was carried out. In this regard, the student's tutor must prepare or supervise the work plan to be carried out by the student during the stay. This work plan must explicitly state the set of objectives to be achieved and how to verify them. Monitoring the stay will be the responsibility of the thesis supervisor, to whom the doctoral student must communicate progress and changes with respect to the planned schedule. Once the stay is completed, the doctoral student must submit an activity report. Based on this report, the thesis supervisor and tutor will approve (if applicable) the completion of the planned scientific activities.
  • 2. This document will form part of the doctoral student's activity document (DAD).
  • Mobility:
  • The PhD Program in NAUTICAL, MARINE, AND NAVAL RADIOELECTRONIC ENGINEERING will encourage its doctoral trainee researchers to undertake internships at prestigious national or international research centers for at least three months. To this end, the universities offering this program, as well as other public institutions (Ministry of Education, IFIMAV, Ministry of Public Works, and others), may regularly offer mobility grants for research trainees ("Doctoral Candidates").
  • Likewise, the participation of foreign experts in thesis committees and monitoring committees will be encouraged, as has been the case in the doctoral programs that are being phased out, predecessors of the current one, taught by the various Nautical Departments.
  • When planning mobility activities, the specific characteristics of part-time research trainees must be taken into account.