Doctoral Program in Design and Manufacturing Engineering 2021–2022

The RD 99/2011 highlights the high professional training of doctors in various fields, especially those that require creativity and innovation. Therefore, the doctors of the program will have acquired, at least, personal skills and abilities to:

1. Develop in contexts in which there is little specific information.
2. Find the key questions that must be answered to solve a complex problem.
3. Design, create, develop and undertake innovative and innovative projects in their field of knowledge.
4. Work both as a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
5. Integrate knowledge, face complexity and formulate judgements with limited information.
6. The criticism and intellectual defence of solutions.

The requirements for access to doctorate studies are set in RD 99/2011 and can be consulted in the corresponding Instruction of the Doctorate School (pdf). In general, an official Spanish Bachelor's and Master's degrees or equivalent are required, with a minimum global extension of 300 ECTS credits.

Candidates with university degrees issued by a country of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) may request admission directly (info). If the degree is issued by a country outside the EHEA, the application for access with a non-homologated foreign degree must be submitted (info).

Those interested can expand their information in the administrative section of the Doctoral School (web) or the administration of the program (see contact data in the program general information section).

Admission profile:

Recommended profile: having completed one of the University Master's degrees related to the field of Design and Manufacturing Engineering among those offered by the University of Zaragoza (for example: MU in Industrial Engineering, MU in Mechanical Engineering, MU in Product Design Engineering) ), or any other related, of this or other universities, so that it has:

1. A set of generic skills and abilities such as analyzing, evaluating and synthesizing new and complex ideas in a critical way, including the investigative way, the creator based on innovative designs and the knowledge integrator of diverse technological disciplines, as well as the autonomous development of their own learning and their involvement in a team work environment;
2. A set of specific competences related to the acquisition of advanced knowledge and qualification in the technological and engineering application in the field of Design and Manufacturing with a research focus with which it is prepared for research in this field and for the completion of the Doctorate .
3. Likewise, a good level of English (desirable at least B2) is recommended, which allows them to read international publications, write international articles, as well as attend and participate in international conferences.

Profile type B: having completed studies in industrial engineering or mechanical engineering but not belonging to the recommended profile described in the previous section.

Profile type C: having completed studies belonging to other fields of knowledge but which show a clear relationship with any of the research lines of this doctoral program.

The Academic Committee will be able to specify complementary training needs leading to reinforce those contents, that are basic to carry out this PhD, related to the Design and Manufacturing field. The training complements will imply the passing of the necessary subjects belonging to Master Degrees related to the field of Engineering of Design and Manufacturing from among those offered by the University of Zaragoza.

Admission process:

In order to take doctoral courses, it is essential that the Academic Committee of the program admit the doctoral student. To obtain such admission, the student must go to the Academic Committee of the program and request it within the period established annually in the academic calendar and according to the procedure that is published annually in the BOA and that is detailed in the section Admission of the web of the Doctoral School of the UZ.

The following guidelines will be followed:

• Students who wish to be admitted must submit their application, addressed to the body responsible for the doctoral program, by completing the form available on the website of the Doctoral School, along with a letter of motivation in which, among other things, specify the general subject of the thesis that you want to develop, depending on the research lines of the Program. For all this, the instructions and the procedure will be followed, in terms of dates and requirements indicated on said website.
  
• The responsible body will admit the students according to the general criteria of the university and specific to the program. Depending on the previous studies completed, the body responsible for the Doctoral Program may determine that the student completes training for Master's studies.
• At the end of the admission period and prior to the beginning of the period established for the formalization of enrollment, the Secretary of the Department will publish a list of admitted students and then deliver to the interested parties the form filled out, signed and stamped to continue with the procedures necessary to carry out the registration.

Selection criteria:

The criteria that the Academic Committee of the program will follow for the admission and selection of new students are:

• Candidates must prove a B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ​​(CEFR) when their mother tongue is different from Spanish or English.
• The candidate's personal curriculum and motivation letter will be analyzed, and a personal interview could be held to clarify any doubts that may arise to the Academic Commitee concerning the documentation presented.
• The procedure of evaluation and ordering of applications will be made within the general procedures of the UZ, giving preference to graduates of technical degrees related to the field of Design and Manufacturing Engineering.
  
• The candidates' personal CV will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
  
  • Academic training (65%), evaluating technological training in the field of Design and Manufacturing: undergraduate or graduate degrees, master's degrees, doctorate courses, Advanced Studies Diploma, Research Sufficiency, scholarships, competitive prizes, knowledge of languages, etc.
  • Research experience (10%), preferably in the field of Design and Manufacturing Engineering: publications, participation in research contracts, participation in congresses and scientific conferences, research scholarships, as well as other scholarships, competitive grants and grants.
  • Experience and other professional merits (20%): professional activity in relation to Design and Manufacturing Engineering.
  • Other merits (5%): for example, courses, seminars and workshops in which they have participated, stays in teaching and research centers, etc.

Part-time PhD studies:

The conditions under which students can change their teaching modality are established in the instruction of May 23, 2018 of the Escuela de Doctorado regarding access, admission, dedication and permanence in doctoral studies at the University of Zaragoza (RD 99/2011). According to its article 5, the change of the status of doctoral students from full time to part time (and vice versa) will be requested to the Academic Committee of the program during the official admission periods. The circumstances of the specific case will be analyzed and a report may be requested from the thesis supervisor and the tutor. Exceptionally, the Academic Committee of the program may authorize the change during other periods of the academic year. 

The Academic Committee of the program may require the completion of specific complementary courses, depending on the students' previous training, to reinforce those contents that are basic to carry out a Doctorate related to Design and Manufacturing. In this case, it will verify the training complements taken and establish the appropriate criteria to limit their duration.

Those students who have taken one of the university Master's degree considered in the preferred entry profile will be exempt from the completion of training complements: MU in Mechanical Engineering, MU in Industrial Engineering, MU in Product Design Engineering offered by the University of Zaragoza, or any other related master's degree from this or other universities.

In the case of students who do not belong to the recommended profile, but have a bachelor degree in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering or industrial design engineering (profile B), they must complete up to a maximum of 12 ECTS credits, preferably in subjects included in the following list and that belong to the master's degrees listed in the recommeded profile. 

Note: most of these subjects are teached fully in Spanish language.

The Academic Committee will take into consideration the line of research in which the student will be integrated when choosing these courses.

The criteria and procedures of the Academic Committee for access and admission in those cases other than the previous ones (profile C) will consist of evaluating the candidate's CV to determine their training level in the fields of the doctorate program already mentioned (industrial engineering , mechanical or design), and will be assigned between 12 and 24 ECTS credits, preferably from among those described in the previous case (profile B), belonging to the master's degrees included in the preferred profile. The Academic Committee will take into consideration the line of research in which the student will be integrated when choosing these courses.

Should complementary courses be necessary, they must be studied and passed during the first year (full-time students) or the first two years (part-time students). The students will enroll for academic tutelage for the doctorate at the same time.

Doctoral students, as researchers in training and students of the University of Zaragoza, have to formalize every year the enrollment with the corresponding rights to the academic tutorship while continuing their doctoral training. The enrollment period will be set  in the academiccalendar approved each year by the Doctoral School. 

As a general rule, enrollment will be done online through the Secretaría Virtual ofthe University of Zaragoza. Previously a personal identification number (NIP) and password will have been obtained in the identity management service. Face-to-face registration will be allowed to those who cannot do it online, by going to the doctoral school during public service hours. PhD students must submit every year in which they enroll, documentation about their previous studies, depending on whether they have been taken in countries of the European Education Area or outside that space.

Full and up-to-date information on the enrollment procedure, including key points, is provided on the website of the Doctoral School, as well as prices, discounts and insurance, legalization and translation of documents and some others practical details.

The procedures for the supervision of doctoral students are set in article 11 of Royal Decree 99/2011, which regulates doctoral studies and the rules about Thesis (Reglamento sobre Tesis Doctorales de la Universidad de Zaragoza). The doctoral student admitted to the program has to enrol each academic year in academic tutelage at the University of Zaragoza. The Academic Committee of the program will assign a Thesis Director and a tutor, who may or may not be the same. The Thesis Director will be the person in charge of the overall management of the doctoral student's research tasks, of the coherence and adequacy of the training activities, of the impact and novelty in his/her field of the subject of the doctoral thesis and of the guide in other projects and activities where the doctoral student is involved. The tutor is responsible for the adaptation of the training and the research activity to the principles of the program and the Doctoral School and will ensure the interaction of the doctoral student with the Academic Committee of the program, the body responsible for supervising the progress of the research and training and the authorization of the thesis presentation of each doctoral student of the program.

The supervisory functions of the doctoral students will be documented in the Doctorate Letter which, once the registration is made, will be signed by the doctoral student, its tutor and its director, the program coordinator and the director of the Doctoral School. Those interested can expand the information on the thesis supervision in the administrative headquarters of the program (see contact information in the general information of the program) or by consulting the program coordinator.

The follow-up of the training process leading to the presentation of the doctoral thesis is carried out through the research plan and the doctoral student's document of activities. The research plan is presented before the end of the first year of enrolment and includes, at least, the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and the temporal planning to achieve it. The plan may be improved and detailed later and must be endorsed by the Director and the tutor. The document of activities is the register of all the activities -research stays, courses, attendance to congresses, or others- that the doctorate carries out from his enrolment until the presentation of the doctoral thesis. Annually, the Academic Committee of the program will evaluate the follow-up of the research plan together with the document of activities. The positive evaluation will be an essential requirement to continue in the program. In the case of a negative evaluation, the doctoral student must be evaluated again within a maximum period of six months. Those interested can expand this information in the administrative headquarters of the program (see contact information in the general information of the program) or by consulting the program coordinator.

In addition to the previous point,  in order to guarantee the quality of the doctoral theses of the program, the Academic Committee will check at the time of admission for processing whether the doctoral student has managed to publish at least one article in a relelevant journal in his field of research (and indexed in the JCR). That article must be accepted although it may be pending publication: in that case, a copy of the article will be presented together with the digital identifier of the article (doi), or if it does not yet exist, a certificate or email sent by the journal editor, in which the article acceptance for publication is indicated. 

The Doctoral School offers an annual series of voluntary activities for all doctoral students. This formation has a transversal and interdisciplinary nature. The offer is dynamic and covers the following formative aspects: communication (oral and written), access and information management, and skills for a future social and professional performance.  Information about the activities, admission and enrolment can be found in the website of the Doctoral School  (info).

It will be necessary to carry out activities with a duration of at least 6 hours a year among the activities: Courses, Seminars for the presentation of equipment and advanced techniques, Introductory seminars to the available software resources, and Internal follow-up seminars.

In the case of part-time students, 3 hours per year will be required. 

1. Courses, Seminars to present equipment and advanced techniques, introductory seminars to available software resources and internal follow-up seminars.
These activities will be planned according to the availability of the students enrolled, so that, as far as possible, they will be developed at times compatible with the activity of part-time students.
The internal follow-up seminars will be periodic and all doctoral students in the doctoral thesis and professors can be voluntarily assisted by research lines. In them, the sharing of the work in progress and the research plans of the doctoral students must be carried out in order to receive feedback and brainstorming by the group of professors of the research lines.
Duration: Students are expected to participate in at least 6 hours/year (3 hours/year in the case of part-time students).
Control procedures: Registration in the DAD (through the SIGMA application) of the activities carried out and monitoring by the Academic Committee.

2. Presentation of the results of the research in congresses and workshops.
Duration: Participation and presentation of papers is recommended at least two times before the defense of the doctoral thesis.
Control procedures: Registration in the DAD (through the SIGMA application) of the activities carried out and monitoring by the Academic Committee.

3. Publishing of research articles.

A significant part in the development of any research today is the dissemination of the results achieved. Therefore, students must learn to recognize when their research results are relevant enough for their publication and dissemination. Likewise, students must be able to properly select a journal that suits their research, prepare the text of the article according to the journal's standards and with the appropriate structure. And finally, they know how to correctly manage the criticisms of the reviewers until the article acceptance is achieved. Therefore, all students must publish at least one article in an international journal of reference in their field (included in the Journal Citation Reports).

Duration: To report on its duration, up to 180 hours will be counted depending on the quality of the publication.
Control procedures: Registration in the DAD (through the SIGMA application) of the activities carried out and monitoring by the Academic Committee.

4. Mobility.

It is recommended to carry out a research stay in a foreign center or in other national public research organizations, with a duration of at least 3 months. For part-time students, several shorter stays may be made, adapting the periods to the student's availability so that the corresponding competencies are achieved.
Duration: To report on its duration in hours, it will be counted at 40 h / week. .
Control procedures: Registration in the DAD (through the SIGMA application) of the activities carried out and monitoring by the Academic Committee.

Doctoral students enrolled in doctoral programs benefit from mobility aids established in various national and international calls. The calls for the Erasmus + program stand out.

In the Erasmus + Studies mode, doctoral students can choose a wide range of destinations, since most of the agreements signed by the University of Zaragoza with other universities include places for PhD students of all branches.

In the Erasmus + Stays / Practices in companies modality, PhD students access two calls: the one from the University of Zaragoza and the one carried out by the Iberus International Campus of Excellence for the universities that comprise it, the one from Zaragoza among them.

Other mobility calls are specifically designed for Latin American students and for international stays of students with predoctoral contracts. The mobility of doctoral students of the University of Zaragoza is also encouraged with cotutela agreements signed with foreign universities.

The Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza has rules and procedures to achieve its various goals, which have been written with the agreement of the different levels of the Doctoral School, and are published on its website.

The regulations section of the Doctoral School website contains other important regulations, both national and of the University of Zaragoza, such as RD 99/2011 por el que se regulan las enseñanzas oficiales de doctorado, el Reglamento de los Estudios de Doctorado (2012) y el Reglamento sobre tesis doctorales (2014).

Rules of duration and permanence in the doctorate are established in Instrucción de23 de mayo de 2018 de la Escuela de Doctorado relativa al acceso, admisión,dedicación y permanencia en los estudios de doctorado de la Universidad deZaragoza (R.D. 99/2011).

Full-time thesis should be complete in three years, from the date of admission to the doctoral program, although the Academic Committee of the program may authorize the extension of this period for one more year. Part-time doctoral students will have five years from their admission to the presentation of the thesis, and the Academic Committee may authorize an extension for two more years. Exceptionally, an additional year of extension can be added.

PhD candidates may request a change in dedication (full-time / part-time) as well as the temporary withdrawal for justified reasons of the Academic Committee. They can cause a definitive withdrawal and see their file closed in these cases: if the available time to deposit the thesis is exceeded or if they receive two consecutive negative evaluations of the research plan.

These processes are explained in detail on our website (info) and the doctoral students are told how to proceed in cases of temporary withdrawal (info).

The academic year is governed by the deadlines established in the specific Doctoral School´s academic calendar.

This calendar sets the periods of request for entry, admission to the programs, enrollment at the University of Zaragoza, as well as how the students must present every year the research plan and the activities document, deadlines for defending doctoral theses, etc.

The Doctoral School website publishes the calendar of the current course as well as the two previous courses (info).

For the completion of the doctoral thesis, the UZ, the Department of Design and Manufacturing Engineering and the I3A, with their research groups and professors involved in the Doctorate Program, offer the resources and suitable services for its correct execution.

Among the aforementioned resources, the following facilities stand out whose use is shared in teaching tasks at the level of the degree and master (50%) and doctorate and researchers (50%):

Manufacturing metrology laboratory: Coordinate measuring machine ZEISS PMC 876-CNC with Vast continuous probe and Calypso measuring program, ZEISS PMC 850-CNC coordinate measuring machine, with continuous probe and measuring program METROLOG XG, Laser Tracker Leica LTD 600, Laser T3 API Tracker, HEWLETT PACKARD Laser Interferometer with Optical Accessories, Two Measurement Arms, FARO Brand, Heidenhain Cross-Grid-Encoder, High Precision Horizontal Coordinate Measuring Device for Optical Probe Calibration, Electronic Levels WYLER high precision, Calibrators of industrial vision cameras. Cameras for industrial vision and photogrammetry and photogrammetric equipment for AICON software, inductive probes, LVDT's, led's, cross grid encoders, capacitive sensors, psd's ... (opto-electronic components for the development of measurement systems), Structural lighting system - based on diodes and laser and diffraction networks. KUKA KRsixx and ABB measuring robots. Specifc software.

Additive and Reverse Engineering Laboratory: Articulated Arm Coordinate Measuring Machine by FARO Platinum 7-axis with laser head by triangulation for digitalisation, NUB3D SIDIO Pro Head of digitalisation by white light, calibration standards and digitalisation tools, 3D printer photopolymerizable resin OBJET EDEN 350V. Specific software.

Precision mechanics workshop: CNC lathe DANOBAR 65, with SINUMERIK control, with motorized tools. 2 PINACHO numerical control lathes with FAGOR control. Conventional lathe MICROTOR model A-160-N. Conventional lathe PINACHO model L-1/260. KONDIAB-500 machining center with FAGOR control. ANAYAK 1600 CNC milling machine, with FAGOR control. FEXAC universal milling machine model UE, THURTHIL cylindrical grinding machine model XHO. Tangential grinding machine CHEVALIER model FSG-818 AD. INGAR tangential grinding machine model RT-618-1A. AKA flat grinding machine. GER cylindrical grinding machine model A2, ONA wire erosion machine and ONA penetration model COMPACT-2. Pneumatic grinding machine CMA, Arc welding group model GAR-600. SAF plasma cutting equipment model NERTA 520 SR, ZAID hydraulic press. SAMUR vertical belt saw model S-300. 2 SIERRA alternative UNIZ, HEDISA tabletop drill model TD17 / R. ELITE universal sharpener model AR5-E. Tools and tools of a mechanical workshop.

Workshop of soft materials, models and prototypes: foams, modeling pastes, sheets, cardboard, metals, wood, plastics, etc.

Project workshop: 3D scanner, tools, belt sander, paint booth, shot blasting machine, thermoforming, milling machine, column drill, 1 wood and 2 metal lathe, band saw, thicknesser, disk saw (table), guillotine- folding-bending machine, welding (gas and electric), hand tool. Machining for Rapid Prototyping: Roland 3D. Insoladora-reveladora for PCBs. Plotter.

Human movement analysis laboratory: VICON motion capture system, two blankets for pressure measurement, Minolta 3D scanner, facial scanner, gloves for finger movement capture, eye tracking system, electromyography system , Xsens wireless inertial sensors for motion capture, dynamometer with torque meter, virtual reality goggles, vibration meter with accessories, scale with body fat meter and PSTech motion capture equipment.

Project simulation room: non-invasive video and audio recording equipment (two remotely controlled zenith PTZ cameras, two high sensitivity microphones, audio control mixer and video capture and editing software).

The University of Zaragoza has been sensitive to aspects related to equal opportunities, taking as a priority objective to make university buildings and their surroundings accessible through the elimination of architectural barriers. It should be noted that current and future university infrastructures have among their design standards the considerations prescribed by Law 51/2003.

Library and Documentation Service:

The University has university libraries with extensive and easily accessible schedules. The libraries offer the University Community a wide range of services such as the loan of books, access to collections in paper and electronic format, spaces with computers and individual and team work spaces.