Engenharia Física

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Engineering physics doctoral programme deals with the application of advanced physics to modern engineering challenges. It differentiates from other engineering doctoral programmes in the more profound knowledge and use it makes of physics. It shares with other engineering doctoral programmes an interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and action oriented approach to systems, processes, technologies and devices with strong impact in our society and economy.

Being a doctoral programme, training by research is mandatory, with the goal of autonomy. Autonomy in research is a very sophisticated skill, way beyond the proficiency in specific disciplines that characterizes pre-doctoral training. The student will approach problems that are open, don’t have unique solutions, in an environment of collaboration, networking and competition. The scale and time of effort to achieve a solution is also much larger than encountered before. PhD students have therefore, further to scientific proficiency, significant resilience, creativity and capacity to work in teams.

Training by research is present initially in the tutorial approach of its courses, in the thesis project definition by the student and in the research project undertaken. The students undertake the research project in leading Portuguese research units, most of the time in collaboration with foreign institutions and international teams. Throughout the programme attention is given to transferable skills and students employability.