Course objectives

The Second-cycle degree course in Communication Engineering is taught in English and aims to train graduates who are able to enter international working contexts promptly and effectively, with a high level of ability to analyse and design systems, even complex ones, and to solve problems related to them.
The Second-cycle degree course in Communication Engineering is able to work in the numerous application areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to promote and manage technological innovation and to adapt to the rapid changes typical of every advanced technology sector. The Second-cycle degree course also provides the cultural basis and technical and operational skills to design complex telecommunication systems, such as digital communication systems, optical communication systems, multimedia communication networks and systems, and more generally signal and information processing systems.

Bearing in mind that the term 'Telecommunications' means any transmission, emission or reception of signals, written texts, images, sounds of any nature performed using means that exploit electromagnetic phenomena such as radio waves, optical fibres, electric cables, etc., the student with a Second-cycle degree course in Communication Engineering has the specific competences to:

__analysing the behaviour of telecommunications systems and networks in order to verify the quality of the services offered with regard to their reliability, availability and effectiveness, also in relation to regulatory requirements for safety and environmental protection;
__defining and designing components, systems and networks for telecommunications and signal processing;
__to operate competently in the field of production, engineering, maintenance and operation of telecommunications equipment and systems;
__to manage telecommunications systems and networks, including complex ones, in order to optimise their operating conditions in relation to specific application requirements;
__to professionally follow the evolution and development of information technologies in general and telecommunications in particular, on the basis of the knowledge and methodologies acquired.

The student with a Second-cycle degree course in Communication Engineering must also acquire complementary skills in other academic disciplines of engineering, physics, applied mathematics and economics.

The curriculum of the Second-cycle degree course in Communication Engineering includes the activities necessary for the realisation of the above-mentioned educational objectives.

The first year of the course provides solid basic knowledge and tools for the telecommunications engineer in the characterising fields (ING-INF/03, ING-INF/02). In related and supplementary activities, there is also room for student learning in the following academic disciplines:

1) fields of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the degree class (L-8) in Information technology engineering. The student can, with customised study plans, supplement his or her initial knowledge or deepen his or her knowledge in these related fields;

2) Physics fields. They are functional for the creation of customised transversal pathways focused on the study of new channels/themes for telecommunications, such as 'quantum information and communication', on which several interdisciplinary groups are active in Parma;

3) areas of applied mathematics. They are functional to the creation of customised transversal courses focused on the in-depth study of advanced mathematical techniques for the analytical and statistical study of telecommunication channels and information theory;

4) engineering sectors in which courses are offered at the University of Parma in related disciplines, such as signal processing and courses in the field of economics and management; The second year concentrates on advanced disciplines in the field of telecommunications and leaves significant space for the final thesis; the plan also allows for the inclusion of courses of the student's free choice, which, for example, enable him/her to acquire further skills in the characterising sectors on the basis of the diversified offerings available in the prospectus.

The training consists of traditional classes and laboratory exercises as well as autonomous and group project activities with a high experimental content, either in external public or private companies or institutions or in the university's own laboratories. These latter activities are carried out both during the internship and during the thesis, for which a number of ECTS credits is fully commensurate with the time commitment required.