The course specifically aims at training professionals alternative to the traditional engineering ones (electrical, electronic, computer engineering, etc.), capable of analysing and managing various systems, characterised by networks of interacting elements, and to apply information technologies to automation issues in various field (smart automation, smart factories, industry 4.0, smart homes, etc.). The course provides the possibility to acquire multidisciplinary knowledge and skills, aimed at understanding basic control theory and at the analysis and operation of mechantronic and, in general, cyberphysic systems, representing the bases for the development of modern production, distribution and supply of goods and services.
In the operation of these systems, cybernetic engineers must be able to plan the objectives to achieve, to proceed to the mathematical formulation of a control problem considering the above mentioned objectives, to the solution of the problem also using the available software tools and, finally, to the verification of the obtained performance, through simulation techniques and, where possible, through the practical implementation of a prototype of the whole system.
Together with these skills, the course aims at providing students the specific engineering knowledge and skills, needed to enable them to study and make interact among them systems with a different physical (real and/or virtual) nature.
The course is divided into two curricula, both investigating the issues of interest.
The first curriculum aims at training engineers capable of facing the issues related to the operation and control of mechatronic systems, with respect, in particular to the automation systems of machines, processes and plants integrating computer components, measurement systems, actuators and data transmission and elaboration systems, with centralised and/or distributed supervision and control logics and architectures.
The second curriculum aims at training engineers capable of applying the emerging internet and cloud technologies, such as internet-of-things, virtualisation, big data processing, to the automation of processes, and to add intelligence in the fields of smart home, smart industry, smart city, etc…, through the use of distributes cyberphysic systems, capable of processing information, communicating, deciding and acting in the real and virtual world.
To achieve these objectives, the course provides the typical knowledge and methodological skills of information engineering, with a strongly multidisciplinary orientation.
The educational programme is divided in four subjects’ groups:
- The first group consist of the basic subjects of the degree class in Information Engineering (mathematics, physics, geometry);
- The second group is related to other engineering skills, in the fields of electrotechnics, electronics, electric and electronic measurements, information and telecommunication engineering, economic-management engineering;
- The third subjects’ group is related to the typical Automation methodologies, both theoretical (automatic control) and applicative (industrial robotics and autonomous vehicles) ones.
- The fourth group is related to the specific traits of the two curricula. The “mechatronic” curriculum, more focused on the typical Automation Engineering areas, provides teachings related to mechanics, machines, electric converters and activators, industrial automation and domotics.
- The teachings of the “internet and cloud information technology” curriculum, specifically oriented towards Safety Engineering and Information Protection, are related to programming, machine learning, cloud technologies, internet networks, numerical methods and big data.
Graduates in Cybernetic Engineering will therefore possess adequate knowledge to continue their studies (2nd cycle degree, university master courses), as well as to fit immediately in the labour market, where they may carry out their professional activity as freelancers, in manufacturing or service companies, in public administrations, in various production or services areas (such ad, for instance, autonomous vehicles, telecommunications, sensors and internet networks, monitored and control distributed systems, production systems automation, distribution and supply of goods and services, assisted technology systems, robotic systems).