Motivated students can do their thesis under my supervision on one of my research topics. Of course, you can propose a topic of your interest, and I will be happy to explore it together. Occasionally the theses can be carried out in collaboration with local companies in the form of external internships.

Doing a Ph.D. is like "navigating stormy waters". However, someone pursuing a Ph.D. is different from those who started it, and a Ph.D. helps form an "intellectual identity". Especially where I live, companies sometimes don't understand and value a Ph.D.: obviously their vision is myopic.

Some tips for a successful Ph.D. thesis

• Choose your topic based on how you love it and how you value the supervisor working on that topic

• There are two corollaries to the previous point:

  • Prefer a hot topic: unfortunately, as I wrote here, the career path can be really competitive and can be based primarily on quantitative measures - if you think your Ph.D. is the first step in an academic career, it is best to start with a topic that attracts a lot of interest rather than an isolated niche

  • Avoid two extremes: an overly famous professor who won't have time for you and an overly isolated professor who won't have enough "influence" to create opportunities

• Novel and good ideas do not come from anything:

  • Choose a very recent paper on your topic that appeared in a top journal/conference

  • You will be able to retrospectively reconstruct your bibliography starting from the Related Work section up to the very first papers (towards the end, a Ph.D. student should be able to write a literary review on the topic under study)

  • Try replicating the study: you will develop a baseline to compare your work against

  • The open issues to be addressed are usually found in the Conclusion and Future Work section

• A thesis typically focuses on a research community where open problems exist, proposes an approach to solving one or some of them, and shows the effectiveness and limitations of the proposed approach with some experiments

• According to established standards, reports written for scientific works, such as dissertations, must have a particular structure and layout. Keep in mind the shape of an hourglass: your report should start with high-level of abstraction motivations, goals, and background knowledge; then details on materials and methods to ensure reproducibility; discussion on experimental results; in conclusion, the level of abstraction is again high to discuss the drawbacks and possible future directions

• Some argue that successful people get up early and make bed: this can be a good starting point for a productive day!

• Last but not least, coffee!

Some tips for a successful M.Sc. thesis

Substantially the same, even if in a more "relaxed" way, focused on a single experiment, and with less autonomy expected. (M.Sc. theses on scientific/technological topics should be experimental or at least implementative; literary review theses are not a good idea at this stage.)

Some tips for a successful B.Sc. thesis

Substantially the same, even if in a much more "relaxed" way, focused on a single task, and with much less autonomy expected.

Well, I have a Ph.D.: now? 

As I wrote here, a post-doc is the most non-linear and uncertain part of the job if you want to advance in your academic career. Unfortunately, even if you are brilliant, several elements of luck are involved. Is your supervisor influential? Are there financial resources to pay for your post-doc? Is the historical period favorable to hiring at your University and/or in the country where you work? Have you become (almost) indispensable for your group's research activity? And so on. Statistically, only a tiny fraction succeeds. Of course, if you go abroad and expand your "social graph", your chances can improve. My advice is to be very dynamic: if you feel that things are freezing and you are orbiting without any improvement... change air!

Well, I have an M.Sc. degree: now? 

If you are young enough (unfortunately, this factor cannot be underestimated) and have the light in your eyes, you can consider doing a Ph.D. You will see your friends get married, drive the car you want, earn more and spend the weekends off, but - hey - you'll be a "real" doctor! Seriously, you will have a very high level of maturity and self-esteem to face almost any challenge.

Well, I have a B.Sc. degree: now? 

Basically, the same: if you are young enough, you can think about pursuing an M.Sc. The 3+2 formula is hotly debated, and I think it needs to be rethought, if not removed entirely, but that's another story.