Material resources

The total useful surface area of the UPM School of Computer Systems Engineering is 16,494 m2, distributed as follows: 

• Library: Inaugurated in 2010, this modern facility, with capacity for more than 700 reading places, brings together the collections of the Centres of the South Campus of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. It offers in 6,000 m 2, distributed on four floors, more than 700 reading and consultation stations and 79 computer stations.
• Classrooms: The classrooms are equipped with video projectors and computers for the teacher and there are four dedicated specifically for postgraduate studies.
• Computer and Communications Centre: 1370 m 2 divided into 8 laboratories.
• Research laboratories: 600 m 2 divided into 8 research laboratories.
• Spaces for faculty tutorials: 2257 m 2 divided into 138 spaces.
• Administration services: the Centre has 600 m 2 for secretarial and other administration services.
• Cafeteria and other services: publications, reprography, etc.
• Communications: The Centre has UTP category 5E structured cabling with a fibre optic backbone with a capacity of 1 GB. It has 2 1GB outlets to the Internet from the South Campus. The entire Campus has 802.11g wireless connection.

These material resources are currently used for the teaching of the Computer Engineering Degree and Software Engineering Degree, which began in the 2009/2010 academic year and serve 1400 students.

In terms of classrooms, the Center has been converting classrooms for several years, with the aim of having more smaller classrooms to adapt them to the new group sizes defined by the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the classrooms for the research master’s degree that covers the teaching of this Doctoral Program, are of a size suitable for small groups of between 15 and 30 students.

On the other hand, the new library of the South Campus, which in addition to the usual spaces in a library, has additional spaces for activities taught with the new teaching methodologies.

The facilities in the environment of the proposing Center meet important requirements of universal accessibility, long corridors free of obstacles, services enabled for people with disabilities and strategies and even devices of our own design, especially in the access to computer systems, accredit our facilities as a remarkable and continuously advancing system.

The Center has services established for different situations of people with disabilities. From the first facilities for blind or low vision students some 20 years ago, to the current services for deaf signers including interpreters.

Last but not least, web accessibility training is provided, which, as is well known, has been mandatory for European institutions in the Internet publications of official bodies since December 2005, following the example of the United States of America, which had established this requirement earlier in 2001.

This does not mean that the publications produced by the Center permanently comply with the maximum level of accessibility requirements at all times, as is the case, by the way, with the publications of other Ministries or other public bodies, but it does mean that there is training and practice along the lines of achieving the accessibility required at the highest level (Triple A) of accreditation by the most popular accessibility validators.

 The administrative management of all doctoral programs will be the responsibility of the Postgraduate and Research Sub-Directorate, in coordination with the Student Secretary’s Office who is responsible for the management of student enrollment and issuance of certificates and degrees, and the International Office which is responsible for the administrative management of international mobility.

 The following table details the resources destined to the students of the Doctoral Program, indicating in which cases they are exclusive users.

 Availability of resources at the University with which a collaboration agreement has been signed.

 The collaboration agreement signed with the Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas de La Habana contemplates, as a main activity, the admission of professors from said university to our Doctorate Program. In this sense, the Center’s inventory resources provide adequate support to the agreement. However, the financing of mobility does require specific funds, which will be obtained in public calls for mobility with Ibero-America and through the capacity of the research groups to finance scholarships.

 The funding required for the proper functioning of the program includes, from the point of view of the doctoral students, scholarships, mobility grants and funding for attendance at international congresses and meetings.

The sources of funding are essentially of three types and the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program is committed to using all existing channels to finance the program:

 A) CALLS AIMED AT THE OWN DOCTORAL STUDENTS. In this type of call for proposals, those responsible for obtaining resources are mainly the doctoral students. There are numerous calls of this type

• National mobility calls.
• UPM mobility call.
• National calls for doctoral scholarships.
• Regional calls for doctoral scholarships.
• Call for doctoral grants from the UPM.
• UPM grants to attend international congresses.

1. B) CALLS DIRECTED TO RESEARCH GROUPS. In this type of calls, the research groups that support the program are responsible for obtaining resources. There are numerous calls of this type:

• Calls for projects of the European Framework Program.
• Calls for projects of the National Plan.
• Regional calls for research projects.
• Projects with companies.
• Etc.

These projects may finance mobility, conference attendance and, in some cases only, doctoral scholarships.

 C) CALLS DIRECTED TO DOCTORAL PROGRAMS. In this type of call for proposals, the person responsible for obtaining resources is the Doctoral Program itself.

Regarding the forecasts for obtaining external resources, the information on the projects obtained by the research groups participating in the Doctoral Program, presented in section 6.2 of this report, makes it possible to ensure that the Program is in a position to guarantee the necessary support for the training of its doctoral students. 

Provision of support for doctoral students for attendance to conferences and stays in other centers.

Professional orientation service

The Center, in application of the “Job placement” procedure (PR-CL-2.5-002) of the Internal Quality Assurance System, facilitates the job placement of the graduates of the Doctoral Program. For this purpose, it uses its contact network, both academic and professional, which to date has given very satisfactory results at the doctoral level.

The UPM also maintains an active study service that allows doctoral students in the Program to receive professional guidance that favors their adequate labor market insertion. The UPM’s Employment Guidance and Information Center (COIE) is also available.

Both the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program and the research team will disseminate information about the pool of graduates or future graduates of the program, with the aim that, either in other academic and/or research institutions or in companies in the sector corresponding to the subject of the thesis, both national and foreign, they will find employment continuity. By this last means, that of promotion from the research teams themselves, almost 100% of the graduates have been able to find employment continuity in other centers.