Selection Announcement -second edition - 2016-17

The University of Trento, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, opens an Announcement of Selection for admission to the Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing, 2nd Edition, Academic Year 2016-2017.

The purpose of the Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing is to create a number of professional figures with a wide variety of technical and social-health expertise, so as to enable them to address the many issues related to Active Ageing, Health and Wellbeing.

In order to guarantee the best learning environment, the number of participants will be limited to 30. A minimum number (10) of participants is required to activate the Course.

 20 grants are available for the first 20 students on the list of selected candidates provided by the Evaluation Committee at the end of the selection process. The amount of each grant is 1000€ (gross) per month maximum.

Active Ageing and Health & Wellbeing are becoming central issues of the international debate, since the overall ageing of the European population is by now an evident phenomenon. How can people remain independent and active as they age? How can new technologies improve the quality of life in old age? How can health promotion and prevention policies, especially those directed to older people, be changed and improved?
Considering the centrality of such issues, education becomes a fundamental process for providing a coherent response to a labor market which is increasingly requiring competent and specialized human resources. And this is exactly the goal of the Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing: to form such competent and specialized human resources.
The purpose of the Course is to create a number of professional figures with a wide variety of technical and social-health expertise, so as to enable them to address the many issues related to Active Ageing, Health and Wellbeing.

During the first part of the Course, participants will be introduced to the new technologies for Health & Wellbeing. Upon conclusion of these courses, participants will have the opportunity to follow:

• Some courses more focused on technical issues (Hardware Prototyping for Assisted Living, Wireless Sensor Networks in Healthcare and Service Design for Ageing at Home);
• Some courses more focused on social issues (Healthy Ageing and Health and Society, The Information Technology for the welfare of the elderly: the socio-psychological perspective and the clinical perspective).

The Course will also try to define and understand the role of future specialized operators working in an expanding market dealing with Health & Wellbeing. Therefore, specific courses on Project management or Business modeling, or Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management will be offered, as well as courses that will investigate the complex interactions between science, technology and business.

The program of the Course is structured as follows:

Modules A:

• GENERAL (about 300 hours): The first group of courses provides the students with the basic principles on technological and social topics related to Active Ageing.
• SPECIALIZATION (about 140 hours): The second group of courses provides courses more focused on technical topics and on the social and health aspects of active ageing.

 Module B:

• GENERAL (about 280 hours): This group of courses provides the fundamental knowledge on programming, project management, business modeling, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Module C:

• INTERNSHIP (about 5 months): It is an internship at one research institution or enterprise. Under the supervision of the appointed tutoring staff, post-graduates will develop a research project related to one of the topics on Active Ageing studied in Module A or Module B. This experience should give the post-graduates the chances of entering the labor market.

After the internship, during the last week of the Course, the recipients will have to present the project work developed during the internship.

At the end of the Course, recipients will have acquired the fundamental knowledge and skills on the technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing. Moreover, recipients will also have acquired the competences enabling them to develop technical solutions to the needs of the elderly population, and to properly interact socially with the elderly population.

The Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing is scheduled to begin in June 2016; the internship is expected to end in May 2017.

The attendance to the Course and to the educational activities related to the Course is mandatory: participants must attend at least 80% of lectures and of the internship.

The participation fee is 4,000€, to be paid in two installments. The fee includes a 100€ participation fee (nonrefundable in the case of lack of attendance), which must be paid within 7 days from the date of publication of the list with the names of the selected candidates. Failure to pay the participation fee will imply the exclusion from the list of selected candidates to attend the Course.

The financial support made available to the first 20 shortlisted students consists of:
– exemption from payment of the € 4,000 participation fee;
– assignment of a university training scholarship, which covers part of the lodging and board costs in Trento for the attendance to the Course; the maximum amount of the grant is equal € 1,000 euro gross per month and is calculated on the basis of the attendance of the scholarship. The scholarship will be allocated for the duration of the Course.
Students admitted to the Course are required to pay the 100€ as registration fee.

In order to participate in the selection candidates must comply the following requirements:

1. Hold a Master of Science Degree (or equivalent) or a foreign degree deemed suitable by the Evaluation Committee (Master – MA) in disciplines related to the content of the Course;
2. Hold a Bachelor Degree (three-year degree under Italian DM 270/2004) with at least two years of work experience in areas related to the content of the Course. The work experience must be held in the last five years and should be proven.

Candidates expecting to graduate by the end of July 2016 can also participate in the selection. If they are selected, they must deliver a copy of their Degree Certificate to the Course Secretary as soon as possible and before the beginning of the Course.

Applications must be submitted online by April 18, 2016 [extended deadline]:April 22, 2016

Applications must be filled in on-line at the webpage:

and then enter in the section dedicated to the Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing.

In order to participate to the selection, candidates must submit in the online application system the following documents:

1. Curriculum Vitae (in English or Italian – European Format);
2. Degree Certificate with Transcript of Records;
3. Motivation Letter on the frequency of one of the two specialization paths of the program in Technologies for Active and Healthy Ageing;
4. no. 2 reference letters;
5. Certificate/self declaration on the knowledge of the English language, at least B1 level.

Candidates can include additional information and optional documents to their application: professional experience, further university qualifications, publications, international certifications, reference letters, etc..

1. The selection procedure of the candidates is done by an Evaluation Committee appointed by the Organizers of the Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Aging.
2. The general criteria for assessing candidates are:
   • Relevance of the Degree to the contents of the Course;
   • level of knowledge of the English language.
3. The selection process is based on the following criteria:
   • Academic achievements and related relevance to the contents of the Course: 40%
   • Motivation: 15%
   • Work and research experience: 20%
   • Knowledge of the English language: 10%
   • Reference letters: 5%
   • Certifications, other qualifications, courses, etc. 10%
4. In case of equivalent scores, the members of the Evaluation Committee might organize Skype calls with the candidates to gain more information on the candidates, so as to eliminate doubts and uncertainties.
5. Selected candidates (and those who have been awarded a grant) will be informed via email of the results of the selection at the end of the selection. Selected candidates must communicate, in writing,  their participation to the Course (and the acceptance of the scholarship) no later than 10 days from the communication of the award, paying the contribution of € 100 registration fee. The lack of this communication will be considered a rejection with all effects. Any possible rejection of the scholarship, must be immediately communicated to the Course Secretary in order to confer the scholarship to another candidate.
6. The list of selected candidates will be published on the Course website (http://activeaging.disi.unitn.it/ ) at the end of the selection procedure.
7. The candidates who have been selected to participate to the Course, but have not yet achieved their degree at the time the selection process is concluded, must follow what specified in Article 3 of this Announcement.
8. During the selection process, the program encourages gender differences and minorities.

1. At the end of each module of the Advanced Course in Technologies for Active and Healthy Aging, participants might be asked to submit a paper.
2. In the workshop that will take place during the final week of the Course, participants will have to present their project works (developed during their period of internship) to their peers and to the members of the Scientific Board. The Scientific Board will assess the participants’ works and assign a grade to each participant. This grade, combined with the grade received in Module C, will generate the final grade for the Course (1 to 30, with laude).

1. The University of Trento makes available to Course participants University libraries and laboratories, restaurant services and, in general, the students’ facilities.
2. All the information and updates concerning this Selection Announcement can be found on the Course website: http://activeaging.disi.unitn.it/ .

Email contact: activeaging@unitn.it

On behalf of The Rector
The Head of “Direzione Didattica e Servizi agli Studenti”
Dr. Paolo Zanei