Summary of the Activity Report (2025) – Doctoral School of Automatic Control and Computers (SD-AC). The SD-AC General Assembly on December 11, 2025, will summarize the doctoral school’s academic progress, new regulations, and strategic directions.
1. Admissions trends and funding
In the 2025–2026 academic year, 92 doctoral students were admitted (69 state-funded: 32 with a scholarship, 37 without a scholarship; 23 fee-paying, of whom 6 withdrew, leaving a total of 86). As of October 2024, the scholarship amount is 3,700 RON/month. University-subsidized fee-paying places have been eliminated.
For the 2026 admission cycle, the new methodology retains evaluation by supervisors, with ranking based on a 100-point scale:
- Previous publications: max. 40 points (40 pts/WoS article, 10 pts/non-WoS indexed article);
- Conference/symposium participation: max. 30 points (5 pts/participation);
- Originality and feasibility of the research proposal (PhD proposal): max. 30 points.
2. Regulations and scholarship re-evaluation
Doctoral students admitted in 2025 are subject to new rules regarding completion (OMEC Order 3018/2025) and the annual re-evaluation of scholarships. Graduation criteria mandate being the first author on at least three WoS/Scopus-indexed articles—one of which must be published in or accepted by a WoS journal with an impact factor (or be equivalent to a patent or a CORE A*/A/B conference paper)—and at least one article in a conference proceedings volume.
The scholarship re-evaluation methodology establishes mandatory minimum point thresholds:
- 20 points at the end of Year I;
- 40 points at the end of Year II;
- 60 points at the end of Year III.
Passing courses and presenting progress reports are mandatory requirements; failure to meet them results in disqualification. Vacant positions will be redistributed in September 2026.
3. Thesis Defense and Academic Staff
In 2025, 11 doctoral theses were publicly defended (8 in Computers and Information Technology – CTI and 3 in Systems Engineering – IS), with 6 receiving the “Excellent” rating. Additionally, 24 theses are currently in the pre-defense stage. For the 2021 cohort, the defense process is scheduled for the August–October 2026 period, in compliance with CNATDCU requirements.
The supervision team comprises 34 supervisors in IS and 29 in CTI, having expanded through new affiliations and habilitations in 2025 (e.g., Iuliana Marin, Alexandra Cernian, Iulia Stamatescu, Daniel Rosner, Eugen Pop, et al.). Starting in October 2026, the standard workload limit will be a maximum of 8 doctoral students per supervisor.
4. Scientific Events and Partnerships
- SD-AC organized doctoral symposia as part of the CSCS 2025 (Bucharest) and RoEduNet 2025 (Chișinău) conferences and presented the Studio et Opere Excellens awards. On the industry front, collaboration agreements and contracts were solidified with partners such as Adobe, Orange Services, Renault, eVantage Soft, and ROMATSA.
