The Master's degree programme is concerned with the study of four disciplinary areas:
- STATISTICAL AND QUANTUM PHYSICS: you will develop a solid background on concepts and methods of statistical and quantum physics, with a particular focus on systems with many degrees of freedom and their applications to novel and artificial materials, and you will receive and overview of the most advanced techniques in experimental physics and data analysis.
- APPLICATIONS TO ENGINEERING: you will study the dynamics of systems, in particular non-linear and fluid dynamics problems. You will also learn about the phenomena of chaos and turbulence, the main physical-chemical phenomena of soft matter, in liquid crystals, polymers, membranes, gels, granular materials.
- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: you will learn about computational complexity and study the Numerical methods and simulations, both deterministic and stochastic, as well as the main algorithms for combinatorial optimization, statistic inference, machine learning and their applications.
- BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS: you will learn about modelling and analysis of complex problems in the field of biology, analysed in the framework of computational statistical physics. You will gain the necessary skills and knowledge in the areas of neuroscience, molecular and cellular biophysics, and bioinformatics.
You will take part in face-to-face lectures, classroom practicals, experimental and computational activities in the laboratories organized in groups of students.
The programme is organized in two parallel tracks that have the same goals and structure, but different features:
INTERNATIONAL TRACK. Based partly in Italy and partly in France: at the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, at the Politecnico in Torino, and at a consortium of Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Cité and Université Paris-Saclay in the Paris area. Admission will be granted on a competitive basis and only a limited number of fellowships (roughly 20) will be available to support mobility of the selected students. All courses given in English. In the fourth semester you will attend a multidisciplinary spring College on Physics of Complex Systems. At the end of the programme you will obtain a double Master of Science degree (Italian Laurea Magistrale at Politecnico di Torino & French M2 at one of the Universities in Paris).
NATIONAL TRACK. Entirely based at Politecnico di Torino, with no limitation on the number of admitted students. Most courses are given in English, while a few courses in Italian. One semester is in common with the International track. Students obtain a Master of Science degree (Laurea Magistrale at Politecnico di Torino)
In the last semester of each track you will work on a thesis project in a research group at an institution of your choice.
Graduates from both the International and National tracks of the Master Programme in Physics of Complex Systems can obtain a master degree in 'Nanotechnologies for ICTs' at Politecnico di Torino by taking a limited number of integrative exams.