Education at the Doctoral School

An applicant accepted in the admission process becomes a doctoral student of the Doctoral School at the University of Silesia in Katowice and implements an interdisciplinary education program (https://us.edu.pl/szkola-doktorska/en/program-ksztalcenia/), participates in the research work of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and conducts classes with students.

The PhD student's supervisor will be prof. dr hab. inż. Armand Cholewka.

The education lasts 4 years (8 semesters). Education aims to obtain a doctoral degree awarded by the University of Silesia in Katowice.

The doctoral student is implementing their project as an international doctorate, in cooperation with universities of the Transform4Europe consortium. Some tasks are carried out at a partner university with designated advisers.

Project description

 The project aims to assess the usefulness of the combination of pre-cooling the body and infrared thermography in the diagnosis of spinal curvatures in children and adolescents. The main goal of the research is to develop a screening diagnostic methodology using a combination of the above-mentioned techniques. Healthy children with proper body posture, those with an increased BMI as a risk factor for postural defects and children with body posture abnormalities including scoliosis will be examined. The patients' bodies will be cooled in a cryogenic chamber adapted to the application of air blowing. The process of cooling the body will be carried out using cold air at 0 ℃. Patients will stay in the cooling cabin for only a few minutes. Thermal imaging will be compared and correlated with the X-rays and orthopedic examinations used as confirmatory diagnostic techniques. In the proposed screening technique, thermovision combined with body cooling, it is possible to observe clear changes in the temperature gradient on the surface of the patient's back on the thermographs. The proposed association method could be a kind of diagnostic preventive method, because it can give a chance to determine, with a certain probability, the possibility of curvature of the spine. The combination of infrared thermography and pre-cooling of the body has a chance to become safe for patients at developmental age, an innovative and quick screening method in the near future.

Full call with requirements and criteria

See the file: Early-detection-of-side-spine-1.pdf

Qualification criteria

The admission procedure consists of two stages

Stage I: assessment of the candidate's documents:

1. Assessment of the outline of a research proposal (0-3 points)

2. Assessment of the candidate's scientific achievements (0-2 points)

To qualify for the second stage, a candidate must obtain at least 3 points.

Stage II: interview

The interview assesses the candidate's predispositions for scientific work, knowledge of the required scope, level and use of English in scientific communication (total 0-5 points)

To complete the interview with a positive result, you must score at least 3 points.

After completing the interviews, the commission prepares a ranking list based on the points obtained at both stages of qualification, as well as a list of candidates who did not obtain qualifications due to a negative result at the first or second stage. Qualification for the Doctoral School is granted to the candidate who comes first on the ranking list.