Full-time study

4 years

doc. Ing. Jiří Hošek, Ph.D.

Chairman :
doc. Ing. Jiří Hošek, Ph.D.
Councillor internal :
prof. Ing. Jaroslav Koton, Ph.D.
prof. Ing. Zdeněk Smékal, CSc.
prof. Ing. Jiří Mišurec, CSc.
doc. Ing. Vladislav Škorpil, CSc.
doc. Ing. Radim Burget, Ph.D.
Councillor external :
prof. Ing. Ivan Baroňák, Ph.D.
doc. Ing. Miloš Orgoň, Ph.D.
doc. Ing. Otto Dostál, CSc.

The student is fostered to use the theoretical knowledge and experience gained through own research activities in an innovative manner. He/She is able to efficiently use the gathered knowledge for the design of own and prospective solutions within their further experimental development and applied research. The emphasis is put on gaining both theoretical and practical skill, ability of self-decisions, definition of research and development hypotheses to propose projects spanning from basic to applied research, ability to evaluation of the results and their dissemination as research papers and presentation in front of the research community.

The doctor study program "Electronics and Information Technologies" aims to generate top research and development specialists, who have deep knowledge of principles and techniques used in communication and data wired and wireless networks and also in related areas and also in data/signal acquisition, processing and the back representation of user data on the level of application layer. The main parts of the studies are represented by areas dealing with information theory and communication techniques. The graduate has deep knowledge in communication and information technologies, data transfer and their security. The graduate is skilled in operation systems, computer languages and database systems, their usage and also design of suitable software and user applications. The graduate is able to propose new technology solution of communication tools and information systems for advanced transfer of information.

Graduates of theprogram "Electronics and Information Technologies" apply in particular in research, development and design teams, in the field of professional activity in production or business organizations, in the academic sphere and in other institutions involved in science, research, development and innovation, in all areas of the company where communication systems and information transfer through data networks are being applied and used.
Our graduates are particularly experienced in the analysis, design, creation or management of complex systems aimed for data transfer and processing, as well as in the programming, integration, support, maintenance or sale of these systems.

The doctoral studies of a student follow the Individual Study Plan (ISP), which is defined by the supervisor and the student at the beginning of the study period. The ISP is obligatory for the student, and specifies all duties being consistent with the Study and Examination Rules of BUT, which the student must successfully fulfill by the end of the study period. The duties are distributed throughout the whole study period, scored by credits/points and checked in defined dates. The current point evaluation of all activities of the student is summarized in the “Total point rating of doctoral student” document and is part of the ISP. At the beginning of the next study year the supervisor highlights eventual changes in ISP. By October, 15 of each study year the student submits the printed and signed ISP to Science Department of the faculty to check and archive.
Within mainly the first four semesters the student passes the exams of compulsory, optional-specialized and/or optional-general courses to fulfill the score limit in Study area, and concurrently the student significantly deals with the study and analysis of the knowledge specific for the field defined by the dissertation thesis theme and also continuously deals with publishing these observations and own results. In the follow-up semesters the student focuses already more to the research and development that is linked to the dissertation thesis topic and to publishing the reached results and compilation of the dissertation thesis.
By the end of the second year of studies the student passes the Doctor State Exam, where the student proves the wide overview and deep knowledge in the field linked to the dissertation thesis topic. The student must apply for this exam by April, 30 in the second year of studies. Before the Doctor State Exam the student must successfully pass the exam from English language course.
In the third and fourth year of studies the student deals with the required research activities, publishes the reached results and compiles the dissertation thesis. As part of the study duties is also completing a study period at an abroad institution or participation on an international research project with results being published or presented in abroad or another form of direct participation of the student on an international cooperation activity, which must be proved by the date of submitting the dissertation thesis.
By the end of the winter term in the fourth year of study the full-time students submit the elaborated dissertation thesis to the supervisor, who scores this elaborate. The combined students submit the elaborated dissertation thesis by the end of winter term in the fifth year of study. The final dissertation thesis is expected to be submitted by the student by the end of the fourth or fifth year of the full-time or combined study form, respectively.
In full-time study form, during the study period the student is obliged to pass a pedagogical practice, i.e. participate in the education process. The participation of the student in the pedagogical activities is part of his/her research preparations. By the pedagogical practice the student gains experience in passing the knowledge and improves the presentation skills. The pedagogical practice load (exercises, laboratories, project supervision etc.) of the student is specified by the head of the department based on the agreement with the student’s supervisor. The duty of pedagogical practice does not apply to students-payers and combined study program students. The involvement of the student in the education process within the pedagogical practice is confirmed by the supervisor in the Information System of the university.

1. Analog circuits containing elements with the fractional order

   The thesis is focused on modeling, simulations and experimental verification of structures where relation between response and driving signal contains derivation or integration of non-integer order (so-called fractional structures or circuits). The task is also to design of suitable application possibilities of fractional order circuits, e.g. frequency filters, reconfigurable filters, tunable oscillators or other circuits. Attention should be kept also on other ways how to implement fractional order circuits, e.g. implementation of structures with distributed parameters (RC-EDP), on computer modelling of matter and structures from nature and biology and also on mathematical description.

   Tutor: Jeřábek Jan, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

2. Design of Modern IP Sophisticated Telematics Systems in Transport

   Telematics systems are particularly common in transport. Research into telematics systems based on the Internet Protocol will be focused on the design of sophisticated, i.e. well-defined, formally well-developed and complicated methods that use IP systems in various areas. Surveillance and protection systems, systems of paying the fare, information systems, interactive applications, etc. are supposed in particular. Localization by GPS, vehicle diagnostics, and vehicle monitoring on orthomaps in real situations are in the focus. Sophisticated telematics systems will be software simulated, optimized and subsequently hardware implemented in the form of functional prototypes. Communication between two cars without a driver intervention, collision avoidance, information transmission about traffic from the places that cars left are expected. A highly accurate navigation system based on the Galileo system (GNSS) for controlling functional blocks of cars is considered.

   Tutor: Škorpil Vladislav, doc. Ing., CSc.

3. Design of Smart Communication Network – Smart Grid

   The aim is to create a design of an optimized smart communication network (Smart Grid) connected with Internet of Things (IoT), focusing on smart houses. The current electricity consumption of a household will respond flexibly to fluctuations in the energy network during the day in an effort to save costs and achieve optimal use of the electricity produced. To do this, home electrical appliances will use suitable modern sensors, transmission, and reliability optimization M2M (Machine-To-Machine), and advanced communication infrastructure design. It will also be necessary to consider streamlining wireless communication protocols, taking into account wired protocols. To achieve cost savings, advanced technologies will be designed, such as mobile networks over 5G and LTE, PLC, Ethernet, NB-IoT, SigFox, and LoRaWAN. It will be necessary to select a suitable simulation tool, such as Network Simulator 3 (NS3) and other usable environments.

   Tutor: Škorpil Vladislav, doc. Ing., CSc.

4. Development of Algorithms for Management of Queues and Control of Switching in Active Network Elements

   Today's active network elements use a range of powerful algorithms for management of queues and control of switching. The task is to implement selected algorithms of queues management into a development system equipped with the FPGA card, to measure their performance and to develop a custom algorithm of queues management while respecting the standard marking used for QoS solutions. The solution assumes knowledge of languages C, VHDL, MATLAB, and possibly Verilog. An architecture of a network element with priority routing will be designed. An original procedure will be proposed for modelling this problem mathematically together with the implementation of the mathematical model. Software simulation of a system that can be used to control the switching field designed for switching data units shall be extended by its hardware implementation, e.g. via programmable logical arrays of the development system FPGA. The knowledge obtained will be generalized and related to the theory of high-speed network elements.

   Tutor: Škorpil Vladislav, doc. Ing., CSc.

5. Distributed systems for data sharing

   The Internet is used for distribution of large amounts of data. Those are available via repositories, which are replicated and situated at different geographical places. The goal of the study is to analyse the data distribution from the networking and geographical points of view. The outcome is a system proposal for data distribution for the intended application.

   Tutor: Komosný Dan, prof. Ing., Ph.D.

6. Effective Use of IP Networks in Crisis Situations

   The aim is to create an effective strategy for the use of the public and private IP networks for crisis management. Also to propose such a network, which could have the capacity, but also in terms of resistance, to guarantee the crisis communication. This would be in particular traffic data, voice, and e.g. to manage the flow of information, etc. Research should also include the influence of network topology on its stability and security, the speed of the spread of viruses, ability to resist attacks, etc. One of the objectives is to design a software robot that will be able to monitor the network, and TV broadcasting. Other parts would propose new methods of Internet communication management, where appropriate, the Internet topology. The aim is to design a system for exchanging files over the Internet, but without any central control. The system should be intuitively usable. The solution should be safe and allow anonymity of the sender and the recipient of the data. The final objective is a theoretically supported design of a highly durable network suitable for crisis situations.

   Tutor: Škorpil Vladislav, doc. Ing., CSc.

7. Electronical phantoms describing fractional impedance behaviour of real-world systems

   This topic focuses on the synthesis and description of analogue circuits – phantoms that emulate and capture in time the electrical properties of systems/tissues being analyzes mainly using the impedance spectroscopy technique. The definition of these phantoms is based on using the fractional calculus, whereas for their realization mainly the passive fractional-order elements and their suitable combination and transformation, which represents an area not sufficiently investigated so far. The importance of such phantoms for the future research is the possibility of explicit comparison and suitability of measurement techniques used for material characterization.

   Tutor: Jeřábek Jan, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

8. Electronically configurable analogue circuits

   This topic is focused on design of two-ports, filtering circuits especially and oscillators for instance, with possibility to externally and electronically change significant parameters of the circuit and in the case of filter also change of type of frequency response. Design with fractional-order element sis also expected. Available active elements are supposed to be used as it is or in modified variants. Simulations not only with simple models but also with transistor-level structures are expected. When verified by experimental measurement, behavioural modelling is preferred.

   Tutor: Jeřábek Jan, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

9. Enhancing security of Wireless Local Area Networks

   As wireless network security issues suppose use of standards IEEE 802.11, its vulnerability, attacks methods on the security, and the methods for enhancing effectiveness will be studied. Detailed introduction to these standards, description of various types of wireless security, including their properties and the subsequent theoretical analysis is supposed. Implementation of attacks on various methods of modern security algorithms will be used to identify the weaknesses of 802.11 protocols. On the basis of the findings a more effective security will be designed and tested. Attention will be paid to guarantee quality of service (QoS) in 802.11 networks. The network will be subject to examination by appropriate programs and simulators (OMNET++, NS2). Effect of delay on modern services (IP phones, transmission of video, voice, multimedia) will also be examined. An overall analysis, including QoS optimization will be performed.

   Tutor: Škorpil Vladislav, doc. Ing., CSc.

10. Feature extraction of non-integer order systems

    The topic aims to design algorithms for feature identification of generally unknown electronic systems. The attention will be paid to verify and propose new measurement methods suitable for direct and indirect parameter determination of so-called non-integer (also referred to as fractional) order systems. This could be achieved e.g. by suitable input signal being applied to the function block containing the analysed sample/tissue and further analysis of the time and/or frequency response. The electrical parameters and their relationship determined in this way define specific other physical or chemical properties of the analysed systems. The proposed methods enable fast and efficient measurement of real properties of the analysed systems and supplement the direct physical or chemical properties’ measurements methods, which however may be time consuming or even more expensive.

    Tutor: Koton Jaroslav, prof. Ing., Ph.D.

11. Forensic analysis of operating systems

    The study deals with forensic methods to obtain evidence from mass storage media and volatile memory. Current methods will be tested on use-case studies. The goal is to propose methods for data collection, implement them, and verify their effectiveness. The topic covers various types of devices and operating systems.

    Tutor: Komosný Dan, prof. Ing., Ph.D.

12. Methods for measurement of basic and derived parameters of data networks

    Goal of this thesis is to research in area of measurement of basic parameters of data networks based mostly on Internet Protocol (IP), such as throughput, one-way delay and round-trip time, so as in area of derived parameters, such as quality of voice and video services. This comes with problematics of modelling of behaviour of network and user under various conditions, long-term and short-term events, a description of mass-serving systems and also features and behaviour key internet and measuring protocols in computer networks, so as topic of their possible setting and security. Based on analysis of available tools and their features, or development of own tools, design of solution and approaches for various types of measurements is expected. Designed methodology should be verified both in environment of lab and real-world networks.

    Tutor: Jeřábek Jan, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

13. Methods for Optimization of Ultra-Wideband Analog Integrated Systems-on-Chip Using Parasitic Effects of Transistors

    The thesis is focused on design of optimization methods of MOS-only analog ultra-wideband analog integrated systems-on-chip of arbitrary integer and fractional order. The aim is research and development of low-voltage and low-power applications by advantageous usage of influences of transistor parasitics that work in frequency range units of GHz. Selected novel implementations of true time delay circuits, oscillators, second- or higher-order filters, emulators of synthetic inductors, etc. with potential applications in 6G communication systems will undergo on-chip fabrication and experimental verification. The research will be also conducted in cooperation with Prof. Khaled N. Salama from Sensors Lab, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA, with a paid internship option.

    Tutor: Herencsár Norbert, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

14. Operating systems for critical applications

    The study deals with systems that are required to response independently of the current state of operation and environment changes. The goal is to distribute the operating system resources to particular tasks as they do not interfere with each other. Example applications are medical and defence systems.

    Tutor: Komosný Dan, prof. Ing., Ph.D.

15. Parallelization of Evolutionary Algorithms

    The aim is research in the field of evolutionary algorithms parallelization. Parallelization is an integral part of an endeavour to increase effectiveness of evolutionary algorithms and their possible use. Research should build on current knowledge and carry out further research on the impact of selected parameters and design details on the performance. Research should be concentrated on the island models of evolutionary algorithms. According to the chosen method the knowledge of some programming language is required, as well as scripting languages Python or Matlab. Selected development and testing environment is left to free choice. The results should be presented and verified.

    Tutor: Škorpil Vladislav, doc. Ing., CSc.

16. Real-time operating systems

    Real-time systems continuously evaluate the input parameters and respond within a specified time to an input event. Research in this area is focused on assuring the timed responses when the hardware used is considered. The goal is to analyse the requirements on these systems and propose/implement means to guarantee the time constraints in the intended application area.

    Tutor: Komosný Dan, prof. Ing., Ph.D.

17. Research of Analog Active Function Blocks for Biosensors

    The dissertation is focused on research of novel structures of non-conventional analog active function blocks such as current or voltage conveyors using chemical description of their terminal variables. The aim of the research is to develop novel structures of chemical conveyors of different generations and their utilization in measurement systems for sensing basic quantities in biomedical systems. Selected systems will undergo on-chip fabrication and experimental verification. The research will be also conducted in cooperation with Prof. Khaled N. Salama from Sensors Lab, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA, with a paid internship option.

    Tutor: Herencsár Norbert, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

18. Research of Fractional-Order Element Emulators for Reliable Modeling of Real-World Systems

    The thesis is focused on research of analog emulators of fractional-order elements (FOEs) with an order of (-1; +1). The aim is the development of reliable low-voltage and low-power MOS transistor-based emulators of capacitors and inductors by advantageous usage of influences of transistor parasitics. Selected novel implementations of FOEs will be used for modeling of different varieties and types of agricultural products and biomedical tissues (fruit/vegetable aging, ear channel/lung/liver modeling of humans and animals, etc.) based on real measured data collected via electrical impedance spectroscopy measurement technique. The research will be also conducted in cooperation with Prof. Khaled N. Salama from Sensors Lab, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA, with a paid internship option.

    Tutor: Herencsár Norbert, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

19. Research of High-Frequency Frequency-Agile Linear Systems

    The thesis is focused on research of novel concepts of arbitrary fractional-order high-frequency frequency-agile linear systems using non-conventional analog functions blocks. Frequency-agile filtering systems are special types of reconfigurable analog filters that have property for agility. The aim of this work is the development of both non-symmetrical and symmetrical class 1 to class n frequency-agile filters. The workability of proposed circuits will be proved by computer simulations. Selected novel structures will undergo on-chip fabrication and experimentally tested. The solution will be also conducted in cooperation with Prof. Khaled N. Salama from Sensors Lab, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA, with a paid internship option.

    Tutor: Herencsár Norbert, doc. Ing., Ph.D.

20. Security of operating systems

    Development of operating systems reflects changes in the area of cybersecurity. The topic deals with the analysis of operating systems with different architectures from the security point of view, for example, based on a study of previous attacks. The goal is to propose a modification of the system services in relation to the intended application.

    Tutor: Komosný Dan, prof. Ing., Ph.D.