If you are doing your doctorate in materials engineering, mechanics, construction, or any discipline that requires physical testing, you probably already know what it’s like to search for equipment that isn’t available at your university, negotiate access with external companies, or try to make your methodology fit with what you have at hand.
Servosis has just launched the Doctoral Program for doctoral students who need to perform material experiments as part of their research. There are two things the program offers: access to professional equipment and the dissemination of work beyond the department. The second part is the one that is least often mentioned and probably the most useful in the long run.
What is the Servosis PhD Program?
Servosis has been manufacturing universal testing machines, fatigue systems and materials characterization equipment for more than 40 years. They work with university laboratories, R&D centers and industrial companies, so they know both worlds well.
The program connects that technological capacity with doctoral students who are in the most intense phase of data generation.
On the one hand, participants can use Servosis equipment for their experiments, either through the assignment of use, collaboration with associated laboratories, or technical advice on which configuration best suits each specific experiment.
On the other hand, Servosis disseminates the work of the participants: publications on its channels, presence in communication materials and exposure to its network of industrial clients and collaborators. For a PhD student, having their research reach engineers and laboratory managers who work with those same materials has value that does not appear on the CV but is felt in the interviews.
Why is visibility important during the doctorate?
A very common frustration among doctoral students is that the work stays within the university. The publication, your supervisor and the tribunal read it, and the immediate process ends there.
The industry does not systematically read academic journals. Instead, it consumes technical content from the equipment manufacturers with which it works. When Servosis publishes about research, that content reaches laboratories at aerospace, automotive, construction, or advanced materials companies that are seeking answers to problems similar to those you are studying.
For a PhD student who wants to orient their career towards industry, that visibility weighs more than many impacts in academic databases.
Who is the program aimed at?
The PhD Program is aimed at doctoral students whose experimental methodology relies on mechanical and physical tests of materials:
- Materials engineering and materials science
- Mechanical and structural engineering
- Civil and construction engineering
- Aerospace and automotive engineering
- Biomechanics and biocompatible materials
- Polymers, composites and advanced materials
If your thesis involves characterizing mechanical properties, fatigue testing, load-bearing behavior, or material strength, the program is designed for that profile.
What types of tests does Servosis technology cover?
Servosis manufactures equipment for standardized and non-standardized tests. The relevant catalog for research includes:
- Universal static tests. Traction, compression, bending, shearing and peeling. These are the most common in material characterization and the first ones that any PhD student needs to master methodically.
- Fatigue tests. Axial and torsional, with force or displacement control. Necessary for research in structural materials, welded joints, composites, and parts subjected to cyclic loads.
- Dynamic tests. Servo-hydraulic and electromechanical systems for applications where the deformation speed or the load frequency are relevant variables.
- Experiments at controlled temperature. With the integration of climatic cameras to study the behavior of the material outside standard environmental conditions.
- Customized systems. Many research projects require non-standard configurations. Servosis has experience developing specific test kits and adaptations for specific needs.
Specific advantages for the doctoral student
Equipment that meets the standard. Working with professional machinery has a direct impact on the quality of the data and on the comparability of the results with other laboratories. The equipment from Servosis complies with the most common ISO, ASTM and EN standards in material characterization.
Technically applied criterion. The Servosis team works daily with experiments in industrial and research contexts. That knowledge can be useful for defining the experimental methodology or interpreting unexpected behaviors in the results.
Exposition to the industrial sector. Having worked with the teams that use the industrial laboratories, and for those laboratories to know about your work is something that makes a difference when looking for work outside of academia.
Academic and professional dissemination at the same time. The communication that Servosis provides reaches R&D engineers from companies, laboratory managers and equipment buyers who follow the advances in material characterization.
Frequently asked questions about the PhD Program
Does the program have a cost for the doctoral student?
The conditions depend on each case, as the program adapts to the type of research and the needs of the trial. The most direct way to find out is to consult Servosis.
Do I need to be enrolled at a Spanish university?
The program is open to PhD students from any university. That said, the physical experiments involve working with teams located in Spain, so most collaborations are either face-to-face or semi-face-to-face.
Can I participate if I already have access to laboratories at my university?
Yes, no problem. Many PhD students use the program for experiments that they cannot perform with their institution's equipment, or to validate results using a different methodology.
What happens to the intellectual property of my research?
The research remains yours. Servosis provides visibility for the work; it does not acquire rights over the results. The collaboration agreement is formalized in writing and explicitly includes this point.
Does the program include support for publishing the results?
Servosis supports the dissemination of the work, but does not intervene in the academic publication process. That remains the responsibility of the doctoral student and their supervisor.
How long does the participation last?
The duration is adapted to the thesis schedule, without a fixed deadline.
How to access the program
All the information and the application form are available here. servosis.com/programa-doctorandos-by-servosis. The process includes a project evaluation to verify that it fits with the available tests and technologies.
If you are designing the experimental methodology or need equipment for a specific trial campaign, it makes sense to contact us as soon as possible so that the collaboration can fit well within the plan of the thesis.
