The second joint doctoral degree awarded by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology
The second joint doctoral degree at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek was awarded to Marija Habijan, an assistant at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology (FERIT) and a doctoral student funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, upon public defence of the doctoral dissertation „Optimisation of deep learning algorithms for the cardiovascular system image processing using residual units“, held on 8 April 2022 at the Faculty premises in Osijek. The preparation of the doctoral dissertation was supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Irena Galić from FERIT and by two mentors (Prof. Dr. Eng. Aleksandra Pižurica and Assist. Prof. Dr. Eng. Danilo Babin) from the University of Ghent in Belgium.
The concept of an international joint doctorate originates from French universities, and applies to students who enrol doctoral study programmes at two international universities and prepare one doctoral dissertation under the supervision of mentors from both universities. This concept of French universities, known as “cotutelle”, has been adopted by other European universities to facilitate formal international cooperation in preparation of doctoral dissertations between two international institutions.
Usually a student starts the doctoral study at one university and additionally enrols the doctoral study at another university, upon which an agreement is made between the two universities to determine the scope of cooperation on research and dissertation and to appoint mentors at both institutions. In order to obtain a joint doctoral degree, the student needs to fulfil the criteria of both universities, and after a successful defence, the student is awarded a degree of the Doctor of Science by both institutions. However, the student is not awarded two doctoral degrees, but only one joint degree awarded in cooperation between two international institutions, which is clearly stated on both diplomas. Thus, the procedure of awarding a joint doctoral degree is a bit longer and more difficult than the procedure of obtaining a doctoral degree at only one institution.
In this case, the achieved doctoral degree is the result of long-term cooperation between FERIT, the University of Ghent and the University of Novi Sad, which began in 2015. At the beginning of cooperation, the team of the Chair of Visual Computing, led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Irena Galić, prepared the EU project application in cooperation with colleagues from the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad and the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases in Sremska Kamenica. As the team deals with computer analysis of cardiovascular medical recordings, they also cooperated with Assist. Prof. Dr. Eng. Danilo Babin and Prof. Dr. Eng. Aleksandra Pižurica from the University of Ghent. Successful cooperation with the University of Ghent resulted in the first joint doctorate defended by Hrvoje Leventić, Ph.D. in 2018. Before that, no one has been enrolled in a joint doctoral study at the University of Osijek, so there was no legal basis for that. The FERIT management initiated the procedure for development of a legal basis for further necessary changes to enable the granting of a joint doctoral degrees. With the support of the University Management, especially Prof. Dr. Sonja Vila, Vice-Rector for Science, Technology, Projects and International Cooperation, the Statute and the Ordinance on Doctoral Studies were amended and the ordinance on joint doctorates was adopted, thus making a framework for all future joint doctorates. Finally, at the end of 2018, the University of Osijek and the University of Ghent signed an agreement on the joint doctorate cooperation to formalise the established cooperation.
As the cooperation with the University of Ghent developed, Marija Habijan, Ph.D. enrolled the joint doctoral study and within the Erasmus+ Programme spent cumulative six months on research mobility in Ghent under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Eng. Aleksandra Pižurica and Assist. Prof. Dr. Eng. Danilo Babin. Marija Habijan was a doctoral student within the Croatian Science Foundation installation research project “Methods for interpretation of medical images for detailed analysis of heart health” coordinated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Irena Galić. Her research performed within the joint doctoral study was focused on the development of computer methods for analysis of cardiovascular CT and MR images that can be used by doctors for automatic extraction and analysis of the heart and its parts (four heart chambers, aorta, pulmonary veins). During her doctoral study, Marija Habijan published six papers in scientific journals and twelve papers at international scientific conferences. Based on the contract on joint doctorate, the doctoral thesis defence consisted of two parts: the in-house dissertation defence held in Ghent on 21 February 2022, and the public defence held in Osijek on 8 April 2022. The Committee for dissertation evaluation consisted of seven members from four institution: three members from the University of Ghent, one member from the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, one member from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, and two members from FERIT. The doctoral dissertation was written in English language, which is the second doctoral dissertation defended at FERIT that was entirely written in English.
In addition to the joint doctorate, this cooperation resulted also in publishing of two scientific papers published in journals and six papers published at international conferences. The team coordinated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Irena Galić shall continue the cooperation initiated within the project of the Croatian Science Foundation “Young Researchers’ Career Development Project – Training of new doctoral students”, which facilitates the employment of a new young researcher and the design and development of new project applications.
