The main objectives of the doctoral training in the doctoral program "Hydraulic and Pneumatic Drive Systems" in the Department of "Hydroaerodynamics and Hydraulic Machines" are:
- preparation of highly qualified technical personnel with a PhD degree, who possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to solve complex problems of an engineering, scientific, and applied scientific nature;
- preparation of doctoral students for future work and career opportunities in academic institutions – technical universities and research organizations;
- enhancing the qualifications of doctoral students, both in scientific and applied aspects, providing opportunities for parallel work on national and international projects closely related to the doctoral program.
The existing prerequisites for achieving these objectives are:
- the training is conducted in compliance with all legal requirements, as the doctoral program is accredited by the "National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation" with a very high rating;
- the training and counseling of doctoral students is carried out by highly qualified habilitated and non-habilitated lecturers - http://hadhm.tu-sofia.bg/hr.html;
- the department has a 75-year history and so far, more than 80 dissertations have been defended in the doctoral programs for which it is responsible - http://hadhm.tu-sofia.bg/doctorants.html;
- the department has an extensive and rich laboratory base, which is continuously updated to meet current standards for technical and measuring instruments;
- hydraulic technology for drive and control in the Republic of Bulgaria has a stable foundation for development, provided by a number of manufacturing enterprises, educational institutions with a tradition in training specialists, patents, scientific research, and implementations under specific contracts with the Research Sector (RS) at TU-Sofia, related to the topic of the doctoral program.
Laboratories:
- "Automatic Regulation and Control and Hydraulic Systems" - http://hadhm.tu-sofia.bg/lab_aru.html;
- "Hydraulic Drives and Volumetric Machines" - http://hadhm.tu-sofia.bg/lab_hzom.html ;
- "Computer Modeling, Analysis and Synthesis of Hydraulic Systems".
The main directions, in which the training of doctoral students is organized, are:
- research and development of hydraulic and pneumatic elements and systems for drives and control;
- research and development of hydraulic volumetric machines – rotary pumps and hydraulic motors;
- computer modeling and design of hydraulic and pneumatic elements, devices, machines, and drive and control systems;
- analysis and synthesis of hydraulic and pneumatic drives;
- development of embedded control systems for hydraulic and pneumatic drive systems;
- simulation modeling of digitally controlled hydraulic drive systems;
- diagnostics and fault detection of hydraulic elements, machines, and drive systems.