As a WASP PhD student there are many and excellent opportunities to interact with both industry and other academic institutions to build a strong network of personal connections. Likewise, for industry and faculty, there are many occasions to connect with some of the sharpest young minds in Sweden.
Premier examples of this are the annual Faculty and Industry Days and the WASP4ALL open conference, as well as study visits to leading Swedish high-tech companies. We are also frequently inviting external speakers to our graduate school courses and the summer school to provide an international dimension to the program.
Hands-on industrial collaborations within WASP are enabled by the WARA research arenas and the many PhD cluster activities involving WASP companies. A main mission for WASP is to create meeting places and for the graduate school students, their advisors, and industrial partners to discuss research and identify new research challenges to tackle in joint efforts.
The WASP program is situated in an internationally fast-moving area and the international dimension is therefore inherent in the program. There are thus two mandatory international study visits offered during the PhD student’s time in WASP.
The first trip targets an interesting location in Europe and the second reaches further abroad. For example, North America and Asia have a large number of highly relevant sites to visit for WASP students. On top of that, all PhD students have the possibility to receive funding from WASP to arrange international study trips on their own and even spend a semester abroad.
With seven universities in Sweden engaged in WASP, more than 30 Swedish companies connected, and collaborations with four of the world’s leading technical universities – the possibilities for WASP PhD students to position themselves on the world academic arena are unique.