PhD position in Applied Electronics with focus on Safe and Secure Intelligent Embedded Systems

The Department of Applied Physics and Electronics currently has around 90 employees and conducts research in energy technology, laser spectroscopy, medical technology, electronics, and system engineering. For more information see here.  

The research group “Cooperative and intelligent embedded systems” are recruiting a PhD student in Applied Electronics with focus on Safe and Secure Intelligent Embedded Systems. Application deadline is Jul 22, 2024.

Project Description
We consider safety-critical cyber-physical systems that  enable closed-loop, real-time interactions between the embedded computing system and the physical environment, facilitated by a  sense-compute-actuate feedback loop. As such systems are ubiquitous in our modern society, it is important to ensure their safety and security despite the presence of significant hardware resource constraints including computing power, memory size, and networking bandwidth. This project aims to provide techniques and tools to help system designers in the effective and efficient design of safety-critical cyber-physical systems based on Machine Learning and Deep Learning, including deployment and applications of Large Language, Vision and Audio Models in autonomous vehicles and drones, taking into account safety, security and efficiency issues.

Qualifications
To be admitted for studies at third-cycle level the applicant is required to have completed a second-cycle level degree, or completed course requirements of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are at second-cycle level, or have an equivalent education from overseas, or equivalent qualifications.

To fulfil the specific entry requirements to be admitted for studies at third-cycle level in applied electronics, the applicant is required to have completed course requirements of at least 120 credits within the field of Applied Electronics or other subject areas considered to be relevant for third-cycle studies, which in this announcement is preferably Computer Engineering. Applicants who have acquired largely equivalent knowledge in any other system, either within Sweden or abroad, are also eligible to be accepted.

The requirements must be fulfilled at the time of admission to postgraduate education and need not be met at the time of application.

The applicant should be highly motivated, goal-oriented, and have the ability to work with mainly experimental tasks both independently, as well as in collaboration with a research team. The successful applicant must have a strong interest in the development of directly useful knowledge within the subject of the project. Fluency in English, both in oral and written forms, is mandatory.

As successful candidate you are expected to have knowledge in Machine Learning and Deep Learning. Knowledge of Autonomous Driving and Large Language/Vision/Audio Models is will be considered meritorious. 

Terms of employment
The employment is expected to result in a doctoral degree and the main assignment for the doctoral student is thus to be active in research, study doctoral courses, and possibly participate in teaching courses at the undergraduate level (up to 20%). The employment is limited to four years at full time or up to five years if teaching  or other departmental work is performed. The salary is fixed according to the established salary level for doctoral students at Umeå University.

Application
Your application should include the following:

1. A cover letter with a brief description of your qualifications, research interests and motivation for applying, and your contact details (max. 2 pages)
2. Curriculum vitae (CV)
3. Copies of relevant degree diploma(s) and certificates
4. A list of university courses with grades (transcripts). Note that for international applicants the grading system should be explained in brief.
5. Copy of Master thesis and publications (if any)
6. Contact information of two reference persons 

The application, including attached documents, must be written in English or Swedish. The application is made through our electronic recruitment system Varbi. The closing date is 2024-07-22. Starting date: 1st of September, 2024 or according to agreement.

Information
Further details are provided by Associate Professor Amin Saremi (amin.saremi@umu.se), Professor Zonghua Gu (zonghua.gu@umu.se), and Professor Tomas Olofsson (thomas.olofsson@umu.se).

We look forward to receiving your application!