Doctoral student in Electrical Engineering with focus on heterogeneous distributed compute infrastructures - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Subject description
The next-generation wireless systems will have compute resources embedded deep into and throughout the infrastructure. The compute infrastructure will stretch from the radio interface to the public clouds, and the resources will be shared by applications ranging from low-level radio algorithms to very large web applications. To support such a diverse set of applications, the infrastructure will be composed of FPGAs, GPUs, and CPUs of various capabilities. For such a system to be useful and energy efficient, it needs to have a cohesive platform onto which applications can be deployed and managed across a vast heterogeneous compute infrastructure. For example, applications will have to be dynamically synthesised to different platforms, and dynamically migrated to where they incur the least energy usage, maintain an acceptable level of performance, and where the system, as a whole, stays operational.

Work duties
The challenges in realizing compute infrastructures for next-generation wireless systems are cross-disciplinary, involving virtualization, hardware integration, networking, and distributed software systems. The PhD student will perform research on and implement distributed, automated, and virtualized software platforms that span a heterogeneous set of hardware platforms (e.g., FPGAs, GPUs, ARM and x86 processors) to meet the dynamic needs of the system and its applications. This includes virtualization of all resources, deployment platforms, and dynamic resource management. We are a systems research group and we premier implementations in testbeds. To do so, we work in close collaboration with researchers in wireless technologies, computer science and control theory. Therefore, the PhD student is expected to implement and integrate the theoretical findings in our testbeds. The PhD student will work in several of our research projects and be involved in our cross-disciplinary research environment involving collaboration with industry.

The main duties of doctoral students are to devote themselves to their research studies, which includes participating in research projects and third cycle courses. The work duties will also include teaching and other departmental duties (no more than 20%).

Admission requirements
A person meets the general admission requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if the applicant: 

• has been awarded a second-cycle qualification, or
• has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second cycle, or
• has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

A person meets the specific admission requirements for third cycle studies in Electrical Engineering if the applicant has:

• at least 60 second-cycle credits in subjects of relevance to electrical engineering, or
• an MSc in Engineering in biomedical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, engineering mathematics, nano engineering, engineering physics or information and communication engineering.

Additional requirements:

• Very good oral and written proficiency in English.
• Excellent programming and software integration skills.
• Good skills in academic writing.
• Good ability to mature with the research education and contribute to the research group.

The following competencies are also meritorious:

• Good knowledge of virtualization technologies, open-source cloud platforms, and distributed systems.
• Good understanding of autonomous systems, various hardware platforms, and how applications are developed for those platforms, including FPGA, microcontrollers, ARM, and x86.
• Good knowledge of mathematics and statistics.

Assessment criteria
Selection for third-cycle studies is based on the student’s potential to profit from such studies. The assessment of potential is made primarily based on academic results from the first and second cycle. Special attention is paid to the following:

1. Knowledge and skills relevant to the thesis project and the subject of study.
2. An assessment of ability to work independently and to formulate and tackle research problems.
3. Written and oral communication skills.
4. Other experience relevant to the third-cycle studies, e.g., professional experience.

Consideration will also be given to good collaborative skills, drive and independence, and how the applicant, through his or her experience and skills, can complement and strengthen the current research at the department, and contribute to its future development.

Terms of employment
Only those admitted to third cycle studies may be appointed to a doctoral studentship. Third cycle studies at LTH consist of full-time studies for 4 years. A doctoral studentship is a fixed-term employment of a maximum of 5 years (including 20% departmental duties). Doctoral studentships are regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100), chapter 5, 1-7 §§.

Instructions on how to apply
Applications shall be written in English and include a cover letter stating the reasons why you are interested in the position and in what way the research project corresponds to your interests and educational background. The application must also contain a CV, degree certificate or equivalent, and other documents you wish to be considered (grade transcripts, contact information for your references, letters of recommendation, etc.).