Doctoral student in Electrical Engineering to the Department of Electrical and Information Technology

Description of the workplace

The position is at the Department of Electrical and Information Technology and the Division of Communications Engineering at The Faculty of Engineering, LTH, Lund University. The division has 13 senior researchers and around 20 doctoral students and work with wireless communication in a wide sense. This includes communication theory, channel measurements/modeling, implementation of advanced test beds, and control and estimation over and of wireless networks.

We are now looking for a new colleague in the form of a doctoral student in Electrical Engineering with focus on joint communication and control.  

Being a doctoral student 

As a doctoral student, you are both admitted as a student and employed at Lund University. 

As a doctoral student, you will be trained in a scientific approach. In short, you will be trained to think critically and analytically, to solve problems independently using the right methods, and to develop an awareness of research ethics. In addition, you will have the opportunity to work on projects, to develop your leadership and pedagogical skills. Throughout your studies, you will be guided by supervisors. Doctoral studies end with a thesis and a doctoral degree.

More about being a doctoral student at LTH on lth.se. 

Subject and project description

The research area for this position is joint communication and control. More specifically the project covers theory and algorithms for goal-oriented, semantics-aware communication that enable efficient, intelligent, and adaptive information exchange in autonomous systems. The particular focus of this position will be on applying and extending existing theory and algorithms to multi-agent systems applications involving multi-vehicular systems and multi-hop communication. 

The project is in collaboration with Linköping University, which includes opportunity for research visits.

The project is funded by ELLIIT, a strategic research environment funded by the Swedish government in 2010, as part of its initiative to support strong research in information technology and mobile communications. ELLIIT constitutes a platform for both fundamental and applied research.

More about the project (elliit.se/project).
More about ELLIIT (elliit.se).

Work duties

You will primarily devote yourself to your doctoral programme, which includes participation in research projects as well as third cycle courses, seminars and conferences. The work duties also include participation in teaching and other departmental work (however, a maximum of 20% of working hours).

You will work on a research project addressing how novel metrics and algorithms can be used and adapted to improve efficiency in goal-oriented communication for highly relevant complex applications involving multi-agent systems. Your work on these applications are expected to contribute towards a more complete theory on semantic information and goal-oriented communications. The applications include multi-vehicular systems and static as well as dynamic multi-hop wireless communication. In these contexts you will work on joint communication and control utilizing and extending previously derived metrics and performance criteria such as Age of Information AoI and later variants thereof. From a wireless communications perspective, you will have the opportunity to tackle this at the physical layer and/or the network layer. 

The research covers mathematical modelling, control, optimization, reinforcement learning, and estimation. You will mostly work on mathematical modelling, theory development, algorithm implementations and simulations, but the work may also cover physical experiments towards the second half of the project.

Qualifications 

To be eligible for admission and employment as a doctoral student, you must fulfil the requirements below.

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 the subject area, or
• a MSc in Engineering in Biomedical Engineering Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Mathematics, Nanoengineering, Engineering Physics or Information and Communication Engineering.

Additional requirements

In order to complete the doctoral programme in question, the following are also required: 

• Good ability to work independently and to formulate and tackle research problems. 
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Good ability to cooperate.
• Very good knowledge of English, spoken and written. 

Other qualifications 

For the doctoral programme in question, the following are considered as other qualifications: 

• Strong mathematical ability.
• Experience of scientific programming and algorithm development. 
• Knowledge in wireless communication systems and the theory behind. 
• Knowledge in distributed optimization.
• Knowledge of distributed control.
• Experience of machine learning algorithms and in particular reinforcement learning. 
• You are stable, creative and persistent.

We offer

Lund University is a public authority which means that employees get particular benefits, generous annual leave and an advantageous occupational pension scheme. 

More about working at Lund University on lu.se.

About the employment 

The employment is a fixed-term employment at full time, starting as soon as possible by agreement, however no later than June 1, 2026. Third cycle studies at LTH consist of full-time studies for 4 years. In the case of teaching and other departmental duties, the employment is extended accordingly. Doctoral studentships are regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100), chapter 5, 1-7 §§.

More about terms of employment for doctoral students on Lund University’s Staffpages. 

How to apply

Applications shall be written in English and include: 

• CV and a cover letter stating the reasons why you are interested in the doctoral programme/employment and in what way the research project corresponds to your interests and educational background. 
• Copies of issued study certificates and/or awarded degree certificates. These must confirm that you meet the general and specific admission requirements for the doctoral programme and show that you have the subject knowledge required for the doctoral programme project. 
• Other documents you wish to be considered (grade transcripts, contact information for your references, letters of recommendation, etc.)

We welcome your application.