Two Ph.D. positions in Computer Science and Engineering

Halmstad University and the School of Information Technology announce the availability of two Ph.

D. positions in Computer Science and Engineering within the Technology Area Smart Electronic Systems.

Position Description
The selected Ph.D. students will be responsible for conducting research within the European ECSEL project SCOTT (Secure COnnected Trustable Things) and will address fundamental problems in the domains of cooperative embedded systems, with a particular focus on practical challenges arising with requirements on dependability and trust in the Internet of Things.

The European project SCOTT is a project with over 50 key partners from 10 countries, and research within the Swedish consortium is done in cooperation with Ericsson, Realtime Embedded, SICS, and KTH. The project is aiming at creating trust in wireless networks, which is a major challenge to bring out the full potential of the Internet of Things. SCOTT focuses on wireless communication and sensor networks in several domains such as in automotive and smart infrastructure, addressing numerous European societal challenges (e.g., smart, green and integrated transport). SCOTT enables efficient and dependable connectivity and ubiquity of intelligent embedded systems. It pays particular attention to the design of sensor networks that provide a good trade-off between multiple application quality-of-service factors, such as real-time performance, reliability, energy efficiency, and robustness. For more information on the project, please see its official homepage: https://scottproject.eu/.

The Ph.D. students will carry out research on concepts and technologies for dependable and resource-optimized wireless networking of cooperative embedded devices. This includes static and dynamic resource optimization, scheduling, and management for low-power wireless sensor networks. The relevant resources in this context include wireless links (time domain), frequency spectrum, and energy. Furthermore, developing concepts for run-time coordination of concurrent, possibly heterogeneous, wireless networks is an additional area of interest for this Ph.D. research. Possible application scenarios include both wireless in-vehicle networks and other intelligent environments. The developed mechanisms are to be validated using real-life experimental setups.

Principal duties
The selected Ph.D. students will be responsible for conducting research within the SCOTT project and for participating in the required Ph.D. course activities. The employment also includes teaching responsibilities corresponding to a maximum of 20% of full-time. The two positions are funded by the European ECSEL project SCOTT (Secure COnnected Trustable Things), and by Halmstad University. Positions are renewed annually subject to satisfactory progress of the Ph.D. studies.

Qualification
The positions require having a Master’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering, Computer Communications, Signal Processing, Communications Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

Evaluation criteria for candidates will include knowledge and experience in the areas of wireless communication and networks and/or embedded systems design, knowledge in optimization, knowledge in C/C++ programming, and oral and written communication skills in English. Familiarity with communication standards (as, e.g., IEEE 802.15.4/4e, BLE, and WiFi), Internet of Things, and operating systems for networked resource-constrained devices (as, e.g., Contiki) is also beneficial. Knowledge within security and/or privacy will be considered positively.

Students who are expected to receive their M.Sc. degree (or equivalent) in 2017 are also encouraged to apply. Knowledge of Swedish is not a prerequisite for applying since English is our working language for research, and we publish internationally. Both Swedish and English are used in undergraduate courses.

 You should be eager to push the state-of-the-art, and to demonstrate your research with working prototypes and publications in top conferences and journals.

Salary
Doctoral students are employees of the University and paid a salary according to a uniform salary scale. The salary is adjusted in relation to the progress in the Ph.D. education and the first step is SEK 25 000 before taxes.

Application
Applications should be sent via Halmstad University's recruitment system MyNetwork (see link on this page). The last day to apply for these positions is 2017-11-30. The earliest starting date is December 2017.

1. a cover letter stating the purpose of the application and a brief statement of why you believe that your background and goals are well-matched with the goals of this position,

2. a Curriculum Vitae that includes at least

a. a list of previous degrees, dates, and institution, transcripts for higher-education studies until most recent available

b. a complete list of publications and a description of previous research and other work experience and links to online copies of the most important publications

3. copies of previous transcripts and degrees,

4. a copy of previous publications, if any, and

5. contact information for three reference persons.

For more information, please contact: Assistant Prof. Kristina Kunert ([email protected]) or Prof. Tomas Nordström ([email protected]).

For administrative questions about the employment you can also contact the deputy head Prof. Walid Taha ([email protected]).