بورسیه دکتری موسسه iMinds بلژیک رشته کامپیوتر

PhD Researcher – Software & algorithm design for smart office environments

iMinds, the digital digital research and incubation center has merged with imec into one high-tech research and innovation hub for nanoelectronics and digital technologies, under the name imec

 Ghent University research environment

The IBCN group is performing fundamental and applied research on internet based communication networks and services, more specifically with the focus on: (1) Network Modeling, Design and Evaluation, (2) Mobile & Wireless Networking, (3) High Performance Multimedia Processing, (4) Autonomic Computing & Networking, (5) Service Engineering, (6) Content Management and Search, (7) Data Analysis and Machine Learning, (8) Information Extraction and Retrieval, (9) Electromagnetics, and (10) Physical Layer Design. This research is applied to a number of application domains: Health and care, transport and logistics, media, energy, smart living and systems biology. A well-established experimental test environment and a number of technology platforms support these activities (http://ilabt.iminds.be/).

The IBCN group (https://www.ibcn.intec.ugent.be/) belongs to the Department of Information Technology (INTEC) of Ghent University (UGent, http://www.ugent.be/) and is part of iMinds (http://www.iminds.be/). iMinds is an interdisciplinary research institute for ICT innovation in Flanders, founded in 2004 (www.iminds.be) and one of the key innovative players in Belgium. The research is aimed at valorization and is performed in close cooperation with industrial players, both big companies, e.g., Nokia, Agfa Healthcare, Televic, Siemens, Philips, as well as small and medium sized enterprises, e.g., BeMobile, Multicap, Zora Robotics, Xetal, Telecom-IT, EnergyLab, and non-profit organizations.

At a national level, the IBCN research group is collaborating with about 100 industrial partners in many multidisciplinary projects. At international level there is strong involvement in European research projects, with about 70 finished and running EU projects over the past 10 years. The IBCN group counts about 150 researchers, and the research resulted in 2200 publications in international journals and conference proceedings, 90 PhD’s, 45 international awards, and 6 spin-off companies. The academic staff teaches various informatics, software engineering and networking courses at the Engineering Faculty of UGent.

The PhD Student will become part of the Knowledge Management research unit of IBCN. This is a team of 8 motivated researchers performing research on Semantic Web technologies, knowledge discovery, contextualized & personalized services, personalized & pervasive healthcare, intelligent data fusion, distributed knowledge management, big data processing, etc.

Job Offer

In a smart office, the environment is equipped with a plethora of internet connected devices and sensors (called the Internet of Things) that constantly sense the state of the environment around them, e.g., movement and sound sensors that detect activity in meeting rooms. Humanoid robots, such as the Pepper (https://www.aldebaran.com/en/cool-robots/pepper), can also explore the environment and provide additional information, e.g., by processing visual information. Moreover, mobile applications and GPS tracking on the smart phones of the employees provide further information, e.g., travel time to work, location of parking spot, time to find a parking spot, etc.  All this provided data can then be combined with background knowledge, e.g., meeting room reservation agenda or layout of the building, in order derive important insights and anomalies. These insights can then be communicated to the employees. The humanoid robots can be used to act upon these detected events and ideally support the employees and visitors in their daily activities. For example, meeting room reservation could be cancelled when no activity is detected, employees can get updates about available parking spaces or current travel times to work or the robot could be used to automatically greet visitors and guide them to the location of the person they are visiting.

At the IBCN research group of Ghent University, we are currently researching how this vision of a smart office can be realized by using Semantic Web technologies. Semantic Web technologies allow to consolidate all the available sensor data with the background information and profile of the building users in order to derive actionable insights. The goal of this PhD is to design, implement and validate software architectures and accompanying algorithms that allow to realize services that support the building users in a personalized & context-aware fashion. Such architectures and algorithms have to be (a) performant and scalable in order to intercept relevant events in a timely fashion, (b) extensible such that new services can be deployed on the fly in an ever changing environment, (c) secure & trustworthy such that the privacy of the employees & visitors can be guaranteed, (d) self-learning such that the services adapt more and more to the behavior of the building users. The designed software architectures & algorithms should be supported on both high-end as well as low-end devices with a low footprint (low memory & processing capacity) such that it can be used in diverse environments.

Function description

We offer a competitive salary with interesting social benefits and a challenging, stimulating and pleasant research environment, where you can contribute to worldwide research on knowledge management. During your research, the following activities will be part of your work:

  • Analyze the current existing IoT and Semantic platforms thoroughly and design new software architectures, algorithms, methodologies and protocols for realizing smart office environments.
  • Build-up hands-on experience by developing the designed architectures & algorithms.
  • Thoroughly evaluate the designed architectures & algorithms, both through simulations as well as in large-scale testbeds. The 9th, 10th & 11th floor of the iGent Tower of Ghent University, where the PhD student will be working, is currently being transformed into a smart office environment. Sensors are being installed in all office and hallways and 40 gateways are used to gather all this information. As such, these floors can be used as an ideal test environment.
  • Participate in European and national research projects, in collaboration with industry.
  • Publish and present the research results at international conferences and in scientific journals.
  • Work towards realized a PhD in about 4 years.
  • Build towards a future research career (in academia or industry) through project experience and high-profile scientific publications or towards a promising industry career in knowledge management & IoT through collaborations with several high-impact industry partners.

Profile

We are looking for candidates with the following interests and skills:

  • You have a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Informatics, ICT or related field.
  • A proven experience in software development, e.g. student projects or master thesis successfully completed and in which an important software development component was required.
  • Experience with Semantic Web Technologies or Internet of Things is not obliged, but strong interest is required.
  • You have strong analytical skills.
  • You are well-organized, able to work independently and take initiative. You respect the predetermined milestones in research projects and set out a work plan to reach them.
  • You are a team player, flexible and good communicator.
  • Your English is fluent, both speaking and writing.
  • Both young graduates and candidates with (industrial) experience are welcome.

Application deadline

Review of applications starts and will continue until the position is filled, but for full consideration please apply before Novemer 15, 2016. If you are interested in this job opening and your profile corresponds to the requirements listed above, please

  • Send your motivation letter and CV to Femke.Ongenae@intec.ugent.be, indicating “Application: PhD position Smart Office” in the subject
  • Include a motivation letter, clearly explaining the relevance of your skills for the position.
  • Include the name, email address, phone number and a recommendation letter of at least 2 people that we can contact.
  • References to your website and/or LinkedIn are appreciated.

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