Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

With about 16,000 students, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences is one of the largest higher education institutions in Norway. A broad range of academic programmes are offered at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels, spread out on five campuses Førde, Sogndal, Bergen, Stord og Haugesund.

Our ambition is to build stronger and more solid academic and research environments that will interact nationally and internationally. The aim is to become a recognized actor on the international higher education arena. Increased international cooperation and engagement in externally funded projects will work towards this goal.

The main part of the faculty's activities are in Haugesund, Bergen, Sogndal and Førde, but we also offer decentralized education in Florø, Kristiansund and Stord.

The faculty's activities are internationally based and take place in close collaboration with regional companies, clusters, health trusts and the public sector, including other institutions in the university and college sector. This applies to research, development, innovation and not least education with student projects at all levels.

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences has an open position as a post-doctoral researcher for two years.

The position is funded by the university grantS3UNIP project on smart software systems.

Research group and environmentThe researcher will be affiliated with the software engineering research group at HVL (https://www.hvl.no/en/research/group/software-engineering/). The research group currently includes 10 professors and associate professors, one post-doctoral researcher, 12 PhD candidates, and several master’s students. The group focuses on foundations of software engineering, development of tools and technology, empirical software engineering, and implementation and evaluation of software system prototypes. The group is involved in research projects in the areas of healthcare, embedded systems, robotics and industrial automation, internet-of-things and cloud computing, application of machine learning, automotive software systems, and IT security. The research group has cooperation with many national and international research groups, and with national and regional industry partners.

Workplace is campus Bergen.

About the PhD project/ work tasks:

Project and duties of the post

Software technology is playing a dominant role in realizing intelligent solutions for society, and the software engineering research group is involved in several externally funded projects related to smart software systems. These include the SmartOcean centre for research-based innovation, a smart city initiative with the municipality of Bergen, the DYNAMIC project on early fire risk warning, and the NFR lighthouse project on Introducing Personalized Treatment of Mental Health Problems using Adaptive Technology. The group has also recently been involved in the EU Horizon 2020 COEMS project on runtime verification and testing of software in industrial automation.

Smart software systems employ a combination of cloud computing software and platforms, autonomous computing devices, sensors and actuators with Internet connectivity, and model-based data analytics and prediction. The vision of the present S3UNIP project is to undertake research into a joint technology platform and framework supporting the development of smart software systems. This will include research,prototyping, and software tool development, in collaboration with permanent staff members, post-doctoral researchers, and PhD students. The post-doctoral researcher will also be more broadly involved in ongoing research efforts within model-driven software engineering, automated code generation, software testing, quality, and verification.

The successful applicant is expected to contribute to project management, the development of EU funding applications, and publication of research papers in high-quality conferences and journals in collaboration with the permanent research staff members. The post-doctoral researcher may have some minor teaching and supervision duties in relation to the PhD programme in computer science offered by the Faculty.

Qualifications:

The successful applicant must have earned a PhD degree in informatics/computer science/software engineering or have submitted the PhD thesis before the application deadline. In the latter case, it is required that the PhD defense has been completed prior to the undertaking of interviews with shortlisted candidates.

The scientific profile must cover one or more of the following areas:

• Software technology for smart systems, including cloud computing, distributed systems middleware, protocols for internet-of-things, predictive modelling and analysis
• Foundations of software engineering, including architecture, security, verification, testing, quality, and model-driven software engineering
• Software engineering tools and methodology, including model-driven software engineering and verification

In addition to the required educational background and scientific profile, the following criteria will be evaluated:

• Publication track record, quality of publications, ability to lead the writing of papers
• Quality and relevance of the PhD thesis
• Ability to work in the intersection of theoretical and applied research
• Experience with the development and writing of funding applications
• Practical software engineering skills and experience from industrial collaboration

The applicant must provide a research proposal (1-2 pages) relating his/her scientific profile to the position.In addition, the applicant must provide a copy of the PhD thesis, a CV incl. publication list, and up to five selected publications. The applicant must give an account of his/her contribution to the selected papers submitted with the application, and involvement in the writing of external funding applications (if any).

Applicants will be evaluated against their prospective starting date, capacity for dissemination, their ability to collaborate, as well as their potential for establishing relevant national and international research contacts. Short-listed candidates might be required to give a research presentation, in addition to an interview.

Application procedure:

Applications will be evaluated by an expert panel of three members.

Applicants are asked to submit their application and CV online. Please use the link “Apply for this job” (“Søk stillingen”).

The following documentation should be uploaded as an attachment to the online application:

• Master Thesis
• Copies of selected academic publications (no more than 5)
• A CV with a complete list of academic publications
• Diplomas and certificates

Applicants should indicate which publications or parts of publications should be given special consideration in the evaluation. If the documents submitted are not in a Scandinavian language or in English, the applicants must submit certified translations of these. The transcripts must specify the topics, the course works, and the grades at the bachelor`s and master`s degree levels.

Applicants should note that the evaluation will be based on the documentation submitted electronically via Jobbnorge within the submission deadline. The applicants are responsible for ensuring that all the documentation is submitted before the closing date. It is of utmost importance that all publications to be considered in the evaluation are uploaded as an attachment with the application, since these are sent electronically to the expert panel. Applications cannot be sent by e-mail or to individuals at the univrsity.

Salary:

• Good occupational pension, insurance and loan schemes from The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Exciting academic environment with the possibility of competence enhancement and development
• Opportunities for training within the working hours

The position is remunerated according to the state salary scale, code 1352 Postdoctoral Fellow.

There is a compulsory 2 % deduction to the pension fund (see http://www.spk.no for more information). The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at any time.

General information:

The appointment will be made in accordance with the regulations for State employees Law in Norway ("Lov om statens ansatte)". Organizational changes and changes in the duties and responsibilities associated with the position must be expected.

State employment shall reflect the multiplicity of the population at large to the highest possible degree. Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen has therefore adopted a personnel policy objective to ensure that we achieve a balanced age and gender composition and the recruitment of persons of various ethnic backgrounds.

Information about the applicant may be made public even though the applicant has requested not to be named in the list of applicants. The applicant will be notified if his/her request is not respected.

Short-listed applicants will be called in for an interview and a presentation of previous work, e.g. based on their master’s thesis.

Contacts:

1) Professor Lars Michael Kristensen (Head of oftware engineering research group) lmkr@hvl.no

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