UiT The Arctic University of Norway

UiT is a multi-campus research university in Norway and the northernmost university of the world. Our central location in the High North, our broad and diverse research and study portfolio, and our interdisciplinary qualities make us uniquely suited to meet the challenges of the future. At UiT you can explore global issues from a close-up perspective.

Credibility, academic freedom, closeness, creativity and commitment shall be hallmarks of the relationship between our employees, between our employees and our students and between UiT and our partners.

Faculty of Science and Technology

The position

A PhD position in Computer Science is available at the Department of Computer Science affiliated with the Cyber-physical systems (CPS) research group.

The position is for a period of four years. The nominal length of the PhD programme is three years. The fourth year is distributed as 25 % each year and will consist of teaching and other duties. The objective of the position is to complete research training to the level of a doctoral degree. Admission to the PhD programme is a prerequisite for employment, and the programme period starts on commencement of the position.

The Department of Computer Science provides an active international research environment with 22 tenured faculty members, 7 adjunct professors, 4 post doctors and researchers, 6 technical/ administrative staff members and about 30 PhD students. The goal of the Department is to advance the research and teaching of computer science as a discipline, to demonstrate leadership within our areas of interest, and to contribute to society through our education, research, and dissemination.

The CPS group focuses on distributed systems that are built and depend upon the seamless integration of computation and physical components. Such systems have many application domains including environmental monitoring, habitat monitoring, agriculture, energy, healthcare, personalized medicine and transportation. The group aims to identify cross-cutting, fundamental scientific and engineering principles that underpin the integration of cyber and physical elements across all application domains.

Core research areas of the group include autonomous, energy efficient CPS nodes, edge computing, resilient networking, long operational lifetime of systems without humans physically present, and programming models. The group develops methods, tools, hardware and software components. Validation of proposed solutions are done through prototypes and simulations.

We are looking for a highly talented candidate at the start of the career, but with great scientific potential to establish research on experimental computer systems science and its application interdisciplinary collaboration projects.

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position in Tromsø within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.

The position’s field of research

With the multiplication of connected devices per person around the world, reducing the energy consumption of computing systems is a mandatory step to address in order to build a sustainable digital society. It is urgent to embrace energy efficiency as a major concern of our modern computing systems. Several techniques, that we call “leverage”, have been developed to lower the electrical consumption of computing systems. To face this growing concern many solutions have been developed at multiple levels: infrastructure, hardware, middleware, and application. Using these leverages is mandatory to better energy efficiency. A lot of leverages are available on large scale computing centres. But understanding and evaluating possible leverages at the scale of small devices being part of a large distributed system is still an open field.

The PhD fellow position will work in the field of experimental computers systems, with a particular focus on energy efficient approaches for developing, testing, and evaluating future computer systems. The project may collaborate and integrate with existing projects within the CPS group, where we provide the systems, methods, and tools needed to extend the provided contributions. This project will contribute and will be done in collaboration with existing projects, and external collaborators.

Contact

For further information about the position, contact:

• Associate Professor Issam Raïs, phone: +47 77645698, email: issam.rais@uit.no

Qualifications

This position requires a Master’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science. A successful candidate document interest in simulating, testing, experimenting, and evaluating distributed cyber physical systems. We will emphasize the quality and relevance of the candidate’s track record rather than volume. Since our research results are evaluated experimentally, good practical skills for software development and conducting experiments are necessary.

Applicants must document fluency of in English and be able to work in an international environment. Working knowledge of Norwegian or a Scandinavian language is also beneficial.

During the assessment, emphasis will be put on your potential for research in the described field, motivation, and personal suitability for the position.

As many as possible should have the opportunity to undertake organized research training. If you already hold a PhD or have equivalent competence, we will not appoint you to this position.

Admission to the PhD programme

For employment in the PhD position, you must be qualified for admission to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Science and Technology and participate in organized doctoral studies within the employment period.

Admission normally requires:

• A bachelor's degree of 180 ECTS and a master's degree of 120 ECTS, or an integrated master's degree of 300 ECTS.
• A master's thesis with a scope corresponding to at least 30 ECTS for a master's degree of 120 ECTS.
• A master's thesis with a scope corresponding to at least 20 ECTS for an integrated master's degree of 300 ECTS.

In order to gain admission to the programme, the applicant must have a grade point average of C or better for the master’s degree and for relevant subjects of the bachelor’s degree. A more detailed description of admission requirements can be found here.

Applicants with a foreign education will be subjected to an evaluation of whether the educational background is equal to Norwegian higher education, following national guidelines from NOKUT.

If you are employed in the position, you will be provisionally admitted to the PhD programme. Application for final admission must be submitted no later than two months after taking up the position.

Inclusion and diversity

UiT The Arctic University i Norway is working actively to promote equality, gender balance and diversity among employees and students, and to create an inclusive and safe working environment. We believe that inclusion and diversity is a strength and we want employees with different competencies, professional experience, life experience and perspectives.

If you have a disability, a gap in your CV or immigrant background, we encourage you to tick the box for this in your application. If there are qualified applicants, we invite least one in each group for an interview. If you get the job, we will adapt the working conditions if you need it. Apart from selecting the right candidates, we will only use the information for anonymous statistics.

Application 

Your application must include:

• Cover letter explaining your motivation and research interests
• CV
• Diploma for bachelor's and master's degree
• Transcript of grades/academic record for bachelor's and master's degree
• Explanation of the grading system for foreign education (Diploma Supplement if available)
• Documentation of English proficiency
• References with contact information
• Master’s thesis, and any other academic works

Qualification with a master’s degree is required before commencement in the position. If you are near completion of your master’s degree, you may still apply and submit a draft version of the thesis and a statement from your supervisor or institution indicating when the degree will be obtained. You must document completion of your degree before commencement in the position. You must still submit your transcripts for the master’s degree with your application.

All documentation to be considered must be in a Scandinavian language or English. Diplomas and transcripts must also be submitted in the original language, if not in English or Scandinavian. We only accept applications and documentation sent via Jobbnorge within the application deadline.

We offer

• Involvement in an interesting research project
• A good academic environment with dedicated colleagues 
• Flexible working hours and a state collective pay agreement 
• Pension scheme through the state pension fund 
• More practical information for working and living in Norway can be found here

General information

The appointment is made in accordance with State regulations and guidelines at UiT. At our website, you will find more information for applicants.

A shorter period of appointment may be decided when the PhD Fellow has already completed parts of their research training programme or when the appointment is based on a previous qualifying position PhD Fellow, research assistant, or the like in such a way that the total time used for research training amounts to three years.

Remuneration for the position of PhD Fellow is in accordance with the State salary scale code 1017. A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted.

We process personal data given in an application or CV in accordance with the Personal Data Act (Offentleglova). According to the Personal Data Act information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure. You will receive advance notification in the event of such publication, if you have requested non-disclosure.

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