The Pervasive Systems research group at the University of Twente is an internationally leader of wireless sensor networks.
The work in the group focuses on the design of enabling technologies and methods for applications of smart sensor systems and wearable devices. The Pervasive Systems (PS) group has a significant background on distributed networked intelligence covering the entire design trajectory from design of the miniature digital devices, wireless sensor networks, body area networks, methods of distributed signal processing, sensor fusion, and event detection. Group's research projects have been supported by a number of regional (Pieken in de Delta, Interreg), national (STW, NWO), and European (ITEA, EU Framework, Eureka) agencies, as well as private industry.
Wireless sensor networks
Imagine a world with smart machines that can self-diagnose and repair, predict aging components and proactively alert factories for replacement parts before the machine breaks down. Smart roads will make travel safer and highways less congested by noting accidents, potholes, alternate routes and reporting the information to a car's global positioning system. Smart appliances, such as refrigerators, will understand families' dietary requirements or doctor's orders and take inventory of refrigerators to relay information to a shopping list on a personal digital assistant.
Collaborative sensor networks will help realize this vision.
Sensors are tiny devices capable of capturing physical information, such as heat, light or motion, about an environment. Rapid advances in technology have enabled a new generation of tiny, inexpensive, networked sensors. Embedding millions of sensors into an environment creates a digital skin or wireless network of sensors, each sensor capable of capturing physical information about its immediate space. These massively distributed sensor networks communicate with one another and summarize the immense amounts of low-level information to produce data representative of the overall environment. Collaborative, smart sensor networks present information in a qualitative, human-interpretable form, which allows people (or computers) to respond intelligently. Sensor networks will change the way we work and live.
Three PhD positions in wireless sensor network technology for the fields GoGreen, Swell, Wibrate
PhD vacancy 1 (4 years): Go Green
The Go-Green (Greener house through a self-learning, privacy-aware user-centric energy-aware wireless monitoring and control system) project aims to develop methodologies and techniques to enable energy neutral "green" houses by combining energy efficiency and user comfort. A missing ingredient in existing home automation solutions is an intelligent energy-aware system that learns people behavior, understands their needs, provides reliable feedback in terms of best practices for energy use and distribution, intelligently harvests energy from various sources, and allows people to be in control. This is the very exact goal of the Go-Green project. To this end, project will design an overall system and services with minimum complexity for the user through development of self-organizing and self-configuration cognitive networks, context-awareness, learning and adaptation mechanisms.
PhD vacancy 2 (4 years): Swell
The objective of this project is to develop user-centric sensing and reasoning techniques that help to improve physical well-being and to improve well-working. Well-working could be defined as "being and feeling in control", with a positive impact on work efficiency and effectiveness, work pleasure, mental and physical health status. Managing work and family responsibilities is often difficult and impacts the health and well-being of employees, their families, and the workplace performance. In the Swell project, the activity, health status and information access patterns of an individual will be monitored by sensors hidden in the environment of the person. This will used to provide input for an unobtrusive coach or assistant based on robust reasoning techniques, thereby increasing the individual's sense of feeling in control. We will address the following key research questions: How to infer the user's state from heterogeneous and incomplete sensor information? How to present feedback and design coaching tools in an intuitive unobtrusive manner? How to design user friendly and adaptive privacy policies regarding the use of context information?
PhD vacancy 3 (4 years): Wibrate
The main objectives of the WiBRATE project are:
To develop robust wireless networking protocols that can allow real-time operations to take place even in environments with harsh interference problems. Knowledge in energy-efficient wireless networking protocols and embedded programming will be an added advantage.
To develop feature recognition algorithms that analyse the structural vibrations in a distributed, self-adaptive and in real-time manner, using wireless intelligent inertial sensors. Prior knowledge in signal processing, machine learning and embedded programming will be an added advantage.
Ons aanbod / Our offer
We offer a full-time PhD-position for 4 years (preferred starting date: April 2012). The starting salary will be € 2042,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2612,- gross per month in the last year. Additional benefits include holiday allowance(8%) and end-of-year allowance(8.3%). Also, there will be opportunities to participate in various training courses and to visit national and international conferences and workshops, summer schools etc.
Uw profiel / Your profile
Requirements for all three vacancies:
- The candidates should have a background in computer science, electrical engineering or mathematics.
- An excellent knowledge of English is required for everyday communication in the group and writing of well-structured reports in that language.
- Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team
- Familiarity with the Dutch language is a plus
For more information, contact our secretary Mrs. Nicole Baveld (+31-53-4893633; nicole.baveld@utwente.nl)
Please send your applications by filling out the application form through the link below, before 16 March 2012. Applications should include a motivation letter,a detailed Curriculum Vitae (with publication list, if applicable), a list of courses followed and grades obtained, a relevant research paper and/or thesis, and one or two references.
De organisatie / The organisation
The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over six faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research.
The faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) comprises three disciplines that shape Information and Communication Technology. ICT is more than communication. In almost every product we use mathematics, electronics and computer technology and ICT now contributes to all of societies' activities. The faculty works together intensively with industrial partners and researchers in the Netherlands and abroad and conducts extensive research for external commissioning parties and funders. The research which enjoys a high profile both at home and internationally, has been accommodated in the multidisciplinary research institutes MESA+, CTIT and MIRA.
Wireless sensor networks
Imagine a world with smart machines that can self-diagnose and repair, predict aging components and proactively alert factories for replacement parts before the machine breaks down. Smart roads will make travel safer and highways less congested by noting accidents, potholes, alternate routes and reporting the information to a car's global positioning system. Smart appliances, such as refrigerators, will understand families' dietary requirements or doctor's orders and take inventory of refrigerators to relay information to a shopping list on a personal digital assistant.
Collaborative sensor networks will help realize this vision.
Sensors are tiny devices capable of capturing physical information, such as heat, light or motion, about an environment. Rapid advances in technology have enabled a new generation of tiny, inexpensive, networked sensors. Embedding millions of sensors into an environment creates a digital skin or wireless network of sensors, each sensor capable of capturing physical information about its immediate space. These massively distributed sensor networks communicate with one another and summarize the immense amounts of low-level information to produce data representative of the overall environment. Collaborative, smart sensor networks present information in a qualitative, human-interpretable form, which allows people (or computers) to respond intelligently. Sensor networks will change the way we work and live.
Three PhD positions in wireless sensor network technology for the fields GoGreen, Swell, Wibrate
PhD vacancy 1 (4 years): Go Green
The Go-Green (Greener house through a self-learning, privacy-aware user-centric energy-aware wireless monitoring and control system) project aims to develop methodologies and techniques to enable energy neutral "green" houses by combining energy efficiency and user comfort. A missing ingredient in existing home automation solutions is an intelligent energy-aware system that learns people behavior, understands their needs, provides reliable feedback in terms of best practices for energy use and distribution, intelligently harvests energy from various sources, and allows people to be in control. This is the very exact goal of the Go-Green project. To this end, project will design an overall system and services with minimum complexity for the user through development of self-organizing and self-configuration cognitive networks, context-awareness, learning and adaptation mechanisms.
PhD vacancy 2 (4 years): Swell
The objective of this project is to develop user-centric sensing and reasoning techniques that help to improve physical well-being and to improve well-working. Well-working could be defined as "being and feeling in control", with a positive impact on work efficiency and effectiveness, work pleasure, mental and physical health status. Managing work and family responsibilities is often difficult and impacts the health and well-being of employees, their families, and the workplace performance. In the Swell project, the activity, health status and information access patterns of an individual will be monitored by sensors hidden in the environment of the person. This will used to provide input for an unobtrusive coach or assistant based on robust reasoning techniques, thereby increasing the individual's sense of feeling in control. We will address the following key research questions: How to infer the user's state from heterogeneous and incomplete sensor information? How to present feedback and design coaching tools in an intuitive unobtrusive manner? How to design user friendly and adaptive privacy policies regarding the use of context information?
PhD vacancy 3 (4 years): Wibrate
The main objectives of the WiBRATE project are:
To develop robust wireless networking protocols that can allow real-time operations to take place even in environments with harsh interference problems. Knowledge in energy-efficient wireless networking protocols and embedded programming will be an added advantage.
To develop feature recognition algorithms that analyse the structural vibrations in a distributed, self-adaptive and in real-time manner, using wireless intelligent inertial sensors. Prior knowledge in signal processing, machine learning and embedded programming will be an added advantage.
Ons aanbod / Our offer
We offer a full-time PhD-position for 4 years (preferred starting date: April 2012). The starting salary will be € 2042,- gross per month in the first year up to € 2612,- gross per month in the last year. Additional benefits include holiday allowance(8%) and end-of-year allowance(8.3%). Also, there will be opportunities to participate in various training courses and to visit national and international conferences and workshops, summer schools etc.
Uw profiel / Your profile
Requirements for all three vacancies:
- The candidates should have a background in computer science, electrical engineering or mathematics.
- An excellent knowledge of English is required for everyday communication in the group and writing of well-structured reports in that language.
- Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team
- Familiarity with the Dutch language is a plus
For more information, contact our secretary Mrs. Nicole Baveld (+31-53-4893633; nicole.baveld@utwente.nl)
Please send your applications by filling out the application form through the link below, before 16 March 2012. Applications should include a motivation letter,a detailed Curriculum Vitae (with publication list, if applicable), a list of courses followed and grades obtained, a relevant research paper and/or thesis, and one or two references.
De organisatie / The organisation
The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over six faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research.
The faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) comprises three disciplines that shape Information and Communication Technology. ICT is more than communication. In almost every product we use mathematics, electronics and computer technology and ICT now contributes to all of societies' activities. The faculty works together intensively with industrial partners and researchers in the Netherlands and abroad and conducts extensive research for external commissioning parties and funders. The research which enjoys a high profile both at home and internationally, has been accommodated in the multidisciplinary research institutes MESA+, CTIT and MIRA.
Application Deadline : 16 March 2012
