Postdoc in Heterogeneous Machine Learning Hardware for System-on-chip Monitoring and Health Diagnosis within WASP

Skilled and committed employees are a crucial factor in the success of Linköping University. And we need more of them. Our core expertise comes from teachers and researchers, but a successful university requires experienced and motivated employees in many fields. Everyone is important. We need to recruit many new employees thanks to, among all, an expansion in our research activity. We need you here. We look forward to receiving your application!

The department of Electrical Engineering (ISY) is central to the engineering education at the Institute of Technology, one of four faculties at Linköping University, and this regards both basic and applied knowledge. The research is based on industrial needs, and ranges from basic research to direct application in collaboration projects.
Read more at https://liu.se/en/organisation/liu/isy

We are now looking to appoint a postdoc in Computer Engineering within WASP.

Work assignments

Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) is Sweden’s largest individual research program ever, a major national initiative for strategically motivated basic research, education and faculty recruitment. The program addresses research on artificial intelligence and autonomous systems acting in collaboration with humans, adapting to their environment through sensors, information and knowledge, and forming intelligent systems-of-systems. The vision of WASP is excellent research and competence in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software for the benefit of Swedish industry. Read more: wasp-sweden.org

The postdoc will carry out research directed by Prof Jose Nunez-Yanez, who is a Royal Society industrial fellow in Machine intelligence at the network Edge and has been appointed as Professor in Computing Architectures for Machine Learning at the department of Electrical Engineering (ISY), Linkoping University. The position is funded by WASP and it is expected that the successful candidate attends the annual workshops and presents the outcomes.

State-of-the-art deep learning models such as those used in object detection and machine health diagnosis are deploying new features such as attention mechanisms and data fusion which require a large amount of compute power and energy to run in real-time. One possible solution is to map them to cloud-based services, but this has negative implications on latency and data security. To address this challenge, we will research embedded deep learning heterogeneous computing platforms that combine hardwired, reconfigurable and programmable hardware. The heterogeneous approach can combine compute resources such as Google EdgeTPUs, Intel VPUs and FPGA logic to deliver optimal points of scalability, throughput, flexibility and low-latency. This will enable the deployment of complex models such as attention-based neural networks with recurrent layers or transformers to SoC health monitoring and fault diagnosis near data sources such as performance counters and hardware sensors. A complex multi-core RISC-V system could constitute the SoC under analysis for demonstration purposes. 

As postdoc, you will principally carry out research. A certain amount of teaching may be part of your duties, up to a maximum of 20% of working hours.

The workplace

The Division of Computer Engineering performs research in a broad area of computer and computing architectures ranging from artificial intelligence and learning to wireless and optical communication. Read more: liu.se/en/organisation/liu/isy/da

Qualifications

To be qualified to take employment as postdoc, you must have been awarded a doctoral degree or have a foreign degree that is deemed to be equivalent to a doctoral degree. This degree must have been awarded at the latest by the point at which LiU makes its decision to employ you.

It is considered advantageous if your doctoral degree is no older than three years at application deadline for this job. If there are special reasons for having an older doctoral degree – such as taking statutory leave – then these may be taken into consideration.

The applicant should have a strong background in computer architecture and C/C++ programming skills. In addition, the applicant should be knowledgeable on deep-learning frameworks such as Tensorflow or Pytorch and have experience with hardware design using HDL (VHDL and/or Verilog) or HLS (High Level Synthesis) and FPGA implementation tools (e.g. Xilinx Vitis, Vitis HLS). Working knowledge of Python is highly desirable. Scientific proficiency must have been demonstrated through research resulting in publications in internationally recognized journals and conferences.

The applicant should be able to work effectively both individually and together with other researchers. Very good communication skills and very good knowledge of English, both verbal and written, are expected.

About this job

This post is a temporary contract of three years. The position as a postdoc is full-time.

Starting date

By agreement.

Salary and employment benefits

Salaries at the university are set individually. More information about employee benefits is available here.

Trade union representatives

Information about trade union contacts can be found here.

Application procedure

Apply for this position by clicking on the button labelled “Apply” above. Your application must reach Linköping University no later than December 9, 2022.

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. 

We welcome applicants with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives - diversity enriches our work and helps us grow. Preserving everybody's equal value, rights and opportunities is a natural part of who we are. Read more about our work with: Equal opportunities.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Linköping university has framework agreements and wishes to decline direct contacts from staffing- and recruitment companies as well as vendors of job advertisements.