Postdoc - Integrated Circuits - Designed by the Public

Are you eager to stimulate the general public to design an integrated circuit?  This is a unique opportunity in which we would like to use a 'citizen science' approach to increase the visibility of the electronics field within society.  In this approach, we want to give the general public the opportunity to design an IC themselves, after which we take care of the prototype fabrication and characterization of the (e.g. 100) most interesting circuits. We want to use the results of this approach to generate an open access collection of design and characterization data that can be used to train machine learning algorithms for designing electronic circuits. Other researchers and organizations will not only be able to use this collection, but will also be invited to expand on it.

This position you will combine your passion for circuit design with your entrepreneurial spirit.  Along with your highly developed organizational skills, you will interface with the press and other social media channels to promote this initiative.  The vacancy is part of the research program in the 'Integrated Circuits (IC)' group in the field of design methods for (high-frequency and mixed-signal) electronics for, among other things, future wireless systems.

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is an internationally oriented research university, specialized in engineering, science and technology.  TU/e is known for its major scientific impact and development of technological innovations. Our university is at the heart of society: TU/e focuses on complex societal challenges by specifically targeting three Strategic Areas with education and research: Energy, Health, and Smart Mobility.

The Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) is one of the most successful departments in the Netherlands in the field of research in collaboration with industry. The department currently has approximately 1200 Bachelor and Master students and more than 300 PhD students.

Responsibilities

You are responsible for developing and implementing all aspects of the 'visibility' project:

• Determining the details and boundary conditions for the 'citizen science' challenge;
• Designing and building the infrastructure (databases, measurement setups) for the evaluation, selection and characterization of the submitted designs, in close collaboration with the staff of the IC group;
• The invitation to the public, in close collaboration with the university's communications department;
• Collecting, evaluating and selecting the most suitable designs for prototype fabrication, in close collaboration with IC group staff members;
• Announcing the selected designers and designs;
• (Automatic) characterization of the realized prototypes;
• Publishing the design and characterization databases.