PhD Scholarship 'Photonic Ising Machines: Implementations'

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The Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences, Department Department of Physics, is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant. 

More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate, contains: 

Three Belgium teams at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Gent University (UGENT) have united their expertise to develop a new type of optical computing devices that can solve hard combinatorial problems.

Such combinatorial problems are commonplace in our society, for instance in logistics, finance or pharmaceutical research. However, for many real-world applications, finding a solution requires high-performance computer clusters that consume large amounts of energy and run for a long time. Our project aims to create a radically new platform of analogue hardware accelerators, so-called Ising machines, that efficiently speed up these computationally difficult tasks in a way unlike any current digital computer. These Ising machines are a newly emerging computational concept and have shown great promise. They are based on the idea that the lowest energy state of a well-constructed dynamical system will encode the solution to the combinatorial problem. However, their implementation is highly challenging due to limited bandwidth, scalability and stability issues. A breakthrough is needed to make them practical for real-world applications. Photonics presents an ideal way to achieve this breakthrough due to its inherent parallelism and high speed. We aim to create accelerators for a broad set of problems, that are faster and more energy efficient than digital computer and previous experimental implementations.

Our three teams will work on different aspects of this challenge:

VUB will focus on tabletop Ising machines with up to 100.000 spins and orders of magnitude speed up with respect to digital implementations . These tabletop setups will be build using commercially available components, and benchmarking this system will provide a direct comparison of our approach with other state-of-the-art implementations of Ising machines. Experiments on the tabletop system will also yield input to verify and support the theoretical modelling, and will guide design of the integrated systems.  In conjunction with ULB, VUB will also explore the theoretical understanding.

ULB will focus on the underlying theory, leading to a deeper understanding of Ising machines and improving their performance. The general approach will be extended to other applications such as mixed integer programming, sampling from the thermal distribution over solutions be studied, and solving real world problems. From the fundamental point of view, we will study the relation between classical and quantum Ising machines, and with other computational models such as adiabatic quantum computing.

UGENT will focus on building integrated versions of photonic Ising machines that contain fewer nodes than the tabletop implementations, but have the potential for much higher speeds and, when produced using volume fabrication, would be cheaper as well.

The researchers will work in close collaboration between the different groups. The selected candidates will carry out their PhD in “cotutelle”, i.e. they will be jointly supervised by two of the groups, will have to carry out part of their research at (at least) two institutions, and will receive a diploma from two institutions. This will ensure efficient flow of ideas, and put the researchers in contact with all aspects of the project. Researchers will be encouraged to work on several aspects of the present project (for instance a specific experimental implementation and the underlying theory).

For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base. 

What do we expect from you?

Master of Physics/Master of Engineering. 
 

Depending on the subject of the PhD, different backgrounds and expertise are required. These may include skills in experimental physics and in particular optics/photonics; in computational physics; in theoretical physics, non-linear dynamics and analytical computation.

• You have not performed any works in the execution of a mandate as an assistant, paid from operating resources, over a total (cumulated) period of more than 12 months.

Are you going to be our new colleague?

You’ll be offered a full-time PhD-scholarship, for 12 months (extendable up to max. 48 months, on condition of the positive evaluation of the PhD activities), with planned starting date 01/09/2022. 

You’ll receive a grant linked to one of the scales set by the government.

IMPORTANT: The effective result of the doctorate scholarship is subject to the condition precedent of your enrolment as a doctorate student at the university.

At the VUB, you’re guaranteed an open, involved and diverse workplace where you are offered opportunities to (further) build on your career.

As well as this, you’ll enjoy various benefits:

• Full reimbursement for your home-work commute with public transport according to VUB-policy, or compensation if you come by bike;
• Cost-free hospitalisation insurance;
• The space to form your job content and continuously learn via VUB LRN;
• Excellent facilities for sport and exercise;
• Ecocheques;
• Delicious meals at attractive prices in our campus restaurants;
• An open, family-friendly work environment where attention is paid to work-life balance, and exceptional holiday arrangements with 35 days of leave (based on a fulltime contract).

Is this the job you’ve been dreaming of?

Send us ONLINE and at the latest on 15/06/2022 :

• your CV;
• your letter of motivation;
• the names of 3 people who may be contacted for recommendations;
• the highest degree you’ve attained (not applicable for VUB alumni).

After pre-selection based on the written application, candidates will be invited for an interview. 

Do you have questions about the job content? Contact Serge Massar, Guy Van Der Sande, Peter Bienstman at [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] .

Would you like to know what it’s like to work at the VUB? Go to www.vub.ac.be/vacatures and find all there is to know about our campuses, benefits, strategic goals and your future colleagues.