PhD Research Fellow in Computer Science

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, The Faculty of Engineering and Science, Department of Computer science, Electrical engineering and Mathematical sciences has a vacancy for a PhD research fellow position (3 years). About the position: The Department of Computer science, Electrical engineering and Mathematical sciences at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) has a PhD research fellow position (3 years) in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action «TUAI - Towards an Understanding of Artificial Intelligence via a transparent, open and explainable perspective».  The PhD research fellow will be part of the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing and the HVL Software Engineering Group (https://www.hvl.no/forsking/gruppe/programvareutvikling-software-engineering/). The research programme in Computer Science currently includes around 20 professors and associate professors, 40 PhD and post-doctoral research fellows, and master’s students. The prospective PhD candidates will be associated with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Doctoral Network (MSCA DN) “TUAI - Towards an Understanding of Artificial Intelligence via a transparent, open and explainable perspective”. TUAI has partners in Norway, Poland, Germany, Spain and Italy. Due to project funding and operational requirements, the successful candidate should be able to commence the position no later than January 2027. Workplace is campus Bergen. About the PhD project/ work tasks: Artificial intelligence and related technologies, such as smart systems, smart manufacturing, and smart cities, have paved the way for significant opportunities for advancing sustainability and energy efficiency. The project will apply recent technological advancements to optimise smart services and devices, improving their sustainability and energy consumption throughout manufacturing and their use in smart cities or other smart methodologies. HVL contributes their experience in distributed, dynamic, heterogeneous systems that integrate sensor networks, the IoT and mobile devices, using low-power, proximity-based broadcast communication such as BTLE and UWB to collectively solve tasks. These tasks might involve AI-based techniques that are only available on a subset of the participating devices. Aggregate computing provides a unifying foundation for developing these systems, avoiding a centralised server and obtaining deployment on multiple hardware platforms. Within heterogeneous systems, the challenges are that: (i) resource-constrained devices will want to off-load classification to more powerful nodes nearby; (ii) distributed AI-based classifiers will need to be updated and (iii) trust and resiliency will be established through consensus in each neighbourhood of devices.  The PhD candidate will develop a functioning platform that integrates AI-based techniques into an existing heterogeneous computing paradigm, and evaluate their solution e.g. on the automated guided vehicles at a partner institution. Their secondary objective will be to develop techniques that ensure trustworthiness and to develop methods and tools to analyse and quantify the various performance parameters of the software on this platform such as degree of privacy, reliability and energy consumption. Research environmen t The computer science research environment at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences has a strong focus on use-inspired and applied research, and on ICT as an enabling technology. The research environment has cooperation with many national and international research groups, and with national and regional industry partners. The research programme includes the research themes of software engineering, engineering computing, sensor networks and measurement technology, grid computing and physics data analysis, machine learning, and interactive and collaborative systems.  The prospective PhD candidate will work in close cooperation with staff, current PhD candidates and master students in the software engineering research group (https://www.hvl.no/en/research/group/software-engineering/), which has a strong track record in model-based software development and undertakes research on applications in areas such as healthcare, cloud technology and internet-of-things, industrial automation, and robotics. PhD research fellow receives an annual work expense funding which can be used for conference participation, research visits, and equipment. The place of employment is Campus Bergen, however, the candidate is expected to spend twelve months in smaller secondments to project partners in Poland, Norway, and Italy, and participate in research schools. Qualifications: • a master's degree in computer science or in a closely related field. Candidates who are in the final stage of completing a master’s degree (but who have not yet been awarded the degree) may also qualify for the position. In this case, a draft of the master thesis and a transcript showing grades of currently completed course work must be submitted with the application. If the candidate is called for an interview, the final version of the thesis and a complete transcript of grades on the master’s degree must be provided at the time of the interview. • a solid grasp on object-oriented programming (eg. C++, Java, Kotlin, Swift, …). Programming experience on mobile platforms or embedded systems is an advantage. • an interest in the IoT, smart- and self-adaptive systems and their applications.  In addition to the required educational background, the following criteria will be evaluated: competence and grades on completed course work, quality of the master's thesis (excellent grade, equivalent of grade B or better on the ECTS grading system), publications (if any), research and teaching experience, practical software engineering skills and experience. Applicants must be proficient in both written and oral English. A possible outline of a research plan for a potential PhD project will also be taken into account. Personal and relational qualities will be emphasized. Ambitions and potential will also count when evaluating the candidates.  The candidate must be diligent and display the ability to work independently, supplemented with regular guidance, and is expected to carry out high-quality research and to publish the results in international conferences and journals. Willingness to participate in international networking and travel is expected. Candidates already holding a PhD within this field are not eligible for this position. As per MCSA DN rules, the candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Norway for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date.  The PhD research fellow must enrol in the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and must meet the formal admission requirements for admission into the PhD programme. The employment period may be reduced if the successful applicant has held previous employment as a research fellow.  The PhD candidate will be assigned one academic supervisor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and a co-supervisor. An application for enrolment should first be submitted after an appointment is made, and the supervisor(s) will help with this procedure. The candidate must be enrolled as a PhD student within three months from the start of the employment. Application procedure: Applications will be evaluated by an expert panel of three members. Applicants are asked to submit their application and CV online. Please use the link “Apply for this job” (“Søk stillingen”). The following documentation should be uploaded as an attachment to the online application: • Master Thesis • Copies of selected academic publications (no more than 5) • Academic transcripts and degree c