Research Assistant / PhD position in Distributed IoT Data Acquisition and Analytics 80-100 % | ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften

Research Assistant / PhD position in Distributed IoT Data Acquisition and Analytics 80-100 %

Research assistant in industry projects related to distributed systems for animal tracking and similar IoT/edge-cloud continuum applications, optionally linked with a cooperative doctorate (3-years PhD program).

School: School of Engineering

Starting date: July 1st, 2024 or later as per agreement

Research and innovation fields include:

• Distributed applications based on IoT sensing and processing/analytics, with mobile devices/trackers and intelligent computing continuums (tracker-edge-cloud)
• Continuum-native data integration middleware with data-driven decisions such as spatially distributed machine learning, micromodels, analytics and model-driven insights, and differentiated service selection across edge, cloud and serverless resources
• Applicability of the results in smart agriculture (herding), smart retail and smart mobility among other future fields

Areas of responsibility will include:

• Contributing to the research and development activities in the above fields as well as to sustaining them with further project acquisitions in the same line of research
• Collaboration to activities in R&D projects (Switzerland and EU), including travel and exchange stays when required by these projects
• Assistance to transfer of research results to enterprise contexts / SMEs
• Advice to students in projects and BSc/MSc theses
• Publication of results in peer-reviewed journals and conferences

Applicants must have a Master's degree in computer science or a related field, and a desire to advance their education into a practice-oriented doctorate in distributed systems. The successful candidate has a strong theoretical knowledge and a passion for scientific work in the above-mentioned fields and a good command as well as a passion for programming and writing. Good communication skills in English are a prerequisite.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate an understanding of the academic, industry, and technology landscape, identify unsolved problems and propose novel ideas for future activities. Particular emphasis is given to developing prototypes, experimenting hands-on with systems, and scientific evaluation and documentation of results.

Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW is one of Switzerland's largest multidisciplinary universities of applied sciences, with over 14'000 students and 3'400 faculty and staff.

Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW is one of Switzerland's largest multidisciplinary universities of applied sciences, with over 14'000 students and 3'400 faculty and staff.

As one of the leading Engineering Faculties in Switzerland, the ZHAW School of Engineering emphasizes topics which will be relevant in the future. Our 14 institutes and centers guarantee superior-quality education, research and development with an emphasis on the areas of energy, mobility, information and health.

The Institute of Computer Science (InIT) in Winterthur has nationally and internationally recognized competencies in the areas of Human-Centered Computing, Intelligent Information Systems, Information Security, Distributed Systems, and Software Engineering. We research and develop innovative information technology, software systems, and services in cooperation with business and university partners.

In the research area of Distributed Systems, we address new concepts for modern applications built from distributed networked services and components. Besides the virtualization of resources, provisioning and operation of complex distributed applications, the focus is on applications that interact with the real world, particularly in the areas of robotics, IoT and cyber-physical systems.

ZHAW is committed to gender-mixed and diverse teams in order to promote equality, diversity and innovation.

Wir bieten hochschulgerechte Arbeits- und Anstellungsbedingungen an und fördern aktiv die Personalentwicklung unserer Mitarbeitenden und Führungspersonen. Eine detaillierte Beschreibung der Vorteile ist auf der Webseite «Arbeiten an der ZHAW» zu finden. Hier die wichtigsten Eckpunkte:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Michael Bohnert

Head of Research Group Distributed Systems

Tanja Schmid

Recruiting Manager