2 PhD students in the EU project DESTECS - University of Twente

The University of Twente is an entrepreneurial research university, located about 200 km from Amsterdam in Enschede, a city in Twente, the garden of the Netherlands with excellent recreation facilities. Organized over 5 faculties, the UT offers 20 educational programs ranging from applied physics, public and business administration, communication studies and diverse programs in engineering technology. Research takes place within the context of institutes and focuses, among other things, on nanotechnology, information and communication technology (CTIT), biomedical technology, policy studies, construction management & engineering, and mechanics. More than 7,000 students and 2,700 staff members live, work and recreate at the UT, the Netherlands’ only campus university with a park-like atmosphere and numerous sporting facilities.

Research institutes

The research will be carried out in the Control Engineering (CE) laboratory of the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EWI), which is embedded among others in the Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT).

The Control Engineering group of the
University of Twente has a vacancy for

2 PhD students in the EU project DESTECS

Introduction

The efficient design of embedded control systems (i.e. mechatronics / robotics software) is hampered by the separation of engineering disciplines in current state of the art development approaches. A methodology to address system-level design issues across discipline boundaries is lacking and tool support is poor. This “design gap” inhibits iterative and concurrent engineering, leading to sub-optimal designs and long development lead times. Moreover, the design gap is widening because of increasing system complexity and increasing capabilities of the system artifacts used.

About the project

DESTECS is inspired by the vision of collaborative multidisciplinary design of embedded systems using a methodology and tools that promote rapid construction and evaluation of system models, with both methods and tools validated against real industry need and evaluated on industrial applications.
DESTECS will research and develop methods and open tools that support the collaborative design of dependable real-time embedded control systems using a model-based approach. This means that engineers can perform design evaluation and analysis using co-simulation of models expressed in different tools that reflect in a natural way the relevant aspects of the design but which can be analysed consistently and rapidly together. This requires advances in continuous time modelling, formal discrete event modelling of controllers and architectures, fault modelling and tolerance, and open tools frameworks. Bringing these together in methods and tools has the potential to substantially improve the cost-effectiveness of model-based design.

The two Ph.D. candidates at the Control Laboratory within the DESTECS project will be responsible for:

·

To research and develop methods that support the collaborative modelling and analysis by co-simulation of candidate designs for dependable embedded control systems; and to deliver guidelines, templates and tool prototypes for using co-simulation as a means for exploring candidate designs during development.

·	To research and develop methods that provide structuring mechanisms for models such that co-simulation, re-use of sub-models and concurrent design of models can be supported; and to deliver guidelines, techniques and tool prototypes for model code versioning control.

What we ask

An MSc or comparable degree in electrical / computer engineering or computer science with demonstrated abilities in the fields of research described above: model structuring, (co)-simulation and tool design, with application area robotics / mechatronics. Good control of the English language in written and spoken form. Ability to perform research individually and also work in an international team.

What we offer

Gross monthly salary for the PhD position range from € 2042 to € 2812. In addition to this, we offer a holiday allowance (amounts to 8%), an end-of-year bonus (amounts to 8,3%), various sporting and cultural facilities at reduced rate, medical insurance at a reduced rate.

Contact information

Applications should be received by us, not later than 25 October 2009.

Please send your applications to: CESecretary@ewi.utwente.nl, and mention the vacancy number 09/199 of this vacancy.