PhD Student in Computer Science - Neuromorphic Computing Methods and Tools

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is consistently ranked as one of the world's leading universities. There are approximately 47,000 students and more than 8,800 employees in Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. We unite in our efforts to understand, explain, and improve our world and the conditions of humanity.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Equality, equal opportunity, and diversity are fundamental principles for all aspects of our operations.

About the Department

The position is within the Embedded Systems Design (ESD) group in the Department of Parallel Systems (PS), which is part of the Department of Computer Science (CS).

The group conducts research related to design methods, languages, and tools for resource-constrained systems, where optimization of energy, memory, timing, and cost is of primary interest. Group members have expertise across a wide range of areas covering both hardware and software, including compilers, operating systems, and algorithms. The ESD group has active collaborations with local industry, such as Arm and Axis, other departments at LTH, and other universities both abroad, such as the Technical University of Denmark, and in Sweden, such as Linköping University and Blekinge Institute of Technology. The PS department, with 21 senior and student members, is one of the larger departments within the institution; it includes two other groups with expertise in computer graphics and theoretical computer science. The Department of Computer Science has a very social student group that can help you get started. There are also opportunities to socialize and network with other PhD students at LTH.

More about PS

Being a PhD Student

As a PhD student, you are both admitted as a student and employed at Lund University.

As a research student, you are trained in a scientific approach. This can be briefly described as gaining practice in critical and analytical thinking, solving problems independently with the right method choices, and developing research ethics awareness. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to work on projects, develop your leadership skills, and enhance your teaching abilities. Throughout your studies, you will be guided by supervisors. Research studies conclude with a dissertation and a doctoral degree.

More about being a PhD student at LTH on lth.se.

Subject and Project Description

Neuromorphic computing is an area that is gaining increasing interest due to its promise to improve energy efficiency in the inference and training of neural networks. The work planned in this project will focus on efficient compilation and runtime environments for neuromorphic hardware. Some of the goals targeted include reducing energy consumption and hardware costs, as well as increasing performance and reliability. You will receive ample guidance but also have the freedom to take the project in the direction you feel most comfortable with, a direction that allows you to take responsibility for your own research within the larger project.

The advertised position is part of an ELLIIT-funded project called "ScEENeC – Scalable, Energy-efficient Neuromorphic Computing," which is a collaboration between LTH and two other universities, namely Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and Linköping University (LiU). The work is therefore intended to be carried out in collaboration with two other PhD students (one from BTH and one from LiU) to promote the goals of ScEENeC. This is a continuation of a previously successful ELLIIT-funded project, “GPAI – General Purpose AI Computing,” which has hosted three other PhD students who are soon to graduate.

More about ELLIIT

More about GPAI

More about ScEENeC

Job Responsibilities

You will primarily focus on your doctoral education, which includes participation in research projects as well as doctoral education courses, seminars, and conferences.

Your job responsibilities include:

• You will conduct research on code compilation methods for neuromorphic platforms; on new intermediate representations and optimizations for low energy, low latency, or high throughput; on runtime environments and techniques for the same goals.
• You will extend existing compiler frameworks, such as MLIR, with tools, optimization algorithms, analysis methods, and dialects specific to neuromorphic platforms.
• You may be asked to work on and improve runtime environments for neuromorphic systems, depending on available hardware.
• You will evaluate realistic applications on the tools developed within the project, for available hardware. The types of applications primarily include Spiking Neural Networks (SNN), both for machine learning and inference.
• You will be asked to present your research results at regular project meetings as well as broader forums, possibly at various locations in Sweden and abroad (approximately 1–2 times per year).
• You will need to collaborate with other members of the ScEENeC project, according to the research requirements. This may involve shorter visits (1 week/visit/year) to partner universities.
• You are encouraged to collaborate with other academic and industrial actors, especially if this promotes ScEENeC or your research within the project.
• Your job responsibilities also include participation in teaching and other departmental work (max 20% of working time).

Qualifications

To be admitted and employed as a PhD student, you need to meet the requirements below.

For the full advertisement, please see: https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:892447/ (https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:892447/)

Welcome with your application!

LTH – Lund University of Technology – is the engineering faculty at Lund University. At LTH, we educate people, build knowledge for the future, and work hard to develop society. We create space for brilliant research and inspire creative development of technology, architecture, and design. Nearly 10,000 students study here. Each year, our researchers – many of whom operate in world-leading profile areas – publish about 100 dissertations and 2,000 scientific findings. A number of research results and student projects are refined into innovations. Together we explore and create – for the benefit of the world.

We kindly ask all contacts from advertisement sellers, recruitment, and staffing companies to refrain due to state procurement regulations.