Vacancies

BRAINS has positions for PhD and postdoctoral researchers available on a regular basis. These will be published at www.utwentecareers.nl. Open applications are welcome at any time.

The following specific positions are currently available: 

PhD postions within the Collaborative Research Center Intelligent Matter at the University of Münster.
Please contact Prof. Wilfred van der Wiel directly if you are interested: W.G.vanderWiel@utwente.nl.

  • PostDoc position: Nonlinear processing units for CMOS-compatible brain-inspired computing

    JOB DESCRIPTION

    PostDoc position: Nonlinear processing units for CMOS-compatible brain-inspired computing
    Are you interested in a job at the interface of electrical engineering and device physics to contribute to a new generation of energy-efficient hardware for artificial intelligence? If you have a PhD with background in microelectronics, computer architecture or hardware for machine learning, you may want to apply for this PostDoc position within the dynamic Horizon Europe Pathfinder project HYBRAIN.

    This position is part of the Horizon Europe Pathfinder project HYBRAIN (www.hybrain.eu), coordinated by the University of Twente and in collaboration with IBM Zürich and the universities of Oxford and Heidelberg. HYBRAIN’s vision is to realize a radically new technology for ultra-fast and energy-efficient edge AI inference based on a world-first, unique, brain-inspired hybrid architecture of integrated photonics and unconventional electronics with collocated memory and processing. As the most stringent latency bottleneck in CNNs arise from the initial convolution layers, we will take advantage of the ultrahigh throughput and low latency of photonic convolutional processors (PCPs). Their output is processed using cascaded analog electronic linear and novel nonlinear classifier layers.

    In 2020 we introduced the concept of dopant network processing units (DNPUs, Nature 577, 341-345 (2020)). In this postdoc project you will work on the development of efficient (CMOS-based) electronics and machine-learning procedures to be applied in hybrid architectures of DNPU networks, integrated photonics and analog in-memory computing.

    YOUR PROFILE

    • You are a highly motivated and enthusiastic researcher;
    • You have a PhD degree in the field of microelectronics, computer architecture or similar with an affection for machine learning and (solid-state) physics;
    • You are an independent and original thinker with a creative mindset;
    • You are a fast thinker with excellent analytical and communication skills;
    • You have good team spirit and like to work in an internationally oriented environment;
    • You are experienced with Python and Pytorch;
    • You are fluent in English.

    OUR OFFER

    • You will be appointed for a period of maximum 3 years full-time within a very stimulating scientific environment. The university offers a dynamic ecosystem with enthusiastic colleagues.
    • Your salary and associated conditions are in accordance with the collective labour agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU);
    • Gross salary between € 3.557,- and €4.670,- per month depending on experience and qualifications;
    • Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, a year-end bonus of 8.3% and a solid pension scheme;
    • Between 29 and 41 leave days in case of full-time employment;
    • Excellent support for research and facilities for professional and personal development.
    • We encourage a high degree of responsibility and independence, while collaborating with close colleagues, researchers and other university staff.
    • We are also a family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid) and career support for partners.

    INFORMATION AND APPLICATION

    Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button before August 15th, and include:

    • a motivation letter
    • a detailed CV, summarizing your education and previous work experience.

    For more information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact Prof. Wilfred G. van der Wiel (W.G.vanderWiel@utwente.nl).

    ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT 

    You will be working in the NanoElectronics Group of Prof. Van der Wiel (www.nano-electronics.nl). The NanoElectronics Group (NE) performs research and provides education in the field of nanoelectronics, comprising the study of the electronic and magnetic properties of systems with critical dimensions in the nanoregime. It is our mission to excel in the field of nanoelectronics through the development of novel (concepts for) electronic devices and systems with nanoscale dimensions for application in future generations of electronics and information storage. In particular, we focus on neuromorphic electronics, quantum (spin) electronics, 2D electronic systems and acousto-electronics. The NanoElectronics Group is a founding member of BRAINS, the Center for Brain-Inspired Nano Systems at the University of Twente (www.utwente.nl/brains).

  • BSc/MSc project: Benchmarking brain-inspired nanoelectronic devices

    BRAINS is an inter-faculty center of the University of Twente with over 10 principal investigators from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, the Digital Society Institute and the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences. Its mission is to develop efficient hardware for information processing. At BRAINS we combine core expertise in nanoscience and nanotechnology with expertise from computer science, artificial intelligence and neuroscience, to lay the scientific foundations for a new generation of powerful, energy-efficient computing hardware.

    We are currently developing some libraries for designing nano-electronic devices in the  context of hardware acceleration for deep neural networks. The libraries are being used by the Nano Electronics group of the University of Twente for different purposes, such as autonomous vehicles for Toyota Motors Europe, as well as for quantum computing purposes. The following project will give you an opportunity to gain experience on popular machine learning libraries such as PyTorch.

    PROJECT DESCRIPTION

    ·     Study and improve the quality of the code by testing and bench-marking it.

    ·     Explore the most optimal hyper-parameter tuning for benchmark tasks of DNPU devices [1] [2].

    ·     Help with the design of DNPU hardware for new benchmark tasks. 

    SKILLS

    • Good programming, troubleshooting and diagnostics skills. Experience with Python is required, but knowledge in C, C++ will also be valued.
    • Can manage code requirements, design and coding best practices. Knowledgeable in source code management (git), code linters, coding style standards. UML knowledge is desirable.

    [1] Chen, T., et al (2020). Classification with a disordered dopant-atom network in silicon. Nature, 577(7790), 341-345. 

    [2] Hans-Christian Ruiz Euler, et al. (2020). Dopant Network Processing Units: Towards Efficient Neural-network Emulators with High-capacity Nanoelectronic Nodes. https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.12371

    Apply for the vacancy
    Apply
  • Student Assistant job: BRAINS software developer

    BRAINS is an inter-faculty center of the University of Twente with over 10 principal investigators from the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, the Digital Society Institute and the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences. Its mission is to develop efficient hardware for information processing. At BRAINS we combine core expertise in nanoscience and nanotechnology with expertise from computer science, artificial intelligence and neuroscience, to lay the scientific foundations for a new generation of powerful, energy-efficient computing hardware.

    We are currently a job for a student assistant as a programmer to develop and maintain the codes that we use for experimental measurements, simulations and modeling.   

    GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

    ·     Help improving, integrating, testing, documenting and maintaining software for laboratory equipment and experiments.

    ·     Testing the code

    ·     Extensive unit and integration testing

    ·     Write documentation of the code:

    ·     Installation instructions

    ·     Tutorials on simple and non-trivial use cases

    ·     API documentation

    ·     Implement useful development guidelines and best practices to be adopted by the researchers developing new code.

    ·     Help implementing continuous integration

    ·     Code beautifiers, linters and standards 

    PROFILE

    • Good programming, troubleshooting and diagnostics skills. Experience with Python is required, but knowledge in Arduino, C, C++ will also be valued.
    • Can manage code requirements, design and coding best practices. Knowledgeable in source code management (git), code linters, coding style standards. UML knowledge is desirable.

    SALARY

    Apply to the vacancy
    Apply
  • PhD position: project Energy-efficient hardware for autonomous driving: in collaboration with Toyota Motor Europe

    JOB DESCRIPTION

    PhD project Energy-efficient hardware for autonomous driving: in collaboration with Toyota Motor Europe:
    The aim of the project is to develop low-power, reconfigurable, nanoelectronic devices in such a way that they can be applicable for reducing computational costs in tasks related to autonomous driving. The hardware used in this project consists of nanoscale material networks integrated with conventional top-down CMOS electronics. The project is a close collaboration between physicists, electrical engineers and computer scientists at the Center for Brain-Inspired Nano Systems (BRAINS) and Toyota Motor Europe, and is based on recent breakthrough results [1]. The approach follows the concept of Dopant Network Processing Units (DNPUs), a lightly doped (n- or p-type) semiconductor with a nanoscale active region contacted by several electrodes. The candidate is expected to develop energy-efficient hardware based on this DNPU-technology with a primary focus on multi-parameter sensing and autonomous driving.

    [1] Classification with a disordered dopant-atom network in silicon. T. Chen, J. van Gelder, B. van de Ven, S. Amitonov, B. de Wilde, H.-C. Ruiz-Euler, H. J. Broersma, P. A. Bobbert, F. A. Zwanenburg, W. G. van der Wiel,
    Nature 577, 341-345 (2020)

    YOUR PROFILE

    • You are an enthusiastic researcher and highly motivated.
    • You have, or will shortly acquire, a MSc degree in the field of Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Systems and Control or similar.
    • You have a creative mindset and excellent analytical and communication skills.
    • You have a good team spirit and like to work in an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented environment.
    • Knowledge in Programming (Python, PyTorch, Numpy, Git) Machine/Deep/Reinforcement Learning and/or computer vision will be valued.
    • You are fluent in English.

    OUR OFFER

    • A full-time PhD position for 4 years within a very stimulating scientific environment.
    • Full status as an employee at the University of Twente, including pension and health care benefits.
    • Gross salary PhD student: ranging from € 2.395,00 (1st year) to € 3.061,00 (4th year) per month, plus holiday allowance (8%) and end-of-year bonus (8.3%).
    • Good secondary conditions, in accordance with the collective labor agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU).
    • Extensive opportunities for professional and personal development.
    • A green and lively campus, with excellent sports facilities and many other activities.
    • We encourage a high degree of responsibility and independence, while collaborating with colleagues and researchers from various disciplines, and partners from industry.

     

    Starting date of the position: As soon as possible

    INFORMATION AND APPLICATION

    Interested to be part of our team? Applicants are welcomed to submit their application until 31 December 2020. Include in your application:

    • A motivation letter, emphasizing your specific interest and motivation to apply for a PhD position in our group
    • A full Curriculum Vitae including your publications, awards, and working experience. Your CV should demonstrate the scope of your work and education and indicate a good fit with the stated requirements for the position
    • An academic transcript of BSc and MSc education, including grades.
    • A short description of your MSc thesis/final project.
    • References (contact information) of two scientific staff members (one of whom should be the supervisor of your M.Sc. thesis/final project) who are willing to provide a recommendation letter at our request.

     

    The first interviews are scheduled on 15 January 2021. Please take these dates into account.
    For further information about this position, please contact Prof.dr.ir. Wilfred G. van der Wiel, W.G.vanderWiel@utwente.nl.

    ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

    The NanoElectronics Group (NE) performs research and provides education in the field of nanoelectronics, comprising the study of the electronic and magnetic properties of systems with critical dimensions in the nanoregime. It is our mission to excel in the field of nanoelectronics through the development of novel (concepts for) electronic devices and systems with nanoscale dimensions for application in future generations of electronics and information storage. In particular, we focus on neuromorphic electronics, quantum (spin) electronics, 2D electronic systems and acousto-electronics.

    Our vision is that nanoelectronics will play an increasingly important role in future information technology. With the emerging challenges in conventional electronics, in particular miniaturization and energy consumption, there will be need for alternative, disruptive device concepts and architectures. We expect that nanoelectronics will have big impact throughout society, and we especially foresee contributions to sustainability, healthcare and security.

    The NanoElectronics Group is a founding member of BRAINS, the Center for Brain-Inspired Nano Systems at the University of Twente.

    ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

    University of Twente (UT)

    University of Twente (UT) has entered the new decade with an ambitious, new vision, mission and strategy. As ‘the ultimate people-first university of technology' we are rapidly expanding on our High Tech Human Touch philosophy and the unique role it affords us in society. Everything we do is aimed at maximum impact on people, society and connections through the sustainable utilisation of science and technology. We want to contribute to the development of a fair, digital and sustainable society through our open, inclusive and entrepreneurial attitude. This attitude permeates everything we do and is present in every one of UT's departments and faculties. Building on our rich legacy in merging technical and social sciences, we focus on five distinguishing research domains: Improving healthcare by personalised technologies; Creating intelligent manufacturing systems; Shaping our world with smart materials; Engineering our digital society; and Engineering for a resilient world.

    As an employer, University of Twente offers jobs that matter. We equip you as a staff member to shape new opportunities both for yourself and for our society. With us, you will be part of a leading tech university that is changing our world for the better. We offer an open, inclusive and entrepreneurial climate, in which we encourage you to make healthy choices, for example, with our flexible, customisable conditions.