PHD THESIS ENHANCED FLEXIBILITY AND ROBUSTNESS OF AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS THROUGH HUMAN-MACHINE INTERACTI

As Austria's largest research and technology organisation for applied research, we are dedicated to make substantial contributions to solving the major challenges of our time, climate change and digitisation. To achieve our goals, we rely on our specific research, development and technology competencies, which are the basis of our commitment to excellence in all areas. With our open culture of innovation and our motivated, international teams, we are working to position AIT as Austria's leading research institution at the highest international level and to make a positive contribution to the economy and society. 

Our Center for Vision, Automation & Control located in Vienna invites applications for a PhD thesis. Our Competence Unit "Assistive & Autonomous Systems", part of the Center for Vision, Automation & Control is working at the cutting edge of technologies for assistive & autonomous systems including environment perception, scene understanding, interaction of humans and machines, navigation and control. The vast range of applications includes construction, logistics, aviation and rail as well as agriculture, robotics, and special purpose machinery. 

The goal of this PhD project is to investigate how to increase awareness of the system about its own state and how to leverage human interaction with the system to enhance flexibility and robustness and strengthen human-machine collaboration. 

Join our AIT PhD programme with around 150 international students, carried out in cooperation with renowned universities – Let’s make ideas work – With you? 

For this specific PhD position, you can either enroll for an Austrian university, or you can benefit from an exceptional opportunity to apply for a PhD programme at one of the most prestigious engineering schools worldwide, TUFTS School of Engineering in Boston, USA (Tuition fees are fully covered).

PHD THESIS “ENHANCED FLEXIBILITY AND ROBUSTNESS OF AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS THROUGH HUMAN-MACHINE INTERACTION”

Cooperation with the TUFTS School of Engineering, Boston, USA

• You are part of a multidisciplinary team working at the cutting edge of technologies for autonomous systems including environment perception, artificial intelligence, navigation, control and testing.
• Possible research avenues are selection and fusion of distinct sensor modalities, machine learning based on latest AI techniques and tools, adaptation of perception algorithms, “anomaly detection” implying self-discovery of failure modes using model- and data-driven approaches.
• You will publish your research results at conferences and in international journals.
• Under the guidance of engineers from our center, you will demonstrate the results by means of (semi-)automated machines.
• You will accumulate experience in a research field, that has an enormous range of applications from construction, logistics, aviation and rail to agriculture, robotics and special purpose machinery.
• You will gain experience in a group of international scientists and build up your professional network.

Your qualifications as an Ingenious Partner:

• Master's studies in the field of computer science, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, mathematics, electrical engineering, physics or similar
• Good programming skills in C++, CUDA, Python, MATLAB, or other programming languages
• Experience with machine learning applications (e.g. PyTorch, Tensorflow) and image-processing (e.g. stereo matching, light field, OpenCV) would be an advantage
• Interested in reading and writing scientific publications and enjoy application-oriented questions from industry
• High level of commitment and team spirit
• Excellent knowledge of verbal and written English is mandatory

Details:

• In order to enroll for the PhD programme in the USA, you must first undergo an admission process at the TUFTS School of Engineering.
• Your PhD studies, incl. exams will take place remotely. In the meantime, you work on your research project directly with our team at AIT in Vienna.
• You have the opportunity (not compulsory) to travel to the United States (up to 3 weeks / year) and exchange views with international experts from the Computer Science, AI and HMI field.
• You will be supervised (remotely) by Prof. Matthias Scheutz, Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab from the Tufts School of Engineering and by scientists and engineers of the Center for Vision, Automation & Control.

What to expect:

EUR 45.882,20 gross per year based on the collective agreement. In addition to numerous events, seminars and networking opportunities, there will be additional company benefits. As a research institution, we are familiar with the supervision and execution of PhD theses, and we are looking forward to supporting you accordingly! 

At AIT diversity and inclusion are of great importance. This is why we strive to inspire women to join our teams in the field of technology. We welcome applications from women, who will be given preference in case of equal qualifications after taking into account all relevant facts and circumstances of all applications. 

Please submit your application documents including CV, cover letter and certificates online.

AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

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