PhD Student Position in Wireless Sensor Networks at University of Trento, Italy

PhD Student Position in Wireless Sensor Networks

at University of Trento, Italy

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Applications are invited from those interested in pursuing a PhD

in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) at the University of Trento,

Italy, in the D3S group. D3S (http://d3s.disi.unitn.it) is a

crossâ€institution research group focusing on dynamic, decentralâ€

ized, distributed systems.



In the context of WSNs, the D3S group has been particularly sucâ€

cessful in bringing research results into realâ€world, longâ€term,

operational deployments. Examples are the structural health monâ€

itoring of a medieval tower, and the closedâ€loop control of

lighting in a road tunnel. The scientific results of these

projects received the Best Paper Award at IPSN (both in 2009 and

2011) and the Mark Weiser Best Paper Award at PerCom 2012.



Other ongoing projects include: i) a pervasive computing environâ€

ment equipped with audio, video, and other types of sensors to

provide support for elders and people with disabilities; ii) a

mobile WSN for monitoring wildlife; iii) a platform for integratâ€

ing WSNs into business process, through a modelâ€driven approach.



Although we emphasize realâ€world applications as a motivation and

a concrete opportunity for the validation of our research, the

latter is not limited to the immediate needs of WSN deployments.

We perform a mix of curiosityâ€driven and applicationâ€driven reâ€

search. The research challenges tackled by D3S span a broad set

of topics, ranging from lowâ€layer issues concerned with the charâ€

acterization and design of communication protocols to higherâ€layâ€

er issues related with programming platforms and software archiâ€

tectures for WSNs.



New PhD students are invited to participate in ongoing projects

to gain experience and insight into real systems, and to identify

novel, challenging problems whose solutions break new grounds.

The D3S group, and Trento at large, provide a fertile environment

for highâ€quality research: two of our PhD students received the

Best Ph.D. Thesis Award at the European Conference on Wireless

Sensor Networks (EWSN) in 2009 and 2012.



The language of the research group is English.



The Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science is

a leading and fastâ€growing research institution, characterized by

a young and international faculty and by a large, international

student population. Indicators for scientific production place

the department among the top in Europe. The department and the

PhD school closely collaborate with †and operate in †a fertile

and rapidly growing research and innovation environment characâ€

terized by top class research centers and an increasing number of

industrial research labs. The successful candidate will therefore

have the opportunity to work in a dynamic and exciting environâ€

ment.



Trento is a vibrant city with a beautifully preserved historic

center, consistently ranked among the best cities for quality of

life in Italy. It offers a variety of cultural and sports opporâ€

tunities all year around, as well as excellent food and wine.



Applications must be filed online before May 15 2012 (at 13:00,

Italy time) at the link below.



IMPORTANT:

In the "Areas of preference" section of the application, the apâ€

plicant must indicate a preference BOTH for "Systems and Netâ€

works" (under "Computer Science") AND "Remote and Distributed

Sensing" (under "Telecommunications"). Failure to do so may reâ€

sult in ineligibility for this position.



It is strongly advised to get in contact with Prof. Gian Pietro

Picco (gianpietro.picco@unitn.it) before submitting the applicaâ€

tion, by providing a curriculum vitae including three references.



Links:



Online PhD Application: http://ict.unitn.it/applicaâ€

tion/ict_doctoral_school

Prof. Gian Pietro Picco: http://disi.unitn.it/~picco

D3S Group and Projects: http://d3s.disi.unitn.it

DISI web site: http://disi.unitn.it

Research at DISI: http://disi.unitn.it/research

PhD School: http://ict.unitn.it/