10 PhD Positions in Dependable Internet of Things

We have 10 PhD positions in my new project:

Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has recently established an

Excellence Research Center entitled "Dependable Internet of Things

in Adverse Environments", for further information see

http://dependablethings.tugraz.at. The mission of this long-term

center is to foster a highly interdisciplinary research team

spanning the computer science and electrical engineering faculties

to lay the scientific foundations for an Internet of Things that

is highly reliable, safe, and secure in order to enable critical

applications that require guaranteed performance even in adverse

environments. The center is seeking to fill 10 PhD positions with

excellent candidates, who will work closely together in four

subprojects that focus on the following topics:

1. Dependable Wireless Communication and Localization (three

   positions in wireless networking, physical layer signal

   processing, and tunable microwave frontends)

2. Dependable Embedded Computing (two positions in embedded

   hardware and software with a focus on security and real-time

   operating systems)

3. Dependable Composition of Smart Things (three positions in

   model checking, model-based testing, and machine learning)

4. Dependable Networked Control (two positions in control theory

   and information theory)

Applicants must hold a Master degree (or equivalent) in computer

engineering, computer science, or electrical engineering before

they can take on the position. Proficiency in the English language

(spoken and written) is required. Applicants should be highly

motivated, have initiative and responsibility, be able to work

independently and in an interdisciplinary team, should have

interest in scientific research, should have commitment to

publish research results and to obtain a doctoral degree.

The positions are to be filled from January 1, 2016 with an

initial appointment for three years. The position is remunerated

according to the collective contract (Kollektivvertrag) for

Austrian Universities, i.e., the salary amounts to at least

37.280 EUR/year before taxes and may increase depending on prior

experience.

TU Graz aims to increase the number of female employees and

therefore specifically invites qualified women to apply.

TU Graz is a leading technical university in Austria (ranking

151-200 in the world in engineering in the Shanghai Ranking)

in a medium-sized city with a very high quality of life,

located at the south-eastern foot of the Alps, offering

plentiful recreation opportunities.

Applicants should fill in the application form at

http://dependablethings.tugraz.at/jobs and upload it together

with a transcript of records, a copy of the master's degree,

a recent certificate of the level of proficiency of the English

language, and a copy of the master's thesis at

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dependablethings2016.

The application deadline is November 30, 2015. For further

information please contact the center coordinator Prof. Kay

Roemer <roemer@tugraz.at>.

Professional Activities in 2015

The professional life of a researcher is exciting! Here are some of my activities in 2015:

• PC Co-Chair of TAP 2016, the 10th International Conference on Tests & Proofs, July 2016,Vienna, Austria.
• Associate Editor of the new open access journal Frontiers in ICT, section Formal Methods 
• Presentation at FMICS 2015:  Require, Test and Trace IT
• Presentation at Festschrift Symposium in Honor of Jose Nuno Oliveira, Guimaraes, Portugal, 26 Sep 2015: Does this Fault Lead to Failure? Combining Refinement and Input-Output Conformance Checking in Fault-Oriented Test-Case Generation.
• Co-Organizer of the Doctoral Symposium of Formal Methods 2015
• Invited tutorial at SQAMIA 2015: Killing Bugs in a Black Box with Model-based Testing: from Science via Tool Development to Industrial Application
• Key Researcher in the Dependable Things project
• Key Researcher in the TRUCONF project
• Key Researcher in the CRYSTAL project
• PC Member and Publicity Chair of ICST 2015
• PC Member of FM 2015
• PC Member of MBT 2015
• PC Member of SEFM 2015
• PC Member of TAP 2015
• Reviewer for the journals Formal Aspects of Computing, Science of Computer Programming,  Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming, and Information and Software Technology.
• Board Member of Formal Methods Europe
• Chair of the Study Commission for the studies Computer Science, Software Development and Business Management, and the Teacher Learning Programme Computer Science at TU Graz
• Voting Member of the Selection Commission for Admission to the Master's Program in Computer Science at TU Graz
• Teaching Quality Assurance in Software Development (84 students)
• Teaching Software Paradigms (263 students)
• Teaching Model-based Testing (24 students)
• Teaching Logic and Logic Programming (170 students)
• Teaching Functional Programming (149 students)

New journal article on model-based testing

Today, our new journal article appeared in the Science of Computer Programming journal of Elsevier.

It deals with the problem of automatically generating test-cases from mutated models:

Bernhard K. Aichernig, Elisabeth Jöbstl, and Stefan Tiran. Model-based mutation testing via symbolic refinement checking. Science of Computer Programming. 97 (2015): 383-404, Elsevier, 2015.

Here is a link to a free copy of it that works for 50 days.

Highlights:

• We deal with model- and mutation-based test case generation.
• The main focus lies on optimizations of the underlying conformance check.
• We explain the construction of test cases based on the conformance check.
• We allow for non-determinism in the test models.
• We demonstrate the effectiveness of our optimizations on industrial case studies.

Enjoy!

PhD Position in Model-based Testing

The Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Austria,
has an opening for a Ph.D. position in model-based testing.

** Application deadline: October 20, 2014
** Salary: ~ EUR 36,600 per year before taxes
** The applicants should preferably have completed a Master's degree
     (or similar), or being on the verge of completing one.
** The candidate should preferably have a background in model-based
     testing or formal methods.

The Ph.D. research project focuses on the model-based testing of
non-functional requirements, like real-time, memory, and energy
constraints. The research is a continuation of the completed TRUFAL
project (http://trufal.wordpress.com). Research partners are AIT and
AVL. The theoretical work involves the selection and adaptation of
appropriate modelling languages, defining their formal semantics and
developing an appropriate testing theory. The practical work comprises
modelling, tool development and industrial case-studies.

The position is for 3 years and should lead to a PhD thesis at the Graz
University of Technology (TU Graz).

The PhD candidate will be supervised by Prof. Aichernig (see contact details below).

The application should include:

-    Application letter (max. 2 pages)
-    CV (summarising education, positions and academic work - scientific publications)
-    Copies of educational certificates, transcript of records and letters of recommendation
-    Documentation of English proficiency (if mother tongue not English)
-    List of publications and academic work that the applicant wishes
      to be considered (if any; no problems if there aren't any)
-    Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)
-    Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University’s grading system.

For further information about the position, informal requests, etc., please contact
Bernhard Aichernig, email: aichernig AT ist.tugraz.at