PhD student position in Software Engineering at Chalmers University, Sweden

Application deadline 2010-03-16
Reference number 2010/33
Job start date 2010-05-03

The department provides a strong, international, and dynamic research environment with about 70 faculty and 70 PhD students. For more information, see www.chalmers.se/cse/EN/ Half of our researchers and PhD students are native Swedes; the rest come from more than 30 different countries. The research group is a newly established group in the division of Software Engineering and Technology. The group is conducting research on verification and validation, automated software engineering, human aspects on software development, software metrics, architectural modeling, validation of quality attributes such as real-time constraints and security, distributed/global software engineering etc. The work is broad in nature and utilizes a number of different theories, models, technologies and tools depending on the relevant industrial needs and constraints for each study.

The group has strong collaboration with research groups in UK, USA, Greece, Norway and China; it will be possible for the interested doctoral student to experience an extended stay at an international university as a visiting scholar. The group also has extensive collaboration with Swedish industry, in particular the aerospace, telecom and automotive industries.
Additional support for the PhD student will be given by the Swedish Research School in Software Verification and Validation (SWELL, swell.se) in which the student will take part.

Job description
Much of software development is changing from being plan-driven to being more agile and adaptive, with shorter iterations and cycles. Within the European Community (EC) there is a large research and development project underway to develop a new set of rules and methodologies for the European air space (SESAR). This will have a long-lasting effect on the aerospace industry as a whole and will impose new requirements on companies developing software for it. It will be increasingly important to verify non-functional requirements, i.e. that the developed software has the right performance, safety and reliability and to integrate such verification activities with the right mix of and economically motivated testing activities for the functional requirements. In particular this is a challenge for companies that see competitive benefit in using agile development methods.

The work focuses on finding better methods and techniques to test and verify safety critical software, in particular air traffic control software that is developed with agile development methodologies. It is based on earlier work with the space industry that developed a way to optimize verification activities, but will also investigate increased (semi-)automation in acceptance and system testing. The research will be conducted in close cooperation with and at the premises of SAAB Security AB (ATM) and is funded by SAAB and VINNOVA.
As a Ph.D. student you are employed by Chalmers and will receive a salary according to current salary agreements. A maximum of 20% of your time will be devoted to other duties at the department, mainly teaching. The remaining time will be devoted to your own courses and research within the project and you are expected to obtain a Ph.D. within a maximum of 5 years.
Required qualifications

English is the main language used in our research and we publish internationally. However, since this work involves Swedish companies with security clearance it is a requirement that you have a Swedish citizenship. We thus require that you know both Swedish and English well. Applicants shall have a Master’s Degree (Swe: civilingenjörsexamen) or corresponding degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering or in a related discipline. As for all PhD studies, a genuine interest and curiosity in the subject matter and excellent analytical and communication skills, orally as well as in writing, are needed. Software Engineering is a broad field of study but we still assume you also have excellent, basic technology skills, such as in programming, designing and testing software. A successful candidate should have a profound interest in software engineering, agile methodologies and verification and validation. Experience from professional software development and/or agile software development is positive and its level and extent should be briefly summarized in your application. You may apply even though you might not have completed your degree yet, but you expect to do so before the position starts.

It is highly recommended that you include or e-mail letters of recommendation; we typically get a large number of applications, and it is simply not feasible for us to request individual letters. It is essential that the application includes all relevant work such as theses and articles that you have authored or co-authored.

Application procedure
The application shall be written in English and include the following items:

• An application of a maximum of one A4 page containing your specific qualifications for the position
• Attested copies of education certificates, including grade reports and other documents
• Curriculum Vitae
• Letters of recommendation and name of reference persons (optional)

The application shall be sent electronically as pdf or zipped documents. Please use the button at the foot of the page to reach the application form.
If any material is not available electronically or cannot be transferred to pdf format, the material can be sent as a hard copy to Registrar. The applicants name and the reference number (2010/33) must be written on the first page of the application.

Address:

Registrar

Chalmers University of Technology

SE-412 96 Göteborg

Sweden

Further information
Research level: Assoc. Professor Robert Feldt E-mail: robert.feldt@chalmers.se
Departmental level: Dr. Björn von Sydow Tel. +46 31-772 1040 +46 31-772 1040E-mail: sydow@chalmers.se
More information is available at the departmental homepage
Union representatives
SACO: Jan Lindér
ST: Marie Wenander
SEKO: Johan Persson
All reachable via Chalmers exchange: +46 31 772 10 00

http://www.chalmers.se/cse/EN/news/vacancies/positions/phd-student-position-in4576