The "Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI), CSIC-UPC", is seeking a PhD student to work under the framework of the María de Maeztu (MdM) Unit of Excellence Seal.

The PhD student will be supervised by Dr. Juan Andrade and Dr. Francesc Moreno.

ABOUT IRI:
IRI is a Joint University Research Institute participated by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) that conducts research in human-centered robotics and automatic control. The institute is a key player in the Spanish robotics and automatic control scenes, and a valued participant in a large number of international collaborations including more than ten ongoing H2020 projects and an ERC Advanced Grant. Recently, is has been recognized as a Maria de Maeztu Excellence Unit, the main accreditation given by the Spanish Government to research units that stand out for the impact and international relevance of their results.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH THEME OF THE PhD STUDENT POSITION
In this thesis we will develop a high speed, high dynamic range visual SLAM device, by merging inertial measurements and a neuromorphic vision system, or event camera. Such a device could be used to estimate the motion of an autonomous vehicle or UAV, in environments without GPS readings, subjected to high dynamics and under conditions of low illumination or severe lighting changes.

The problem is multidisciplinary, requiring experience in computer vision, inertial systems, stochastic estimation and machine learning. The approach to solve it is not conventional because we will use event cameras. These cameras, unlike conventional ones, provide asynchronous sequences at very high speeds of the pixels changing in the scene instead of full frames at much lower frequencies.

ABOUT THE CONTRACT
A four-year PhD position will be fully covered by an FPI grant under the Spanish Government Call "Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores 2018". The gross salary is 16422 Eur/year. In addition, there are secured funding to cover the attendance to national and international conferences, journal publication costs, research stays abroad, and lab experiments.

If you are interested, please send an e-mail to jobs@iri.upc.edu at your earliest convenience, including your CV, and your full academic record. Although the candidate selection will be done by the host group, the required paperwork will be coordinated and supervised by the Spanish Ministry of Science. The official application deadline by the Ministry is October 29th, but send us your documentation no later than 19th.

Contacts

Please, send your documentation before 19/10/2018 to: