Workplace: Neuchatel, Switzerland
We invite applications for a funded PhD research position in Computer Science at the University of Neuchatel. This position is in the context of a collaborative research project named DIONASYS funded by CHIST-ERA (http://www.chistera.eu/). Partners are the university of Neuchatel, the University of Bordeaux (France), the University of Lancaster (UK) and the Universitatea Tehnica din Cluj-Napoca (Romania).
The position is funded for 3 years. Applicants must have a Masters degree in Computer Science (or equivalent), be fluent in English, and demonstrate strong team-working abilities. Candidates with proven programming skills who are knowledgeable in distributed systems, networking, languages and middleware are particularly encouraged to apply.
Applications should be submitted by e-mail to Etienne Riviere (etienne.riviere<στο>unine.ch), including:
(a) Curriculum vitae;
(b) List of 2-3 reference persons and their e-mail addresses (we ask for recommendation letters ourselves and we will ignore any recommendation letter sent by the candidate her/himself);
(c) Transcripts of undergraduate and graduate studies;
(d) Links to masters and internship thesis/reports, and publications if applicable;
(e) Links to examples of software personal contributions (on github or similar).
All documents must be sent as a single pdf.
Before preparing an application, please verify that the call is still open by checking this link:
http://members.unine.ch/etienne.riviere/PhDofferNeuchatelDionasys.txt
The starting date can be as soon as possible, as the project has just started. Applications will be screened as they arrive and until an appropriate candidate is selected.
Context
Around 50 billions of devices should be interconnected at the horizon of 2020. Appropriate architectures and design principles are required to support distributed systems of such a scale. These devices will also be very heterogeneous both in terms of hardware and software, or functional and non-functional properties. Finally, classes of different devices with different purposes and requirements will need to be linked together at runtime depending on applications needs. The DIONASYS project wishes to improve the programmability of system of systems that federate heterogenous distributed systems. A use case for the project is environmental and earth observation systems.
Overlay networks allow overcoming the complexity of interconnected and heterogeneous distributed systems. They offer a range of reusable network services. They can be used as fundamental building block by systems developers. However, the design and development of overlays is a complex task, especially when dynamic adaptation, large-scale interoperability and composition are required. Adding such features typically require huge and complex re-engineering of previous overlay implementations. Linkage and cooperation between overlays also require appropriate abstractions and runtime support.
The DIONASYS project proposes to raise the level of abstraction provided to designers of overlays and systems-of-systems. To this end, it will investigate the use of a generative language approach to overlay design and composition. With such a high-level and domain-specific language, developers will be able to declare what should be the high-level structure and functions of overlays, including adaptation and cross-overlay interoperability, and will not have to define low-level nodes interactions or overlay interfaces. The proposed approach will be supported by a dedicated runtime implemented in a distributed systems development and deployment framework, and backed up by a demonstrator running on a collection of representative tiny devices.
PhD work description
The work of the PhD student will mostly revolve around the design and implementation of the support and runtime layers of the DIONASYS platform and the algorithmic aspects of the creation and maintenance of overlays. The candidate will investigate and propose techniques to automatically bootstrap overlays based on code generated from a domain-specific language developed in the project. She or he will propose and implement mechanisms for cross-overlay interoperability and for taking into account node heterogeneity. Finally, she or he will have a fundamental role in the development and deployment of the prototype implementation and its evaluation. The algorithmic techniques envisioned are gossip-based protocols, self-repairing overlays, and peer-to-peer networks in general. The development of the runtime will be based on the Splay toolset developed at the university of Neuchatel. Most of the development will be done using high-level languages. Experience with mobile and/or tiny devices development, while not mandatory, is a plus, as the test platform will be composed of a collection of tiny and low-power devices spread across multiple geographical locations.
Requirements
The working language at the University of Neuchatel is English. The PhD student is expected to participate to a limited amount of teaching activities in English as a teaching assistant. French is not a requirement for the position, but French lessons are provided by the university to ease integration.
The position will require regular travel. PhD students in the project will have to travel for a few research stays of two to three weeks at the other partners, as well as for periodic project meetings.
All development in the project will be open source. The candidate is expected to use state-of-the-art tools for software development and collaboration.
Location
The University of Neuchatel is settled in a beautiful landscape of lake and mountains that offers a friendly atmosphere to about 4,000 students. The city of Neuchatel belongs to the French-speaking part of Switzerland and is located at the border of the German-speaking part of the country. Courses at the computer science department are taught in English, in the context of the BNF Masters in computer science. For more information, visit http://www.unine.ch.
PhD start
as soon as possible
Duration of appointment
3 years
PhD advisor
Dr. Etienne Riviere
Universite de Neuchatel
Faculte des sciences
Institut d’informatique
Rue Emile-Argand 11
CH-2009 Neuchatel
Switzerland