IMEC

imec is the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create ground-breaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, and energy.  

As a trusted partner for companies, start-ups, and universities we bring together close to 3,500 brilliant minds from over 70 nationalities. imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and has distributed R&D groups at several Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, China, and offices in India and Japan. All these traits make imec to be a top-class employer.
 

University of Antwerp – imec IDLab Research group

The Internet & Data Lab (IDLab) is an imec research group at the University of Antwerp and Ghent University. IDLab focuses its research on internet technologies and data science. IDLab is a joint research initiative between Ghent University and the University of Antwerp. Bringing together 300 internet experts, we develop technologies outperforming current solutions for communication subsystems, high speed and low power networking, distributed computing and multimedia processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and web semantics. Within Antwerp, the overall IDLab research areas are machine learning and wireless networking.  IDLab has a unique research infrastructure used in numerous national and international collaborations. IDLab collaborates with many universities and research centres worldwide and jointly develops advanced technologies with industry (R&D centres from international companies, Flanders’ top innovating large companies and SME’s, as well as numerous ambitious start-ups).

The AI Applications team aims to bring state-of-the-art machine learning methods to industry, bridging the gap between fundamental research and industrial applications. The team conducts research in areas such as data-driven modeling, deep learning and reinforcement learning to tackle real life problems. Our goal is to make AI safely and reliably applicable in highly uncertain scenarios, where it should complement, enhance or replace the state of the art in complex navigational planning scenarios where current techniques fail to deliver. The team applies its AI solutions in domains such as autonomous shipping, traffic management, logistics and chemical engineering, in collaboration with key industry partners in their respective domains.

To extend our AI research concerning navigational planning of autonomous systems, we are looking for a senior researcher to lead ongoing research projects, drive consortium building and develop new research proposals. You will participate in internal (imec), international (e.g., Horizon Europe) and national projects (e.g., imec ICON, bilateral projects), where the aim is to develop novel AI-driven sensor fusion approaches. Together with a team of PhD students and data scientists, you will tackle challenges such as deployment of scalable sensor fusion approaches across sensor modalities such as RGB cameras, LiDARs, Radars, and thermal imaging, challenges related to distributed computation of such schemes and esp. their consistent computation on the near edge.

The job

Within this job you are expected to provide a high-level hands on, research and management support to the team’s research projects particularly related to sensor fusion and computer vision.

• You will be responsible for the management of research projects in the context of scalable and distributed multi-modal sensor fusion in autonomous systems.  
• You follow up on progress within research projects and are able to communicate the accomplished / in-process work to internal and external stakeholders and adapt where needed.
• You lead a technical team going forward in implementing research projects.  
• You develop project proposals for the Horizon Europe Program and national projects, both in fundamental and collaborative programs. 
• You interface and collaborate on a technical level with research partners from industry and academia.  
• You will participate in the framework of European and national research projects (in collaboration with industry). 

• You have a PhD, preferable in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, or equivalent.
• You have affinity with academic research, but also want to make a difference in today’s industrial and societal challenges.
• You can translate the business requirements of partners to technical challenges, and – together with researchers – define clear methodologies for addressing them.
• You have a strong background in AI and hands-on experience with machine learning projects.
• Prior experience with and a strong publication record in computer vision is a big plus.
• Knowledge of vision-based control in automotive or robotics is an advantage. 
• You have experience with managing and supervising team members. 
• You consider yourself a machine learning expert and can show case a strong publication record in this area. 
• You can explain the challenges of machine learning to a broad non-technical audience, but also have an in-depth understanding of the technical aspects.
• Having experience with participating/leading in national and/or international research projects is an advantage. 
• Having experience in proposal writing in national and/or international research projects is an advantage.
• You are a team player and have strong communication skills. 
• Your English is fluent, both speaking and writing. 

More information on the position: dr. Ali Anwar (Team Lead - Context-Aware Control Systems Team) - ali.anwar@uantwerpen.be

HR-related questions: Ms. Michelle Nietvelt – michelle.nietvelt@uantwerpen.be