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PhD Studentship, University of Paderborn
May 07 04
PhD and PostDoc stipends in Modelling Safety-Critical and Error-Tolerant Systems The Institute of Computer Science (http://www.upb.de/cs) at the Faculty V of the University of Paderborn, Germany, (http://www.upb.de), has stipends to give away to PhD students and post doc researchers. The stipends are associated with the Working Group “Human-Computer Interaction” of Prof. Gerd Szwillus (http://www.upb.de/cs/Gerd.Szwillus.html). The studentships are offered within the EU funded researchtraining network ADVISES (Analysis Design and Validation of Interactive Safety-critical and Errortolerant Systems, http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/advises/) set up for the support of young researchers (http://www.cordis.lu/improving/networks/home.htm).
Focus of the work
The working group focuses on the model-based development of user interfaces with special emphasis on the early phases, say task analysis and task modelling. We develop concepts and tools for user interface prototyping, usability evaluation, and web engineering based on definition, visualization, and simulation of task models. Within the ADVISES network we want to broaden our concept to the treatment of safetycritical and error-tolerant systems; our global goal is to integrate safety and human error aspects into the concept of task modelling. Possible directions of work for the young researcher could be but are not restricted to
• integration of safety aspects into the task modelling concept to handle the related problems very early in the development process; likewise, combining task modelling with existing models on erroneous human behaviour;
• identification of “safety patterns” on task model level to support the integration of appropriate safety supporting elements in user interfaces;
• application of existing task modelling concepts and tools to exemplify the modelling of safetycritical systems from real-world examples (traffic, plants, chemical processes, medicine, …)
Hence, we are looking for students, who are already working in or are interested in model-based development of user interfaces or model-based software engineering approaches (UML), and/or who have knowledge or experience with safety-critical computer-based systems from any field. We are looking forward to find applicants working on the model-based development field enriching our scope towards the field of safety-critical and error-tolerant systems.
Qualifications and Attributes
Applicants should have a degree in Computing Science, Business Computing, Engineering, or Psychology – highly qualified applicants from other disciplines will also be considered. Applicants to this program must be 35 years or younger at the time of the appointment in the network and citizen of the EU, but not from Germany or recently staying in Germany.
Computer Science and Paderborn, Germany
The Computer Science Institute of Paderborn is a high-rated research and teaching department in Germany. The Working Group of Human-Computer Interaction is a small research group, offering a friendly and informal atmosphere with flexible working hours. Paderborn is a quiet town in the middle of Germany. Housing and living is inexpensive, we have lots of sunshine, and “everything” can be reached easily within a small area. Paderborn has an international airport, good train connections, and is within easy distance both of the Ruhr region and lots of “nature” all around it.
Terms of employment
Applicants will be given a stipend of approx. 1700€ for the PhD studentship, and 2400€ for the PostDoc position for 6 up to 18 months starting as soon as possible. They have to finance insurance, housing, and living from this amount.
Application Procedure and Further Information
People with interest in one of these positions should direct their questions about applications and about technical issues of the studentships to Prof. Gerd Szwillus (Tel.: +49 5251 60-6624, EMail: szwillus at upb.de). Completed applications, including CV, list of publications and reprints, should be sent to: Prof. Dr. Gerd Szwillus, Institute of Computer Science, Universität Paderborn, Fürstenallee 11, D-33102 Paderborn, Germany.