Scientific Staff at the Research Group Communication Technologies

The University of Vienna (20 faculties and centres, 178 fields of study, approx. 9.800 members of staff, about 90.000 students) seeks to fill the position as soon as possible of a


Reference number: 10717

We are looking for a highly motivated and bright PhD student with a strong expertise and interest in graph and network algorithms in particular, and in theoretical computer science in general, to join our team around the ERC project AdjustNet.

The goal of our research is to lay the theoretical foundations of self-adjusting networks: networks (“graphs”) whose topology adapts toward the workload it currently serves, in a demand-aware and online manner. Self-adjusting networks are motivated, e.g., by distributed machine learning applications whose traffic pattern features specific structure and can hence be exploited and optimized for. Our vision of self-adjusting networks is enabled by emerging optical technologies which allow to adjust the topology within milliseconds or even microseconds.

The vision of self-adjusting networks is similar to the vision of self-adjusting datastructures such as splay trees, which self-optimize themselves towards the key distribution. It is also similar to information-theoretical concepts such as dynamic Huffman coding: codes which adjust themselves over time.

The optimization problems underlying self-adjusting networks include topics from online algorithms, graph spanner problems, expanders and information theory to name a few. For a more concrete idea of the project, see also the related papers below.

The position comes with the possibility to collaborate with the Ben Gurion University in Israel (Prof Chen Avin), who is a project partner. If the candidate likes, it is also possible to have a longer research stay in Israel, but this is not mandatory.

Some related papers:

On the Complexity of Traffic Traces and Implications
Chen Avin, Manya Ghobadi, Chen Griner, and Stefan Schmid.
ACM SIGMETRICS, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, June 2020.

Demand-Aware Network Design with Minimal Congestion and Route Lengths
Chen Avin, Kaushik Mondal, and Stefan Schmid.
38th IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM), Paris, France, April 2019.

Online Balanced Repartitioning
Chen Avin, Andreas Loukas, Maciej Pacut, and Stefan Schmid.
30th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), Paris, France, September 2016.



Duration of employment: 4 year/s

Extent of Employment: 40.0 hours/week
Job grading in accordance with collective bargaining agreement: §48 VwGr. B1 Grundstufe (praedoc) with relevant work experience determining the assignment to a particular salary grade.

Job Description:
Areas of work:
Participation in research and administration:
- Participation in research projects / research studies
- Participation in publications / academic articles / presentations
- Involvement in the organisation of meetings, conferences, symposiums
- Involvement in the department administration as well as in research administration

Profile:
- Professional competence in graph and network algorithms, theoretical computer science, optimization

- Master-Diploma (or equivalents) with distinction in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, or a related field; focus on algorithms and/or optimization.

- Methodological competence in algorithm design, writing rigorous proofs

- Didactic competence

- High ability to express yourself both orally and in writing

- Excellent command of written and spoken English

- IT user skills

- Ability to work in a team

Desirable qualifications are
- Teaching experience / experience of working with e-learning
- Knowledge of university processes and structures
- Experience abroad
- Basic experience in research methods and academic writing

Application documents
- Letter of motivation
- Academic curriculum vitae
- List of publications, evidence of teaching experience (if available)
- Short doctoral project proposal
- Degree certificates


Research fields:

Main research field	Special research fields	Importance
Computer Sciences	Distributed systems	CAN

Applications including a letter of motivation (German or English) should be submitted via the Job Center to the University of Vienna ( http://jobcenter.univie.ac.at) no later than 15.04.2020, mentioning reference number 10717.

For further information please contact Schmid, Stefan +43-1-4277-78610.

The University pursues a non-discriminatory employment policy and values equal opportunities, as well as diversity ( http://diversity.univie.ac.at/). The University lays special emphasis on increasing the number of women in senior and in academic positions. Given equal qualifications, preference will be given to female applicants.

Human Resources and Gender Equality of the University of Vienna
Reference number: 10717
E-Mail: jobcenter@univie.ac.at
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