15 Research Positions for PhD Candidates (f / m) System Correctness under Adverse Conditions (SCARE)

On 11 November 2016, the DFG extended SCARE for a second phase of 4,5 years duration starting from 1 April 2017. This comprises 15 new doctoral positions of three years each.

The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany, offers

15 Research Positions for PhD Candidates

in the Computer Science Research Training Group SCARE (System Correctness under Adverse Conditions) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG GRK 1765/2).

The positions are fully funded and for a duration of three years each. They are available in three cohorts of five doctorands, starting April 2017, January 2018, and October 2018, respectively. We invite applications for the first cohort by 8 January 2017.

For details see http://scare.uni-oldenburg.de

How can computer systems be analyzed that interact with their environment - for example independent cars or wireless sensor networks? This question is at the heart of the Graduate Program at the University of Oldenburg, which is sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a further four and a half years. The acronym SCARE - formed from the English language title - stands for "Systemkorrektheit under adverse conditions". The second phase of the Graduate Program at the Department of Computer Science is financed by the DFG with a total of approximately 4.5 million euros. In the coming spring, another 15 PhD students would be able to research for a full-time doctorate for three years, according to SCARE spokesperson Prof. Dr. Ernst-Rudiger Olderog.

"The research field of the Graduate School SCARE is" technically challenging and at the same time highly relevant to society ", said university president Prof. Dr. Dr. Hans Michael Piper. "The fact that the DFG continues to support this is also confirmed by the high quality of the doctoral education in Oldenburg Computer Science."

System correctness means that the co-operation between the environment and the system fulfills desired behavioral characteristics, for example, that self-propelled cars do not collide with other vehicles or that a sensor network consumes as little energy as possible. How can this be ensured even in the case of adversities, for example in the case of inaccurate sensor values, the failure of a system part - or when the self-propelled car is in heavy traffic? This is systematically investigated by young researchers in the Graduate School. In the future, they will focus on further system classes, for example autonomous and self-adapting systems. In order to analyze these, techniques of machine learning are to be used. One goal is to be able to better deal with possible attacks on the communication between system components and to make the computer systems as a whole more robust.

The doctoral students will start in three different groups, each of which is professionally and organizationally supported by a team of eight university lecturers and SCARE coordinator Ira Wempe. In the first phase of SCARE from October 2012, the DFG has already funded 14 PhD students, half of whom came from Germany, the other half from outside Europe. The first five of them have now completed their doctorate and are active in research or industry.

Graduate colleges promote young academics at universities. The aim of the DFG is to qualify graduates, to support their scientific independence and to prepare for the complex labor market "science". "System Correction under adverse circumstances - SCARE" is one of a total of six DFG Graduate Colleges at the University of Oldenburg.

SCARE-2 from 2017 to 2021

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has extended the Research Training Group SCARE for a second phase, which we call SCARE-2. This phase lasts from April 1, 2017 until September 30, 2021. SCARE-2 offers new 15 research positions for a duration of there years each. These positions at the Department of Computing Science are available in three cohorts of five doctorands each, starting April 1, 2017, January 1, 2018, and October 1, 2018, respectively.

The research of SCARE-2 will develop the theme of system correctness further to address the needs stemming from the area of self-adaptive and cooperative systems. In particular, SCARE will analyse in its newly proposed PhD projects the following correctness issues:

• logical and functional design of cooperative autonomous systems for highly automated driving,
• synthesizing winning strategies for distributed agents in a partially observable cooperative game,
• secure communication layers for reliable delivery of messages within the highly volatile topologies of automotive communication networks,
• abstract modelling of the logical and physical link structure underlying cooperative car manoeuvres, including the adverse condition of corruption of these structures,
• object recognition involving inherently inexact object classification algorithms,
• automatic re-verification during operation of autonomous systems, without human assistance,
• resilience against loss of connectivity, loss or ageing of components, and loss of information.

To attack these issues and be able to address recent trends and critical technologies in the design of safety-critical systems, the team of supervisors has been expanded by two new colleagues, O. Kramer and S. Froschle, who contribute their expertise in machine learning and in the interplay of safety and security, respectively. Altogether, the team of supervisors in SCARE-2 comprises:

Prof. Dr. Werner Damm
Prof. Dr. Martin Franzle (deputy director)
PD Dr. Sibylle Froschle
Prof. Dr. Annegret Habel
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Oliver Kramer
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Nebel
Prof. Dr. Ernst-Rudiger Olderog (director)
Prof. Dr.-Ing Oliver Theel (deputy director)