项目介绍

2025年1月16日

Are you motivated to take a step towards a doctorate and open up exciting career opportunities? As a PhD Candidate with us, you will work to achieve your doctorate, and at the same time gain valuable experience that qualifies you for a further career in higher education and research, in and outside academia.

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate in Sustainable Real-time Anomaly Detection for Practical Applications at the Department of Information Security and Communication Technology.

Real-time anomaly detection has gained substantial attention in various fields due to its ability to provide immediate insights into data streams, enabling timely responses to emerging threats. It is invaluable in sectors such as cybersecurity, industrial monitoring, healthcare, finance, and smart infrastructure, where rapid anomaly identification can enhance security, efficiency, and decision-making processes. The challenge is how to make real-time anomaly detection sustainable, i.e., how to achieve the desired goals of real-time anomaly detection while assuring resource efficiency, scalability, data privacy, resilience, transparency, interpretability, and applicability across different safety-critical domains. The objective of this PhD project is to address the above-mentioned challenges.

The research will be carried out within the TUAI Project (Towards an Understanding of Artificial Intelligence via a transparent, open, and explainable perspective). TUAI is funded by the prestigious Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks 2023 initiative and aims to foster a new generation of researchers with a strong foundation in transparent and explainable AI.

The PhD candidate will be based at NTNU’s Gjøvik campus in Norway, and will join a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary team. This team works across Italy, Spain, Norway, and Poland, partnering with industry-leading collaborators to derive innovative research. Your immediate Line Manager will be the Discipline Leader.

This PhD candidate will have three individual secondments at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), and Silesian University of Technology (SUT).  Each secondment is planned for 4 months. 

Duties of the position

The PhD candidate is expected to confront the above-mentioned challenges and develop practical and applicable anomaly detection solutions that can be applied to real-world practical systems. More specifically, the PhD candidate is expected to: 

• Conduct comprehensive literature reviews and analyses of state-of-the-art real-time anomaly detection solutions, emphasizing sustainability aspects.
• Develop and implement a sustainable real-time anomaly detection solution designed to address previously identified challenges effectively.
• Demonstrate the applicability of the developed solution within safety-critical cyber-physical systems, ensuring its robustness in critical operational environments.
• Perform extensive evaluations of the solution using a set of sustainability metrics to assess its effectiveness and environmental impact.
• Disseminate research findings and project outcomes by authoring and presenting research papers and delivering presentations at top-tier international conferences.
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and industry experts across Europe. 
• Participate in research training courses, workshops, and summer schools to further develop skills and expertise.

Required selection criteria

Candidates will be required to meet the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Candidate eligibility criteria: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/ and the entry requirements for the PhD program at their host university.

• The candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activities (work, studies, etc.) in Norway for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date.
• Candidates must not have already obtained a PhD.
• The candidate must hold a Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or related disciplines).   
• The education background must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master’s level.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master’s degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU’s grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• The candidate must meet the requirements for admission to the IE faculty’s doctoral program.
   

PLEASE NOTE: For detailed information about what the application must contain, see paragraph “About the application”.

As a result of the new Act relating to universities and university colleges with associated regulations of 01.08.2024, NTNU has, during a transitional period (for decisions on employment in recruitment positions before 1 August 2025), chosen to use the terms of employment in the old regulations of 31 January 2006 no. 102 on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, research fellow, scientific assistant and specialist candidate

Preferred selection criteria

• Extensive knowledge and experience in
  • Stream processing
  • Time-series data processing
  • Unsupervised Times series anomaly detection
  • Deep learning 
  • Explainable AI 
  • Multimodel learning
  • Parallel and distributed computing

   

• Good knowledge and practical experience in different deep learning frameworks, including deeplearning4j, PyTorch, and TensorFlow with Keras. 
• Good knowledge and practical experience in Apache Kafka for stream processing. 
• Strong programming skills in Python and Java. 
• Established track record of relevant publications, with a preference for those with the first authorship. 
• Good English language skills (written and oral) and academic writing.
• Excellent communication abilities. 
• Demonstrated motivation and commitment for high quality research.

Personal characteristics

• Independence, strong work ethic, and a high level of enthusiasm for research.
• Exceptional collaboration skills and the ability to thrive in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Flexibility and reliability, with the capability to work effectively both independently and within a team.
• Quick adaptability and capacity for rapid learning in new subject areas.
• Motivation to actively disseminate research findings through publications and presentations at international conferences.

Emphasis will be placed on personal qualities.

We offer

• An exciting job with an important mission in society
• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
•  employee benefits
   

You will be employed as a PhD Candidate at NTNU and will have access to employee benefits and discounts. 

Diversity

Diversity is a strength, and at NTNU we aim to be an employer that reflects the diversity in society and that makes use of the potential of the population’s collective skills. Our vision is Knowledge for a better world and our values ​​are creative, critical, constructive and respectful. We believe that an organization that is equal, diverse and gender-balanced is essential for us to achieve our goals. 

We strive to attract employees with different skills, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to even better problem solving of our societal mission in research and education. 

If you think this position is relevant and interesting, we encourage you to apply, regardless of gender, functional ability and cultural background, or whether you have been out of work for a period of time.

At NTNU we want to increase the proportion of women in scientific positions. We have a number of measures to promote equality.

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 532 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund. In addition to the base salary, there are additional allowances provided, a mobility allowance and a family allowance within the Marie Curie terms (if applicable), which further increase the total compensation package.

Furthermore, TUAI will offer to take advantage of joint scientific research training, transferable skills workshops, and international conferences.

The period of employment is 3 years. 

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in Information Security and Communication Technology within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD program during the employment period.

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU.

As an employee at NTNU, it is important that you keep yourself up to date with academic and organizational changes and adapt to them. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

For the necessary academic and social interaction, it is a prerequisite that you are physically present and available to the institution on a daily basis.

About the application

The application (including a description of your scientific work) and attachments must accompany the application as these documents form the basis of the application assessment. The documents must be in English. 

Publications and other scientific work must follow the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above. The application and all attachments must be sent electronically via Jobbnorge.no. If you are invited to an interview, you must bring certified copies of certificates and diplomas upon request.

If, for any reason, you have taken a career break or have had an atypical career and wish to disclose this in your application, the selection committee will take this into account, recognizing that the quantity of your research may be reduced as a result.

The application must include: 

• A cover letter (1 page) explaining your motivation and how your skills and experience relate to the research focuses of the position.
• A CV (should include contact information, education, work experience, publications, programming skills, language, certifications, etc.)
• For your research proposal (2-3 pages) please read the following publications and identify their problems/shortcomings:
  • M.-C. Lee and J.-C. Lin, RePAD2: Real-Time Lightweight Adaptive Anomaly Detection for Open-Ended Time Series, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Internet of Things Big Data and Security-IoTBDS, pp. 208-217, 2023.
  • M.-C. Lee and J. C. Lin, “RoLA: A real-time online lightweight anomaly detection system for multivariate time series”, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Software Technologies-ICSOFT, pp. 313-322, 2023.
  • M.-C. Lee, J.-C. Lin, and S. Katsikas “Exploring the effects of RNNs and deep learning frameworks on real-time, lightweight, adaptive time series anomaly detection,” Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience (CCPE), 2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.8288
    • Outline your proposed solution to enhance the approaches introduced in these publications, aiming to address the key challenges of this PhD project.
    • Explain how your background and experience uniquely equip you to conduct this research successfully. 
    • Include a Gantt chart that outlines your proposed timeline and key milestones for this PhD project. 
• Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor’s and master’s degrees. If you have not completed the master’s degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master’s thesis has been submitted. 
• A copy of the master’s thesis. If you recently have submitted your master’s thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master’s degree must be presented before taking up the position. 
• Relevant publications or research works that you would like to be considered in the assessment (up to 10 items).
• Name and contact information of three referees.

Please note that your application will not be considered if any of the above documents are missing.

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken outside Norway, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both Bachelor’s and Master’s education, in addition to other higher education. If your institution uses “diploma supplement” (normal for most European institutions), you must attach this. A description of the documentation required can also be found here. If you already have a statement from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), please attach this as well. 

Joint works will be considered. If it is difficult to identifyyour contribution to joint work, you must attach a brief description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates.

NTNU recognizes a wide range of academic contributions and has committed itself to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and CoARA (responsible assessment of research and recognition of a greater breadth of academic contributions in accordance with NTNU’s social mission).

The appointment is carried out in accordance with the principles of the State Employees Act, and Export control (legislation that regulates the export of knowledge, technology and services). Candidates who, after assessment of the application and attachments, are considered to bein conflict with the criteria in the latter act, will not be able to be employed.

This position should begin no later than June 1st, 2025. During the 3-year appointment, the PhD candidate is required to publish research results in several good-ranking international conferences and at least one top international journal. The PhD candidate will be supervised by Associate Professor Jia-Chun Lin.  

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – DORA.

General information

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you wish to be exempt from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation. You will be notified if the exemption is not granted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Associate Professor Jia-Chun Lin, email address: jia-chun.lin@ntnu.no. If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact HR Katrine Rennan, katrine.rennan@ntnu.no. 

If you think this position looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, you are welcome to apply.

Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation. 

Application deadline: 15.02.2025

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For practical information about working at NTNU, please visit this webpage. 

Gjøvik, a charming town by the shores of Lake Mjøsa, is known for its beautiful nature and rich cultural offerings. The town boasts a vibrant community with excellent schools, including an International School with IB programme, modern healthcare services, and a variety of recreational activities. With its strategic location, just a short drive from Oslo, Gjøvik combines the best of urban life and natural experiences. Here, you’ll find a dynamic business environment and exciting career opportunities in a setting that values work-life balance.