The Sensing, Interaction & Perception Lab is looking for a PhD student in physiological sensing. This job ad is intentionally short and only complete applications will be considered. In short, promising applicants have built their own physiological sensor before (e.g., PPG, ECG) and custom PCB as part of an embedded device.

To learn more about our research, check out our website

Background will be our previous work on mobile health, continuous physiological sensing, and precision medicine.

We will work on novel sensing prototypes for physiological signals, embedded systems, signal processing, and physiological modeling related to our previous work.

Prerequisites

Candidates should have an excellent master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, Computer Science, or related.

Candidates should also have:

1) demonstrated experience in physiological sensing and hardware prototyping

• comprehend, process, and evaluate hardware datasheets & schematics
• schematic & PCB layout design (e.g., in Altium, Cadence, KiCad), ideally simulation tools like LTspice
• hands-on soldering prototypes and assembling them to working units
• firmware development and debugging (C/C++)
• low-level interfaces and communication standards (I2C, SPI, UART, BLE, ...)

2) demonstrated experience in basic human physiology, especially

• understanding basic cardiac physiological processes
• experience working with physiological data
• analyze cardiac data of cardiac dysfunction for research purposes

3) demonstrated experience in signal processing

• physiological sensing systems (e.g., PPG, ECG, EOG, ...)
• bonus: ML-based signal processing (deep learning on time series)

Application documents to be submitted

• a PDF showing your projects that are most relevant to this position
  (this should include at least one custom physiological sensing device that you created and describe the signal processing you performed, on device or offline post-hoc)
• your CV
• university score records (for undergrad and master's)
• contact details of at least two academic referees

This position is not a match for candidates who have exclusively worked with existing datasets and designed machine learning methods for them. All applications require a demonstrated experience in sensing and hardware prototyping.

We offer an exciting environment to study and work in.

For more information, check out

• our projects in the Sensing, Interaction & Perception Lab
• the SIPLAB team
• Christian Holz (PI)

ETH has several internationally recognized research groups dedicated to hardware prototyping, electrical engineering, robotics, signal processing, physiological computing, and machine learning. We collaborate with several of them as well as institutions and companies in Switzerland and abroad.

In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our Equal Opportunities and Diversity website to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish.

Please apply through the system to get in touch. We process applications in two stages, where a shortlist of candidates will be interviewed in the second stage. All applicants will be notified about the outcome of their submission within a month. Please do not send your documents via email.

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.