For more than 50 years, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has stood for freedom, equality and solidarity, and this is very much alive on our campuses among students and staff alike.
At the VUB, you will find a diverse collection of personalities: innovators pur sang, but above all people who are 100% their authentic selves. With some 4,000 employees, we are the largest Dutch-speaking employer, in the private sector, in Brussels; an international city with which we are only too happy to connect and where (around) our 4 campuses are located.
Add to this our principle of free research - in which self-reflection, a critical attitude and an open, creative mind around scientific and social issues are central - and you have a university that is fundamentally groundbreaking and pioneering in education and research. In short: the VUB all over again.
Moreover, the VUB is a member of EUTOPIA, an alliance of like-minded European universities, all ready to reinvent themselves.
The Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences, Department Physics, is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant.
More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate, contains:
Within the context of the Belgian funded EOS project “Photonic Ising machines” there is currently an open position at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) for a PhD student in the field of Neuromorphic Photonics and Ising machines.
Description of research field
Three Belgium teams at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Ghent University (UGENT) have united their expertise to develop a new type of optical computing devices that can solve hard combinatorial problems. Such combinatorial problems are commonplace in our society, for instance in logistics, finance or pharmaceutical research. However, for many real-world applications, finding a solution requires high-performance computer clusters that consume large amounts of energy and run for a long time. Our project aims to create a radically new platform of analogue hardware accelerators, so-called Ising machines, that efficiently speed up these computationally difficult tasks in a way unlike any current digital computer.
These Ising machines are a newly emerging computational concept and have shown great promise. They are based on the idea that the lowest energy state of a well-constructed dynamical system will encode the solution to the combinatorial problem. However, their implementation is highly challenging due to limited bandwidth, scalability and stability issues. A breakthrough is needed to make them practical for real-world applications. Photonics presents an ideal way to achieve this breakthrough due to its inherent parallelism and high speed. We aim to create accelerators for a broad set of problems, that are faster and more energy efficient than digital computer and previous experimental implementations. This work is both experimental, numerical and theoretical in nature.
You will be selected by the Applied Physics research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, but you will work in close collaboration between the different groups. You will carry out the PhD in “cotutelle”, i.e. you will be jointly supervised by two of the groups, will have to carry out part of their research at (at least) two institutions, and will receive a diploma from two institutions. This will ensure efficient flow of ideas, and put you in contact with all aspects of the project. You will be encouraged to work on several aspects of the present project (for instance a specific experimental implementation and the underlying theory thereof).
You will get the opportunity to:
For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base.
What do we expect from you?
The VUB wants to be a reflection of the society where everyone's talent is valued, regardless of gender, age, religion, skin color, migration background, disability and neurodiversity.
Are you going to be our new colleague?
You’ll be offered a full-time PhD-scholarship, for 12 months (extendable up to max. 48 months, on condition of the positive evaluation of the PhD activities), with planned starting date 01/10/2024.
You’ll receive a grant linked to one of the scales set by the government.
IMPORTANT: The effective result of the doctorate scholarship is subject to the condition precedent of your enrolment as a doctorate student at the university.
At the VUB, you’re guaranteed an open, involved and diverse workplace where you are offered opportunities to (further) build on your career.
As well as this, you will also enjoy various other benefits:
Is this the job you’ve been dreaming of?
Then apply, at the latest on 08/07/2024, via jobs.vub.be, and upload the following documents:
Do you have questions about the job content? Contact Guy Van der Sande at guy.van.der.sande@vub.be or on /.
Would you like to know what it’s like to work at the VUB? Go to jobs.vub.be, and find all there is to know about our campuses, benefits, strategic goals and your future colleagues.
Would you like more information about EUTOPIA? Go to eutopia-university.eu, and read more about the role of the VUB in the development of the EUTOPIA alliance.
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