Assistant Professor in Automatic Control - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Uppsala University’s tenure track system grants assistant professors the possibility to be assessed for promotion to the position as associate professor. The university provides support in various areas, such as scientific and educational development, leadership development as well as patent and innovation support.

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in both research and education at all levels. We are currently Uppsala University's third largest department and currently has around 350 employees, including 120 teachers and 120 PhD students. Approximately 5,000 undergraduate students study one or more courses at the department each year. You find more information about us at the web page of the department of Information Technology.

The position will be placed in the Division of Systems and Control, where the methodological research in Automatic Control is currently focused on control and estimation in dynamical systems. The current applications are within the fields of path planning in robotics, safety and security, biomedical systems, in particular therapy optimization and neuroscience, and environmental critical systems, for example, wastewater treatment plants. The ambition to build a new research group on any topic in Control Theory and Technology is encouraged.

Description of subject area of the employment: Automatic control is an interdisciplinary research area that comprises control theory and control technology, integrating related areas such as applied mathematics, dynamical systems, statistics and learning, and optimization. Control theory is part of applied mathematics and concerned with analysis and design of controllers and estimators for dynamical systems. Control technology fosters the mathematical methods that explain why and how natural, engineered, and social systems evolve in time and space, what kind of behaviours they exhibit in their development, as well as how to influence these behaviours in a predictable way. Automatic control is an important part of modern industry at the same time as it underpins new fast-growing technological branches, such as synthetic biology, vertical agriculture and smart distributed energy systems. Beyond industrial applications, automatic control is also instrumental to address emerging societal challenges involving interactions between complex systems over time. Research in automatic control develops mathematically stringent theory and engineering methods that aim at solutions meeting current technological, societal, and environmental challenges.

Duties: 

• Teaching, research and administration. Teaching duties include course responsibility and course administration and supervision of second- and third-cycle students. We are looking, in particular, for candidates who can teach basic as well as advanced courses in automatic control, process control, model-predictive control, and are interested in developing new courses in automatic control in connection to different application areas. Supervision of Masters students is an important responsibility.
  
  
• Follow developments within the subject area and the development of society in general that is important for the work at the university.
  
  
• Apply for national and international research grants within the subject area and in interdisciplinary collaborations.
  
  
• Building an active group around research specialization. The position is associated with funding for one PhD student and startup funds for conferences, networking, etc.
  
  

Appointment Period: The position can be held for a maximum of six years. An Assistant Professor can apply for promotion to Associate Professor. If the Assistant Professor is deemed suitable and fulfills the criteria for promotion established by the Faculty Board he/she shall be promoted to and employed as Associate Professor.

Qualifications Required:

• PhD in Automatic Control, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related areas. PhDs in other fields, where the research work has focused on control theory and technology as well as their applications, are eligible for this position. Applicants who have obtained a PhD degree or achieved the equivalent competence in five years or less prior to the end of the application period will be given priority.

• Research Expertise and Teaching Expertise. It is necessary that the pedagogical skills, the research expertise and the professional skills are relevant to the content of the employment and the tasks that will be included in the employment.

• Applicants should have completed teacher training of relevance to operations at the University, comprising five weeks, or have acquired the equivalent knowledge. If special circumstances apply, this training for teachers in higher education may be completed during the first two years of employment.

• Documented ability to teach in Swedish or English is a requirement unless special reasons prevail.

• Personal capabilities necessary to carry out fully the duties of the appointment.

Assessment Criteria/Ranking of applicants that fulfil the above-mentioned qualifications required

The ranking of eligible applicants will be based primarily on research and teaching expertise, of which weight will be primarily given to research expertise.

Research Expertise comprises research merits as well as the applicant's potential to contribute to the future development of both research and teaching. In assessing research expertise, research quality must be the prime consideration. The scope of research, primarily in regard to depth and breadth, must also be afforded consideration. A qualitative assessment of the research will be made. In assessing research expertise special weight will be attached to research merits in the subject area of the employment. Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, control theory, system identification, data-driven methods for control, fault detection and isolation, networked dynamical systems, advanced current and emerging control applications. Research collaborations across subject areas are considered valuable. Furthermore, consideration is given to the capacity to initiate, plan, and develop research, as well as the ability to acquire funding for research in competition.

Teaching Expertise comprises educational and teaching qualifications. In assessing teaching expertise teaching quality must be the prime consideration. The scope of teaching experience, in terms of both breadth and depth, must also be afforded consideration. In assessing teaching expertise special weight will be attached to merits in teaching the subject area of the employment. Expertise and experience in interdisciplinary settings and undergraduate student supervision are also considered important.

Collaboration Expertise is important and will be afforded consideration. Collaborative expertise is demonstrated by the ability and skill of planning, organizing and implementing interaction with the surrounding community. Popular publications, public debate and lectures are examples of forms of interaction with the surrounding community. Other examples of collaboration are patent applications, commercialization and industrial cooperation. The ability to translate knowledge sharing with the surrounding community into activities of importance to the education's development and quality is part of the collaboration expertise.

All merits must be documented in a manner that makes it possible to assess both quality and scope.

In filling this position the university aims to appoint the applicant who, following a qualitative holistic assessment of her/his competence and expertise, is judged to have the best potential to carry out and develop the relevant duties and to help advance operations.

Further information

In an overall assessment of the applicant’s qualifications, parental leave, part-time work relating to care of children, union assignments, military service, or the like are to be regarded as work experience.

University appointment regulations

Faculty appointment regulations

Instructions for application

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position for six years. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date as soon as possible or as otherwise agreed. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact Professor Alexander Medvedev, email: alexander.medvedev@it.uu.se.

Please submit your application by September 15 2023, UFV-PA 2023/2498.

In the event of any disagreement between the English and the Swedish versions of this announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.

If you are an international candidate, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus.