Monthly Archives: April 2015

Signal boost: Postdoc positions at Tel Aviv University

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Two postdoctoral research positions are now available in the Department of Electrical Engineering – Systems at Tel Aviv University, Israel, in the fields of information theory and interactive communications. Starting immediately for up to two years. Funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

We offer two postdoctoral fellowships for researchers in the broad area of information theory, with special emphasis on interactive communications. Specific topics of interest include single-user and multiuser communications with noisy feedback, iterative-refinement coding for two-way channels, interactive coding and its relations to dynamical systems and stochastic control, resource-limited interactive communications, distributed function computation, and combinatorial aspects of multiuser interactive communications. The research will be conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Ofer Shayevitz and his group, and is funded by a grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

The positions are available immediately and for a period of up to two years. Applicants should hold a PhD in either electrical engineering, computer science, or mathematics, and are expected to have a strong background in information theory or closely related fields. Remuneration is highly competitive and commensurate with skills and track record. To apply, please send your CV along with a short statement of research interests to Dr. Ofer Shayevitz at ofersha@eng.tau.ac.il.

Survey on Ac and post-Ac STEM PhD careers

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One of the things about teaching in a more industry-adjacent field like electrical engineering is that the vast majority of PhDs do not go on to academic careers. The way in which we have traditionally structured our programs is somehow predicated on the idea that students will go on to be academic researchers themselves, and there’s a long argument about the degree to which graduate school should involve vocational training that can fill many a post-colloquium dinner discussion.

Since I know there are non-academic PhDs who read this, there’s a survey out from Harvard researcher Melanie Sinche that is trying to gather data on the career trajectories of PhDs. The title of the article linked above, “Help solve the mystery of the disappearing Ph.D.s,” sounds really off to me — I know where the people I know from grad school ended up, and a quick glance through LinkedIn show that the “where” is not so much the issue as “how many.” For example, we talk a lot about how so many people from various flavors of theory end up in finance, but is it 50%? I suspect the number is much lower. Here’s a direct link to the survey. Fill it out and spread widely!

Signal boost: Postdoc in Privacy at Penn State

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Sofya Raskhodnikova and Adam Smith are looking to fill a postdoc position at Penn State for a multi-year project on privacy, streaming and learning.

Qualifications: Ph.D., with expertise in the theoretical foundations of at least one of the research areas (algorithms, machine learning and statistics, data privacy). Willingness to work on a cross-disciplinary project.

More about the project leaders: Sofya Raskhodnikova, Adam Smith.

Duration and compensation: At least one year, renewable. Start date is
negotiable, though we slightly prefer candidates starting fall 2015. Salary is competitive.

Applicants should email a CV, short research statement and list of references directly to the project leaders ({asmith,sofya}@cse.psu.edu) with “postdoc” in the subject line.

Location: The university is located in the beautiful college town of
State College in the center of Pennsylvania. The State College area has 130,000 inhabitants and offers a wide variety of cultural and outdoor recreational activities. The university offers outstanding events from collegiate sporting events to fine arts productions. Many major population centers on the east coast (New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Baltimore) are only a few hours’ drive away and convenient air services to several major hubs are operated by three major airlines out of State College.

Penn State is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from underrepresented minorities.