1 Research Grant Announcement (M/F)

Call open for applications for a research grant within the framework of project THEIA: Automated Perception Driving, with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-047264, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Electrical Engineering and Computational Sciences.    

Admission requirements: Candidates who cumulatively meet the following two requirements may apply for this grant:

Requirement 1:

- Be a student enrolled in a doctoral program in the area of Electrical, Informatics Engineering or similar, a requirement to be duly proven at the time of signing the contract.

or

- To be enrolled in a non-academic degree course integrated in the educational project of a higher education institution, developed in association or cooperation with one or more R&D units, requirement to be duly proven at the time of signing the contract.

Note: In the case of masters who are enrolled in non-academic degree courses, the scholarship can only be awarded to those who do not exceed, with this scholarship contract, including possible renewals, an accumulated period of two years in that typology of the scholarship, followed or interpolated.

and

Requirement 2:

- Hold a master’s degree in Electrical and computer Engineering or related field.

Note: If the degree has been awarded by a foreign higher education institution, it must comply with the provisions of the Decree-Law no. 66/2018, of august 16th, and any formalities established there must be fulfilled until the time of signing the contract. 

Activity Outline: The grantee will collaborate in the implementation of compression algorithms for deep-network models proposed for autonomous driving, by reducing their size as well as the computation resolution, up to an acceptable limit of precision to minimize the necessary hardware resources. The grantee will also participate in the Implementation of network conversion methodologies for SNN architectures.

Profile 270: Tasks SP2.A7.T4; SP2.A8.T1; SP2.A9.T1; SP2.A10.T1; SP2.A11.T1; SP2.A12.T1.

These tasks can be adjusted depending on the feasibility of the project. All changes that imply the assignment to other tasks will be subject to a request for approval to AICEP.

Legislation and regulations: Law Nº. 40/2004, of 18th August, in its current wording (Statutes of Scientific Research Fellow) and Regulation of Research Grants of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, in force https://www.fct.pt/financiamento/programas-de-financiamento/bolsas/    and Regulation of Research Grants of University of Porto, in force.

Work place: The work will be developed at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), under the scientific supervision of Professor Vítor Manuel Grade Tavares.

Grant duration: The duration of the grant goes up to June 30th of 2023, with the predicted starting in February 2023, on an exclusive basis eventually renewable but never exceeding the project duration.

If the recruitment procedures do not allow the grant to last for a minimum of 3 consecutive months, in accordance with paragraph 3 of article 6 of the Research Grant Regulations of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. , the scholarship will not be awarded.

The eventual renewal of the scholarship will be carried out as determined in article 6 of the Research Grants Regulation of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P.

Stipend: The grant stipend amounts to 1.144,64€ according to the table of values of the grants awarded directly by FCT, I.P. in the Country (https://www.fct.pt/financiamento/programas-de-financiamento/bolsas/ ). 

The payment will be made by bank transfer.

Selection procedure:

The curricular evaluation (60%) of the candidates will focus on the merit of the candidate, and the following factors will be evaluated:

a) Academic Background (Master in Electrical and computer Engineering, or similar -10 points, Other masters – 2 points);

b) Publications in the area – 5 points; Publications in other areas – 2 points;

c) Research experience in the area of the project - 5 points; in related areas – 3 points; outside of the area of the project – 1 point

The curriculum of each candidate will be evaluated in a 1-20 points scale. Candidates with less than 12/20 points will not be invited for the interview.

In the interview (40%) topics related with the work plan, experience and the candidate’s CV will be discussed with the invited candidates. The candidate’s interview will be evaluated in a 1-20 points scale.

Selection Jury:

President: Professor Vítor Manuel Grade Tavares

Effective member: Professor Jaime dos Santos Cardoso

Effective member: Professor  João Paulo de Castro Canas Ferreira

Supplementary member: Professor José Alberto Machado da Silva

Advertisement of final decision: The results of the evaluation will be released to the candidates

by email to the email address indicated in the application process.

Deadline for applications and form of presentation of the applications:

The call is open from 08/02/2023 to 22/02/2023 (until 23h59m, GMT time).

Applications must be formalized by email to vgt@fe.up.pt and to recursoshumanos@fe.up.pt, clearly stating the reference FEUP-THEIA-PS2-WP1-BolsaMSc1 and including the following pdf documents: Motivation letter, detailed Curriculum Vitae (in English or Portuguese), Copy of certificates evidencing academic degree (referring the classification of each separated or integrated degree), Declaration on honor that the candidate fulfills the requirement contained in article 6 of the Regulation for Research Grants of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. (model below, for student enrolled in a non-academic degree course integrated in the educational project of a higher education institution, developed in association or cooperation with one or more R&D units) and other documents considered relevant by the applicant.

In order to ensure that all documents can be read, the preferred saving format is Portable Document Format (.pdf).

Declaration on honour

I, (identification of the scholarship holder), holder of the Citizen Card / Visa / Residence Permit no. valid until _____, declare under honour, to be in the conditions of no. 5 of article 6º  of the Research Grants from FCT, IP - Regulation No. 950/2019, of 16 December.

Oporto, __/__/__

Signature

_________________

(scholarship holder)