[ecoop-info] Vacancies: PhD & post-doc positions on Adaptable and Robust Composition

[L.M.J.Bergmans at ewi.utwente.nl]

Vacancies: PhD & post-doc positions (4 years) on Adaptable and Robust
Composition
with the TRESE Software Engineering group at the University of Twente,
Enschede, The Netherlands 


CONTEXT
-------
The TRESE Software Engineering group at the University of Twente
(http://trese.cs.utwente.nl) is one of the partners within the Octopus
project. This is a joint research project led by the dutch Embedded
Systems Institute (http://www.esi.nl) among several dutch universities,
with digital printer manufacturer Oce (http://www.oce.com/en) as the
industrial carrying partner. Oce forms the source for relevant (but
general) research problems and a testbed for verifying the viability of
the results.

The goal of the Octopus project is to improve system evolvability in
high-tech (embedded) systems, i.e. the ability to easily adapt systems
in response to evolution of technology, competition, and/or customer
expectations. Systems should be easily modifiable to take advance of new
hardware and software technologies and to respond quickly to changing
customer expectations. Current development approaches specify the
functionality of a system at design-time. Such approaches are not
sufficiently adequate to develop systems that easily adapt to
environmental or product usage fluctuations. A viable answer to these
new challenges is genuine system adaptability; i.e. the ability of the
system to adapt itself to fluctuations in the environment, the use of
the product, etc.; naturally, these adaptations should not require an
expensive and time-consuming product development cycle.

More information about the Octopus project can be found at
http://www.esi.nl/octopus.


PROBLEM STATEMENT
-----------------
Within the multi-disciplinary Octopus project, the University of Twente
focuses on the software engineering part of the challenges: Software is
an important means to realize adaptable behavior. Although there are no
theoretically limitations to make software more flexible, in practice
there are: software cannot be made adaptable in arbitrary ways without
sacrificing engineering qualities. The typical result might be software
that is ill-structured and poorly understood, causing it to be brittle
(i.e. easily break down when changes are made) and increasingly hard to
make further improvements to it. 

The approach towards designing adaptable systems in Octopus is based on
the hypothesis that a composition-based approach may offer the
compromise between flexibility and engineering quality. The TRESE
software engineering chair (http://trese.cs.utwente.nl) at the
University of Twente is widely recognized for its expertise in the
design of composition techniques and composition-based design methods,
with a long tradition in object-oriented and aspect-oriented software
development.


FOCUS
-----
Within Octopus, we aim to tackle the following challenge: to devise
software structuring ('composition') techniques that enable:
 - A software structure that is based on a logical decomposition
(following system level models), and not compromised by the limitations
of the composition techniques. This includes the investigation of e.g.
dynamic composition techniques, aspects, etc.
 - Clear, explicit relations between the software structure and other
system design models
 - Flexible reconfiguration of software components to support the
realization of adaptability strategies. The reconfiguration decisions
can be based on various techniques, including qualitative reasoning.
 - Means to ensure that the offered software flexibility does not
compromise essential system properties, as defined by the system
architecture. In other words; whenever a reconfiguration is requested,
it should be ensured that the new configuration meets all the system
level constraints.


POSITIONS
---------
Two positions are available in this area: one PhD candidate and one
post-doc position, both for a duration of max. 4 years. They will
conduct research that is highly relevant, not only with respect to
real-world challenges at Oce, but also in the context of the
international software engineering research community. We search for
researchers who are driven by curiosity, and have a strong affinity with
software engineering issues.

They will work together on the challenges depicted above, where one
position will focus more on flexible, adaptable and expressive
composition, and the other position will focus more on the robustness
and correctness of composition.  
The monthly salary of a PhD candidate, in accordance with the Dutch
universities collective labour agreement, ranges from EURO 1965 gross in
the first year to EURO 2502 gross in the fourth year. The monthly salary
of a PostDoc starts at EURO 2740 and is negotiable.


FURTHER INFORMATION
-------------------
If you would like to have further information about these positions, you
can contact 
 * Lodewijk Bergmans (Octopus responsible) at lbergmans at acm.org,
phone:+31-53-4894271, or 
 * Prof. Mehmet Aksit (head of the Software Engineering group) at
aksit at ewi.utwente.nl, phone:+31-53-4892638.


APPLICATION
-----------
Please send your application and resume (including a list of grades and
-as applicable- electronic versions of your most relevant publications
and MSc/PhD thesis) in electronic format to: 
	Mrs. Roberts-Tieke, E.Roberts-Tieke at ewi.utwente.nl

DEADLINE
--------
 September 15, 2007