Fellow position for the development aluminum nitride-based piezoelectric se

at  Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

• Master’s degree in a scientific or engineering discipline, preferably Information Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Information and Communications Technologies, or equivalent.
• good command of spoken and written English

ADDITIONAL SKILLS

• AI algorithm design and development experience;
• Must be highly organized and able to work in a cross-functional team;
• Must be able to clearly communicate in writing, must have a desire to be part of a growing organization that uses cutting-edge science and technology;
• High level of flexibility to support various other activities and ability to learn new techniques outside of existing field of expertise;
• Strong team orientation and passion for continuous self-development.

You will be working in a multicultural and multi-disciplinary group, where material, mechanical and electronic engineers, computational scientists, physicists, chemists, biotechnologist and biologists collaborate, each with their expertise, to carry out a scientific activity with a shared research goal.
The Smart Healthcare Technologies Research Unit is coordinated by Prof. Massimo De Vittorio, who has extensive experience in the development of science and technology applied to nanophotonics, nanoelectronics and nano and micro electromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS) for applications in the fields of life-science, energy and ICT.

Your main responsibilities will be planning and carrying out the experimental activities in the framework of a scientific and technological project aimed at the development and optimization of novel algorithms for:

• Data collection from a polysomnographic mask and redaction of a questionnaire on the user experience.
• Processing of the acquired data using different algorithms for extracting the signal characteristics (features) based on FFT transforms, Wavelet, spectrograms, etc.
• Analysis with artificial intelligence techniques based on a neural network architecture, machine learning, etc.

The activity aims to implement advanced technologies to develop a non-invasive sleep mask for wireless control of vital parameters. The successful candidate will plan and carry out her/his experimental activities in the framework of a technological platform to develop aluminum nitride-based piezoelectric sensors designed for the read-out of breath rate, heartbeat frequency, and blood pressure detection. The sensors, placed on a sleep mask, will be integrated with a portable electroencephalogram to carry out sleep disorders investigations on patients. Machine-learning techniques will be implemented to treat the data produced by experiments and produce medical device software for sleep disorders early detection in space and hospitals.
This open position/research is financed by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana within the initiative: Research Day “Giornate della Ricerca Spaziale” - contract ASI N. 2023-7-U.0.