JOB DESCRIPTION

Various emerging device technologies and computing paradigms are being investigated for energy-efficient artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Some examples are RRAM or STT-MRAM-based Computation-in-Memory (CIM) accelerators. However, these new technologies and computing paradigms introduce new challenges in terms of reliability failures, non-ideality issues and manufacturing defects which are unique to those emerging device. Thus, there is a growing demand for reliable and fault tolerant neuromorphic system design which includes techniques such as reliability-aware mapping and optimization techniques as well as high-quality, and cost-effective mitigation schemes that can guarantee the reliable operation of the system in the presence defects and non-ideality issues.

The Computer Engineering (CE) section of the Quantum & Computer Engineering (QCE) department is looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate who wants to work on reliable and fault tolerant architectures for future neuromorphic accelerators. The candidate will work on the following:

• Identifying the reliability failure mechanisms and non-ideality issues in various of neuromorphic accelerators, such as emerging memory-based CIM, or spiking NNs.
• Developing solutions to address the impact of non-ideality issues.
• Developing fault-tolerance and self-healing mechanisms to guarantee reliable system operation in the presence of faults and defects.
• Developing design time and runtime configurable solutions for graceful degradation.

The PhD position is part of the SNS (self-healing Neuromorphic Systems), a multi-partner national project involving several key academic and industrial partners such as, Technology University of Eindhoven (TUE), Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam (CWI), IMEC and Delft University of Technology (TUD).

You will be part of a diverse and passionate research team of academic staff, PhD candidates and Postdoctoral researchers in the Computer Engineering group. Curious to learn more about the project, and perhaps our group? Feel free to browse our webpages:

• About the SNS project: Self-healing Neuromorphic Systems.
• About our department: QCE department.
• About our group: Computer Engineering Labs.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

For this position, an ideal candidate should have:

• Completed a relevant MSc degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or any other related field relevant to the PhD research.
• Good understanding of analog or digital circuit design.
• Basic understanding of defects, faults, test solutions, reliability of electronic systems is a plus.
• Basic understanding of AI and its hardware implementations is a plus.
• An affinity with teaching and guiding students.
• The ability to work in a team and take initiatives.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

• About the SNS project: Self-healing Neuromorphic Systems.
• About our department: QCE department.
• About our group: Computer Engineering Labs