PhD position in electrical engineering focusing on signal processing
Electrification and digitalization belong to the largest areas for transformation towards sustainable societies in the future. The Department of Electrical Engineering conducts successful research and education in these areas – including renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, industrial IoT, 6G communication and wireless sensor networks, as well as research and education within life science, health technology, smart electronic sensors and medical systems. The Department of Electrical Engineering is an international environment with approximately 170 employees who contribute to important technical energy and health solutions at Ångströmlaboratoriet.
The position will be located at the Department of Signals and Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering.
Project theme: Multimodal environmental modeling for wireless spatial intelligence
Project description: Future wireless networks are expected to evolve beyond traditional communication infrastructure and become intelligent systems with the ability to perceive, understand, and interact with the physical world. The project focuses on developing model- and learning-based methods for wireless localization, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) as well as multimodal environmental modeling by combining wireless measurements with complementary information, such as visual information, geometry, maps and other sensing modalities. The project aims to develop fundamental theories, algorithms and system architectures for wireless spatial intelligence, enabling wireless networks to construct semantic multimodal representations of physical environments.
The project will investigate how distributed wireless devices can collectively learn, maintain, and exchange these semantic representations to support cooperative perception, localization, sensing and environmental understanding. The developed methods will form a foundation for next-generation wireless systems with capabilities for ISAC, environment-aware communication, prediction, autonomous network optimization and decision-making supported by digital twins.
The doctoral student will develop new theories, algorithms and AI models through mathematical analysis, simulation and experimental validation. The employment also offers opportunities for research stays and internships at leading universities, research institutes and industrial partners within the framework of the project's international collaboration network.
Tasks:
The doctoral student's main task is to conduct research on AI-based wireless spatial intelligence. The research includes:
developing multimodal representations of physical environments by integrating wireless, visual, geometric and map-based observations, developing learned radio and electromagnetic primitives to construct semantic representations of physical environments, designing mechanisms for collaborative perception and semantic information exchange between cooperating wireless devices and intelligent agents, developing models and algorithms for multimodally supported wireless localization, 3D reconstruction and environmental understanding; designing differentiable pipelines for rendering, simulation and learning for wireless world models, studying identifiability, uncertainty quantification, robustness and generalization between different scenarios and frequency bands, validating the developed methods through simulation and, where applicable, experimental demonstrations.
The tasks also include conducting courses within the doctoral program, publishing research results in leading international journals and at conferences, presenting results at project meetings and workshops, as well as contributing to international research collaborations.
The tasks also include teaching and other departmental duties amounting to at most 20% of the working time.
Eligibility requirements:
A Master's degree in engineering (Civilingenjörsexamen) or a foreign degree assessed to be equivalent, in electrical engineering, computer science or a related field. Good knowledge in at least two of the following areas: wireless communication, signal processing, statistical inference, optimization, machine learning, computer vision and robotics. Experience in one or more of the following areas is highly meritorious: 5G/6G communication systems, integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), wireless localization and sensing, radio wave propagation, SLAM, scene understanding, embodied AI, multimodal learning, physics-informed machine learning, generative AI or world models. Excellent knowledge of spoken and written English. Applicants are encouraged to attach results from English language tests (e.g., TOEFL or IELTS), if available. Strong programming skills in Python. Experience with scientific computing and machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow.
We place great importance on personal qualities such as excellent analytical thinking, curiosity, creativity, independence and communication skills, with the ability to conduct interdisciplinary research both independently and in collaboration with others.
Meritorious:
Publications in leading journals and conferences within relevant areas. Experience with modern AI frameworks, simulation platforms, experimental research, measurement campaigns or prototype development. Documented technical skill through research-related competitions, contributions to open-source software or experience with large-scale projects.
About the employment:
Fixed-term employment for 48 months, according to HF Chapter 5 § 7. The scope is full-time. Start date 2027-03-01, or as agreed. Location Uppsala.
Please note that this is a shortened version of the advertisement. To see the full advertisement, please click on ”Apply here” or visit Uppsala University's website: https://uu.se/jobb/.
Welcome with your application no later than November 30, 2026. UFV-PA 2026/2989.