Senior Researcher - Automotive Sensing

Senior Researcher – Automotive Sensing

Imec USA

What You Will Do

Many smart mobility and industrial automation applications rely on object detection and tracking. Examples include autonomous vehicles, smart traffic infrastructure, mobile robots, security & surveillance. Sensor fusion is essential for safety-critical systems, both to ensure robustness (through considering redundant information) and accuracy (through considering complementary information). Typical approaches in literature for both single sensor and multi-modal detection focus on achieving maximum accuracy, averaged over large and relatively easy datasets. Furthermore, the detection and tracking aspects are generally decoupled because processing time series of inputs in a similar manner requires models of immense complexity; instead, the tracking is limited to semantic objects. These standard approaches fall short for truly difficult tasks like detection of objects in extremely low visibility conditions or at great distances.

To tackle those challenges, the time dimension should be modelled explicitly: effective features that would allow reliable detection and tracking are to be found in statistical variations of the input signals over time. In this research, we will research deep learning methods that combine the spatial feature extraction methods of traditional CNNs with novel descriptors operating over variable time windows.

These concepts will be applied to and validated using multiple configurations of sensors including thermal and RGB cameras, lidar and radar as well as novel types of sensor systems. You will have the opportunity to work with international academic and industrial partners on use cases in autonomous vehicle perception under difficult circumstances.

This role will be stationed at our new imec USA site located in Ann Arbor, Michigan and will be part of a collaboration between imec and the University of Michigan.

Who you are

• You have recently obtained a PhD or are close to obtaining one in computer science, electrical engineering and/or you have several years of expertise in sensor fusion, computer vision or related research and experience with collaborating with industry.
• A strong background knowledge of the fundamental theory underlying sensor fusion, computer vision, or related topics (including the mathematical and probability theory related aspects) – as evidenced through publications or other research achievements - is important .
• Programming experience in Python and/or C++ is a plus. Experience with original algorithm design that goes beyond the mere application of methods from literature is important.
• Strong communication , interpersonal, and organizational skills to bridge research groups and project partners in an interdisciplinary team.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, fostering seamless interaction with local and remote colleagues and partners.
• You have the capability and mindset to flexibly adapt your research to new application challenges and are eager to learn about new topics. You have a strong vision to propose novel solutions to such challenges as well as the technical skills to develop and implement them.
• Adaptable to an international collaboration and willingness for regular visits to imec headquarters in Belgium.