PhD Research Fellow in Computer Science/Software Engineering on Refactoring

About the position:

The position is at Department of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Mathematical Sciences at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), campus Bergen for a period of 4 years. 
 
The PhD research fellow will be part of the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing (https://ict.hvl.no). The research programme in Computer Science currently includes 20 professors and associate professors, more than 30 PhD and post-doctoral research fellows, and more than 50 master's students. 

Refactoring is an important software development activity. It improves the structure and maintainability of existing code, and is used to migrate code to newer platforms and APIs. This PhD project will investigate novel refactorings. This includes actor-based or highly concurrent programming languages such as Go, Rust, or corresponding libraries like Akka for Scala. These languages enjoy increasing popularity. In addition, migrating to cloud services often requires a different programming style from a monolithic project. This necessary migration not only requires new tooling (automating new refactorings), but also substantial diligence to make sure that a newly implemented refactoring behaves correctly, for every program it is applied to. The PhD project will conduct research into new patterns for these settings, reason about their correctness, and implement and evaluate refactoring support. In addition, there are varying degrees of desired automation for refactorings - from fully automated to interactive. 

A prospective student should be interested in one or more of the areas of: 

• programming, 
• programming languages and semantics, 
• reasoning about program behaviour, 
• advancing the state of the art in software development. 

 
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a short research statement on the theme, e.g. how they would extend the work from their master's thesis into a PhD project. 

Research environment :

The computer science research environment at HVL has a strong focus on use-inspired and applied research, and on ICT as an enabling technology. The research environment has cooperation with many national and international research groups, and with national and regional industry partners. The research programme includes the research themes of software engineering, engineering computing, communication systems and sensor networks, grid computing and physics data analysis, machine learning, and interactive and collaborative systems.  
 
The present PhD research fellow position is associated with the software engineering research group ( https://www.hvl.no/en/research/group/software-engineering/ (https://www.hvl.no/en/research/group/software-engineering/)) which has a strong track record in model-based software development and undertakes research on applications in areas such as health-care, cloud technology and internet-of-things, industrial automation, and robotics.  

PhD research fellows receive an annual work expense funding which can be used for conference participation, research visits, and equipment. The place of employment is campus Bergen. 

The PhD research fellow should hold a master's degree in computer science, preferably software engineering or in a closely related field. Candidates who have not yet been awarded the master's degree may also qualify for the position provided that the master`s degree is awarded within 4 weeks after the application deadline. Condition of employment is the completed degree. A solid background in principles of programming languages or formal methods, combined with practical software development skills and experience, and relevance of the master thesis and/or research statement will be considered an advantage when candidates are ranked. Candidates already holding a PhD within this field are not eligible for this position. 

In addition to the required educational and scientific background, the following criteria will be evaluated: competence and grades on completed course work, quality of the master's thesis (excellent grade, equivalent of grade B or better on the ECTS grading system), master course work grades (average C or better) publications (if any), research and teaching experience, practical software engineering skills and experience. A possible outline of a research plan for a potential PhD project will also be taken into account. 

The candidate must be diligent and display the ability to work independently, supplemented with regular guidance, and is expected to carry out high-quality research and to publish the results in international workshops, conferences, and journals. 

The PhD research fellow must enrol in the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and must meet the formal admission requirements for admission into the PhD programme. 25% of the 4-year period will be designated to duties such as teaching, development and administrative tasks. The employment period may be reduced if the successful applicant has held previous employment as a research fellow.  

The PhD candidate will be assigned two academic supervisor(s) at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. An application for enrolment should first be submitted after an appointment is made and the supervisor(s) will help with this procedure. The candidate must be enrolled as a PhD student within 3 months from the start of the employment. 

Applications will be evaluated by an expert panel of three members.

Applicants are asked to submit their application and CV online. Please use the link ?Apply for this job" (?Søk stillingen").

The following documentation should be uploaded as an attachment to the online application:

• Master Thesis  (final or draft)
• Copies of selected academic publications (no more than 15)
• A CV with a complete list of academic publications
• Diplomas and certificates

Applicants should indicate which publications or parts of publications should be given special consideration in the evaluation. If the documents submitted are not in a Scandinavian language or in English, the applicants must submit certified translations of these. The transcripts must specify the topics, the course works, and the grades at the bachelor`s and master`s degree levels. 

Applicants should note that the evaluation will be based on the documentation submitted electronically via Jobbnorge within the submission deadline. The applicants are responsible for ensuring that all the documentation is submitted before the closing date. It is of utmost importance that all publications to be considered in the evaluation are uploaded as an attachment with the application, since these are sent electronically to the expert panel. Applications cannot be sent by e-mail or to individuals at the college.

• Good occupational pension, insurance and loan schemes from The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Exciting academic environment with the possibility of competence enhancement and development
• Opportunities for training within the working hours 

Initial salaries will be offered at grade 54 (code 1017) in the Civil Service pay grade table scale.

There is a compulsory 2 % deduction to the pension fund (see http://www.spk.no for more information). The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at any time.

The appointment will be made in accordance with the regulations for State employees Law in Norway ("Lov om statens ansatte)". Organizational changes and changes in the duties and responsibilities associated with the position must be expected.

State employment shall reflect the multiplicity of the population at large to the highest possible degree. Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen has therefore adopted a personnel policy objective to ensure that we achieve a balanced age and gender composition and the recruitment of persons of various ethnic backgrounds.

Information about the applicant may be made public even though the applicant has requested not to be named in the list of applicants. The applicant will be notified if his/her request is not respected.

Short-listed applicants will be called in for an interview and a presentation of previous work, e.g. based on their master's thesis.

1) 

Associate Professor Dr. rer. nat. Volker Stolz,  

phone: +47 55 58 75 86, e-mail: vsto@hvl.no 

2) 

Professor Håvard Helstrup, Coordinator of PhD Program on Computer Science, 

phone: (+47) 55 58 75 61, e-mail: Havard.Helstrup@hvl.no 

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences shall be a university with a clear professional and working life-oriented profile.

Through education, research and development we create new knowledge and expertise, anchored internationally and with solutions that work locally.

Homepage (http://www.hvl.no)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_NjRp_Zoyo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_NjRp_Zoyo)