Europe : Marie Curie ITN PhD Positions on the Theoretical Foundations of Transactional Memory

Nine Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions in five locations (EPFL, TU Berlin, Technion, FORTH, and U Rennes I)

are funded by the European Commission under the Marie Curie Initial Training Network Program (project TransForm).

We address (pre-PhD) researchers aiming at significantly improving their career perspectives from both the public and private sector.

The duration of the appointment is 3 years, with a possibility of extension funded from other sources.

RESEARCH TOPIC

The ESRs will pursue research on the general area of concurrent computing and in particular on the theoretical foundations of transactional memory.

Multicore architectures have come to stay; yet multicore is useless without concurrent programming. The

current parallel programming approach of employing locks is widely considered to be too difficult for any but

a few experts. Transactional Memory (TM) is a new programming paradigm which is considered by many

researchers as the future of parallel programming. To understand properly TM systems as well as be able to

assess them and improve them, a rigorous theoretical study of the approach, its challenges and its benefits is

badly needed.

This is the challenging research goal to be undertaken by the recruited ESRs.

Each recruited ESR will primarily work with one of the academic partners of the project:

• Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne(EPFL), Switzerland (Prof. Rachid Guerraoui)
• Technical University of Berlin, Germany (Prof. Anja Feldman & Dr. Petr Kuznetsov)
• Technion, Department of Computer Science, Israel (Prof. Hagit Attiya)
• FORTH, Heraklion, Greece (Prof. Panagiota Fatourou)
• University of Rennes I, France (Prof. Michel Raynal)

and under the supervision of researchers from the industry:

• Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Germany (Prof. Dr. Anja Feldman & Dr. Petr Kuznetsov)
• Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK (Dr. Tim Harris)
• Sun Microsystems Labs, Massachusetts, USA (Dr. Victor Luchangco)
• IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA (Dr. Maged Michael and Dr. Eran Yahav).

ELIGIBILITY

The recruited researchers should be, at the time of selection, in the first four years of their research careers

(measured from the date when they obtained the degree which would formally entitle them to embark on a

doctorate). Also:

• ESR should not already have a PhD
• ESR should be nationals of a country other than the country of her/his primary academic partner, and
• ESR must not have resided or carried out her/his main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of her/his

primary academic partner for more than 12 months in the last 3 years.

ELIGIBILITY EXAMPLES

Example A:

A researcher has already been working as a researcher in industry for two years since graduating with his/her

first degree in computer science.

S/he would be able to benefit from participation in an ITN as an ESR even without pursuing a PhD degree.

Example B:

A researcher has graduated with his/her MSc degree in computer science in 2007 and would like to start

his/her PhD studies in 2010.

S/he is eligible as an ESR within the ITN as s/he has less than 4 years of research experience and no PhD.

Example C:

A researcher obtained his/her PhD after 3 ½ years.

S/he is not eligible as an ESR within an ITN even though s/he has less than 4 years of research experience.

IMPORTANT DATES

There are two cut-off dates:

1. 1st Cut-off date: November 15, 2009
   
   Expected starting date: January 1, 2010
2. 2nd Cut-off date: March 31, 2010
   
   Expected starting date: October 1, 2010

Priority will be given to applicants that can join the project in early 2010.

Applicants should send an e-mail of interest to the contact person at the academic partner

of their choice (EPFL, TU Berlin, Technion, FORTH, or U Rennes I):

• EPFL: Prof. Rachid Guerraoui, rachid.guerraoui@epfl.ch
• TU Berlin: Dr. Petr Kuznetsov, pkuznets@acm.org
• Technion: Prof. Hagit Attiya, hagit@cs.technion.ac.il
• FORTH: Prof. Panagiota Fatouru, faturu@csd.uoc.gr
• U Rennes I: Prof. Michel Raynal, michel.raynal@irisa. fr

FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

Marie Curie ITNs provide competitive financial support to the ESRs including:

• a fair monthly living and mobility allowance
• a yearly travel allowance (i.e., a fixed amount of money based upon the direct distance between the location of origin of the researcher and the chosen institution)
• a career exploratory allowance (i.e., a single payment for attending job interviews, additional courses, job fairs, etc.) and
• coverage of the expenses related to the participation of the ESRs in research and training activities (contribution to research-related costs, meetings, conference attendance, training actions, etc.).

Source:

http://www.net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de/~petr/transform/