General Information:
2 full-time PhD research assistantships (RA) in Computer Engineering, starting from Fall 2024 semester (open till filled), are available in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the University of Massachusetts Lowell. These RA positions are to work towards PhD degrees under the mentorship of Dr. Tricia Chigan (http://faculty.uml.edu/Tricia_Chigan/ ), who is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Dr. Chigan regularly serves as the Technical Program Committee (TPC) member for leading IEEE conferences including INFOCOM, ICC, GLOBECOM, and WCNC. Currently, she also serves as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

The focus research areas include Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs)-enabled Machine Learning for Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, Cyber Security for Edge Computing and IoTs, Drone-based Wireless Sensor Network for Underground Situation Awareness, Cyber Security for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Intelligent Full-Duplex Cognitive Radio Networks (CRN) for Pervasive Heterogeneous Wireless Networking, and Intelligent CRN Security. These research projects are sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF), US Army’s Communications Research and Development Center (CERDEC), US Army Research Lab (ARL), Department of Energy (DOE), Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), and industry partners.

Desirable Qualifications: Applicants should preferably have both MS and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering/Science, Applied Mathematics, or Control & Automation or other closely related fields, and the following qualifications:
1. Solid modeling & simulation as well as programming skills are required.
2. Good background knowledge and a keen interest in optimization algorithms, data mining, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are desired.
3. Strong motivation/determination/interest toward research is expected.
4. Good research/publication record is a plus.
5. Among all the supporting factors, your solid academic background and research potential will be evaluated the most.

Application Procedure:
Interested students should directly submit the e-copy of the following material to Dr. Chigan via email (Tricia_Chigan@uml.edu):

• Cover letter stating qualifications, relevant experience and research interests.
• Curriculum vitae.
• A copy of transcripts (both graduate and undergraduate studies).
• Relevant published research materials.
• A copy of TOEFL & GRE scores.

Highly qualified applicants will be facilitated to go through an application process to UMass Lowell Graduate School (http://www.uml.edu/grad/).

Note:
1) All past graduate students from our lab found R&D job positions in major companies, including Qualcomm, Cisco, Broadcom, Garmin, Dell, Nokia Bell Labs, Apple, and FIS Global;
2) University of Massachusetts Lowell is located about 25 miles northwest of Boston in the high-tech corridor of Massachusetts.