08 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Aalto University, Finland

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work with us on the bio-inspired out-of-equilibrium self-assembly of nanoparticles driven by chemical fuels, involving designing out-of-equilibrium chemical networks, synthesis of light-responsive molecules based on spiropyrans, and optically triggered self-assembly of nanoparticles. The goal is to develop an out-of-equilibrium chemical network of light-controlled nanoparticles mimicking the behavior of natural systems.

AISA aims to to provide operators of (semi-)autonomous systems a better situational awareness in case they are suddenly called in and have to orient themselves quickly to support the system.  This is often needed to resolve complex situations where the system has to yield some control back to the operator. AISA is a collaborative research project between Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland) and Lund University (Sweden), and part of collaboration between WASP (Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program) and Aalto University. The research will focus on a use case considering autonomous cars encountering an unexpected situation. The work will be primarily performed in simulation but the project will also have access to two demonstrator and data collection platforms: Alex, Aalto University’s autonomous car platform (https://acas.fi/alex/), and the WASP research arena WARA-PS (https://wasp-sweden.org/research/research-arenas/). We seek excellent candidates at post-doctoral level who have experience in machine learning. Additional experience with human-robot interaction is considered a benefit, as the project will address questions intersecting learning and HRI.

The postdoctoral researcher will carry out his/her own research within the projects in collaboration with other research groups, as well as specify and instruct master’s thesis projects conducted with companies and other project stakeholders. We provide you with an opportunity to teach in our courses on operations management, strategy, or entrepreneurship. The postdoctoral positions are planned to include one course of teaching per year, but the teaching load is negotiable. Most of our courses are taught by teams rather than by individual teachers. Also, we provide our postdoctoral scholars with the opportunity to do pedagogical studies and appreciate your interest in education development.

In this position, you will act as a senior researcher contributing to integrated electronic circuit design research projects. You´ll have an opportunity to work on various research topics related to our research portfolio and you will participate on guiding our M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. Our research is closely tied to circuit design challenges faced by the IC industry, to which we provide solutions in context of industry-funded design projects. Our research covers digital electronics including e.g. Risc-V development, analog and mixed-mode designs, and RF and millimeter-wave circuits for communication and sensing. We mainly focus on CMOS technology, and we expect you to have such experience.

Project 1: Feedback-based preparation of nonclassical mechanical states

The next challenges in the field include measurement-based feedback, which can be used for preparing and steering mechanical quantum states. Strong measurements and feedback operations allow for novel ways of creating nonclassical mechanical states, for example squeezed and entangled states. A grand goal is to realize quantum teleportation of the state between two oscillators. We use “microwave optomechanics” setup, where drum oscillators interact with on-chip microwave cavity resonators. You will accommodate these devices into a quantum-limited detection system comprising of parametric amplifiers and real-time feedback realized with FPGA control.

Project 2: Gravitational coupling between nonclassical masses

In this project, the goal is to touch a hundred-year-old mystery of physics: Despite its success at describing phenomena in the low-energy limit, quantum mechanics is incompatible with general relativity that describes gravity and huge energies. The interface between these two has remained experimentally elusive, because only the most violent events in the universe have been considered to produce measurable effects due to the plausible quantum behavior of gravity. We aim at detecting gravitational forces for the first time within a quantum system. We use mechanical oscillators loaded by milligram masses and bring two such gravitationally interacting oscillators into nonclassical motional states. Initially, we will measure the gravitational force between gold particles weighing a milligram, representing a new mass scale showing gravitational forces within a system.

Project 3: Magneto acoustics

Besides electromechanics, we are building hybrid devices that aim on controlling ferromagnetic magnons using acoustic waves. Owing to the large speed of light, realizing cavity optomechanics in the microwave frequency range requires cavities up to several mm in size, hence making it hard to embed several of them on the same chip. An alternative scheme with much smaller footprint is provided by magneto acoustics, where the electromagnetic cavity is replaced by a magnet undergoing ferromagnetic resonance, and the optomechanical coupling originates from magnetic shape anisotropy. The small footprint of these hybrid devices shows promise for applications in novel signal processing. We use vibrating magnetic nanobeams, or multilayer structures consisting of magnetic and piezoelectric layers. In the latter structures, we couple magnons to longitudinal overtone (HBAR) acoustic modes, and to surface acoustic waves.

There will be 2 positions filled with each for up to 2 years. The postdoctoral researchers will join the research group of Tuomas Sahlsten (https://users.aalto.fi/~sahlstt1/ ), where there is an opportunity to work on some of our recent research problems related to Quantum Chaos from pure mathematics aspects. The topics are related to the study of eigenfunctions of Laplacians or quantum scattering theory on random Riemannian surfaces by adapting modern methods related to harmonic analysis, semiclassical analysis and PDEs, fractal geometry, additive combinatorics (multiscale methods, sum-product theory), hyperbolic and parabolic dynamics, random matrix theory and moduli spaces. The positions will be filled at the latest in December 2022.

There will be 2 positions filled with each for up to 2 years. The postdoctoral researchers will join the research group of Tuomas Sahlsten (https://users.aalto.fi/~sahlstt1/ ), where there is an opportunity to work on some of our recent research problems related to Quantum Chaos from pure mathematics aspects. The topics are related to the study of eigenfunctions of Laplacians or quantum scattering theory on random Riemannian surfaces by adapting modern methods related to harmonic analysis, semiclassical analysis and PDEs, fractal geometry, additive combinatorics (multiscale methods, sum-product theory), hyperbolic and parabolic dynamics, random matrix theory and moduli spaces. The positions will be filled at the latest in December 2022.