Lund University was founded in 1666 and is consistently ranked as one of the world's leading academic institutions. With approximately 46,000 students and 8,500 employees in Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö, we are united in our mission to understand, explain, and improve our world and people's conditions.
Description of the Position
The PhD student will be employed at the Department of Computer Science, where research on the development of large-scale software-intensive systems is conducted within the Software Engineering unit. The unit is world-leading in empirical software engineering. Beyond conventional software, the field includes development and operation of AI systems (primarily ML and LLM), as well as MLOps (Machine Learning Operations), data-centric AI, and legal and ethical aspects of AI.
Empirical research catalyzes collaboration between industry and academia and interdisciplinary initiatives, where the PhD student can conduct their studies. This position is specifically funded within ELLIIT's strategic research area (Excellence Center at Linköping – Lund in Information Technology), where another PhD student will address the same topic from a business perspective. The PhD student will also be affiliated with the industrial competence center NextG2Com, within the research theme Integrated Data Technology and Machine Learning.
More about ELLIIT and the project
More about NextG2Com
Being a PhD Student
As a PhD student, you are both admitted as a student and employed at Lund University.
As a doctoral researcher, you will be trained in a scientific approach. In brief, you will develop critical and analytical thinking skills, learn to solve problems independently using appropriate methodologies, and gain research ethics awareness. Additionally, as a PhD student, you will have opportunities to work on projects, develop your leadership skills, and enhance your pedagogical abilities. Throughout your studies, you will be guided by supervisors. Doctoral studies conclude with a dissertation and a doctoral degree.
More about being a PhD student at LTH on lth.se.
Subject and Project Description
The doctoral research subject is computer science with a focus on AI engineering, i.e., development and operation of systems containing AI-based functions (LLM or ML). Application areas range from agentic software development to industrial control systems. More specifically, the research addresses the question of using general versus specialized models (e.g., for specific tasks, companies, countries, or domains). From a technical perspective, there are numerous factors to consider within the generalization-specialization spectrum, including model performance, energy consumption, access to training data, and data integrity. The project aims to address AI engineering in business-to-business (B2B) contexts across various industries, as well as open-source AI models. We conduct empirical studies of industrial practices for deep problem understanding. The project aims to design solutions for technical specialization and governance of AI model ecosystems. In particular, trade-offs between model size, data requirements, computational costs, privacy, and confidentiality will be addressed.
Responsibilities
You will primarily focus on your doctoral research, which includes participation in research projects, doctoral courses, seminars, and conferences. Since the project is conducted within the ELLIIT and NextG2Com research programs, you will collaborate with corresponding academic and industrial partners.
Responsibilities include:
Research within the project's scope
Collaboration with ELLIIT and NextG2Com partners
Participation in international research conferences
Completion of doctoral-level courses
Contribution to teaching and other departmental work (maximum 20% of working time).
Qualifications
To be admitted and employed as a PhD student, you must meet the requirements below.
For the complete job announcement, please see: https://lu.varbi.com/what:job/jobID:968464/
We welcome your application!