Academic environment:
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is one of Europe's top technological universities, situated in the heart of one of Europe's largest high-tech innovation ecosystems. Research at TU/e is characterized by a combination of academic excellence and a strong real-world impact. This impact is often obtained via close collaboration with high-tech industries.

The project:

Future self-driving vehicles will often need to communicate wirelessly with other vehicles, for example to drive cooperatively in a platoon. In such settings safety-critical information (e.g. on obstacles that surface ahead of the platoon) needs to be communicated with very high reliability and small latency. The current wireless communication standard, IEEE 802.11p, does not fulfil this requirement in e.g. highly congestive situations. 

For cooperative driving, also accurate localization of vehicles is of great importance. For this purpose, vehicles are increasingly equipped with radar systems, e.g. as a parking aid or for automatic cruise control. The main objective of this project is to investigate whether communication functionalities can be added to automotive radar systems and combined with 802.11p so as to strongly improve reliability of the communication link in the most challenging settings. 

Automotive radar systems are currently typically based on frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) signals in which frequency-modulated pulses (chirps) are transmitted. To use these systems for communication, the frequency modulation of the chirps can be changed or one out of K different chirps can be used depending on the information that needs to be communicated. A disadvantage of these methods is that the achievable data rate is limited. Alternative modulation approaches such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) permit higher data rates but strongly limit radar performance (e.g. ranging accuracy, tracking of movements). A key scientific challenge of the project is therefore to investigate how reliable radar communication can be achieved without degrading radar functionality. This will involve advanced modulation and signal-processing schemes, possibly combined with using multiple radar antennas to enhance angular selectivity. The overall challenge is to tailor this approach in such a manner that it can be optimally combined with 802.11p in terms of net reliability, latency, and complexity. 

The project will build on an advanced experimental automotive radar- and 802.11p platform made available by NXP, one of the global leaders in automotive semiconductors. The project will be carried out in part in the research laboratories of NXP Research, also in Eindhoven, and will be supervised by leading TU/e and NXP experts. The project also includes a PhD student whose focus is on embedding communication within the radar system. 

The vacancy and candidate profile:
We are looking for a postdoctoral candidate to lead this project, working closely together with the PhD student as well as with the involved experts from TU/e and NXP to develop new concepts and approaches, evaluate and iteratively refine them through simulations and experimentally, and report progress in international scientific conferences and literature. The candidate will also link to and leverage on related ongoing projects both within NXP and TU/e. 

We are looking for a candidate who 

- has a strong PhD in radar technology and/or wireless communications;

- can bridge the distance between fundamental concepts and theories on the one hand and practical implementation and evaluation of these concepts on the other hand;

- can think out of the box, distinguish main lines from details, and provide structure to his/her work; 

- has excellent multidisciplinary team working and communication skills. 

Depending on performance, there is an opportunity to convert this position into an academic tenure track at TU/e.