Joining Biorob as a Postdoc or PhD student.
Normally, researchers join Biorob by applying to funded positions, which depend on the success of grant applications (see below). In some cases, it is possible to join the lab with personal scholarships, for instance the highly competitive grants from Marie Curie (postdoc call), Swiss NSF (postdoc call), HFSP (postdoc call) or others. Note that EPFL requires that the scholarships provide specific amounts for PhD students and postdoc salaries, and laboratories are required to contribute funds such as to reach those amounts (which we normally cannot afford, unfortunately). Therefore the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for PhD students (or those from the China Scholarship Council) are not interesting for us as the lab needs to provide too much matching funds. In case you think you could apply for a sufficiently funded scholarship, you can contact [email protected] for a discussion.
Summary of open positions
Open positions will be listed here when available. Depending on funding we might have a PhD student position in amphibious quadruped robotics for Spring 2025 (news early 2025), and a postdoc and PhD student positions in our assistive robotic furniture project for Fall 2025 (news in Spring 2025) :
NEW: PhD student position in assistive robotics, reconfigurable robotics, and machine learningNEW!! ERC-funded Postdoc position in hardware design and integration of amphibious salamander-like robots, CLOSED
NEW! PhD student position in assistive robotics, reconfigurable robotics, and machine learning
Together with Prof Jan Rabaey (UC Berkeley) and IMEC, the Biorobotics laboratory (Biorob, https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/) at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) has an open PhD student position in assistive robotics, reconfigurable robotics, and machine learning.
The position is related to distributed and modular robots (see https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/research/modular/roombots/) and its objectives are (1) to develop a distributed control architecture that allows to control and coordinate different modules (reconfigurable modules and mobile furniture) in a decentralized way, (2) to develop a distributed learning framework that uses reinforcement learning in each robotic module in order to improve performance of the individual modules and the team over time, and (3) to test the distributed control and learning architecture in scenarios related to assistive robotics environments for persons with limited mobility.
EPFL is one of the leading Institutes of Technology in Europe and offers extremely competitive salaries and research infrastructure.
Requirements:Candidates need to have a Master degree in a field related to machine learning and robotics, e.g. in computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering or physics. The ideal candidate for this position should have strong robotics and machine learning skills (ideally in reinforcement learning), good math background, and interests in distributed robotic systems.
How to apply for the position:Step 1: The position is only open to applicants who have been accepted by the EPFL doctoral school (see http://phd.epfl.ch/). The first step is therefore to fill the applications for one of the relevant EPFL doctoral programs in robotics (https://www.epfl.ch/education/phd/edrs-robotics-control-and-intelligent-systems/), or related fields.
Step 2: In parallel to step 1, or once accepted by one of the doctoral programs (please specify which doctoral program and the date of acceptance), the application to the position should be sent by email to Prof. Auke Ijspeert and Prof Jan Rabaey, and consist of a motivation letter (explaining why you are interested in the project, and why you feel qualified for it) and a copy of the doctoral program application.
Informal inquiries about the relevance of an application can be sent to [email protected] (e.g. before or while submitting an application to the doctoral school), but responses can be slow because of a heavy schedule and a filled mail box.
Deadline and starting date:Applications will be considered starting from July 15 2023, and then continuously until the position is filled. A good starting date would be September 2023.
Contact:Information concerning the type of research carried out by the lab can be found at https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/ . You should send your application and any inquiry by email to: [email protected]
NEW! ERC-funded Postdoc position in hardware design and integration of amphibious salamander-like robots
The Biorobotics laboratory (Biorob, https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/) at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) has one open postdoc position in hardware design and integration of amphibious salamander-like robots. The position is part of the Salamandra project, a Synergy grant funded by the ERC that started in September 2021, together with Prof. Andras Simon (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) and Prof. Dimitri Ryczko (U. Sherbrooke, Canada). See some info here: https://actu.epfl.ch/news/salamanders-provide-a-model-for-spinal-cord-rege-3/
The goals of the position are (i) to develop our next generation salamander-like robots (improving the Pleurobot and Salamandra robotica 2 robots), (ii) to equip the robots with tactile skin and other sensors, and (iii) to investigate neural models of the salamander locomotor circuits in closed loop (together with other Salamandra researchers). The position is fully funded for 2 years (and can be extended up to 4 years in total).
EPFL is one of the leading Institutes of Technology in Europe and offers extremely competitive salaries and research infrastructure.
Requirements:
Candidates should have a Ph.D. and a strong publication record in robotics design and integration. An ideal candidate would have prior experience in:
Bio-inspired robot design (e.g. legged, swimming, or snake-like robots)Mechatronics integrationTactile skinsWaterproof systemsGood management skills are a plus.Fluency in oral and written English is required.
How to apply for the position:
Postdoctoral applications should consist of a motivation letter (explaining why you are interested in the project, and why you feel qualified for it), a full CV, two or three relevant publications, and the email addresses of two or more referees. PDF files are preferred. Please send your application and any inquiry by email to [email protected].
Information concerning the type of research carried out by the lab can be found at https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/ . In particular our amphibious salamander-like robots https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/research/amphibious/pleurobot/ and https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/research/amphibious/salamandra/
Deadline and starting date:
Applications are requested starting from November 15 2022, and will then be processed as they arrive until the position is closed. The ideal starting date is spring 2023 (with some flexibility).
Contact:
Information concerning the type of research carried out by the lab can be found at https://www.epfl.ch/labs/biorob/ . You should send your application and any inquiry by email to [email protected]