Postdoctoral Associate

Job Description

The Assured Vehicle Autonomy (AVA) Lab at the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to design, implement, and test new modeling, estimation, and detection methods for automated navigation systems using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), inertial sensors, LiDARs, vision, and radars. The group focuses on error bounding and interference mitigation for high-integrity, resilient positioning navigation and timing (PNT) in safety-critical multi-modal transportation applications. For more information, please refer to papers that can be found at the link: . The selected candidate will evolve in an interdisciplinary team with members from multiple universities to address problems for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other government agencies and industry partners. The position is at the university’s main campus in Blacksburg, VA. Opportunities for teaching and service-related activities are available to successful candidates.

Required Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or related discipline. PhD must be awarded no more than four years prior to the effective date of appointment with a minimum of one year eligibility remaining.
• Expertise in navigation using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), inertial navigation systems (INS), LiDAR, or other navigation sensors
• Expertise with Kalman filtering (KF), extended KF, or other sequential model-based estimators
• Experience with conducting research in navigation applications for robotic or automated transportation operations
• Strong experience with MATLAB
• Ability to work effectively in a team and manage students
• Strong communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Expertise in carrier phase differential GNSS and LiDAR Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)
• Experience with testing multi-sensor integration schemes for real time navigation using model-based recursive estimators
• Experience with fusion of data from INS/GNSS/LiDAR and possibly radar, familiarity with Opti-Track motion capture system
• Experience with collecting and analyzing radio-frequency (RF) front end wideband data.
• Experience with navigation accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability performance metrics and requirements in multiple modes of transportation
• Experience with the receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) or fault detection methods
• Expertise with programming languages such as C/C++/Python or similar under Linux and ROS environments
• Experience with high performance computing

Appointment Type

Restricted

Review Date

August 15, 2024

Additional Information

The successful candidate will be required to have a criminal conviction check.

About Virginia Tech

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech pushes the boundaries of knowledge by taking a hands-on, transdisciplinary approach to preparing scholars to be leaders and problem-solvers. A comprehensive land-grant institution that enhances the quality of life in Virginia and throughout the world, Virginia Tech is an dedicated to knowledge, discovery, and creativity. The university offers more than 280 majors to a diverse enrollment of more than 36,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students in eight , a , a college, , and . The university has a significant presence across Virginia, including the in Northern Virginia; the Health Sciences and Technology Campus in Roanoke; sites in Newport News and Richmond; and numerous and . A leading global research institution, Virginia Tech conducts more than $500 million in research annually.

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