Research Contracts as Neuro-robotics Software Engineer

Research Contracts in Neuro-robotics Software Engineering

At the Applied Computational Neuroscience Group, headed by Prof. Eduardo Ros and part of the Computer Architecture and Technology Department at University of Granada (UGR) (Spain), we are engaged in developing robot controllers from models and techniques drawn from neuroscience. Concretely we focus on the exploration of models of the cerebellum and their application in robot control.

We are looking for a software engineer to contribute to our tasks in the Human Brain Project (HBP). HBP is an ambitious, 10 years long research project funded by the European Commision and targeting the exploration of human cognition and its relation to brain structures and activity. The project is developing a series of simulation platforms to facilitate different levels of research in neuroscience. At UGR we participate in the design and development of the Neuro-Robotics Platform (NRP), a research infrastructure which enables embodied simulated experiments in neuroscience in which a spiking neural simulator and a physics simulator run synchronously and communicate in a closed loop fashion. As a member of our group you will contribute to the development of the NRP in the last stage of the HBP.

Your tasks

Contribute to the full cycle development of the NRP. We have some interesting challenges in this last part of the HBP and need a motivated person with experience and passion for software architecture design, physics and neural simulation and robotics. As well, the NRP is built as a production grade software product and we try to take seriously all steps in the development, including unit testing, quality assurance and continuous integration.

Depending on your profile you will focus more on particular tasks suiting your experience with the possibility of learning and applying new skills.

Your profile

Basic skills:

  • Demonstrable excellent Python and C/C++ programming skills
  • Experience and participation in collaborative software projects
  • Experience and passion in robotics, machine learning, neural simulation and/or physics simulation is a big plus.
  • Good spoken and written English skills

Additional skills:

  • Experience in other programming languages
  • Version Control software (eg. GIT)
  • Robotics oriented middlewares and frameworks (eg. ROS)
  • Experience in Software Architecture design
  • Experience in Real Time systems design
  • QA and devops experience

Our offer

  • You will participate in an international research project of great relevance and collaborate with top european institutions.
  • Contract of two and a half years with a competitive salary according to experience. Offered brute salary range is 1600 - 2400 €, to be concreted according to relevant experience and skills.
  • Short trips within Europe as part of the project activities.
  • Very nice and friendly atmosphere in the group.
  • You will be based on Granada, an exciting and cultural city at the South of Spain half an hour away from mountains, snow and the beach.

How to apply

If you are interested in joining our group and HBP send your application to Eloy Retamino (retamino at ugr.es) including your CV and a motivation letter. 

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Also, applications without a dedicated motivation letter will not be considered.

Jesús Garrido
Jesús Garrido
Associate Professor

Associate professor in Computation technology, senior researcher at the Computational Neuroscience and Neurorobotics Lab and principal investigator of the VALERIA lab of the University of Granada.