Vacancies at the Center for Ubiquitous Computing – New!

The Centre for Ubiquitous Computing is hiring.

Open vacancy: Tenure Track Position in Digital Fabrication at the Center for Ubiquitous Computing

Field and location: 
To strengthen its profile at international level the University of Oulu announces a tenure track position in digital fabrication.

The position is placed at the Center for Ubiquitous Computing (UBICOMP, https://ubicomp.oulu.fi) in the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE). With 2 professors and about 20 postdocs UBICOMP is the largest cluster of HCI and ubicomp researchers in Finland and one of the largest in Europe. UBICOMP conducts multidisciplinary research on next generation interactive systems and its results are regularly published in leading journals and conferences in the field. The successful applicant will be supported with a competitive start-up package. The successful applicant will have access to world-class research infrastructure on campus, including the well-equipped FabLab Oulu (http://www.oulu.fi/fablab/), a professional workshop with tools and expertise for building more complex devices, and a 5G test network. The successful applicant will join an international and multidisciplinary research community of researchers from multiple faculties and disciplines that collaborates on new ubiquitous technologies and digital solutions.

The position is in the field of digital fabrication, to strengthen our research on next generation interactive technologies. The successful applicant is expected to develop a research agenda that explores how emerging digital fabrication, embedded computing, wireless communication, sensing and interaction technologies can be used with prototyping to develop new smart objects, applications, services and “personal fabrication” ecosystems. The successful applicant is expected to exploit and further develop our substantial infrastructure investment in digital fabrication, and to create and provide related BSc and MSc level courses to our curriculum.

Required qualifications, job responsibilities and career advancement:

The tenure track position is open to highly talented individuals who hold a doctoral degree and have excellent potential for a successful scientific career. Based on the experience and competence, the successful applicant will be placed at the level of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor or Distinguished Professor in the four-level tenure track system described in the University of Oulu Tenure Track guidelines (http://www.oulu.fi/university/node/38379). Career advancement on the tenure track is based on performance assessments that measure the candidate’s merits.

Assistant Professor: The position of an Assistant Professor is initially a fixed-term position for five years. The position is available for applicants who have finished their doctoral dissertation less than ten years ago and are advancing towards a professional research career. The selection criteria for an assistant professor are the following:

  • research potential and merit applicable to the position to date (publications, especially internationally refereed publications; participating in acquiring external funding/funding granted; connections with the international community in the field);
  • experience of working abroad during the professional research career;
  • demonstrable development of skills is the prerequisite for a continuation period.

Associate Professor: The position of an Associate Professor is initially a fixed-term position for five years. The selection criteria for an associate professor are the following:

  • publications on an international level: dissemination, quality of the publication forums, references to the publications;
  • active role in research training;
  • acquisition of external funding;
  • working in more than one research facility during one’s career (in most fields represented at the University of Oulu this signifies working abroad);
  • an active role in the international scientific community;
  • acknowledgements and awards.

Full Professor: The position of a Full Professor requires high-level scientific or artistic competence, experience in leading scientific research, ability to provide high-level research-based teaching and to supervise final theses, and merit in international co-operation projects in his/her field of expertise. The position of a Full Professor also requires the ability to act as an academic leader. When evaluating the merits of an applicant, his/her scientific publications and other research results with scientific or artistic value, teaching experience and pedagogic training, ability to produce teaching material, other merits as a teacher, teaching demonstrations and supervised doctoral theses shall be taken into consideration. Other factors to be taken into consideration are the active role of the applicant in the scientific community, practical experience in the field where applicable, success in acquiring supplementary research funding, scientific work abroad, international positions, and leadership and interaction skills.

Distinguished Professor: The position of a Distinguished Professor is for especially distinguished applicants who exceed the criteria for Full Professor.

Salary: The salary of the appointed researcher will be based on the demand level chart for the teaching and research staff of Finnish Universities. In addition to the basic salary of the appropriate tenure track level, supplementary salary will be given for personal achievement and performance, the sum rising to a maximum of 46.3% of the basic salary level for the post. The salary thus being roughly 3500–4700 €/month for an Assistant Professor, 4100–5400 €/month for an Associate Professor and 5600–8300 €/month for a Full Professor.

Other benefits: Finland is one of the most livable countries, with a high quality of life, safety, excellent education system, and competitive economy. The successful candidate will receive full benefits provided by the University of Oulu to university employees, including free time corresponding to holidays and free occupational health care services. The successful candidate will receive also benefits provided by the Finnish government to residents, for example possibility to obtain access to the national healthcare system, tax benefits for employees with children and high-quality affordable childcare services.

Application & deadline: Applications, together with all relevant enclosures, should be submitted electronically, via http://www.oulu.fi/university/jobs,  by 31.8.2017.

The application should be written in English and the following information needs to be included:
1) an application letter with contact information
2) a curriculum vitae following the guidelines of the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (tutkimuseettinen neuvottelukunta). The guidelines are available at http://www.tenk.fi/en/template-researchers-curriculum-vitae and a template at http://www.tenk.fi/sites/tenk.fi/files/CV_english_270613.pdf.
3) list of publications, ten most important ones marked
4) a brief account of research merits (max 1 page)
5) a brief account of teaching merits or a teaching portfolio (max 2 pages)
6) acquisition of research funds
7) a brief research and action plan (max 3 pages)
8) contact details of 2 – 4 persons available for recommendation.

Evaluators: The selection procedure will be carried out by an Appointment Committee according to the University of Oulu Tenure Track guidelines.

Contact details: In order to receive the information and announcements concerning the official selection procedures to be followed in order to fill this post, applicants must inform the Center for Ubiquitous Computing at the University of Oulu of their contact details for the whole duration of the selection process: they must specifically provide both their home and work telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, fax numbers and postal addresses.

For further information and enquiries about this post, and about the application and selection procedures, please contact:

Professor Timo Ojala, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Center for Ubiquitous Computing, University of Oulu

P.O. Box 4500, FI-90014 Oulun yliopisto

phone: + 358405676646

email: timo.ojala@oulu.fi