Research Fellow: Formal Methods & Systems Innovation

You will have the unique opportunity of raising the systems engineering competencies in the high tech industry to higher levels, building on the knowledge and insights generated by the research projects performed by your colleagues at our industry partners (ASML, Canon, ITEC, Philips, Thales and Vanderlande). You will participate in a strategic research team, working in one of the TNO-ESI research projects, where you explore new capabilities for software-intensive high-tech systems and applications. These research teams spend most of their time working on the customer premises. Your work will be in the research cluster Embedded Systems Innovation on the topic of system engineering dealing with formal methods, verification, simulation, and controller synthesis. One of the objectives of TNO- ESI is to embed cutting edge methodologies to resolve industry needs in the High Tech Industry. At this moment there are several projects in TNO-ESI in which application of formal methods is investigated together with industry partners. As example one of our projects researches how requirement models can be used to synthesize supervisory controllers. The synthesized models are further used for the generation of system artifacts, deployment strategies, but also for formal verification on specific system aspects (like the absence of deadlocks). An important aspect in working with formal methods is how to map these on a Domain Specific Language that fits better with the interests and capabilities of the intended users. ... Your work consists of researching the problem, developing proof of concepts to demonstrate the problem, develop different scenarios for solutions, demonstrate the business value, constraints and benefits of these solutions and help bring them into industrial use. You are a goal-oriented and self-driven professional energized by delivering high quality results and willing to learn from new experiences and your colleagues. You are passionate about helping improve the industrial systems engineering way of working by raising the relevant competences of individuals and teams. You are familiar with systems architecting / systems engineering methods processes & required competences. You have a strong background in formal methods, in particular either model checking, model-based testing, or supervisory controller synthesis, with experience in applying theory into practice. You have an affinity with the high-tech world and are fascinated by the role of human aspects in innovation and technology development. At the same time you are resilient in the face of organizational and operational difficulties that are part and parcel of the dynamics of the high tech industry. You can adapt and respond fast to new insights from research and changing needs of the application domain.