Doctoral Student in Automatic Control with focus on Datacenter Control Full-time

Doctoral Student in Automatic Control with Focus on Datacenter Control

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world's top universities. The University has around 46,000 students and 8,500 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg, and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain, and improve our world and the human condition.

Automatic Control is an exciting and broad subject, covering both advanced mathematics and hands-on engineering. Historically, it has been instrumental in many areas, from the early development of telecommunications to the space race. Today, driven by the need to engineer ever larger systems, Automatic Control is more relevant than ever.

The department of Automatic Control has a stimulating and international environment with PhD students, postdocs, and teachers coming from all corners of the world. Research and teaching are conducted in an open and progressive atmosphere with collaborations both within academia and with industry, nationally as well as internationally. A PhD degree from the Department of Automatic Control gives you the perfect base for an exciting career, be it in academia or industry.

Lund University and the Department of Automatic Control welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard equality and diversity as a strength and an asset. For more information on being a doctoral student at the department, please have a look at our research videos: Research | Department of Automatic Control (lth.se).

As a doctoral student, you are both admitted as a student and employed at Lund University. As a doctoral student, you will be trained in a scientific approach. In short, you will be trained to think critically and analytically, to solve problems independently using the right methods, and to develop an awareness of research ethics. In addition, you will have the opportunity to work on projects, to develop your leadership and pedagogical skills. Throughout your studies, you will be guided by supervisors. Doctoral studies end with a thesis and a doctoral degree.

More about being a doctoral student at LTH on lth.se. https://www.lth.se/english/study-at-lth/phd-studies/

AEGIS — Adaptive Grid-Interactive Edge Datacenter Fleets is a European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) research and training network. It is funded by the EU and trains 15 PhD students from 2026 to 2030. The main host for this position is Department of Automatic Control at Lund University. As part of the program you will spend two 3-months visits with partners in the network: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and Elisa (Finland). Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships are among the most respected PhD positions in Europe. The position is only open to applicants that have not lived, studied, or worked in Sweden for more than 12 months in the 36 months before applying.

More information about the project is available at the website https://aegis-dn.eu

The AEGIS project sits where two fast-growing fields meet: datacentres and AI infrastructure on one side, energy and power systems on the other. Few people today can work across both, so the skills you build here are scarce and in high demand. Specifically there is a gap between a high-level goal like “cut carbon now” and the low-level controls of a site's cooling, batteries, and compute hardware. In this project you close that gap.

You will build a control layer that takes “intents” and translates them into a coordinated set of actions across the site's physical assets. The models close the loop and tune themselves online using both classical control, AI, and reinforcement learning.

In the project you will work on:

• Designing an intent language that captures carbon, flexibility, and cost.
• Breaking high-level intents down into control actions.
• Tuning power-performance and thermal models online.

What you will deliver:

• Control software that turns intents into commands, with measured latency.
• Practical control systems using real-world data from experiments.
• A telemetry system that reports headroom and runs without breaking service-level limits in test scenarios.

You will primarily devote yourself to your doctoral programme, which includes participation in research projects as well as third cycle courses, seminars, and conferences.

The PhD position consists of three main aspects, and the work duties include:

• Research project, including authoring papers and traveling to conferences, seminars, etc.
• Postgraduate courses, given locally, nationally, and internationally (90 ECTS credits)
• Teaching (no more than 20%), including lab supervision and exam responsibilities. This part may also include departmental services, such as working with equality and diversity, arranging events, etc.

To be eligible for admission and employment as a doctoral student, you must fulfil the requirements below.

A person meets the general admission requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if the applicant:

• Has been awarded a second-cycle qualification, or
• Has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second cycle, or
• Has acquired substantial equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

A person meets the specific admission requirements for third cycle studies in Automatic Control if the applicant has:

• Knowledge corresponding to course FRTF05 (previously FRT010) Automatic Control, Basic Course and a second cycle specialisation of relevance to the subject, and
• An MSc in engineering or corresponding qualification

The standard MSCA eligibility criteria also apply:

No doctoral degree. At the date of recruitment you must not yet hold a PhD. Mobility rule. You must not have lived or done your main activity (work or studies) in Sweden for more than 12 months in the 36 months just before you are recruited. Short stays such as holidays do not count.

In order to complete the doctoral programme in question, the following are also required:

• Very good oral and written proficiency in English.
• Good language-analytical ability.
• Curiosity about research and teaching in general, and motivation for the particular research project.
• Creativity with good ability for cooperation and networking.
• Good ability to work independently and to formulate and tackle research problems.
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Strong mathematical knowledge as demonstrated through university transcripts.

For the doctoral programme in question, the following are considered as other qualifications:

• Strong foundations in machine learning and reinforcement learning.
• Cloud computing and cloud technology.
• Low-level programming and Linux kernel experience.

Consideration will be given to good collaborative skills, drive, and independence, and how the applicant, through experience and skills, is deemed to have the abilities necessary for successfully completing the third cycle programme.

Lund University is a public authority which means that employees get particular benefits, generous annual leave, and an advantageous occupational pension scheme.

More about working at Lund University on lu.se. https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/about-university/work-lund-university

The employment is a fixed-term employment at full time, starting as soon as possible or March 1, 2027, at the latest. Third cycle studies at LTH consist of full-time studies for 4 years. In the case of teaching and other departmental duties, the employment is extended accordingly. Doctoral studentships are regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100), chapter 5, 1-7 §§.

More about terms of employment for doctoral students on Lund University's Staffpages. https://www.staff.lu.se/research-and-education/research-support/doctoral-education/terms-employment-doctoral-students

We intend to offer employment to 1 PhD student. A doctoral student will receive a competitive monthly salary of 35,900 SEK with yearly raise.

Those applicants who will be called for interview, might be asked to perform a small test to demonstrate basic competence.

Applications shall be written in English and include:

• CV and a cover letter stating the reasons why you are interested in the doctoral programme/employment and in what way the research project corresponds to your interests and educational background.
• Copies of issued study certificates and