The TCS Group at KTH Royal Institute of Technology invites applications for a PhD position in computer science focused on SAT solving.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology is the leading technical university in Sweden. The Theoretical Computer Science Group at KTH (http://www.kth.se/tcs) offers a strong research environment spanning a wide range of research topics such as complexity theory and approximation algorithms, computer and network security, cryptography, formal methods and natural language processing. We have one of Europe's most prominent groups in algorithms and complexity theory, and the research conducted here has attracted numerous international awards and grants in recent years.
The PhD student will be working in the research group of Jakob Nordstrom. Much of the activities of this research group revolve around the themes of efficient algorithms for satisfiability in propositional logic (SAT solving) and lower bounds on the efficiency of methods for reasoning about SAT (proof complexity). On the practical side, one problem of interest is to gain a better understanding of, and improve, the performance of current state-of-the-art SAT solvers — in particular, solvers using conflict-driven clause learning (CDCL). We are even more interested in exploring new techniques that hold out the theoretical possibility of exponential improvements over CDCL, but seem hard to implement efficiently in practice, e.g., algebraic methods such as Grobner bases or geometric methods such as pseudo-Boolean solving. We also believe that there should be ample room for technology transfer with related areas such as SMT solving, constraint programming, and/or mixed integer linear programming, and so it could potentially be relevant to look into such topics.
The research project is financed by a Breakthrough Research Grant and a Consolidator Grant from the Swedish Research Council and a Starting Independent Researcher Grant from the European Research Council. A more detailed description of the project can be found at http://www.csc.kth.se/~jakobn/project-proofcplx . The group currently consists of 4 postdoctoral researchers and 4 PhD students (in addition to the PI). There are also several other professors, postdocs, and PhD students in the TCS Group working on other aspects of algorithms and computational complexity, and so this is a unique opportunity to explore new connections between theoretical and practical areas of computer science within a vibrant and growing research environment.
This is a four-year full-time employed position, but PhD positions usually (though not necessarily) include 20% teaching, in which case they are prolonged for one more year. The successful candidate is expected to start at the latest in August-September 2018, although this is to some extent negotiable. The position is fully funded and comes with a competitive salary.
The application deadline is January 21, 2018. See http://www.csc.kth.se/~jakobn/openings/D-2017-0883-Eng.php for the full announcement with more information and instructions how to apply. Informal enquiries are welcome and may be sent to jakobn@kth.se .
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