Research Associate

**Salary**: Research Associate: £35,116 to £45,413 per annum Senior Research Associate: £46,735 - £55,755 per annum Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you. Closing Date: 07 March 2025 **The Role** We are looking to recruit a Research Associate (RA) or Senior Research Associate (SRA) to contribute to the School of Engineering's latest EPSRC grant, "SONNETS: Scalability Oriented Novel Network of Event Triggered Systems." The role holder should possess a relevant background in hardware/software co-design for machine learning systems and demonstrate proficiency in programming with Python/C++. Additionally, proficiency in FPGA programming is essential (refer to the role descriptors below for RA and SRA). The SONNETS project is a new £7.5M EPSRC programme grant jointly led by the University of Southampton, Imperial College London, and Newcastle University. Over the next four years the project will continue creating new tools, algorithms, and systems for monitoring and estimating UK national financial risk. We are creating a digital shadow system for the UKs economy which constantly ingests data from many sources, generates potential adverse scenarios, models and labels the scenarios, and uses new and existing machine learning methods (such as Tsetlin machines and neural networks) to build intelligent and proactive risk models. The diverse set of modelling, learning, and data management components are expected to run on a heterogenous cloud, using an approach called event-triggered computing to execute and manage computation. The project engages with several industrial partners, whose areas of expertise range from generating financial data to crafting machine learning solutions for large-scale, high-performance systems. The Microsystems Group at Newcastle has international leadership with pioneering research in microelectronics design and computer systems engineering. The group comprises 11 academic members, over 14 Research Assistants/Associates, and more than 30 PhD students. Over the last 5 years, the group has secured funding exceeding £22 million from EPSRC and other funding organizations, spun out two companies such as Literal Labs and Microbritt and generated numerous prototype microchips. The role is fixed term for 24 months. For more information about the School of Engineering click here **Key Accountabilities** - Use machine learning methods for designing risk models using data from diverse sources (initially the data will be synthetically generated) - Work individually and in a team on the different tasks in the research project to generate deliverables in a timely manner and meet the project objectives - Provide active intellectual contributions to the research project by ways of, e.g., planning for implementation, generating new ideas, interacting with industrial partners and conducting lab experiments - Prepare clear, well-written reports and draft scientific papers to meet the requirements of high-impact journals on time according to the project timeline set out by the Investigators team - Present research findings at conferences or through publications in reputable outlets appropriate to the discipline **The Person** **Knowledge, Skills and Experience** - Knowledge and research experience in hardware/software co-design commensurate with career levels (sufficient knowledge for RA and expert knowledge for SRA) - Knowledge of Python/C++ commensurate with career levels (sufficient knowledge for RA and expert knowledge for SRA) - Experience in FPGA design and testing - Experience in multi-core and parallel programming models such as MPI **Essential for SRA** - A developing track record of peer-reviewed publications in internationally recognised journals and conferences and experience in presenting to the national and international research community (essential for SRA) **Desirable** - Knowledge of machine learning models: Tsetlin Machine and neural networks - A developing track record of peer-reviewed publications in internationally recognised journals and conferences and experience in presenting to the national and international research community - Experience in event-driven computing systems **Attributes and Behaviours** - Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal - Excellent interpersonal skills to build trust and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders - Ability to manage research data and maintain records in a professional manner for research projects - Capacity for original thought and initiating new research ideas - Willing to learn and expand your research area and carry out challenging research studies - Maintaining a high level of professional conduct and ethics in research - Committed to embedding the values of equality and diversity in all aspects of your work -