Postdoctoral Researcher: Event-Driven GNSS Receivers for Ultra-Low-Power Positioning (Fixed-term)

Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya; España; In loco; EUR 38.000 - 48.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya invites applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher within UOC-TECH - Research Centre in Ethical Technologies and Connectivity for Humanity at the Wireless Networks (WiNe) group. The role focuses on event-driven GNSS processing and advancing low-power, high-efficiency receivers in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary setting.

You will work on GNSS signal representations, algorithm development, experimental validation, and publications, contributing

Competenze

• PhD required in a relevant field.
• Strong background in GNSS and wireless communications.
• Ability to develop algorithms for sparse event streams.

Mansioni

• Develop mathematical models for sparse and event-driven representations of GNSS signals and their relationship to conventional sampled representations.
• Investigate event-driven methods for GNSS signal acquisition, synchronization, and tracking, including code delay, Doppler frequency, and carrier-phase estimation.
• Develop statistical inference and filtering methods operating directly on asynchronous event streams.
• Study how event timing, amplitude, phase, and other event-derived observables can be exploited for positioning and navigation.

Conoscenze

GNSS

Signal processing

Event-driven processing

Embedded systems

Formazione

PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field

Descrizione del lavoro

Organisation/Company Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Research Field Engineering » Computer engineering Engineering » Electrical engineering Engineering » Electronic engineering Engineering » Communication engineering Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Positions Postdoc Positions Application Deadline 3 Nov 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38,5 Offer Starting Date 1 Jan 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Would you like a job in which your talent really has an impact on your surroundings? The UOC is not simply a university: our institution is dynamic, determined and ambitious, and drives social and educational changes. Over 30 years ago, we made history as the world's first online university. Our goal is to generate, transfer and join together knowledge to build a more critical, responsible and non-conforming society.

We are seeking to recruit a Postdoctoral Researcher for UOC-TECH - Research Centre in Ethical Technologies and Connectivity for Humanity at UOC, within the Wireless Networks (WiNe) research group.

WiNe is a young and highly motivated research team working on experimental wireless and networking systems, with a strong focus on translating fundamental research into working prototypes and real-world technologies.

You will work at the intersection of:

• GNSS and satellite navigation
• Statistical signal processing and estimation
• RF and receiver design
• Event-based and neuromorphic computing
• Analog and mixed-signal processing
• Embedded and low-power systems
• Experimental wireless systems

Research Project

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers traditionally rely on continuous, high-rate digital sampling followed by signal acquisition, correlation, synchronization, tracking, and navigation algorithms. While these architectures provide excellent performance, they can require substantial computation, data movement, and energy, particularly in battery-powered and resource-constrained devices.

This project investigates a fundamentally different approach: event-driven GNSS processing.

Instead of continuously sampling and processing the GNSS waveform at a high rate, the receiver will generate and process sparse, information-bearing events that preserve the signal characteristics needed for synchronization, parameter estimation, and Position, Velocity and Time (PVT) computation.

The central scientific question is: How much of the information contained in a GNSS waveform needs to be represented and processed to achieve a given positioning performance, and can this information be extracted and processed as sparse asynchronous events rather than conventional high-rate digital samples?

The project will investigate the theoretical foundations, algorithms, architectures, and experimental implementation of such receivers. The research will span the complete processing chain, from RF signal acquisition and signal representation to synchronization, tracking, statistical inference, and navigation.

The central hypothesis is that appropriately designed event-driven representations can substantially reduce data movement, computation, and energy consumption while maintaining the accuracy, robustness, and availability required for practical GNSS positioning.

The project combines statistical signal processing, estimation theory, GNSS receiver design, event-based sensing, analog and mixed-signal processing, neuromorphic computing, and low-power embedded systems.

The project aims to establish a scientific and experimental foundation for a new class of ultra-low-power GNSS receivers.

Expected outcomes include:

• New mathematical models and signal-processing methods for event-driven GNSS.
• Novel acquisition, tracking, and estimation algorithms.
• Experimental receiver prototypes and proof-of-concept implementations.
• Quantitative comparisons with conventional GNSS receiver architectures.
• Publications in leading international conferences and journals.
• Open-source software, datasets, or experimental artifacts where appropriate.
• Potential collaboration with industrial and technology partners working on low-power wireless and positioning systems.

Responsibilities

The postdoctoral researcher will investigate several of the following research directions:

• Develop mathematical models for sparse and event-driven representations of GNSS signals and their relationship to conventional sampled representations.
• Investigate event-driven methods for GNSS signal acquisition, synchronization, and tracking, including code delay, Doppler frequency, and carrier-phase estimation.
• Develop statistical inference and filtering methods operating directly on asynchronous event streams.
• Study how event timing, amplitude, phase, and other event-derived observables can be exploited for positioning and navigation.