Mechatronics Research Associate

Help bring research to life and drive your career forward with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Canada's largest research and technology organization.

We are looking for a Mechatronics Research Assosicate to support the Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre. The incumbment will share our core values of Integrity, Excellence, Respect and Creativity.

The work will focus on connected vehicle and driving automation technologies, with particular focus on sensing & perception, simultaneous localization & mapping (SLAM) techniques, and prototyping proof of concept systems demonstrating these technologies. Some high-level examples of projects include:

- Development of automated & scalable techniques to characterize roadway environments using inputs from LiDAR, radar, RGB and thermal camera sensors.
- Development of image & point cloud data analysis techniques including those involving machine learning/deep learning to identify and monitor issues in transportation infrastructure.

Duties and responsibilities will include:

- Author, review, and critique research plans, detailed work plans, technical reports, and technical papers.
- Assist in the development of research proposals including collaboration with external partners.
- Review relevant state-of-the-art literature and prototype research/technology concepts disseminated therein. This may include both hardware and software development.
- Develop scalable data processing pipelines using conventional and ML/DL techniques.
- Present research findings in technical forums including conferences, seminars, working groups, etc. This may include authoring conference & journal papers.
- When necessary, travel to client site to provide deployment support of technologies prototyped and developed by the team.
- Assist in data collection activities which may include national and transborder travel with overnight stays.
- Observe health and safety procedures in laboratory and in-field data activities.

**Screening Criteria**:
**Education**:
As part of the RA Program you must have received your Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Engineering/ Science, such as Electrical, automotive, mechatronics, mechanical, or other related engineering background, within the last five years or you expect to receive the degree within the next six months.

For information on certificates and diplomas issued abroad, please see Degree equivalency

**Experience**:

- Significant experience demonstrated by previous work (e.g., published paper/thesis, contributions to open-source code repositories, marketed products etc.) in at least two of the following topics:

- Point-cloud processing for sitatational awareness/robotic perception;
- Image processing using ML/DL techniques;
- Simulation testing of mobile robots/autonomous agents;
- Mechatronics product development in volving hardware/software co-development.
- Significant experience of prototyping and implementing research concepts (e.g., novel concepts developed by self or as part of a team, or concpets described in technical papers).
- Significant experience in developing and implementing scalable data processing pipelines.
- Experience in at least three of the following software environments/languages:

- Ubuntu;
- ROS/ROS2;
- Python/C++;
- MATLAB/Simulink;
- Programming for embedded targets (microcontroller & FPGAs).
- A track-record of research excellence proven by publications in conferences and journals.

Assets:

- Experience with the following software libraries/frameworks: OpenCV, Open3D, PCL, PyTorch.
- Experience in CAV simulators such as CARLA, VEINS, SUMO, OMNeT++.

**Condition of Employment**:
Reliability

**Language Requirements**:
English

Information on language requirements and self-assessment tests

**Assessment Criteria**:
**Technical Competencies**:

- Ability to understand, critique and develop solutions to complex CAV problems pertaining to perception and localization.
- Capacity to write concise and clear software codes to contribute to the team’s code repository (examples of previous work will be helpful, but not necessary if prohibited by copyright obligations).
- Technical problem solving (hardware & software) in both self-directed and team environment modes.
- Solid understanding of mobile robotics topics such as pose estimation, sensor fusion and localization.

**Behavioural Competencies**:

- Research - Teamwork (Level 2)
- Research - Communication (Level 2)
- Research - Results orientation (Level 2)
- Research - Creative thinking (Level 2)

**Competency Profile(s)**:
**Relocation**:
Relocation assistance will be determined in accordance with the NRC's directives.

**Compensation**:
The intent of this hiring action is to staff through the Research Associate (RA) Program at the AsRO level, which is an early-career level position with a salary range of $74,230 to $103,093.

NRC employees enjoy a wide-range of competitive benefits including comprehensive health and dental plans, pension and