PhD Position on AI for Affective Computing
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 15, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 15, 2022. HiPEAC scores B on the Alion truth index.
In the Centre of Industrial Electronics and Multimodal Systems (CEIMM) at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), we are looking for a highly motivated and talented PhD student in the field of Affective Computing and embedded AI for physiological signals. The proposed PhD research project is focused on the following topics:
- Physiological Signal Processing (ECG, EDA, PPG, motion, voice)
- Tiny Recursive Models (TRMs) for on-device detection of affective states and physiological anomalies
- Foundation Models for physiological signals: self-supervised pretraining, personalisation, distillation and continual recalibration
- Embedded Machine Learning on RISC-V platforms
- People-Centric Internet of Things with privacy by design and explainable feedback
The thesis builds on a decade of work at CEIMM in affective computing, from classical machine learning to embedded deep learning, and takes the next technological step: tiny recursive models running at milliwatt budgets on wearable devices, backed by physiological foundation models pretrained on large unlabelled multimodal corpora and fine-tuned per person and per job.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS: Master’s degree in Electrical / Electronics / Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Physics or similar. Previous research activities in the fields of interest will be highly appreciated.
PREFERRED SKILLS: Very good knowledge of Programming in C/C++ and/or Python; Signal and Image Processing; experience with Machine Learning and/or Affective Computing is also valuable. A high level of English is required, Spanish is optional.
POSITION AVAILABLE: The selection procedure will open in October 2026 and will be maintained opened until the position is covered. The starting date is flexible, but preferred ASAP.
INFORMATION: If you are interested in this position and want to have more details about it, please contact Dr. Andrés Otero ([email protected]), including the reference [PhD_Affective] in the subject of your email. For the formal application, the following documents will be required:
- CV
- Academic transcript of courses followed, and grades obtained provided by your institution.
- Brief letter describing your motivation and previous experience.
About
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)
Also known as: UPM
The Technical University of Madrid (UPM) is Spain's largest technical university, offering diverse programs, fostering international collaborations, and excelling in research and innovation across multiple disciplines.
Summary
Join the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) as a PhD student in Affective Computing. Focus on physiological signal processing, machine learning, and IoT. Salary €28,000. Flexible start date.