{"id":1991238,"url":"https://alion.io/job/hipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing","title":"PhD Position on AI for Affective Computing","company":{"id":1803494,"name":"HiPEAC","domain":"hipeac.net","url":"https://alion.io/company/hipeac","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Schema","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":24,"ghost_share":0.5,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":21,"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Early Careers","role_family":"Early Careers","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Madrid, Spain"],"countries":["ES"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":42000,"max_usd":113000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":44},"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Knowledge Distillation","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Model Distillation","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Self-Supervised Learning","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2022-11-15T10:15:46Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-07","last_verified_at":"2026-10-15T11:02:24Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1430,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":1429},"description":"HiPEAC 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:\nPhysiological Signal Processing (ECG, EDA, PPG, motion, voice)\nTiny Recursive Models (TRMs) for on-device detection of affective states and physiological anomalies\nFoundation Models for physiological signals: self-supervised pretraining, personalisation, distillation and continual recalibration\nEmbedded Machine Learning on RISC-V platforms\nPeople-Centric Internet of Things with privacy by design and explainable feedback\nThe 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.\nBASIC 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.\nPREFERRED 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.\nPOSITION 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.\nINFORMATION: If you are interested in this position and want to have more details about it, please contact Dr. Andrés Otero (), including the reference [PhD_Affective] in the subject of your email. For the formal application, the following documents will be required:\nCV\nAcademic transcript of courses followed, and grades obtained provided by your institution.\nBrief letter describing your motivation and previous experience.\nAbout\nUniversidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)\nAlso known as: UPM\nThe 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.\nSummary\nJoin 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.\nExternal links\nhttp://www.cei.upm.es/","description_format":"text","description_chars":2740,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["E-learning","Virtual Events"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T06:30:38Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":6,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.228,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":1429,"expected_fill_days":21,"reasons":["conf:4","stale_co","velocity","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/hipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/hipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-15T14:12:39Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":21744,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-16T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1803494},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1803494"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fhipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fhipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fhipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/hipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fhipeac-phd-position-on-ai-for-affective-computing"}]}