Project Lead     Dr. Fergal McCaffery
    
Location     Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland

The Institute invites applications for the following position:

PhD Studentships (Full-time: 4 Years)

Dundalk Institute of Technology is a dynamic, world class Institute that has developed an international reputation in both basic and applied research through its Research Centres.

The Regulated Software Research Centre (RSRC) is within the School of Informatics and Creative Arts and is located in the Carroll’s Building.  The RSRC (https://www.dkit.ie/research/centres/regulated-software-research-centre) has developed an international reputation for performing medical device software engineering.

The RSRC is a member of Lero.  Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre is Ireland’s national software research centre, headquartered at the University of Limerick and involving all of Ireland’s seven universities and Dundalk Institute of Technology.  Following Lero’s significant recent direct grant funding in excess of €30m from Science Foundation Ireland (grant number 13/RC/2094), and our industry partners, we are seeking to fill over 40 research positions and 80  PhD positions.  As part of this funding the RSRC wishes to expand its medical device software engineering team through recruiting for a PhD position. This PhD studentship is funded for 4 years.

Applicants should as a minimum have a 2:1 or 1st Class Honours Degree (or equivalent) in a computing related discipline.  The studentship will include a monthly stipend, payment of fees, travel and equipment.

It is also a requirement that any applicant whose first language is other than English must have a certified English language proficiency of at least IELTS 6.5 or equivalent.

Applicants should forward a full CV, detailing any research experience gained to date to the Graduate Studies Office at Aideen.Gaynor@dkit.ie.  Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday the 24th of February 2017. Late applications will not be accepted.

The PhD position available is follows:

Position: SMDH2 WP1 Spoke Medical Device Software Framework project –Medical Device Software Testing Development.

The PhD student will work under the supervision of Dr. Fergal McCaffery on the SMDH2 WP1 Spoke Medical Device Software Framework project. The student should ideally have a M.Sc. in computer science, software engineering or equivalent. The student will work closely with the Postdoctoral Researcher involved in this project.

The goal is to research the development of a testing framework for the medical device industry. The research will focus integration of medical device specific verification and validation practices into established testing frameworks. The student will research what practices organisations having an established testing framework in place would need to implement to satisfy the verification and validation requirements as described in the medical device regulations for software.

The student would research what testing standards and approaches are currently used in general software development and would investigate how these standards and practices are implemented in established testing frameworks. The student would examine which standards would need to be implemented in order to comply with the verification and validation requirements as described in medical device software standards – how the required standards relate to generic software testing standards and practices - then develop a framework based upon the identified gap – validate the framework using experts from the testing and medical device software community and tailor the framework based upon feedback – once validated by experts then perform trial implementations in customer environments and obtain feedback – and tailor until the framework is complete.
 
The Institute is an equal opportunities employer.