The Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs 6,000 people supporting the three main missions of the institutions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of 16,000 people, including over 10,000 students and 3,500 researchers from 120 different countries.

Post-doctoral Researcher in Meshing and Scientific Visualization (W/M)

Your mission :

The EPFL Blue Brain Project (BBP), situated on the Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland, applies advanced neuroinformatics, data analytics, high-performance computing and simulation-based approaches to the challenge of understanding the structure and function of the mammalian brain in health and disease. The BBP provides the community with regular releases of data, models and tools to accelerate neuroscience discovery and clinical translation through open science and global collaboration.

The aim of the Blue Brain Project is to build accurate, biologically detailed, digital reconstructions, and simulations of the rodent brain. In order to be able to inspect, explore and validate our models, scientific visualization plays a very important role. The capability to visualize atlas-based data, explore models, and image our simulations at scale and with interactivity represents the equivalent of a microscope or telescope in a regular physical environment. In a project where the majority of our science is happening within the computer, scientific visualization is our window thereto.



We are looking for exceptional candidates to strengthen the research work of the Scientific Visualization section of the Blue Brain Project, which is in charge of both the development of visualization platforms and the research in visualization techniques that give scientists the capability to create visual contents of their brain reconstructions and simulations. As a team member, you will be working close to scientific visualization researchers, rendering specialists, software engineers and scientific media designers.
Main duties and responsibilities include :

• Perform cutting-edge research in the area of surface and tetrahedral meshes of neurons and other brain components (specifically mesh generation, refinement and validation) and advanced raytracing in the context of BBP’s scientific projects


• Develop an efficient and scalable meshing solution for different scenarios related to brain tissue simulations in interaction with scientific and engineering teams


• Implement research outcomes in Brayns, with the help of other scientific visualization experts in the team. Brayns is our open source scalable scientific visualization framework for brain models based on ray tracing. It features high fidelity, large-scale, interactivity, and stereoscopic rendering capabilities.


• Contribute to the writing of articles and other documents related to the research activities and support and encourage other team members to participate in these activities

Your profile :


Essential skills and experience required:

• Experience in computer graphics, in particular in scalable rendering, computational geometry and mesh reconstruction and processing


• Extensive experience with modern C++ software development practices


• Strong knowledge and understanding of the underlying architectures of recent CPUs and GPUs


• Good knowledge of OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph and GLSL


• Good familiarity with software development life-cycle, such as version control (Git), testing, debugging, Quality Assurance


• Good familiarity with UNIX/Linux operating systems and CMake

Preferred:

• Experience in neuroscientific data visualization


• Good knowledge of Python and Python-based scientific libraries is a plus


• Knowledge of CUDA, OpenCL and OSPray is a plus

Profile:

• PhD in computer science or similar field


• Strong publication record in high impact factor journals and top-tier conferences in the visualization or computer science field


• Comfortable with large, existing codebases


• Interest in participating in a collaborative, large science project


• Good team player and fluent English in speech and writing

We offer :

• A world-recognized leader in simulation-based research in neuroscience


• A dynamic, multidisciplinary, international and collaborative working environment committed to benefitting the global community


• A modern working environment, based at the Biotech Campus in Geneva Sécheron

Start date :

As soon as possible


Term of employment :

Fixed-term (CDD)
Duration :

1 year, renewable
Remark :

Only candidates who applied through EPFL website or our partner Jobup’s website will be considered.apply online