We have one or two positions available every year for talented and highly motivated Ph.D. students who are interested in working (both theoretically and experimentally) in the area of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet-of-Things (IoT). Applications and all supporting materials (e.g., TOEFL and GRE scores) must be submitted to the EECS graduate admissions. For more information about the admission requirements and procedure, please visit https://engineering.uci.edu/dept/eecs/graduate/frequently-asked-questions.
Strong technical background in math along with hands-on experience in embedded systems programming along with interest/enthusiasm in pursuing cutting-edge research are required. Research experience (e.g., previously published work) is not a must (note that M.S. is not a requirement to enter the Ph.D. program) but is highly preferable. To help me know more about your background, please send me the following items via email (use “PhD Student Candidate Fall [year]: [your name]” as the email subject):
A copy of your CV.
Official/Unofficial Transcripts (unofficial ones are sufficient)
One representative publication (if available)
Brief description of one of your most notable achievements (not necessarily academic)
TOEFL/IELTS and GRE scores (if available)
A brief summary of two recent publications from my website: https://rcpsl.eng.uci.edu/publications/. Your summary should consist of: One paragraph summarizing the problem addressed in that paper, one paragraph summarizing the overall idea of the solution, along with one paragraph suggesting future directions that you think interesting in that domain. Be careful that your choice of the papers to summarize tells a message if you pick short/old papers it gives an impression of someone not willing to put the required effort for PhD. While fully understanding these papers is not expected, this is more of a brain challenge, first of all to filter out automated emails, and to make sure that candidates are faithful about pursuing these lines of research.
II. Current UCI Graduate students:
Please follow the same steps above for contacting me (use “UCI PhD Student: [your name]” as the email subject).
III. Undergraduate students at UCI:
I believe in the importance of exposing undergraduate students to state-of-the-art research. I have worked with multiple undergraduate students (both EE, CpE, and CSE) on several research projects with some of them lead to papers accepted in top prestigious conferences. Either you are interested in applying for EECS 199 course or you would like to do research for fun, drop me an email. Usually, the best time to start is as you enter your final year of undergraduate studies.
IV. Prospective Post-doctoral researchers:
Contact me if you wish to explore post-doc opportunities in the RCPSL. Please send me your CV along with two representative publications. If your background is relative to the current ongoing projects, we will set up a Skype interview to know more about your research interests. At this point, I will need at least two recommendation letters (with one of them must come from your thesis advisor, please ask them to send it directly to my email address).
V. High-school students in SoCal
I host one or two high-school students every summer in my lab. Students are expected to have decent programming skills and willing to learn new skills during their internship. Unfortunately, it is hard to guarantee any funding during such internship as the situation changes from one summer to the next.