I have a PhD position on sustainable and green software engineering with a start date in 2025 September. Read the call here.
For general information about positions in my lab, see the content below.

Positions and topics (General call for every level)

Please inform yourself about the grade requirements, soft prerequisites, and potential topics below.
You will also find instructions about the application process at the end of this page. (Please note that I do not respond to emails that do not follow the application process.)

As always, copy-paste template/mass-emails result in a ban without response.

Grade and profile requirements

▸Please, have at least 90% cGPA in your current or most recently closed study programme, and/or a strong research proposal aligned with the research focus of my lab.
A cGPA of 90% is the lower end of A+ (12/12 for Mac students), and about 4.5/5 for most countries. (More info about the grading system here.) A high GPA will help you secure your own grants and scholarships, further boosting your CV. It also tells me your work ethic matches the expectations of our particularly research-intensive lab. I will consider applications in the 85-90% cGPA range only if the agreed topic is exceptionally strong.

▸Have a strong background in at least one of these areas: software engineering, model-driven engineering, AI / machine learning, simulation.
▸Experience in the following application areas is considered an asset: digital twins, sustainable AI, energy-efficient computing, green AI/SE.
▸Rock-solid OO programming skills are essential.
▸Be proactive and motivated. I try to teach my students how to drive their research and become highly autonomous researchers. You need to be a partner in this.

Recommended courses and soft prerequisites (grad students)

As part of your grad studies, you have to successfully complete four courses. There are three courses that are particularly important for anybody pursuing research in our lab:
▸CAS 782 – Engineering Digital Twins
▸CAS 703 – Software Design
▸CAS 777 – Model-Driven Engineering
Grad students (PhD and Master’s) should complete some of these courses as early in their studies as possible. Ideally, you take these courses as a Master’s student (if you’re a Mac graduate), or in the first year of your PhD (if you come from other universities).

Ideally, as a prospective Master’s student, you have earned a high grade (at least A) in the following or similar courses if you’ve taken them:
▸SFWENG 2AA4 – Software Design I (alternatively, COMPSCI 2ME3 – Introduction to Software Development)
▸SFWENG 2OP3 – Object-Oriented Programming
▸SFWENG 3K04 – Software Development
▸COMPSCI 4AR3 – Software Architecture

If you are interested in working in my lab on a short project, consider taking the following undergrad course with me:
▸COMPSCI 4Z03 – Directed Readings
This is a great setup to test the waters of research while also working towards your undergrad degree.

Topics

Below is a selection of my research topics. Everything is very much flexible and the eventual topic should be mutually agreed on. Feel free to send me an email and suggest your topic of interest.

Sustainable computing

▸Green computing, energy-efficiency
▸Lifecycle modeling and sustainability debt accounting
▸Energy-efficiency of AI, digital twins, etc

AI and machine learning

▸Primarily reinforcement learning and foundation models (such as LLMs)
▸Blended human-machine reasoning

Automated systems engineering

▸Development and synthesis of Digital Twins (through machine learning, variability, etc)
▸Sustainability concerns of Digital Twins (energy efficiency, evolvability, interoperability, systems of Digital Twins, etc)
▸Modeling and simulation for sustainability. Multi-paradigm modeling, hybrid co-simulation, causal and acausal simulations, value stream mapping, activity-based costing, etc.
▸Applications: energy efficiency, renewables, smart cities, environmental impact modeling

Model-driven and model-based engineering

▸Collaborative modeling, especially real-time modeling
▸Multi-level modeling, multi-abstraction
▸Modeling languages, frameworks, and tools
▸Digital twins
▸Multi-disciplinary design
▸Design-space exploration (DSE)

How to apply?

▸I am a McMaster student.
Reach out to me directly in an email to discuss a topic.
In parallel, apply here: https://applygrad.mcmaster.ca/portal/start_your_app. Applications typically open in November and close in March (international applicants) and June (Canadian applicants and PRs).
Indicate my name in your application.

▸I am not a McMaster student. (Grad positions only)
Apply here: https://applygrad.mcmaster.ca/portal/start_your_app. Applications typically open in November and close in March (international applicants) and June (Canadian applicants and PRs).
Indicate my name in your application.
Address one of my topics in your letter of motivation.
Optionally, outline your own research topic. (It still has to match my research focus.)
If you choose to reach out to me in an email, you must outline your research topic in one page and attach it in a PDF.