Postdoctoral Fellow; PREP

General Description

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas.

Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

Exoskeleton, Legged and Humanoid Robots, and Human-Robot Interaction Research

To support the National Institute of Standards and Technology's effort to develop standard test methods for exoskeletons, legged robots, and human-robot interaction standards.

• Conducting state‑of‑the‑art measurement science research in robotics for manufacturing and other applications.
• Programming of physical and simulated robots using a variety of software.
• Using machine learning and other AI techniques to enhance robot capabilities, particularly in the realm of HRI.
• Helping develop standards for autonomous robots, wearable robots, and augmentative robots that seamlessly integrate into human environments.
• Implementing state‑of‑the‑art whole‑body controllers and control techniques for humanoid robots and powered exoskeletons.
• Collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to design, simulate, and optimize robotic systems using advanced software tools.
• Publishing results in peer‑reviewed journals and/or at conferences.
• Developing test apparatuses, performance metrics, and data collection tools for evaluating robot capabilities.
• Validating the repeatability and reproducibility of the tests for various classes of robotic systems.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering or closely related field.

• Experience in robotics and automation, system dynamics, linear and non‑linear control systems, adaptive control, optimal control, whole‑body control, human‑robot interaction, powered and passive exoskeletons, legged robots, machine learning, AI applications, reinforcement learning, control tuning and implementation, and motion planning.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, Matlab, Python, C/C++.
• Proficiency in ROS, Latex, and 3D CAD.

• CV/Resume
• 2 professional references
• Limit CV to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. DO NOT include telephone numbers, home address or photos on your resume.

Authority: 15 U.S.C. 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. 272(b) and (c).

Purpose:

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post‑bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty. PREP is a 5‑year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in a broad range of disciplines, including but not limited to biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics.

This information facilitates administrative functions of the PREP Program. Routine uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements.

• 15 U.S.C. 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. 272(b) and (c)

To apply for this position, visit:

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end…