Postdoctoral Fellow; PREP

PREP Research Associate

Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first research university and home to nine world‑class academic divisions working together as one university.

Salary
: $82,000-$89,000 a year

Johns Hopkins University:
Whiting School of Engineering:
Office of Research and Translation

Job Overview:
This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields.

Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration's scientific research.

Assessing the Semantic Interoperability of V2X Communications

The NIST Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) is developing new metrology to measure the interoperability of vehicle‑to‑everything (V2X) communications. This project focuses on semantic interoperability, evaluating whether a receiving device can accurately interpret the meaning and intent of an incoming message. For instance, whether a message containing position information should be interpreted as a periodic state vector or prioritized as an emergency notification of an immediate hazard.

The goal of this project is to develop a software‑based method to assess the semantic interoperability of V2X devices. Project activities include the identification of metrics to assess semantic interoperability, the design of test cases to expose semantic failures in V2X hardware, the implementation of interoperability testing software, and the analysis and publication of results.

U.S. Citizen Preferred

• Analyze packet traces from V2X devices to identify semantic interoperability failures.
• Develop software that parses SAE J2735 messages to assess the interoperability of V2X devices.
• Design test cases for different semantic interoperability failures and execute them to collect data from V2X hardware and network simulations.
• Support the development of ontology‑based semantic models and semantic validation methods for V2X communication systems.
• Prepare technical reports, presentations, and datasets summarizing interoperability findings and semantic failure cases.

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field. Candidates with a Master’s degree and significant research experience may also be considered.
• Research background in wireless networks and distributed systems that includes experience using network protocol analyzers such as Wireshark to analyze packet data.
• Proficient with software development using C++, Python, or a similar programming language and collaborative workflows using version control such as Git.
• Familiarity with cellular communication technologies such as 4G LTE or 5G .
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Equal Opportunity Employer — The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. The university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. The University is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance, and merit without regard to personal factors or demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program.

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Vaccine Requirements:
Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longer requires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The requirement does not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must be fully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proof of vaccination status. All faculty, staff, and students are required to receive the seasonal flu vaccine. Exceptions may be provided to individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs or medical conditions that preclude them from receiving the vaccine.

Requests for an exception must be submitted to the JHU vaccination registry. For additional information, see .