2024-11-15T13:07:41-05:00 X, The Moonshot Factory
PhD Residency - Photonics Engineering - Photonic Inverse Design
Internship
Mountain View, CA

How you will make 10x impact: 

This project aims to push the limits of science and modeling as we know them and to prove how ML can radically accelerate our understanding of the world

  • Location: X's headquarters in Mountain View, CA
  • Start Date(s): Year-round rolling basis
  • Duration: a flexible 4 mo. to 1 year program based on project team needs and your availability

Throughout your AI Residency you can expect:

  • To be embedded into one of our confidential or public X projects
  • To get paid competitively and receive benefits
  • To be a part of a lively community of AI and ML Residents
  • To attend tech-talks with AI leaders from across X

 

About the team:

We are exploring automated design for electromagnetic devices. This capability could enable applications ranging from integrated photonics to metasurfaces, and requires technical developments in ultra-large-scale simulators, novel optimization schemes, and prototyping / fabrication capabilities. This effort is focused on inventing fundamentally new technologies with the ambition of bringing disruptive products to market.

 

Responsibilities:

  1. Research and develop constrained optimization strategies and machine learning techniques for automating the design of photonic devices
  2. Bring up an automated measurement setup that enables volume optical and optoelectronic testing for closing the simulation and experiment gap.

 

What you should have: 

  • Currently pursuing an MS or PhD in physics, engineering, or a related field.
  • Expertise in Silicon photonics.
  • Experienced and demonstrated achievements in laboratory automation.
  • Proven track of the design of experiment.
  • Solid Python coding skills with an emphasis on software development best practices.
  • Experience with the Python numerical and scientific computing stack (NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, etc.) and lab automation (SCPI, TCP/IP,etc.)

 

It’d be great if you also had these: 

  • Experienced with high speed photodiode or modulator design.
  • Deep understanding of photonic integrated circuits, electronic integrated circuits, and standard measurement methodology.
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills (writing strategy docs, writing and delivering presentations), can work with senior external partners with ease.
  • Experienced with high speed characterization (LCA, BERT).
  • Past work involving differentiable physics simulators, adjoint methods, “physics for machine learning,” or “machine learning for physics”
  • Research experience using modern machine learning libraries such as JAX, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
  • Experience with using or developing computational electromagnetic simulators (open sourced and / or commercial FDTD, FDFD, etc.)

 

Additional public information:

https://www.wired.com/video/watch/astro-teller-captain-of-moonshots-at-x-speaks-at-wired25

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-10-10/alphabet-x-s-astro-teller-on-bloomberg-studio-1-0-video

 

PLEASE NOTE:

This role requires exposure to technologies subject to heightened controls under US export laws.  Due to our immediate need to fill this role and the lengthy process required to obtain export licenses, we will not be able to move forward with anyone requiring a license for such technologies.  This applies to individuals ineligible for license exception "TSR" (commonly described as "controlled-country nationals") under the US Commerce Department's Export Administration Regulations.  As of July 2018, a controlled country national is anyone who is a national of one of the following countries (excluding US green card holders and US citizens with dual citizenship):  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Cuba, the People's Republic of China, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Macau, Moldova, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.  Please review up-to-date information about the Commerce Department's export regulations, including the current list of countries, here.  

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