PhD in Acoustic Source Characterisation for Electric Vehicles at KTH (with Volvo)

Job Description

KTH’s School of Engineering Sciences is hiring a doctoral student in acoustic source characterisation of electric vehicle components, in a project under the FFI Zero Emissions programme run in close collaboration with Volvo Technology AB. When combustion noise disappears, sources such as electric motors, cooling fans and power electronics dominate. The project develops robust methods to identify and characterise them, linked to virtual pass-by simulation for more efficient vehicle development.

At a glance

• Position: Doctoral student (1 post), up to four years full time
• Subject: Vehicle, Maritime and Aerospace Engineering
• Where: Marcus Wallenberg Laboratory for Sound and Vibration Research, Department of Engineering Mechanics; associated with the Centre for ECO2 Vehicle Design
• Supervisors: Romain Rumpler, Elias Zea and Susann Boij (proposed)
• Reference: PA-2026-2848
• Apply by: 24 September 2026
• Apply: 24 September 2026

About the vehicle acoustics PhD

• Equivalent source modelling and inverse acoustics for partially coherent source fields
• Optimal placement of microphone arrays
• Physics-informed and data-driven machine learning for source identification
• Link the methods to virtual pass-by simulation
• Work closely with Volvo Technology AB

What to include in your application

KTH asks for certified copies of diplomas, grades and English language certificates (with translations if needed), a CV, a letter of at most two pages on why you want to do research and how it links to your studies and goals, and representative publications or technical reports. Applications must arrive by midnight CET/CEST on the closing date.

How KTH doctoral employment works

Only applicants admitted to doctoral studies can be employed as doctoral students. The first contract is for up to one year and is then renewed for up to two years at a time, adding up to at most four years of full-time study. Up to 20% of working time may go to tasks such as teaching and administration. Applicants need English at the level of Swedish upper-secondary English B/6.

PhD applicants: browse our Find a supervisor directory to see who works in your area.

What KTH is looking for

• At least 60 second-cycle credits in engineering mechanics, applied physics, electrical engineering, vehicle engineering, or another subject relevant to acoustics, sound and vibration or signal processing
• English equivalent to English B/6

Nice to have

• Knowledge of acoustics, vibrations, structural dynamics, signal processing, inverse methods or microphone arrays
• Machine learning or physics-informed machine learning
• Python, MATLAB, TensorFlow/PyTorch, COMSOL or Actran
• Interest in academia-industry collaboration

Pay and location

Doctoral students at KTH are salaried employees, paid monthly under KTH’s doctoral student salary agreement; the advert gives no figure. The post is full time in Stockholm, starting by agreement.

How to apply

Apply through the official KTH page. The closing date is 24 September 2026.

See all our PhD positions, or browse more research jobs on ResearchJobs.in.