Leader & Deputy Leader
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The Leaders work to further Ascend NTNU's goals and vision. This position requires that you are proactive, facilitate a good work culture and promote growth, both on an individual and organizational level.
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The Leader works closely with the board to coordinate the organizational needs. The role of a Leader holds more responsibilities than specific tasks. Together with the business group, you will sit with the primary responsibility for keeping a good relationship with partners and other external actors. You will provide opportunities to work with most aspects of the project. Weekly tasks include leading board and general meetings and responsibility for cooperation with the main sponsors.
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The Deputy Leader is mainly responsible for human resources, health and environment in Ascend. You become a trustee for the group members and are responsible for social cohesion. You will also assist the project manager with planning, follow-ups, and goal setting.
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The Leader and the Deputy Leader work closely together and distribute tasks between them. Long-term collaboration gives a great deal of flexibility regarding tasks and allows you to adapt responsibilities to work with what interests you the most.

We are looking for someone who:
- Wants to work with an organization and enjoys varied work tasks.
- Is comfortable communicating with external actors, sponsors, and other partners.
- Strives to find the best solutions in cooperation with others.
- Is structured and good at overseeing the working ecosystems.
- Is proactive but can also think on their feet.
- Good temper working with multi-disciplinary groups.
- Wants to improve Ascend by making major organizational decisions.
- Is extroverted and comfortable with being a representative of Ascend, both in the team and for the surrounding world.
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If you have any questions about this position, you can contact:
Oliver Hole Ekelund (Leader) at oliver.ekelund@ascendntnu.no
Oliver Magnus Wahlen (Deputy Leader) at oliver.wahlen@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Chief Engineer & Deputy Chief Engineer
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The Chief Engineer and Deputy Chief Engineer are responsible for the technical work in Ascend NTNU. It will be your task to lead the technical work, ensuring all the groups cooperate towards a common goal. This includes planning, organizing, and coordinating the work between the technical group leaders. Understanding each system on a cross-disciplinary ground is critical, such as system dependency and integration and road mapping as the development progresses. You will gain a comprehensive picture of multiple engineering disciplines with insights and experience from working as a Chief Engineer or Deputy Chief Engineer that is almost unobtainable anywhere else.

As a board member, it is your task to keep the board informed on the team's technical progress. You will also be responsible for informing the technical group leaders on decisions made by the board, ensuring a good flow of information between the administrative and technical members of the organization. You will also be able to assist each team member with technical work where needed.

The Chief Engineer and Deputy Chief Engineer will collaborate closely and share responsibility for many of the tasks related to technical administration. You will have some freedom in defining your tasks, such as maintaining the technical infrastructure of our project management platforms (e.g, Confluence and Jira), coordinating and documenting system tests, planning the technical plans, arranging internal and external technical meetings, etc.
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We are looking for someone who:
- Is good at cooperating and has a passion for leadership.
- Has a strong interest in robotics and preferably experience with C++ or ROS 2.
- Loves to work with complex systems, preferably with experience from other projects.
- Is structured, tidy, and organized.
- Can keep an eye on essential changes at certain times.
- Is extroverted and comfortable with being a representative of Ascend NTNU: both in the team and for the surrounding world.
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If you have any questions about those positions, you can contact:
Markus Kinn (Chief Engineer) at markus.kinn@ascendntnu.no
‍Ask Hallem-Berg (Deputy Chief Engineer) at ask.hallem.berg@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Head of Finance
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The Head of Finance manages the organization's resources and ensures they are distributed optimally between technical and social projects. You will be responsible for Ascend’s financial situation, such as budgeting, accounting, investing, and savings. You will work closely with the head of the Business Group, who ensures you have money to manage. As board members, both Head of Finance and Business can also affect the long and short-term strategy of Ascend NTNU, contributing to growth and progress in our organization.

We are looking for someone who:
- Wants to manage Ascend's resources so they are used optimally.
- Wants to get experience working with accounts, receiving guidance and training from the accounting firm we collaborate with.
- Is interested in economics and budgeting, especially relating to technical projects.
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If you have any questions about this position, you can contact:
Martin Varhaugvik at martin.varhaugvik@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Head of Business
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The Head of Business manages the Business Group, which oversees the revenue streams of Ascend. You will lead the group to work closely with current and potential new partners to secure different grants. You will also be responsible for arranging our events, such as Drone Reveal, competitions, and participation in external affairs. This is a golden opportunity to collaborate with other highly skilled students professionally and build connections with relevant businesses and other external entities. The Business Group will work closely with the other groups in Ascend, especially the Marketing team.

As the Head of Business, you will also be on the board , representing the business relations of Ascend NTNU. You are in charge of Ascend's business development, which means you have responsibilities for what direction Ascend will take for its business decisions. You have the creative freedom to innovate, revolutionize, and guide Ascend to be a professional and competitive student organization in the business world.

We are looking for someone who:
- Wants leadership experience and the possibility to work with highly skilled students at the top of their respective fields.
- Wants to have contact with businesses, including managing contract negotiations.
- Wants to facilitate meaningful connections between businesses and students.
- Wants a head start in the professional arena.
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If you have any questions about this position, you can contact:
Ole Kristian Brettingen at ole.brettingen@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Head of Marketing

The Head of Marketing ensures good communication and cooperation between Ascend NTNU and other organizations, companies, and students. You will facilitate the making of these collaborations and bring Ascend NTNU closer to its goals. This also includes leading the marketing team, helping and assisting when needed. You will plan, test and perform different marketing strategies, both physically in Trondheim, on our social media and webpage.

As the Head of Marketing, you are free to find new and creative ways to reach out to the students with concrete and measurable results. Furthermore, you will have a significant impact on the development of Ascend’s brand. This includes creating a culture that inspires students to engage in research and innovation tied to autonomous drones. As Head of Marketing, you will also be a part of the board. This gives you good opportunities to shape and change Ascend NTNU for the better.

We are looking for someone who:
- Is interested in marketing and willing to learn more about digital marketing.
- Wishes to create and nurture relationships with partners and the press.
- Has good communication skills in both Norwegian and English.
- Wishes to motivate others to reach a shared goal.  
- Is good at cooperating and has a passion for leadership.
- Is solution-oriented, ambitious, focused, and driven by results.
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If you have any questions about this position, you can contact:
Maja Floen (Head of Marketing) at maja.floen@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Autonomy Group Leader

The Autonomy group is responsible for our drone system's high-level planning and decision-making features. You will lead the group to design and program autonomous behaviors through the built-in finite state machine and the world around it. These decisions will then be transformed into commands sent to and enacted by the Control group.

The Autonomy group uses the whole arsenal of autonomy and AI technology; From machine-learning to classic AI approaches. They have worked with everything from state-of-the-art technology within deep- and reinforcement learning to classical problems within path planning, high-level mission planning, and information representation. These all fall under the umbrella of the Autonomy group. For instance, you will work with complex information provided by the sensor processing systems in the Perception group and decide how that will actuate the systems built by Control and Hardware.

The Autonomy group has also been responsible for developing the in-house simulator that we use to test our software system. The goal is to provide Ascend with a simulator capable of delivering both realistic physics and photorealistic graphics, enabling the testing of computer vision and complex interactions in the simulator. As the Autonomy group leader, you will coordinate the development of the simulator and high-level planning and decision-making systems for the drone.

Preferable experience but not required:
- Skills with programming in Python and C#.
- Understanding of 2D/3D simulation in game development, Unity, and ROS (2).
- Ability and interest in mission planning and decision-making algorithms.
- Strong skills in Mario Kart.
- Sound experience in team-oriented software development projects. It is desirable to have experience developing AI with ROS in any technical field.

‍Anyone interested in and motivated to work with technology is welcome to apply!
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If you have any questions about this position, you can contact:
Paul Christian Cappelen at paul.cappelen@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Control Group Leader

The Control group is the interface between software and hardware responsible for the drone movement and bringing decisions to life. The Control group works on almost everything from flight control systems to obstacle avoidance, path planning, and object interaction. As the Control leader, you will coordinate your group in making systems that ensure safe and robust flight and command execution for the drone. You also must ensure these systems are robust and reliable through frequent testing safely and appropriately. You will coordinate system designs and communication within and with other groups. As the group handles systems down to the actuators and hardware level, you are expected to oversee all systems and how they work together to guide other group members.

Preferable experience but not required:
- Programming skills in C/C++, C#, and Python.
- Understanding flight control system (FCU) and object interactions in aerial robotic engineering.
- Ability and interest in developing flight mechanics: obstacle avoidance, finite state machine, and 3D simulation with drone APIs such as MAVLink/MAVROS.
- Impeccable skills in Mario Kart.
- Desirable knowledge in data transmission using sensors and antennae.

‍Anyone interested in and motivated to work with technology is welcome to apply!

If you have any questions about this position, you can contact:
Fredrik Spalder (Head of Control) at fredrik.spalder@ascendntnu.no

Apply here

Perception Group Leader

The Perception group develops the systems which transform sensor data into meaningful information about the environment. Being a group leader for the Perception group means that you will select the sensor systems used on the drone, cooperating closely with the Hardware group on the placement of these components. You will lead the group to work with camera-based sensors, investigating the usage of depth cameras, deep learning, and conventional computer vision to solve mission-specific and general tasks. The drones also have other sensors, such as IMUs, LIDARs, etc., which must be utilized or fused efficiently. The field of computer vision and sensor fusion is constantly evolving, and you will be working with cutting-edge techniques in these fields.

As the Perception group leader, you will process and interpret sensor data and transform it into meaningful information.

Preferable experience but not required:
- Programming skills in C++, C, Python.
- Understanding of computer vision, image processing, pose estimation, and sensor fusion.
- Experience with libraries such as OpenCV, Darknet, CUDA.
- Knowledge of compiling and running complex programs.
- Interest in developing object detection, classification, and localization systems.
- Experience in researching academic articles on the latest technology.

Should you have any questions, y
Magnus Eide-Fredriksen at magnus.eide-fredriksen@ascendntnu.no

Apply here