This PhD position at KU Leuven, in collaboration with imec, focuses on advancing wireless communications through distributed movable antennas. Hosted primarily at imec in Leuven, Belgium, the project is supervised by Prof. Sofie Pollin (KU Leuven) and co-supervised by Prof. Claude Dessert (IMEC). The research is embedded in the WaveCoRE research centre within KU Leuven’s Department of Electrical Engineering, which specializes in wireless communication fundamentals and systems. The Networked Systems group, led by Prof. Pollin, covers a wide range of topics including Cell-Free Massive MIMO, Non-Terrestrial Networks, IoT, joint communication and sensing, machine learning-based signal processing, and SWIPT. The project aims to push the boundaries of MIMO communications by exploring near-field, mobile, and massive communication scenarios. Traditional MIMO approaches assume static deployments and rely on approximations that limit channel diversity. This PhD will investigate how near-field communication can increase channel rank and throughput, model propagation in scenarios with sparse arrays and movable antennas, and design optimized transmit/receive algorithms. The research will address challenges and opportunities presented by mobility, such as actively moving antennas to improve links and leveraging high directivity and reduced hardware costs. Applications include robotics, drones, and vehicles, where mobility is both a challenge and an opportunity. The candidate will develop heuristics for real-time device communication and study implementation trade-offs between performance, power consumption, and robustness, considering technologies like MEMS. The work involves developing complex simulation environments in Matlab or Python, modeling hardware non-idealities, and considering technological aspects of movable antennas. The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary team at imec, collaborating with experts in digital, analog, and mm-wave design, wireless systems, signal processing, channel modeling, and machine learning. The position offers a four-year PhD scholarship (subject to positive evaluations), competitive salary, access to world-class facilities, and opportunities for international networking and conference participation. Applicants must have a master’s degree in electrical engineering, telecommunication engineering, or a related field, with exceptional grades and English proficiency. Experience in wireless communications, signal processing, channel modeling, and MIMO is desirable, as is proficiency in Matlab or Python. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work in an international team are required. KU Leuven is committed to diversity and inclusion, providing a supportive research environment. Applications must be submitted via the imec website, referencing code 2026-031. For further information, contact Prof. Sofie Pollin or Prof. Claude Dessert by email.