Are you working on 3D Digital Twinning for the built environment, on city and infrastructure scale? Do you want to make an impact on urban flood resilience? And are you an engineer with strong interests in software development, 3D modelling and data management? Then this PostDoc position is yours.
Position: (Post-doctoral) Researcher
Irène Curie Fellowship: No
Department(s): Built Environment
Graduate Program(s): Architecture, Building and Planning, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science
Institutes and others: EAISI – Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute
FTE: 1,0
Date off: 31/03/2024
Reference number: V38.7237
Job description
ResilientHydroTwin: Participatory Integrated Digital Twin for Adaptive Urban Resilience to Water Extremities is an interdisciplinary collaborative project between Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM).
Relevance of the project: Inefficient flood management leads to property damage, loss of life, and community disruption. It also deteriorates infrastructure, resulting in increased maintenance costs. The use of data-driven, integrated, domain-specific models is crucial for effective flood prediction and response. ResilientHydroTwin project explores the feasibility and effectiveness of utilizing a digital twin for managing water-related disasters, aiming to enhance urban resilience. Central to the project is the development of a city-level digital twin that precisely models system interactions and human behavior. The goal is to establish an integrated digital twin framework that improves understanding of a city’s interconnected systems, particularly during flood events. The digital twin will be instrumental in designing both hard and soft adaptation strategies. During extreme weather conditions, the digital twin will gather data, functioning as a living laboratory to assess the effectiveness of these adaptation measures in increasing urban resilience. Additionally, the project examines how digital twins can facilitate collaborative governance in managing water extremes through the identification and implementation of strategies that promote multidisciplinary collaboration and co-creation. This includes facilitating the adoption of digital twin technology for flood risk management, considering the interplay of social, organizational, and governance factors. The project is expected to have significant impacts on urban planning, particularly in enhancing flood resilience and the ability of cities to withstand and recover from extreme weather events.
Your contribution: As a Postdoctoral Researcher in the ResilientHydroTwin project from TU Eindhoven side, your primary responsibility will be to develop the technical components that are needed to make this ResilientHydroTwin happen. This involves the specific task of semantic city model development, integration of knowledge graphs and other needed database systems, as well as enabling the integration with simulation models. Your main role is to develop this interactive web-based and/or game engine based system, that provides an interactive 3D view of the city, directly supported by the data stores in the back-end of this system. Research needs to be done on the data integration aspects of this software solution, including the usage of different database solutions (graphDB, RDF stores, SQL stores, IoT streams), as well as front end design and prototyping. This system furthermore needs to enable the integration of simulation software, particularly GIS-based flood simulation software, which will be provided by partners in the project. For this task, you need sufficient IT-technical expertise (data-driven web-based development), as well as (civil) engineering skills. Furthermore, you need to be flexible for user requests and requirements, as well as be an agile collaborator that is part of a highly active ISBE research group at TUEindhoven and ResilientHydroTwin project team that includes TUDelft and IITMadras.
Your role: You are anticipated to enhance project visibility through result publications and participation in international conferences. Additionally, it is encouraged and expected to take part in advanced teaching and supervising tasks at TU Eindhoven, with the aim to further your skills and personal profile.
You will be based at the Faculty of the Built Environment (BE) of the TU Eindhoven, and there you will be a part of the Information Systems in the Built Environment (ISBE) research group (https://isbe.bwk.tue.nl/). This group is involved with all aspects of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and City Information Modelling (CIM) in the built environment, which includes several partnerships with various fields in the built environment (building services, architectural design, structural engineering) and outside the built environment (EAISI AI Institute, Mechanical Engineering Dept., Mathematics & Computer Science Dept., etc.). You will be part of a highly international research group, with state-of-the-art IT in construction skills. While you will be based at the ISBE group, strong and continuous interaction with our partners in TUDelft and IITM is expected.
Job requirements
- Applicants are required to hold a PhD degree in engineering (civil, mechanical, electrical, computer science, or similar) or computer science. The preferred candidate will meet as many of the following requirements as possible:
- Have a consolidated background in construction engineering, building technology, and/or software engineering;
- Ability to conduct high quality academic research, reflected in demonstratable outputs.
- A team player who enjoys coaching PhD and Master’s students and working in a dynamic, interdisciplinary team.
- A proven ability to manage complex projects to completion on schedule.
- Experience with web development using well-known frameworks and languages, such as JavaScript, Django and/or Node.js.
- Experience with game development using well-known engines like Unity or Unreal.
- Experience with data handling techniques (SQL, graphDB, Neo4J, …).
- Experience or interest in working with flood simulation software to improve the quality of our built environments, cities and urban infrastructure;
- Ability to function within a highly international research and project team, including industry
- Excellent (written and verbal) proficiency in English, good communication and leadership skills.
- A motivated person with attention to career development.
Conditions of employment
A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:
- Either half-time (50%) employment for 3 years, or full-time employment for 18 months, to be discussed and agreed.
- Salary in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale 10 (min. € 3226 max. € 5090).
- A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
- High-quality training programs on general skills, didactics and topics related to research and valorization.
- An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children’s day care and sports facilities.
- Partially paid parental leave and an allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
- A TU/e Postdoc Association that helps you to build a stronger and broader academic and personal network, and offers tailored support, training and workshops.
- A Staff Immigration Team is available for international candidates, as are a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) and a compensation for moving expenses.
Information and application
About us
Eindhoven University of Technology is an internationally top-ranking university in the Netherlands that combines scientific curiosity with a hands-on attitude. Our spirit of collaboration translates into an open culture and a top-five position in collaborating with advanced industries. Fundamental knowledge enables us to design solutions for the highly complex problems of today and tomorrow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxx8oosZf9Q&list=PLgFH4e_2r1xeReuOPs1Cfj4LzmA60KN2p&index=1
Information
Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more?
Please contact the hiring manager Pieter Pauwels, Associate Professor ISBE, p.pauwels@tue.nl.
Visit our website for more information about the application process or the conditions of employment. You can also contact Kevin Caris, HR-Advisor, HRAdviceBE@tue.nl.
Are you inspired and would like to know more about working at TU/e? Please visit our career page.
Application
We invite you to submit a complete application using the apply-button.
The application should include a:
- Cover letter in which you describe your motivation and qualifications for the position.
- Curriculum vitae, including a list of your publications and the contact information of three references.
- List of five self-selected ‘best publications’.
We look forward to receiving your application and will screen it as soon as possible. The vacancy will remain open until the position is filled.
