Deadline: April 1, 2021
The Department of the Built Environment at the Eindhoven University of Technology is seeking applicants for one of the four 4-year PhD positions – Brains4Buildings: Data Integration for Smart Buildings.
About the PhD Programme
These positions are part of the national “Brains4Building” project awarded within the MOOI call for Mission-driven Research, Development, and Innovation. The funding for this work is provided by the RVO Netherlands Enterprise Agency. In this work, you will actively participate with several other companies and universities in the Netherlands within a large-size project.
The B4B project adds operational intelligence to buildings in order to achieve a transition towards energy-efficient and -flexible buildings (see Dutch climate agreement). Buildings need brains in order to adapt and react to occupant behaviour, and enable self-diagnosis and self-optimisation. The ambition of this project is to develop scalable and modular solutions that realise 20-30% cost reduction. B4B hereby aims at the development of control and management systems for utility buildings, as well as the testing and execution of open source prototypes (living labs, use cases).
The research targets the use of system integration techniques across multiple building management systems (BMS) and BIM tools using state-of-the-art web development techniques and data storage solutions (databases, graph databases, NoSQL stores, etc.). In this project, you will become part of a leading research group in terms of information management and data handling for the built environment (ISBE at TUe).
Eligibility
Applicants are required to hold a MSc 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, software engineering and/or computer science;
- Experience with web development using well-known frameworks and languages, such as JavaScript, Python, and/or and Node.js.
- Knowledge of machine learning techniques in Python (e.g. Tensor Flow, PyTorch) is a plus.
- Experience with diverse data handling techniques (SQL, graphDB, Neo4J, MongoDB, …) is a plus.
- Experience or interest in working with Artificial Intelligence and applying it to smart buildings research;
- Ability to function within a large project team, including industry
- Fluent English skills, both written and spoken; A minimum grade of an independent language test is required (TOEFL or IELTS) for all candidates who hold a MSc degree from another program than the TU/e. IELTS: Overall grade 7.0 with a minimum sub score of 7.0 for both speaking and writing. TOEFL: Overall band score of at least 90 and a minimum score of 21 for each section. TU/e only accepts the TOEFL internet-based test.
- Interest in co-supervising MSc projects.
- Project management and handling skills.
Benefits
- A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.
- A full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months.
- To develop your teaching skills, you will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
- To support you during your PhD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will make a Training and Supervision plan and you will have free access to a personal development program for PhD students (PROOF program).
- A gross monthly salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
- Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary.
- Should you come from abroad and comply with certain conditions, you can make use of the so-called ‘30% facility’, which permits you not to pay tax on 30% of your salary.
- A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.
- Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities
Application
The application should include the following:
- Cover letter (2 page max), which includes a motivation of your interest and an explanation of why you meet the job requirements.
- Detailed Curriculum vitae, including the contact details of two references (e-mail, phone number).
- Brief description and copy of your MSc thesis.
For more information: Please contact- Associate Professor Pieter Pauwels, p.pauwels@tue.nl. For future details about the PhD programme Visit the institution website
To apply, Click here
