CFEI PhD Fellowship

Call for applications to CFEI PhD Fellowship

SDU Center for Energy Informatics is an interdisciplinary industry oriented research and innovation center with an international outlook. The center focuses on development of innovative ICT-based smart energy solutions that can facilitate the transition towards a sustainable energy system. The center's strategic application domains include Smart Buildings, Smart Industries, Smart Cities and Communities, Smart Energy Business Ecosystems, and Smart Energy Networks. SDU Center for Energy Informatics is part of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark, and located at the main Campus in Odense.

We are looking for highly-motivated students with ambition to become researchers and invite applications for 3 years PhD Fellowships. Applicants are required to have a master in engineering or equivalent at the time of employment. Applicants are required to document fulfillment of the conditions for admission to the PhD school. See here for grade conversion scheme. If at the time of application, the applicant has not yet obtained a master degree, a letter from the master thesis supervisor attesting to the eligibility of the applicant must be provided.

Furthermore, the successful candidate

• has excellent knowledge of English (written and spoken)
• is able to work well in a team as well as independently and quickly acquire knowledge in new topics
• can contribute to current and future research projects

The application must include a brief research plan of no more than 3 pages, indicating the candidates expected research for the coming 3-year period. This should include motivation, state of art, research hypothesis, proposed methodology, and expected results. The proposed research plan must address a research problem within one of the center's strategic research areas or current projects, and indicate the applicants' competence to execute the research plan.

In addition to the general proposals described above, we invite specific proposals relating to ongoing research projects:

• Modeling ventilation system with phase change material based climate module for increasing system efficiency and flexibility, The project aims to significantly increase energy efficiency and flexibility of standard ventilation systems by use of phase change based climate modules. It is the hypothesis that such phase change modules can improve energy flexibility and provide large capabilities of demand response, peak load shifting and management. The PhD project will develop an overall energy model for the proposed PCM-based ventilation system considering various functional and operational parameters, to aid system design and sizing as well as selection of the proper phase change material. In addition, the model will serve as a backbone to develop a reliable controller and implement advanced control strategies to reduce peak power while still maintaining thermal comfort and good indoor air quality. The PhD research is part of the research project NeGeV.
• Framework for optimal combination of models and optimization schemes for model predictive control, The project will target the issue of application of various types of models (grey- and black-box) and optimization methods (gradient-based, evolutionary, stochastic) in relation to MPC in buildings, districts and grids. The PhD research is part of the center's contribution to IBPSA Project 1.
• Multi-agent based modelling and simulation for the smart energy sector, 
• The project will target the development of a multi-agent based model of the smart energy sector and use this model to investigate how influential factors relating to climate, environment, social behavior, technology, economics, policy and regulations affects the smart energy evolution. The PhD research contributes in general to the assessment of business models for the smart energy solutions developed in the center's ongoing research projects, and in particular to the EU Interreg project IoTStyring
• End-to-end cybersecurity in smart energy systems, 
• The project will address cybersecurity issues related to end-to-end cybersecurity in the smart energy sector. In particular the project will focus on cybersecurity issues for integration of Smart Buildings with the Smart Grid. The PhD research is part of the EU Interreg project IoTStyring.
• AI and Big Data driven decision support tools for energy efficient horticulture production, 
• The project will address the application of AI and Big Data methods in development of decision support tools for increasing the energy-efficiency of greenhouse cultivation, while guaranteeing crop yield and quality. This PhD project is part of the EU Interreg project SmartGreen.

Applications will be evaluated and positions filled based on need and relevance of the group of applicants. Application May 1'st 2018

Further information is available by contacting Professor, WSR, PhD, Christian Veje, veje@mmmi.sdu.dk, or Head of Centre, Professor, PhD, Bo Nørregaard Jørgensen, bnj@mmmi.sdu.dk 

Conditions of employment
Employment as a PhD fellow is a 3-year salaried position. The employment will cease without further notice at the end of the 3-year period. Further information about salary and conditions of employment.

Employment is governed by the Protocol on PhD Research Fellows signed by the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations.

An employed PhD fellow cannot have other paid work during the employment.

Requirements for the position
To be considered for the position it is required that the applicant meets the requirements for enrollment in the PhD school.

An assessment committee will assess all applications. Each applicant will receive his/her own assessment. An interview might be part of the assessment process.

Application
Your application must be uploaded through the link "Ansøg". Attached files must be in Adobe PDF or Word format. Please read guidelines for applicants.

All pdf-files must be unlocked and allow binding and may not be password protected.

In case you have more than one file per field you need to combine the pdf-files into a single file, as each field handles only one file.

Each box can only contain a single file of max. 10 Mb.

The applications must include:

• Curriculum Vitae
• Completed application form
• Application stating reasons for applying. Please attach your application to "application material" under "Research Plan"
• Diplomas
• Calculation of grade point average in this form

The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

The application must be in English.

Further information for international applicants about entering and working in Denmark.

Further information about the PhD programme at the faculty and SDU can be found at:

• The SDU PhD webpages
• The faculty PhD webpages
• Study in Denmark

Your application must be registered in our system on the 13/05/2018 at 23.59.59 CET at the latest.

Please write in your application that you've seen the job at Jobfinder