Challenge: Design resilient & fault tolerant marine vessels & systems

Change: Use model-based & AI techniques to decide & act

Impact: Ensure safety

Job description
Maritime sector aims at increasing the level of autonomy of vessel transport operations (e.g. ship towage, offshore installation, power&propulsion control, inland infrastructure scheduling) for enhancing efficiency and sustainability. To this end, more and more modern sensor technology and ICT-enabled cyber agents are added to support human operators with new, supervisory roles. Inevitably, the complexity of the vessel transport systems increases. To handle the complexity, distributed agents are developed to perform automatic control, monitoring, planning, decision making at multiple levels of operations. To ensure the trustworthiness of the autonomous operations, these agents should possess functionalities of “self-healing” like assessing the veracity of sensor measurements used for performing safety-critical tasks, as well as the security against cyber-attacks.

The PhD candidate will design contemporary maritime transport operations in a cyber-physical context, i.e. design agents using quantitative/qualitative models and AI techniques to ensure efficient, robust system performance under uncertain conditions, and to ensure safety when unexpected events occur especially in high-risk conditions (e.g. collision avoidance in confined waters). The PhD candidate will work in the department of Maritime and Transport Engineering (MTT) of Mechanical Engineering Faculty and will be a researcher in the SAFE-NET group (https://www.safe-net.team/). He/she will enjoy interacting with the MTT Young Professionals (https://mtt-colloquium.github.io/index.html), and the PhD students of the Transport Engineering & Logistics Section, and joining social activities.

Job requirements

• A Master's or equivalent degree in Science or Engineering (e.g. marine, control, transport, electrical, mechanical, robotics).
• Experience in control and planning of autonomous vehicles, and/or decision making theory is a plus, but not a necessity.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both written and oral.
• A curiosity-driven, problem-solving mindset and passion for research.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Mechanical Engineering
From chip to ship. From machine to human being. From idea to solution. Driven by a deep-rooted desire to understand our environment and discover its underlying mechanisms, research and education at the ME faculty focusses on fundamental understanding, design, production including application and product improvement, materials, processes and (mechanical) systems.

ME is a dynamic and innovative faculty with high-tech lab facilities and international reach. It’s a large faculty but also versatile, so we can often make unique connections by combining different disciplines. This is reflected in ME’s outstanding, state-of-the-art education, which trains students to become responsible and socially engaged engineers and scientists. We translate our knowledge and insights into solutions to societal issues, contributing to a sustainable society and to the development of prosperity and well-being. That is what unites us in pioneering research, inspiring education and (inter)national cooperation.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Do you want to experience working at our faculty? These videos will introduce you to some of our researchers and their work.

Conditions of employment
Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2872 per month in the first year to € 3670 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.

For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service. This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network.

Additional information
If you would like additional information about this vacancy, please contact Dr. Vasso Reppa, Assistant Professor in Safe Autonomous Maritime Transport, email: v.reppa@tudelft.nl.

Application procedure
Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 7 February 2025 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• Motivation letter.
• Detailed CV.
• Copies of your BSc and MSc degrees and transcripts.
• Names and contact information of at least 3 relevant references.

You can address your application to Vasso Reppa.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

Please note:

• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.
• A pre-employment screening can be part of the selection procedure.
• For the final candidates, a knowledge security check will be part of the application procedure. For more information on this check, please consult Chapter 8 of the National Knowledge Security Guidelines. We carry out this check on the basis of legitimate interest.
• Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.