PhD on Personalised Data Hubs for Next-Gen Federated Building Digital Twinning

PhD on Personalised Data Hubs for Next-Gen Federated Building Digital

Twinning

Are you excited about BIM, BMS systems and Linked Data for buildings? Do you want to contribute in developing the building data management systems of the future? As web developer and linked data enthusiast, this PhD position allows you to change the core of data handing in the buildings sector.

Position

PhD-student

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

V38.7236

Job description

Future-proof Linked Building Data Systems: Distributed data modelling and federated digital twinning for lifecycle data-driven sustainable operation and management of buildings and districts

Relevance of the project: Lifecycle data of buildings and building portfolios plays a crucial role in helping sustainability decision-making. However, leveraging the value of such data is challenged by the "data siloing" problem in Building Management Systems (BMS), Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflows and other building systems. Currently used BMS and BIM systems are too much stand-alone and static, lacking interconnectivity and secure and fast data exchange tailored to collaboration needs. Furthermore, ownership of data is unclear, and efficient tooling is lacking, making it very hard to make appropriately holistic and informed decisions for building management purposes. In this project, you will work on a radically innovating solution for this problem, which leverages semantic data repositories, versioned 3D representations, data-centric Common Data Environments (CDEs), and decentralised data management. The aim is to enable more efficient and sustainable data use in the built environment by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative management practices. This includes the use and implementation of a data mesh architecture across the building sector that is interoperable with existing, proprietary BMS and Digital Twin Systems. This decentralised system will allow the integration of a suite of solutions focused on enhancing the overall performance of buildings and improved decision-making processes, mainly through: (i) enhanced buildings' operation by an improved planning and management; (ii) evaluation of environmental impact and circularity schemes; and (iii) advanced and more accurate diagnosis and monitoring of buildings.

Your contribution: As a PhD Researcher in this project from TU Eindhoven side, your primary responsibility will be to design and develop the IT- technical components behind the targeted distributed data modelling and federated digital twinning approach to BIM and BMS systems. This primarily involves the creation of so-called Personalised Building Data Hubs (PDHs) that collect the available data for a building at any given time (versioning). These PDHs are made available on a one-per-building basis and collect all data available for each of these buildings, including BIM model, telemetry data from sensors and equipment, diverse 3D representations (e.g. point clouds, 3D mesh objects), and semantically rich graph data. Such data can serve multiple uses, such as smart building control, circular material exchange, and indoor robot navigation (see ISBE website and publications). The data gathered in these PDHs will follow the International Data Space (IDS) principles and will be made available to users and key stakeholders to participate in transactions of data and services through a P2P marketplace (interconnected buildings). Your role is to make this IT-technical challenge happen, in collaboration with fellow researchers. For this task, you need sufficient IT-technical background and interest (web development) and a keen understanding and interest in BIM workflows and BMS systems. Furthermore, you need to be up for a challenge, and have the ambition to come up with a radically new approach towards data handling in our built environment.

Your role: You will be part of a very nice and highly active ISBE research group at TUEindhoven . You will be part of a large international consortium and research project, and you are expected to participate fully in this consortium, together with TUe colleagues. Interaction and exchange with local sister projects at TUe ISBE group is encouraged and will be needed. Further, you are expected to represent the project and TUe ISBE through journal publications and participation in international conferences. You are expected to take on a limited amount of teaching at TU Eindhoven.

You will be based at the Faculty of the Built Environment (BE) of the TU Eindhoven, and there you will be 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.). You will be part of a highly international research group, with state-of-the-art IT in construction and smart buildings skills.

Job requirements

Applicants are required to hold a MSc degree in engineering (civil, electrical, computer science, or similar) or computer science. The preferred candidate will meet as many of the following requirements as possible:

A good background in construction engineering, building technology, and/or software engineering.

Experience with web development using well-known frameworks and languages, such as JavaScript, Django and/or Node.js.

Experience with data handling techniques (SQL, graphDB, Neo4J, …).

A research-oriented attitude.

Ability to work in an interdisciplinary and international research team and interested in collaborating with industry partners.

Motivated to develop your teaching skills and coach MSc students.

Fluent in spoken and written English (C1 level).

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:

Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.

Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, , scale P (min. € 2770 max. € 3539).

A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.

High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self- aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.

An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.

An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.

A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.

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.

Curious to hear more about what it's like as a PhD candidate at TU/e? Please view the video.

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.pauwelsattue.nl.

Visit our website for more information about the application process or the conditions of employment. You can also contact Kevin Caris, HR-advisor, HRAdviceBEattue.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 by 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.

A copy of your master thesis.

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.