PhD-position 'MAXWIND'

Vrije Universiteit Brussel
February 25, 2023
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PhD-position 'MAXWIND'

Category: PhD

1 - Working at the VUB

For already 50 years, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has stood for freedom, equality and connectedness. These values are strongly present on our campuses, in our students as well as our staff. At the VUB, you'll find a diverse collection of personalities: pure innovators and especially people who are 100% their authentic selves. With about 3.500 employees , we are the largest Dutch-speaking employer in Brussels , an international city with which we are all too happy to be connected, and around which our four campuses are located.

Our education and research are grounded in the principles of free research with an eye on human progress. We disapprove of every purely authoritative argument and guarantee the free formation of judgement that is necessary for this basic principle to be incorporated in the community.

The VUB is autonomous and managed democratically. As such, we guarantee fundamental freedoms within our university, as well as the right of the university community to be involved in making and checking university policy.

The mission of the university includes:

  • the development, the transfer and the application of high-standing academic education and scientific research, free from any prejudice;
  • community integration of this in a spirit of social compassion;
  • critical development of everyone in light of the responsibilities borne in the community.
  • 2 - Position description

    The Faculty of Engineering , Department Toegepaste mechanica , is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant.

    More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate , contains:

    If you are interested in offshore wind energy, data processing and machine learning, we offer you a challenging research position with high industrial relevance within OWI-lab (VUB).

    OWI-lab was founded in 2010 to support R&D in the field of offshore wind energy in Belgium. OWI-lab has years of experience in performing measurements on wind turbines and thus has access to the largest research database filled with long-term data. With this data, we conduct industrial research together with our partners, the results of which flow back for better management and design of this essential infrastructure.

    You will be part of a young and dynamic research team in an international environment characterised by collegial respect and academic freedom.

    You will work on the project MAXWIND. The overall goal of the project is to get a correct estimate of the remaining lifetime of the offshore foundations based on the measured data. With this information, we will both optimise the future design of similar foundations, build an optimised inspection and maintenance plan and substantiate a potential lifetime extension of offshore wind farms.

    Specifically, you will further work around the already developed concepts of virtual monitoring and extrapolating measurements on single turbines to a remaining lifetime estimate for the entire farm. For this, you will use the state-of-the-art in machine learning to uncover the relationships between turbine controls and their impact on turbine fatigue. Well-trained models will then enable you to make a prediction in the remaining lifetime of the entire park. With this research, we also want to go a step further and start giving an uncertainty on the predicted lifetime in addition to a prediction.

    Do you have a natural interest in working with real data, working in an industrial/socially relevant research domain and a drive to delve further into machine learning? Are you not averse to Python and want to help translate research into useful tools that can be used more widely? Do you want to deepen your knowledge of (offshore) wind energy and fatigue, and also share this with the broader (scientific) community? Then this doctoral research is definitely for you!

    For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base.

    3 - Profile

    What do we expect from you?

    You hold a Master of Science degree in Mechanical or Civil Engineering

  • You have a strong motivation for conducting scientific research at a high level.
  • You possess good analytical and technical skills.
  • You are interested in both experimental and numerical activities.
  • You are interested in mechanical behaviour of structural components, monitoring techniques and offshore wind energy.
  • Experience with data analysis, signal processing and programming in Python is an advantage.
  • Experience with setting up and conducting experiments is also an advantage.
  • Experience in geotechnical engineering can also be considered a plus but is not essential.
  • You take responsibility for the development of your project in a well- structured, thorough way and you are able to solve problems independently. You display creativity in solving problems, generating ideas or finding new ways of working.
  • You have an open personality and are willing to contribute to the team and participate in didactic projects.
  • You have excellent communication skills in English, both orally and written.

  • You have not performed any works in the execution of a mandate as an assistant, paid from operating resources, over a total (cumulated) period of more than 12 months.

  • 4 - Offer

    Are you going to be our new colleague?

    You'll be offered a full-time PhD-scholarship , for 12 months (extendable up to max. 48 months, on condition of the positive evaluation of the PhD activities), with planned starting date 01/03/2023.

    You'll receive a grant linked to one of the scales set by the government.

    IMPORTANT: The effective result of the doctorate scholarship is subject to the condition precedent of your enrolment as a doctorate student at the university.

    At the VUB, you're guaranteed an open, involved and diverse workplace where you are offered opportunities to (further) build on your career.

    As well as this, you'll enjoy various benefits:

  • Full reimbursement for your home-work commute with public transport according to VUB-policy, or compensation if you come by bike;
  • Cost-free hospitalisation insurance ;
  • The space to form your job content and continuously learn via VUB LRN;
  • Excellent facilities for sport and exercise ;
  • Ecocheques ;
  • Delicious meals at attractive prices in our campus restaurants ;
  • An open, family-friendly work environment where attention is paid to work- life balance, and exceptional holiday arrangements with 35 days of leave (based on a fulltime contract).
  • 5 - Interested?

    Is this the job you've been dreaming of?

    Send us ONLINE and at the latest on 15/02/2023 your CV, letter of motivation and the highest degree you've attained (not applicable for VUB alumni).

    Do you have questions about the job content? Contact Christof Devriendt at [email protected] or on 0477412049.

    Would you like to know what it's like to work at the VUB? Go to www. vub.ac.be/vacatures and find all there is to know about our campuses, benefits, strategic goals and your future colleagues.

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