The Aerospace Department (https://aero.uc3m.es/) of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain (www.uc3m.es) invites applications for 2 PhD positions:
· Ref. AERO-PhD-23-01-TrajectoryOpt. Trajectory Optimization with application to aviation.
· Ref. AERO-PhD-23-02-AI-Weather. Artificial Intelligence and Meteorology with application to aviation.
The successful candidates will join the Dynamics and Control in Aerospace Systems Lab, within the Aero Research Group (https://aero.uc3m.es/research-areas/). In particular, they will work in the aircraft operations lab with Prof. Manuel Soler, Prof. Javier García-Heras, and María Cerezo (https://aircraftoperationslab.com/).
The duties of the new group members include:
- Undertake a PhD under the topic:
- Ref. AERO_PhD-23-01-ATrajectoryOpt. The goal is to develop climate optimal commercial aircraft trajectory planning on both micro and macro levels. See https://aircraftoperationslab.com/aircraft-trajectory-optimization/
- Ref. AERO_PhD-23-02-AI-Weather. The goal is to develop deep learning arquitectures to improve the prediction of weather phenomena at airport level, including visibility and windshear. See https://aircraftoperationslab.com/artificial-intelligence-and-aviation/
2. Develop different tasks in the recently granted National an European Projects STORM-ATS, Intelmet-PoC, KAIROS and RefMap, all of them fully aligned with the topics of the PhD thesis.
3. Access to the Spanish FPI scholarship
4. Teach laboratory/exercises classes and supervise student projects within UC3M Bachelor and master’s degrees in Aeronautical and Space Engineering. Teaching workload (if any) would be in any case low. Information on these two degrees, exclusively taught in English, is available at https://aero.uc3m.es/.
5. Contribute to establishing a vigorous, internationally competitive scientific research program.
The desired skills are:
- Outstanding academic record.
- Young MSc holder (or MSc student with 60 ECTS passed at contract’s signature) with background in Aerospace Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Control Engineering, Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Optimization, Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Sciences & Climate Change, Meteorology. Also, candidates with tracks in other disciplines but outstanding academic record are invited to apply.
- International experience; team-working and communications skills.
- Ability to deal independently with scientific and engineering challenges, mainly in innovative, interdisciplinary technologies.
The contractual conditions are:
- 4-year contract.
- Gross annual salary: 22000-24000€ range (salary supplements may be granted by internal UC3M calls)
- To be part of a young, dynamic, highly qualified, collaborative team.
- Flexible working environment and schedule.
- Opportunity to travel to international conferences (Europe and overseas) and to present research activities, including research stays at top universities.
- Laptop and National Health System health coverage.
How to apply: Interested candidates should send their applications to mcerezo@ing.uc3m.es and gcarrete@ing.uc3m.es indicating in the e-mail subject the reference code (i.e. Ref. AERO-PhD-23-XX-YYY) of the preferred position (can be both), including:
- a CV (max. 4 pages).
- a motivation letter on experience, interests and future goals (max. 1 page)
- Contact details of two professional references.
The submission deadline for applications is 30 October (although early applications are strongly encouraged). The position is expected to end in December 2023 and the contract is to start in February 2024 (but could be earlier/later if agreed).