PhD position “Towards a digital twin of drinking water treatment and supply systems: data fusion for by-product monitoring”

PhD position “Towards a digital twin of drinking water treatment and supply systems: data fusion for by-product monitoring”
PhD position “Towards a digital twin of drinking water treatment and supply systems: data fusion for by-product monitoring”

Published	Deadline	Location
today	16 Oct	Enschede

Job description
Background: Water purification and disinfection are crucial to provide safe water, as the quality of intake (source) water is increasingly degrading by pollutants of anthropogenic origin. Concurrently, disinfection techniques generate by-products (DBPs), already identified to have impact at low concentrations on environment and health, such as effects on neurotoxicity, thyroid gland, and human liver activity. The ambition is to apply data fusion from all water purification and distribution conditions (e.g. temperature, pH, etc.), and develop the required data infrastructure, to reach a digital twin of the drinking water treatment system. This will result in a cost-effective solution to monitor DBPs by combining a multitude of cost-effective existing water quality sensors, a smaller amount of higher resolution optical sensors, coupled to a validation in the laboratory with high-resolution analytical techniques reducing the cost of the monitoring program. Additionally, this solution will allow monitoring water quality with a much higher temporal resolution, so spikes in DPBs can be detected timely.
Research challenge: The fusion of (sensor)data to predict DBPs is already described in research literature. However, to successfully apply this approach in drinking water treatment and supply systems, information is still lacking. Relevant low-cost sensors and supporting analytical methods need to be identified. This serves, not only successful identification of DBPs, but also related parameters, e.g. precursors and distribution process parameters. Data fusion at this scale requires specific hardware, and newly developed algorithms. The sensing infrastructure needs to form a wireless sensor network which operates autonomously in an ad hoc, plug and play manner. This forms the basis for creating a digital twin of the drinking water treatment and supply system.
Important notice: This project is embedded in the EU Horizon project H2OforAll (ID: 101081963), and provides a dynamic research project with strong collaboration with universities and companies. Part of the work (~50%) is taking place at University of Twente, the other 50% part at Wetsus.
Specifications

• max. 40 hours per week
• €2541—€3247 per month
• Enschede View on Google Maps

University of Twente (UT)

Requirements

• We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with a background (MSc) in embedded computing, data- or computer science, environmental science, water technology, electrical engineering, or applied physics.
• The candidate will require a high level of independence and will need to be able to work from an interdisciplinary perspective.
• Knowledge in sensor programming and wireless sensor networks is a plus.

In parallel, we expect from the candidate:

• To be an enthusiastic and highly motivated researcher.
• To have a creative mindset and excellent analytical and communication skills.
• To have a good team spirit and like to work in an interdisciplinary and
• internationally oriented environment.
• To be proficient in English.
• To be willing to travel internationally a few times per year, for the needs of the project he/she will be working on.

Conditions of employment

• As a PhD student at UT, you will be appointed to a full-time position for four years, with a qualifier in the first year, within a very stimulating and exciting scientific environment;
• The University offers a dynamic ecosystem with enthusiastic colleagues;
• Your salary and associated conditions are in accordance with the collective labour agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU);
• You will receive a gross monthly salary ranging from € 2.541,- (first year) to € 3.247,- (fourth year);
• There are excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
• A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid);
• You will have a training programme as part of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will determine a plan for a suitable education and supervision;
• We encourage a high degree of responsibility and independence, while collaborating with close colleagues, researchers and other staff.

Department
Pervasive Systems group at UTwente: Situated at the core of the Internet of Things, the Pervasive Group has high societal and economic impacts in various applications in the area of Smart Urban, Smart Life, and Smart Industry such as environmental monitoring, ecology, ambient assisted living, agriculture, transport and mobility, smart industry, supply chain management, health, sports, asset management, predictive maintenance, and smart cities. The PS group follows a system-oriented research which makes multi-disciplinary collaboration natural, inspired by real problems. The research themes of PS are focused on the design and analysis of the following topics and their interaction: Sensing: Collaborative embedded and opportunistic sensing; Networking: Wireless and opportunistic networking; Sensor data analytics: spatio-temporal sensor data analytics.
Additional information
Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the ‘Apply now’ button below before October 17, and include:

• Recent CV
• Motivation letter
• An academic diploma and transcripts of BSc and MSc education, including grades.

For more information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact dr. A. (Andreas) Kamilaris, via a.kamilaris@utwente.nl
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