The Department is searching for an inspirational, creative academic of international standing, who embraces multidisciplinary collaboration and will take the leadership in the transition of the Urban Planning Group in its development of the next generation of land use and travel demand forecasting models, and decision support tools and solutions, challenged by the emergence of new concepts such as shared economies, digital societies, big data and automated driving in the context of smart cities and smart mobility.

The setting

The Department of the Built Environment aims at contributing to the creation of high quality built environments through its educational and research activities. Activities relate to different levels, from cities to buildings and building components, and from integrated plans and designs to the focus on particular aspects. The Department is organized into four units: structural design, building physics, architecture and urban design, and urban systems and real estate.

The Urban Planning Group is one of three groups that in close collaboration constitutes the unit Urban Systems and Real Estate. The unit combines all teaching and research activities that are concerned with integrated urban planning and the planning and maintenance of large scale land development and real estate projects. Students are educated for positions in planning agencies, major engineering, land/property development and real estate firms, and specialized consultancy firms in urban development and transportation engineering.

The Urban Planning Group, the Information Systems in the Built Environment Group and the Real Estate Management & Development Group closely collaborate and coordinate their research activities in the context of the DDSS (Design and Decision Support Systems) research program. The program reflects the shared vision and interest of the three groups of evidence-based planning and design processes. Research activities focus on developing models, decision support tools and supporting innovative data collection technology that predict the likely performance of plans, designs and solutions in terms of a wide variety of performance indicators, including economic impacts, environmental impacts, social impacts and quality of life.

The Urban Planning Group currently has three Associate Professors, four Assistant Professors, three support staff and about 30 PhDs and postdocs. The disciplinary background of the faculty members ranges from urban planning, to civil engineering, operations research, urban design, geography and transportation engineering. Members originate from Netherlands, China, Korea, France and Iran. The basic philosophy of the group is that ultimately people and organizations define the quality of the built environment in their use of the environment. Hence, research is strongly based on theories and models of human preferences and choice behavior as developed in different disciplines, adjusted to the specific domain of application.

The group teaches about urban planning theory, a variety of facet-specific planning concepts and approaches, and planning methods/models. Based on the idea that land use and transportation planning are strongly interdependent, a main course and several lectures are concerned with the relationship between transportation and the built environment, including concepts and models of travel demand forecasting.

Research projects of the group concern residential satisfaction and mobility, retailing, leisure, land use systems, and travel behavior, with the majority of projects focusing on the analyses and innovative modeling of activity-travel patterns and acceptance of new mobilities such as shared systems, electric cars and mobility as a service. Key research topics include (dynamic) activity-based travel demand forecasting; advanced choice modeling under certainty and uncertainty; exploring concepts such as bounded rationality, regret, disappointment, perception and cognition; scheduling and choice models of household decision making; models of social influence; collecting, imputing, fusing and analysis of big data in travel behavior research; parking and pedestrian behavior; omni-channel activity choice behavior, multi-state supernetworks, and life trajectory, lifestyle and quality of life research.

The role

The successful appointee will be leading the Urban Planning Group. In close collaboration with the members of this group, the appointee will be responsible for the contents and quality of all courses and projects on both Urban Planning and Transportation Planning/Engineering, primarily delivered in the Department of the Built Environment, but also in the Department of Electrical Engineering and in the Bachelor School (use line). In addition, the appointee will, in collaboration with the other groups in the unit, be involved in master thesis projects, acting as chair of the supervising teams. A substantial amount of time will be spent on the supervision of PhD students, jointly with a second supervisor or co-supervisor. The appointee will represent the department and group in Trail (national PhD school on transportation and logistics) and Nethur (national PhD school on urban research) and be responsible for short courses on stated preference and choice experiments and choice modeling and quantitative research methods in these schools. The successful appointee will be engaged in the TU/e Smart Mobility strategic area and coordinate all research efforts and initiatives at the university on smart mobility that are aligned in the smart cities research institute. The appointee will continuously initiate and submit proposals for external funding and develop and maintain (inter)national academic and professional networks, including reviewing, service on scientific and professional committees, and valorization and dissemination activities. The successful appointee will commit to a proportional share of management tasks at the unit, department and/or university level.

The person

Applicants possess a Master of Science for example in Urban Planning or Civil Engineering, and have completed a PhD study on behavioral modeling of urban or transportation systems, and they are supposed to have sufficient knowledge about the main research topics and directions of the group. The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in modeling urban systems and travel demand from a variety of behavioral perspectives. The post requires a strong background in behavioral modeling of complex urban systems, activity-based modeling of travel demand, applied econometrics and theories of human decision-making, together with knowledge of emerging topics in urban planning and smart mobility.

Applicants for this position must demonstrate international excellence in their research area on the boundary of urban planning and smart mobility. In addition to evidence of a track record in publishing work of the highest academic quality in both urban planning and transportation journals, substantial evidence of award winning, high impact publications, membership of editorial boards and scientific committees, and elected membership of international committees and organizations in urban planning and transportation research is essential. Alongside, candidates are expected to have research experience in international multidisciplinary consortia involving both academics and professionals, and show evidence of securing external research funding. Additional professional experience in applied urban or transportation planning projects is an advantage. Willingness to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries within the unit and university is strongly encouraged.

Applicants must have a commitment to delivering research-driven teaching, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels that reflects the latest developments in science and practice, and communicating the relevance and impact of their research to stakeholders. Evidence of successful supervision of PhD students is expected. Candidates should have obtained the University Teaching Qualification or be willing to obtain this certificate within two years after their appointment.

The Eindhoven University of Technology values diversity and gender balance. Applications from women are strongly encouraged. In case of equal eligibility, priority will be given to female candidates in line with the University policy.

Remuneration

This is a full-time appointment at the Full Professor Level 2. The remuneration package will be in the range of € 5.334 up to € 7.766 gross per month, plus 8.3% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-the-year allowance. Besides this, the TU/e has an excellent package of attractive benefits for employees, a child-care facility, and a modern sports complex.