The project contributes to the development of a European drone infrastructure. Working at the intersection of computer science and law, this project’s objective is to develop and implement a regulatory framework. Specific objectives include:

• Identifying requirements that need to be met to ensure machine-interpretability and machine-executability of regulation.
• Making existing Unmanned Aircraft Systems regulation machine-interpretable and machine-executable (as far as possible).
• Developing machine-interpretable and machine-executable liability rules for Unmanned Aircraft Systems in an urban mobility context.
• Together with an external party, developing an ontology that captures and organises rules into relevant concepts and hierarchies.The language-independent (semantic) character of this ontology would allow scaling the described features across language and EU countries.
• Testing and, when necessary, adapting the rules based on the simulations in Living Labs.

Preparing a regulatory framework in a machine-interpretable and machine-executable format is highly innovative. More generally, contributing to a technical, legal, and governance infrastructure for drones in an urban mobility context is ground-breaking. There is a growing need to apply computational methods to develop data infrastructures and methodologies, and to apply them in a responsible way that contributes to a sustainable innovative society. Furthermore, this project allows obtaining experience in developing an entire state-of-the-art spatial Urban Air Mobility ecosystem which includes a governance model and framework (interoperable and scalable); regulatory framework (machine-readable and executable); geospatial digital infrastructure (technology agnostic digital toolbox); Identity of Things Scheme (identity framework for operators, drones, authorities and AI-algorithms); and interoperability frameworks (technical, semantic, legal/policy and organisational). Consequently, you will observe how the research results of the Ph.D. project are implemented in a real-life setting, and to make adjustments in the technical and legal framework for optimization purposes.

You will perform the research with the support of experts at the Maastricht Law & Tech Lab and the Department of Knowledge Engineering at Maastricht University. You will be offered the opportunity to collaborate with researchers from different disciplines, including data science, knowledge engineering, and law. You will be part of an exciting and vibrant community where researchers from different disciplines meet and form interdisciplinary teams that conduct academically and societally relevant research. You will be offered the opportunity to, in addition to gaining knowledge on, expand your horizon and gain insights not only on applying computational techniques, but also on law, regulation, and ethics. For this, you will be encouraged, coached, and allowed to attend courses and workshops that will add social and legal knowledge to your skillset.

Tasks

Tasks are:

• Perform scientific research by applying diverse data science techniques;
• Validate the applied methods and tools through real-world experiments;
• Present the research results to a variety of stakeholders and target groups applying diverse data visualization techniques;
• Write scientific papers for international peer-reviewed conferences and journals;
• Present your work in international conferences;
• Finalize the work in a PhD thesis.

Supervision will be provided by individually assigned senior researchers. A small proportion (20%) of the appointment may be devoted to teaching activities. The majority of the work (80%) concerns conducting the research.

• MSc degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Science, Artificial Intelligence or equivalent OR MSc degree in Law.
• Experience in natural language processing and ontology learning is preferred.
• Community-friendly team player.
• Excellent oral and written English communication
• Optional: geek-friendly.

Terms of Employment

• Start of employment: between 1 December 2020 and 1 February 2021.
• 38 hours per week;
• Remuneration will be according to standard salary levels for PhD candidates starting with a salary of €2.325,- with a yearly growth to €2.972,- gross a month, based on a full-time appointment (38 hours/week). An 8% holiday and an 8.3% year-end allowance is also provided;
• We offer a 3 or 4 year (depending on the teaching activities) full-time appointment as PhD candidate. The first year will be a probation period, after a positive assessment the position will be extended for another 2 or 3 years, which happens in the vast majority of cases;
• We offer an attractive package of fringe benefits such as, reduction on collective health insurance, substantial leave arrangements, selection model for designing a personalised benefits package, use of UM Sport facilities against reduced rate, and application for attractive fiscal arrangements for employees from abroad;
• The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > Support > UM employees .
• We offer a rewarding career at a young university in the heart of Europe, with a distinct global perspective and a strong focus on innovative research and education;
• We provide a stimulating, collaborative and interdisciplinary work environment with excellent opportunities for professional and personal development;
• Maastricht University has an excellent international reputation, and Maastricht itself is a beautiful, open-minded city located in the center of Western Europe.
• The appointment will be at the Maastricht Law & Tech Lab.

Fixed-term contract: 3 or 4 years, depending on the teaching activities.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 18,000 students and 4,400 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Flying Forward Project

Flying Forward Project

The project is part of the H2020 – Flying Forward 2020 (FF2020) project. Around the world, cities are introducing initiatives aimed at addressing urban mobility issues, improving (digital) infrastructures and tackling pollution. Although roughly half the world’s inhabitants live in cities, they generate more than 80 percent of the Global Domestic Product (GDP). Around the world, cities are introducing initiatives aimed at addressing urban mobility issues, improving (digital) infrastructures and tackling pollution. It is expected that 80% of the world’s population will live in cities in 2050. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is described as the lifeblood of modern cities, a critical economic factor and a facilitator of smart, sustainable development. FF2020 embraces this new reality and wants to be a European and global frontrunner in solving these environmental, social, economic and technologic challenges of the 21st century by providing integrated, inclusive and sustainable (digital) solutions that are safe, secure and convenient. FF2020 offers an entire state-of-the-art spatial UAM ecosystem which includes a governance model and framework (interoperable and scalable); regulatory framework (machine-readable and executable); geospatial digital infrastructure (technology agnostic digital toolbox); Identity of Things Scheme (identity framework for operators, drones, authorities and AI-algorithms); and interoperability frameworks (technical, semantic, legal/policy and organisational) – which fully comply with existing EU-regulation and yet challenges these regulations. By developing, deploying and testing the UAM spatial ecosystem in 5 Living Labs we are able to involve countries, cities and communities on a regular basis and process their feedback through our iterative approach. The practical results will be best-in-class drone infrastructure, autonomous monitoring and last-mile delivery.

The Maastricht Law & Tech Lab offers an exciting and vibrant community where legal scholars and data scientists meet and form interdisciplinary teams that work at the intersection of Law and Computer Science.

The Laboratory for Cognitive Robotics, Intelligent Interaction and Complex Self-organizing Systems (SwarmLab) at the Department of Data Science and Knowledge (DKE) of Maastricht University focusses its research on the creation of cognitive robotic systems and software that autonomously analyse their environment, extract knowledge and perform or suggest actions based on strategic goals. Among other robotic systems, the SwarmLab also hosts research on autonomous drones.