The Engineering and Technology Institute (ENTEG) of the Faculty of Science and Engineering offers 1 scholarship PhD positions within the research group of Optimization and Decision Systems Research Group (ODS), for the most talented and motivated national and international students, starting between February and August 2019. All PhD positions are part of larger research programmes, often spanning across different expertise groups and being strengthened by complementary PhD projects already in progress and in preparation.

Candidates are invited to write and develop their own research project within the scope of the proposed topics listed below. Being part of a cutting-edge research programme, they will receive excellent training in the form of hands-on instruction, advanced courses and summer/winterschools, complemented by workshops on generic research and transferable skills as well as teaching training. As a PhD candidate, you are committed to conduct independent and original scientific research, to report on this research in international publications and conference presentations, and to describe the results of the research in a PhD dissertation, to be completed within 4 of years.

1. Evolutionary dynamics in social networks. In social networks one often observes herd behaviors or crowd-seeking attitudes in that certain social groups tend to mimic the behavior of other social groups. Behaviours may involve political opinions or social interactions like aggressive/non-aggressive or cooperative/non-cooperative. Mimicry can also be observed in financial markets under the name of "stock market bubbles'', which sees investors to emulate other investors. You will deal with convergence analysis of consensus network dynamics under the influence of external manipulators. You will develop multi-scale dynamic models combining complex networks game theory and control theory.

2. Collective decision making for logistics and intelligent mobility. In "future cities" end use customers use electric plug-in vehicles to go from a source node to a destination node, and choose routing policies and charging policies (where and when to buy-sell energy to/from the power network). You will deal with the analysis and design of market mechanisms, incentive schemes, business models to induce socially optimal behaviors of end-use customers. You will develop micro-macro models capturing the interactions between individuals, groups and the environment. You will use mean-field game theoretic models to describe how individuals respond to a population behavior and how the population behavior evolves if individuals are rational decision-makers.

Successful candidates will have completed a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in mathematics or engineering or another field of science relevant for the position. They have good command of English (oral and written), are enthusiastic and have the ability to work in an interdisciplinary team, have a passion for science, are highly motivated to work in systems and control theory, optimization, operational research, or game theory, possess a familiarity with computing software (MATLAB or similar), possess excellent communication skills and an affinity for writing scientific papers and delivering presentations. In addition to these general qualifications, specific research projects may require specific qualifications, to be discussed with the intended supervisors.

Fixed-term contract: 48 months.

The PhD Scholarship student will be enrolled in the PhD Scholarship Programme and receive a scholarship of € 2,120 per month (gross) from the University of Groningen for a period of 4 years. Information about the terms and conditions of the PhD Scholarship Programme can be found via: https://www.rug.nl/education/phd-programmes/phd-scholarship-programme/

The PhD Scholarship student will participate in the Graduate School of Science and Engineering training programme for PhD students and will draw up a personal training and supervision plan together with his or her supervisor. The Graduate School also provides a progress monitoring scheme to ensure an efficient PhD trajectory resulting in a PhD thesis within 4 years. A Career Perspectives curriculum is part of the training, which aims to prepare students for their (academic or non-academic) careers after the PhD trajectory.

Faculty of Science and Engineering

The University of Groningen has an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative institution of higher education, offering high-quality teaching and research. Balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 30,000 students and 5,500 employees to develop their own individual talents. The University of Groningen is proud to be among the global elite with a classification in the top 100 of the Shanghai ARWU, the THE World University Rankings, the U.S. News ‘Best Global Universities Ranking’, and the NTU Ranking. It marks the 24th place in the global ranking of Best Places to Work in Academia, scoring 3rd best in Europe and 5th non-US university. Joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

ENTEG is a research institute within the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The mission of the institute is to perform excellent technology driven scientific research and teaching in product and production sectors. ENTEG currently houses 20 scientific staff members and 4 part-time honorary professors. Scientific staff are embedded in 8 research units. Each research unit has between 1 and 3 scientific staff members, is headed by a full professor (chair) and some units have additional honorary scientific staff members. The institute wants to be an attractive partner for industry in collaborative (inter)national research programs, and a high-level training ground for Master and PhD students to provide them with an excellent background in engineering science.