The planned transition towards a circular economy requires new methods to gain insight into the circularity potential of constructions. The construction industry is notorious for its large share in consuming virgin materials and producing waste. Its current ‘linear’ model of construction is not sustainable, because resources are finite and waste unwanted. To adopt alternative, ‘circular’, construction methods in which materials are efficiently reused, new methods are necessary to assess circularity potentials and to inform project decision-makers. Despite several (inter)national initiatives, no such method has matured yet. This PDEng project therefore tries to further develop and digitize a circularity assessment method through a design science approach. The candidate will use Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools and technologies to systematically design, test and implement the method. The candidate will thereby actively participate in several ongoing design/construction projects with circularity ambitions. Those projects offer a learning environment (living lab) to better understand information requirements of different construction parties and to experiment with any BIM solutions. An educational trajectory tailored to the needs of the candidate thereby helps to substantiate those solutions with the latest circularity knowledge. The PDEng project eventually results in a robust yet intuitive BIM-based method to assess the circularity potential of constructions.

The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Civil Engineering offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be carried out at Campus & Facility Management of the University of Twente.

The educational programme, carried out at the University of Twente, will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with Campus & Facility Management and DigiDealGO you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.

• Your main goal is to develop a BIM-based method to measure the level of circularity in construction projects;
• You will observe design and construction progress meetings as an active participant ;
• You will analyse what information different construction parties need for circular construction;
• You will specify employer’s information requirements (EIR, Dutch: ILS) for circularity;
• You will formulate calculation methods for assessing how circular a construction project is;
• You will link these calculation methods to a dashboard that visualizes the assessment outcomes to a user (e.g. plugin for BIM software);
• You will test and refine (intermediate) deliverables using a living lab approach;
• You will cooperate with Campus & Facility Management & DigiDealGO.

• You hold a MSc degree in Civil Engineering or a related discipline;
• You have demonstrated affinity with BIM, circular economy and/or software engineering;
• You have a passion for designing solutions for complex technological issues;
• You have excellent collaboration and communication skills;
• You are able to speak or willing to learn Dutch;
• You are self-starting and self-motivating, willing to take initiatives and feel the responsibility for your own project.

Candidates with a non-Dutch qualification and who have not had secondary and tertiary education in English can only be admitted with an IELTS-test showing a total band score of at least 6.5, internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT) showing a score of at least 90, or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE).


INFORMATION AND APPLICATION

Please send the following documents before 07-08-2020 through the link below:

• Letter of motivation
• Curriculum vitae
• List with grades of courses attended
• References and, if applicable, a list of publications.

If you have any further questions about this vacancy of the PDEng programme in Civil Engineering, please contact Marc van den Berg (m.c.vandenberg@utwente.nl or +31 (0)53 489 8944), Hans Voordijk (j.t.voordijk@utwente.nl) or Arjen Adriaanse (a.m.adriaanse@utwente.nl).

We offer a very challenging position for two years in an inspiring multidisciplinary and international environment. In this time we will provide you with a tailor made post-master design programme that has an educational component (~50%) as well as a design project (~50%).

• A salary of € 1.970 gross per month;
• A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• A solid pension scheme;
• Minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment.

On successfully completing the programme, you will receive a certified degree. You will be entitled to use the academic degree PDEng and will be registered as a Technological Designer in the Dutch register kept by the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI).

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) is one of the five faculties of the University of Twente. ET combines Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. Our faculty has approximately 1800 bachelor and master students, 400 employees and 150 PhD candidates. The departments of the faculty cooperatively conduct the educational programmes and participate in interdisciplinary research projects, programmes and the research institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centra and Digital Society Institute.