The Chair of Nonlinear Solid Mechanics, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente has an opening for a Postdoc candidate on developing Industry 4.0 solutions for manufacturing industry.

For this project, we are looking for a post-doctoral researcher with relevant expertise in manufacturing and data-analytics. The candidate will report his/her research during bi-weekly meetings of the research group and quarterly meetings with the industrial partners. The candidate is expected to interact significantly with the industrial partners and present his/her results at international scientific conferences and publish them in academic literature.
At the Faculty of Engineering Technology, the Postdoc position is part of the Mechanics of Solids, Surfaces and Systems (MS3) department, a team of approximately 75 academics and PhDs which deals with the topics: solid mechanics, tribology, production and system engineering. The work will be performed in the chair Nonlinear Solid Mechanics and co-supervised from the chair of Precision Engineering.

The Challenge

High-precision manufacturing pushes the limits of what is possible with conventional manufacturing systems. The development of the new generation of high-precision manufacturing systems relies on detailed understanding of the process disturbances which cause variation in the end-product. This project aims at developing models for control of manufacturing processes which can be used for interpreting small variations in the process due to product-to-product disturbances. Such accurate and mature models can only be developed through integration of knowledge from high-fidelity physics-based models with knowledge obtained from large streams of sensor data. Integration of models and sensor data is key for the development of novel data analytic tools providing crucial causal information to the product-to-product variations which can subsequently be used in novel data-driven control systems to pre-empt and to remove such variations in real-time.
This research will be performed within an on-going project with two universities (University of Groningen and University of Twente) and seven small, medium and large companies. The Postdoc vacancy advertised here aims at the development of model-based data analytics tools for inferring / obtaining accurate and mature models which are applicable for control of high-precision manufacturing systems. The main challenge is to investigate process variations in metal forming mass production, and create fast and accurate process models based on the i

• PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering, Data Analytics or a related discipline with excellent results and a special interest in modelling of manufacturing processes.
• Prior knowledge in solid mechanics, computational methods, statistics and/or data analytics.
• Preferably a solid background in working with large industrial datasets, with experience in analyzing and interpreting such data.
• Curious and highly motivated to do interdisciplinary scientific research with a clear industrial application.
• Working independently and taking ownership for your own research.
• Strong communication skills.
• Fluent in English, both spoken and written. You need to provide IELTS test results (minimum score 6.5), TOEFL-iBT (minimum score 90) or Cambridge CAE or CPE.

The University of Twente offers a stimulating work environment in an area of applied, forefront research. You will be employed for 12 months (1,0 fte). Salary and conditions will be in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO-NU) of the Dutch Universities.
• Starting salary ranges from € 3.353 to € 4.402 gross per month depending on your background, relevant experience and qualifications.
• 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;
• Professional and personal development programs;
• A high degree of responsibility and independence, while collaborating with close colleagues, researchers and other university staff is strongly encouraged.