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 Rijkswaterstaat.

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 Rijkwaterstaat you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.

In the Netherlands, as well as in many other countries, the road network contains a large number of bridges, viaducts, and tunnels that were built in the 1960s and 1970s or even earlier. These objects were built with the construction and material knowledge of that time and calculated on the then-current design standards, traffic forecasts and vehicle load. Since the building of these objects traffic intensity has substantially increased. In addition, the (safety) requirements, both nationally and internationally were further tightened over the past few decades. Knowledge has also increased about how materials used (steel and concrete) will behave over time. Monitoring plays an increasing role in assessing the remaining technical lifetime of bridge and viaducts that have achieved their intended usage life. Monitoring could support the extension of the life span of bridges and viaducts by providing insights in the effects of traffic load on the behavior of the construction, or deterioration of the construction itself. By monitoring damage, it can be predicted how it will develop in the future and what this means for safety. The relation between the safety of a construction and data from a monitoring system, however, is still unclear.

The research question in this project is:

• How can a monitoring system be used to guarantee the structural safety of bridges?

• You hold a MSc degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management & Engineering, Construction Engineering & Management, Data management or a related discipline;
• You have demonstrated affinity with design and multidisciplinary assignments;
• You have a passion for finding solutions for complex technological issues;
• You have excellent collaboration and communication skills;
• 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).

Application
Please send the following documents before 31-10-2017 through the link below:

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

Contact information
If you have any further questions about this vacancy of the PDEng programme in Civil Engineering, please contact Dr. J.T. Voordijk:

• Email: j.t.voordijk@utwente.nl
• Telephone: +31 53 489 4214

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 € 1.828 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: MIRA, CTIT, SBE and IGS.