Research Assistant / Associate in Machine Learning of Road Vehicle Aerodynamics

Job summary

Applications are invited the role of Research Assistant / Associate in Machine Learning of Road Vehicle Aerodynamics fully-funded until 31 March 2025. This position is funded by a UKRI AI for Net Zero grant. The over-arching goal is to develop machine learning methods that are aware of the physics of the problem for the realization of real-time digital twins of engineering systems. Applications involve fluid mechanics and nonlinear partial...

Job listing information

  • Reference ENG02611
  • Date posted 28 April 2023
  • Closing date 28 May 2023

Job description

Job summary

Applications are invited the role of Research Assistant / Associate in Machine Learning of Road Vehicle Aerodynamics fully-funded until 31 March 2025. This position is funded by a UKRI AI for Net Zero grant. The over-arching goal is to develop machine learning methods that are aware of the physics of the problem for the realization of real-time digital twins of engineering systems. Applications involve fluid mechanics and nonlinear partial differential equations.

You will develop and experimentally demonstrate machine learning flow control techniques for the optimisation of active road vehicle aerodynamics. Data-driven techniques (i.e. Real-Time Reinforcement Learning) will be employed to enable the discovery of optimal control algorithms of flow control devices and platooning formations directly from wind tunnel experiments in fully turbulent regimes.  Funding is available for travelling and experiments in the flagship 10x5 National Wind Tunnel Facility at Imperial College.

Duties and responsibilities


  • Develop and experimentally demonstrate real-time machine learning methods for optimisation of road vehicle aerodynamics including the design, set-up and undertaking of wind tunnel experiments.

  • Develop physics-aware machine learning methods for optimisation of turbulent flows.

  • Disseminate research with peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations (with the PI)

Essential requirements


  • PhD (or equivalent doctorate degree) in Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Computing, or a closely related discipline.

  • Experience in a broad range of techniques including theoretical and experimental fluid mechanics, data-driven methods and programming

  • Knowledge of programming, dynamical systems, fluid mechanics and optimisation as well as mathematical skills.

Further information

This post is a full time, fixed-term contract until 31 March 2025.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Dr Georgios Rigas g.rigas@imperial.ac.uk

For queries regarding the recruitment process please contact Lisa Kelly: l.kelly@imperial.ac.uk

 

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research

Documents

About Imperial College London

Imperial College London is the UK’s only university focussed entirely on science, engineering, medicine and business and we are consistently rated in the top 10 universities in the world.

You will find our main London campus in South Kensington, with our hospital campuses located nearby in West and North London. We also have Silwood Park in Berkshire and state-of-the-art facilities in development at our major new campus in White City.

We work in a multidisciplinary and diverse community for education, research, translation and commercialisation, harnessing science and innovation to tackle the big global challenges our complex world faces.

It’s our mission to achieve enduring excellence in all that we do for the benefit of society – and we are looking for the most talented people to help us get there.

Additional information

Please note that job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.

Imperial College is committed to equality of opportunity and to eliminating discrimination. All employees are expected to follow the Imperial Values & Behaviours framework. Our values are: 

  • Respect              
  • Collaboration
  • Excellence          
  • Integrity
  • Innovation

In addition to the above, employees are required to observe and comply with all College policies and regulations.

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

For technical issues when applying online please email support.jobs@imperial.ac.uk.