Senior / or Post-Doctoral Researcher (28-month contract)

The Role: Maynooth University is committed to a strategy in which the primary University goals of excellent research and scholarship and outstanding education are interlinked and equally valued. Due to the continued expansion of the Centre for Ocean Energy Research, we are seeking a postdoctoral researchers:

The postdoctoral researcher will be recruited for a period of 28 months for a Science Foundation Ireland, Department for Enterprise (Northern Ireland) and the National Science Foundation (US) funded project involving Control Co-Design of Heterogeneous Arrays of Wave Energy Converters. The focus of the role will be on the development of numerical optimisation-based control strategies for the linear and nonlinear models of Wave Energy Converter (WEC) arrays. The overall approach will rely on suitably adapting and extending existing frameworks based on direct transcription and other techniques such as networked model predictive control to the setting of multi-objective optimal control for WEC arrays.

The projects exist within a wider COER group of 16 researchers, who work on a variety of fundamental and applied projects related to ocean energy. The group has significant expertise in hydrodynamic modelling, control and estimator design and also in forecasting techniques. It is anticipated that the recruited postdocs will tap into this significant body of expertise and experience, also having access to the broad set of national and international COER collaborators, both from the industrial and academic communities.

Principal Duties: The principal duties may include: • Development of numerical methods for control of wave energy devices • Real-time coding of the control, estimation and forecasting algorithms • Development of tank test protocols and executing tests • Preparation of reports and publications • Some level of engagement with PhD student mentoring and project management.

The ideal candidate will have: • A PhD in a relevant area, ideally related to the control of physical systems , engineering or mathematics. • To be appointed at Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher, suitable candidates must have a minimum of two years post-doctoral experience in a relevant field. • Applicants should have a background in mechanical, mechatronic or electrical/electronic engineering, fluid mechanics, hydrodynamics, applied mathematics. • Experience in numerical methods for optimal control. • Some record of scholarly publication. • Excellent written and oral communication skills and programming ability. • Good organisational skills and be prepared to get involved in aspects of the project management.

The Centre for Ocean Energy Research (COER) COER is an active international research centre in Maynooth University, Ireland involved in fundamental and applied research. To find out more go to Centre for Ocean Energy Research – Maynooth University, Ireland