Role: Research Associate in Transport Modelling and Telematics
Grade and Salary: Grade 7, £36,924 - £46,485 per annum
FTE and working pattern: 1 FTE, 35hrs per week, Monday - Friday
Contract: 1 Year, Fixed Term
Holiday Entitlement: 33 days annual leave plus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday)
About the Project
The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (SRF) is led by Heriot-Watt University and Cambridge University. We are partners in the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, with Birmingham and London South Bank Universities. These networks include a large group of industrial partners and international partners in China, India, Rwanda and South Africa. The Centre is leading three major national and international research programmes collectively funded for the next five years.
TransiT is the UK's largest research hub dedicated to rapidly decarbonising transport through digital twinning. TransiT will create a Federated Transport System of Systems (FTSoS), integrating digital twins across road, rail, air, and maritime transport modes. The programme includes a team of 27 research associates across 8 universities who will deliver this ambitious research.
The Clean Cooling Network (CCN), was established in 2020 to research the development of logistics and cold-chain models with in-country teams in the Global South, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Heriot-Watt team's modelling techniques for infrastructure planning.
DARe (National Hub for Decarbonised Adaptable and Resilient Transport Infrastructures) is finding viable pathways and solutions for a transition to a decarbonised and resilient transport system that works for all.
As part of the CCN initiative, the SRF team at Heriot-Watt maintain an agent-based virtual model of cold chain interactions, economics and behaviours within the wider in-house MILES modelling environment. The CCN model within MILES was built around the principles of reducing post-harvest food losses in Global South countries due to a lack of available cold-chain infrastructure. The virtual model assists policymakers in de-risking new deployments of community cooling hubs within these contexts, by providing a data-driven, parameter-rich testing environment to quantify costs, transport and energy requirements. This can be used for a wide range of outcomes such as increasing exports or improving population health outcomes. The current phase of CCN concentrates on the virtual model's ability to act as a digital twin, reorganising around novel real-time information collected through Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors embedded in cooling hubs, and being ready to interpret status reports about their operations and status in a way that can provide useful feedback to potential clients, for example re-routing operations in case of disruption or over-stocking.
Purpose of Role
We are recruiting Research Associates with experience in the use of large-scale, high-fidelity telematics data for transport modelling, to support this research portfolio.
The post-holder will work closely with SRF's existing software team on updating and maintaining the virtual MILES model for CCN and developing features that allow it to be run within the digital twin context. The digital twin architecture developed will also allow significant technical overlap with the TransiT and DARe projects. This post will involve a significant amount of collaborative working with multi-institutional teams working on developing telematics-enabled cold chain infrastructure in contexts within Africa, delivering reductions in food waste, improvements in Global South population health outcomes, and increasing prosperity and security throughout the global supply chain.
Key Duties & Responsibilities
* Conduct and disseminate original research aligned with the project and in collaboration with the multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary team
* Work closely with telematics providers and deployed engineering teams within Global South contexts on challenges with data collection, communications and security
* Work with the Centre's software team to develop a means of integrating a live communications protocol into a virtual model of cold chain behaviours
* Contribute to the ongoing development and use of the virtual modelling environment
* Write and deliver reports to the multi-institutional Clean Cooling Network (CCN) team on the progress and technical specifications of the implemented solutions
* Work as part of the broader Centre team to help organize events and/or support the work of the team as needed
* Contribute to outreach and impact engagement activities of the project
* Demonstrate initiative in making routine decisions in order to manage and achieve project deliverables and deadlines
* Participate in, and develop, networks and collaborations both internally and externally to the Division/School /University
* Any other duties, commensurate with the grade of the post
Essential & Desirable Criteria
Essential
1. PhD in relevant discipline (computer modelling of logistics or transport, agent-based modelling, sustainable logistics, or energy transitions) or equivalent industry experience
2. Ability to use advanced data analytics tools such as R Studio, Python, or Power BI to analyse and visualize complex datasets.
3. Strong experience in working with large-scale transportation datasets, including sensors and telematics data.
4. Experience with designing and implementing application programming interfaces (APIs) and/or microservice software architecture and communication protocols
5. Experience in managing data cybersecurity
6. Experience working with telematics data
7. Evidence of excellent oral and written communication skills
8. Evidence of a developing publication record
9. Experience or desire to work with those from other disciplines
10. Evidence of excellent administrative and project management skills
11. Evidence of self-motivation and the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
12. Excellent time management skills including the ability to prioritise workload
Desirable
1. Experience with data logging platforms, sensors or Internet of Things (IoT) devices
2. Experience in mobile application (app) development, in particular for live communication applications
3. Experience in developing dashboards for data visualization and analysis
4. Knowledge of the domain of cold-chain operations, and the context of the Global South food supply chain
5. Experience working with in-country or "on the ground" engineering teams as part of a multidisciplinary project team
6. Knowledge or experience of digital twins or digital shadows, and data standards for interoperability between such platforms
7. Familiarity with passenger and freight transportation systems and their associated data.
8. Experience in large-scale "big data" analysis
9. Evidence of success in attracting research grants/external funding and delivering on externally funded research projects
10. Evidence of a basic knowledge of the Higher Education context and regulatory framework
How to Apply
Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on Tuesday 04 March 2025.
Please submit your CV and cover letter via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment.
We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g., part-time working and job share options.
Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised, and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.
Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website here and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers here.
Use our total rewards calculator: here to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.
About Heriot-Watt University
At Heriot-Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.
Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.
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