PDEng trainee - Volker Wessels at Eindhoven University of Technology

Fulltime, two year trainee position at the PDEng program Smart Buildings & Cities of the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Fulltime, two year trainee position at the PDEng program Smart Buildings & Cities of the Eindhoven University of Technology. We are looking for candidates with a strong interest in energy in the built environment and a MSc degree in Architectural Engineering, Building Science, Building, Civil, Mechanical or Environmental Engineering, or equivalent. Knowledge from sustainability and user preferences analyses are essential and experience in Building Information Modelling and software development are beneficial.

Smart Buildings & Cities PDEng program

The Smart Buildings & Cities PDEng program wants to contribute to the transition towards smart, intelligent and sustainable cities where quality of life is high. This transition requires new solutions which can only be created through multiscale and transdisciplinary (design) approaches. The transition is a relevant theme for society (as reflected by the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges formulated by the European Commission), building industry and university (consider the TU/e's Strategic Areas: Energy, Health and Smart Mobility and the TU/e's Smart Cities Program).

This requires technical designers who are able to work in a multidisciplinary environment and know how to communicate with different disciplines and stake holders. This PDEng program educates trainees to become those technical designers! Please note that this program is about technological design, i.e., the process of solving problems by means of a technological design, this in contrast to (PhD) research, which is the process of understanding problems.

After the two year program our trainees become technical designers with a broad technological understanding of energy related disciplines in the built environment (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, building physics and services and ICT), who excel in their own discipline and who are able to work in multidisciplinary design teams, contribute to design issues outside their own core disciplines, integrate different technologies into new products and concepts, and who understand the commercial aspects of these innovative products and concepts.

Job description

The Department of the Built Environment of the Eindhoven University of Technology offers you a trainee position to follow a two-year post-master technological designer program, which leads to the degree of 'Professional Doctorate in Engineering' (PDEng). The SEB&C program consists of two main parts:

1. Workshops. You will follow technical workshops in which you acquire knowledge concerning important concepts of disciplines other than your own (master) specialism. You will follow these workshops with other SEB&C trainees (all with different master specialisms). The workshops increase your ability to effectively and efficiently communicate with these other disciplines in multidisciplinary design teams. Furthermore, you will follow workshops on design methods, entrepreneurship and professional skills.

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2. Design projects. You will work on a design project with a group of SEB&C trainees and you will work an individual in-company assignment (see description below). The latter is a design project in collaboration with a company and the university. You work within the company structure (facilities, office desk, computer and other required equipment are provided by the company). It is your main responsibility to manage and execute the project. You are supported by an advisor from the company and an advisor from the university. A business plan for implementation or marketing of the project or product is part of the final deliverables.

A significant part of the first year of the program is dedicated to the workshops, while the second year is mostly dedicated to the in-company assignment. Nonetheless you will start working on the in-company assignment from the start of the program. The in-company assignment related to this traineeship is described below.

To meet the targets set by the Dutch government in order to fulfil the Paris Climate agreement (2015) goals, the housing renovation process needs substantial upscaling. Therefore the clients' requirements need to be elicited in a structured format such that the building industry can offer standardized solutions that allow for large scale, high speed renovation processes. The client's requirements consist of the physical and behavioral aspects. The standardized building solutions entails industrialized products and processes for house renovation for the Dutch market. In this project a simulation model is developed to support large scale, high speed housing cluster renovation processes.

Given a cluster of houses and their renovation a construction process is developed. The cluster of houses and their renovation have similar properties in terms of housing type, renovation package, and location. A construction process is developed for a renovation cluster based upon the required construction activities and based upon the available construction capacities at a contractor. To find an optimum between housing renovation cluster size and contractor's construction capacity, combined with the industrialization rate and renovation speed a simulation model is developed. The simulation model will entail supplier logistics, prefabrication, transportation logistics, on site construction activities, etc. The simulation will be generic applicable for different renovation clusters and different types of construction processes. It should also be able in include new construction techniques such as 3D printing. The simulation can be used to provide insights for the contractor how to adjust its construction process to large scale, high speed housing renovation. The simulation model can also be used to optimize the supply chain for these projects.

A prototype of the housing cluster renovation process simulation model will be implemented using existing software for (logistic) process simulation. The prototype will be tested with a representative sample of cases (houses) and users (contractors). The prototype design and pilot test evaluations will be documented in a report.

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PDEng trainee - Volker Wessels at Eindhoven University of Technology