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Job description
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Utrecht University (UU) external link and Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, Netherlands Railways) external link extend their cooperation on planning and scheduling. We aim to incorporate personal characteristics of the personnel into algorithms to achieve human-centred planning and scheduling that goes beyond conventional resource optimization. Traditionally, railway planning and scheduling takes into consideration line planning, timetabling, rolling stock planning, duty scheduling, and personnel rostering. This project focuses on duty scheduling and personnel rostering, which is an NP-hard optimization problem. We pursue a human-centered approach, including personnel's personal preferences to the rostering process; for example, by avoiding rostering characteristics that might trigger stress.
Based on both knowledge from psychology and communication sciences and data gathered via questionnaires, interviews, and psychological test batteries, NS' available data and models will be used and augmented with an additional personnel component. Subsequently, conventional approaches with glass box Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods (e.g., optimization and search strategies) are employed to develop human-centered planning and scheduling models.
You will work at the intersection of Operations Research (OR) and Human-Centered Computing (HCC). Therefore, you will join the UU group on OR (7 PhD-students) and a subgroup of HCC (8 PhD-students), embedded in a department with a group of nearly 130 enthusiastic PhD-students. You will execute your own PhD-project in cooperation with other PhD-students and staff from NS and UU. You will work one day a week at NS within the department Performance Management and Innovation (NS-PI).
Qualifications
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You are a team player with a strong motivation to pursue a PhD-degree. Additionally, we would like you to bring:
* a MSc-degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Cognitive Science, Econometrics, Electrical Engineering or a related field;
* demonstrated programming skills;
* interest in psychology, communication science, and affective sciences;
* a strong interest in interdisciplinary scientific work;
* good English academic writing and presentation skills external link.
Finally, because of cooperation with NS, proficiency in Dutch is an advantage.
For more information and application link (deadline 16 May 2023) see https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/phd-position-on-human-centered-scheduling-and-planning-08-10-fte
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