Saturday, October 1, 2022

[DMANET] Post-doctoral position: Integer programming in multiproduct pipeline operations

Mixed-integer programming is a rich area of research in optimization,
largely driven by applications. Recently, there has been much interest in
the operations of pipelines carrying natural gas. In contrast, the
scheduling of multiproduct pipeline systems carrying oil and oil products
introduces several complications: multi-commodity aspects, operational
constraints of the refineries, non-trivial models of the cost of pumping
(driven by electricity markets, but also the sale of ancillary services
therein), and railway logistics as an alternative to pumping.

In collaboration with a major operator of pipelines carrying crude oil and
numerous oil products, we are seeking a post-doctoral fellow interested in
the optimal scheduling of a multiproduct pipeline system using a
mixed-integer programming. With the help of a team of professional software
engineers at a third-party software house, the research will translate into
production, improving the operator's performance with respect to
electricity efficiency.

The post-doctoral fellow will benefit from the mentorship by Jakub Marecek
and Vyacheslav Kungurtsev in the Dept. of Computer Science of the Czech
Technical University. The position is full time and limited to 3 years, but
can be extended in case of mutual interest. The studentship comes with a
monthly salary almost double the average pay in Prague, the Czech Republic
(cca. EUR 40K p.a. before a notably low tax). The Czech capital regularly
ranks among five European cities within the world's best cities in the
world to live in (cf. Time Out Magazine index for 2021) and CTU's offices
are in a centrally-located palace with a view of Prague Castle. For more
information, please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague

We seek candidates with a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics, Computer Science,
Operations Research, Engineering or related disciplines, and some
experience in integer programming. A preference is given to:

– candidates with experience with scheduling or multi-commodity flow models

– candidates with experience in programming in Python

We expect to start interviewing candidates in September 2021 and the
position will be available until filled.

Czech Technical University (CTU) is the oldest non-military technical
university in Europe. In the academic year 2020/21, CTU offered 130 degree
programs in Czech and 84 in English. CTU's control-theory research is well
known, especially thanks to Vladimir Kucera. CTU's Artificial Intelligence
Center (AIC) with a staff of 150 is widely recognized as one of the best in
the region. CSRankings.org currently ranks it at number 6 in Europe within
AI and Computer Vision, after Technion, ETH Zurich, Imperial, Max Planck
Society, and EPFL. Since March 2020, Jakub Marecek leads the Optimization
research group within the AIC. For more information, please see
https://www.aic.fel.cvut.cz/research-areas/optimization

--
Jakub Marecek
j <jakub@marecek.cz>akub.marecek@gmail.com
jakub.marecek@fel.cvut.cz

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