Job Information
- Organisation/Company: Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale
- Department: Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
- Research Field: Engineering » Water resources engineering; Computer science » Computer systems; Engineering » Computer engineering
Offer Description
Doctoral Candidate 13 (DC 13) – Valve management optimization formulations for water quality enhancement in districtualizated WDSs
Università Degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale (UNICAS), Italy, is recruiting a Doctoral Candidate (DC) within the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network i3WaterS – Intelligent, Innovative and Integrative Water Systems. The successful candidate will be enrolled in a PhD programme at UPC and will work under the supervision of Angelo Leopardi who is Associate Professor
i3WaterS brings together leading universities, research centers, technology developers and water utilities across Europe. The project will train 15 Doctoral Candidates to develop innovative AI-driven solutions for intelligent, resilient and sustainable water systems, contributing to the digital transformation of one of the most critical infrastructures for society. The risk of water scarcity due to climate change and human activities is real. i3WaterS stands for Intelligent, Innovative, Integrative Water Systems and addresses the urgent need to optimize water resources management by providing a comprehensive solution to upgrade, optimally operate and maintain water distribution systems (WDSs). For the first time, a unique holistic approach will find the key interrelationships between external, day-to-day and extreme, factors and WDS failures, to advise actions and protocols to make WDSs robust and reliable. At research level, i3WaterS project focuses on the integration of data, specific expert knowledge and computational simulations tools, introducing the most advanced data-driven and artificial intelligent techniques beyond the State of the Art, that plugged in a newly developed intelligent decision support system (IDSSs), working as an umbrella for a set of 14 independent solutions that enables assisting the WDSs management into scientifically driven decision-making. The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) will help to increase the autonomy of some parts of the WDS, those suitable under a paradigm of maximum security, safety and robustness, and the project will take care to frame this autonomy in a global and general concept of intelligent assistance, including human validation in each steps where it makes sense 15 Doctorate Candidates will learn from a network of experts on network monitoring, data management, algorithms, AI, modeling, microbiology, ethics and industrial partners, and by participating in a specifically designed training programme, they will develop the required cross competencies to find, test and innovate over a solution that will be fundamental to meet the sustainable development goals on water. Just as important, i3WaterS provide a new generation of internationally connected professionals with unique skills for the development of thriving careers in the critical infrastructures.
Research Objectives
The main research goal of iWaterS is to provide, for the first time, rational analyses and explainable intelligent decision support of WDS to increase resilience to day-to-day incidents and to extreme events in the context of climate change such as floods or droughts, through new interdisciplinary and integral approaches for exploiting datasets (on-line, off-line), intelligent models (data-driven, numerical) and simulation results (digital twins, multiagent systems).
The specific research objective of this offer is to develop intelligent hydraulic modelling and optimisation methods that improve calibration, water demand estimation and water quality management in drinking water distribution systems.
The candidate will contribute with the following subobjectives:
- Formulate mathematical models and algorithms to optimize the operation of valves within DMA’s to minimize the risk of water quality deterioration. Multiple water quality factors will be taken into account.
- Evaluation and comparison of valves operational strategies to improve water quality in real-world districtualized WDNs.
Expected Results:
- Development of innovative optimization models incorporating water quality factors and valve operation variables.
- Provide practical guidelines and tools for water utilities to optimize valve settings.
Training Programme
The training proposed by i3WaterS will uniquely integrate decades of knowledge, expertise & achievements in disciplines such as civil and computer engineering, hydroinformatics, geomechanics, applied mathematics, multiobjective optimization, high performance computing, big data, artificial intelligence, modelling, and data management, including soft skills facilitated by academic and non-academic partners. Apart from the PhD thesis done under a multidisciplinar and international supervisory panel composed by an advisor, a coadvisor from a second i3WaterS university and an industrial mentor linked to a real water facility, the program includes an International Doctoral School with six training chapters that take place under an international mobility structure (Barcelona (Spain), Dublin (Ireland), Bordeaux (France), Delft (The Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), NewCastle (UK)). The contents of the training programme include the most relevant and advanced topics related with smart resilient WDSs and soft skills for the researchers and professionals of the future. The following topics are included in these training chapters:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
- Explainable AI and Trustworthy AI.
- Knowledge Representation and Semantic Technologies.
- Multi-Agent Systems and Intelligent Decision Support Systems.
- Digital Twins and Smart Water Systems.
- Innovation, entrepreneurship and technology transfer.
- Scientific communication and transferable skills.
International mobility will easy connections and visits to water facilities all over Europe, and industrial secondments will give a realistic perspective.
Two International Secondments in other second real water facilities will allow extensive testing and validation of thesis findings to guarantee real contribution to the state of art. These Secondments into industrial partners are included with two aims: testing the PhD findings in a different water facility from the one supporting the project development, and to allow providing specialised training to the water utilities staff.
Main Supervisor: Dr Angelo Leopardi (UNICAS, Italy)
Co-supervisor: Dr Claudia Quintiliani (BW, The Netherlands)
Industrial Mentor - Experts: Mr Tony Esposito (GORI, Italy)
Where to apply
E-mail: a.leopardi@unicas.it
Requirements
Research Field: Computer science » Other
Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent
Research Field: Engineering » Water resources engineering
Education Level: Master Degree or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications:
- Hydraulics
- Water Distribution Systems
- Machine Learning and Data Mining
- Knowledge-Based Systems
- Data-driven models
- Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
- Multi-Agent Systems
- Decision Support Systems
- Python, R, Java or related programming languages
- Data integration and interoperability
- Documenting in Latex
- Teamwork
Specific Requirements
Candidates must also comply with all applicable eligibility requirements and regulations of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks programme.
Mobility Rule: Applicants must comply with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) mobility rule. At the date of recruitment, candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Italy for more than 12 months during the 36 months immediately preceding the recruitment date. Short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.
Doctoral Status: Applicants must not possess a doctoral degree at the date of recruitment.
Employment conditions are subject to the legislation and internal regulations of the recruiting institution.
Languages: ENGLISH
Level: Good
Additional Information
Selection process
Once the application submission period has ended, the secretary of the selection committee may contact applicants to request any mandatory documentation that has not been provided, or to ask for additional documentation needed to evaluate the application.
The Evaluation Committee will carry out an initial assessment of the eligible candidates’ CVs and, if deemed appropriate, will invite those who pass this stage to take part in tests and/or interviews. The date and location of the interviews and/or tests will be set by the committee and will be communicated in advance to the selected candidates via the email address provided in their application.
Candidates must be available to carry out the test and/or interview using an online platform.
Additional comments
Contract duration: 36 months. In the event that the successful candidate is recruited after 1 January 2027, the contract duration will be adjusted accordingly and will end no later than 31 December 2029.
Research field: Hydraulics, Artificial Intelligence
Website for additional job details: https://websk.upc.edu/i3waters
Work Location(s)
- Number of offers available: 1
- Company/Institute: UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CASSINO E DEL LAZIO MERIDIONALE
- Country: Italy
- City: Cassino
- Postal Code: 03043
Contact
- City: Cassino
- Website: https://www.unicas.it
- Postal Code: 03043
- E-Mail: a.leopardi@unicas.it
- E-Mail: i3waters.management@upc.edu
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