Coordinator of Hands-On Projects in Automation and Power Systems

With our cutting-edge research, ETH Zürich's around 12’000 employee make essential contributions to the well-being of society for a future worth living.

In the Power Systems Laboratory (PSL), we develop approaches to optimally plan and operate the electric power system. The core objective is to provide the methods to enable the secure integration of the increasing amount of renewable generation which are needed for a sustainable energy system. Within the Power Systems Laboratory, Prof. Gabriela Hug will be the supervisor of this position.

In the Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA), we develop methods and tools to model, design, control and assess complex systems emerging in real-world applications such as the transportation network, control of autonomous and electric vehicles, and modeling of human behavior. Within IfA the position will be supervised by Prof. John Lygeros.

Both PSL and IfA operate practical installations and offer hands-on experiences to students. The existing installations include:

• A photovoltaic installation on an ETH building; pure production unit plus multiple adaptable modules for teaching purposes.
• Robotic platforms hosted at IfA. These currently cover multi-quadrotor control with the D-FALL platform, robotic football and the Robocup competition team NomadZ, a robotic snooker player, as well as several teaching experiments.

These installations are used in research for proof of concept studies, as well as in education for conducting Bachelor's and Master's theses and offering hands-on courses in the Bachelor's curriculum. We are looking for a colleague to operate and maintain them, support the Bachelor's, Master's and doctoral students working with them, and further develop the hands-on research and education offering of the two labs.

We are looking for a motivated colleague to manage and coordinate the hands-on installations of PSL and IfA.

Duties include

• Maintenance and operation of the installations listed above and development and commissioning of possible extensions, e.g. battery for the PV installation.
• Management, coordination and development of practical/hands-on or project based classes.
• Supervision of student projects.
• Interaction with external collaborators such as the Project Based Learning Centre and the REAL Lab of the NCCR Automation.
• Support of students involved in team based activities, for example the IfA RoboCup team NomadZ.
• Development of hands-on material for outreach activities.
• Group Safety Representative for the two laboratories.

Your goal will be to translate your own ideas to expand the hands-on based education and research activities of PSL and IfA. As part of this, you will mentor students, contribute to our teaching efforts, and collaborate closely with our interdisciplinary team and external partners. 

You are highly motivated and dedicated with at least a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related field from a University or University of Applied Sciences. You have an active interest in power systems and automation solutions. Your programming and hardware skills support you in contributing to our lab-based education and research effort. Your spoken and written English skills help you navigate our international environment.

We are offering a multifaceted and challenging position in a modern academic environment with excellent infrastructure. The ideal starting date is October 2024 but can be negotiated.