Postdoctoral researcher in traffic control for smart cities

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 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. This postdoctoral researcher position will be embedded in our Laboratory and supervised by Prof. John Lygeros.

In the framework of the NCCR Automation, we are seeking a driven postdoctoral candidate to explore the intricacies of traffic control management in contemporary urban environments. The emergence of new transportation modes like car sharing and electric vehicles, alongside the increasingly interconnected transportation network motivate our research. Our objective is to devise innovative interventions, blending soft policies to influence commuters’ behavior and algorithmic solutions for optimal network operation. Our approach is based on a combination of game theoretic and data-driven control schemes. Challenges abound, from modelling human responses and integrating them into our algorithms to efficiently managing large-scale systems in various network conditions and disruptions. As our research progresses, we envision the real-world deployment of our results together with our partners in cities and municipalities to enhance their traffic landscape and sustainably meet their current and future transportation needs.

Your goal will be to translate your own research ideas to tackle these challenges, in close collaboration with our interdisciplinary team and external scientific and industry partners. As part of this process, you will mentor doctoral and master students, publish in scientific journals, contribute to our teaching efforts, and participate in conferences.

You are highly motivated and dedicated with a doctoral degree in automation engineering (or fields related to the project). You are experienced as a researcher with an active interest in mobility systems and in developing automation solutions to reduce traffic congestion and emissions in modern cities. Programming, modelling, and data analysis skills in Python support you in contributing to our ongoing software development efforts. Your spoken and written English skills help you navigate our international environment.

We are offering a multifaceted and challenging position in a modern research environment with excellent infrastructure. The ideal starting date is October 2024 with a planned duration of 2 years.