Postdoc in Trustworthy Multi-Model Optimization for Railway Timetabling (ICAI Robust)

Job description

The Dutch railway network is approaching its capacity limits, and the timetable that keeps it running is one of the most consequential optimization problems in the country — spanning many orders of magnitude in detail, from macroscopic capacity-planning down to millisecond-level microscopic simulation. No single algorithm spans that whole range on its own.

ICAI Robust RAIL Lab — a joint initiative of TU Delft, Utrecht University, and NS/ProRail under the NWO LTP-ROBUST programme — is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to help bridge that gap, along two connected directions.

1. Trustworthy multi-model optimization. Combine models at different levels of abstraction — macroscopic capacity planning, mesoscopic scheduling, microscopic simulation — into a single, computationally tractable pipeline, without sacrificing trust in the result. Draw on recent work on self-certifying optimization proxies — fast machine learning surrogates that carry their own provable optimality guarantee, falling back to an exact solver only on the instances that need it — and on the broader idea of building a relaxation that's fine-grained exactly where a query needs it and coarse elsewhere. This hybrid, multi-model philosophy motivates decision support in other domains as well.
2. Timetabling for a multi-operator railway. ProRail's system for allocating rail capacity is shifting from an operator-request model to one where train paths are effectively "sold" to multiple, competing railway operators — turning capacity allocation into a genuine market-design problem. How do you allocate scarce train paths fairly, efficiently, and strategy-proofly across operators who each hold private information about their own needs? This is a live mechanism-design question, not a hypothetical one: it echoes the FCC's landmark two-sided spectrum incentive auction.

You'll work with researchers in the Algorithmics section, headed by Mathijs de Weerdt, contacts at ProRail and NS, and some of the lab's researchers (PhD tracks on hub planning, real-time rescheduling, crew rostering, energy-efficient operation) — with freedom to shape your own research agenda within this scope.

What we offer: a postdoctoral position for 16 fte months (working days per week and exact duration negotiable), embedded in a well-resourced, industry-connected lab.

Job requirements
We're looking for: a recent PhD graduate in optimization, operations research, machine learning, or a closely related field, with strong mathematical/algorithmic grounding and a genuine interest in working at the interface of theory and a large, real-world system for sustainable transport.

(Junior) Researcher for Computational design of mechanical metamaterials for 3D printed footwear

Job description

The Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft is seeking three highly motivated researchers to join an exciting collaborative research project on 3D-printed footwear innovation, carried out in close collaboration with industrial partners.

The project aims to develop an integrated computational design and digital fabrication workflow for next-generation footwear. The research combines biomechanics, computational design, mechanical metamaterials, additive manufacturing, and digital workflows to create novel footwear concepts with improved performance and manufacturability.

One of the three positions will focus on mechanical metamaterials design.

This researcher will develop computational methods and experimentally evaluate mechanical metamaterials for footwear applications.

Responsibilities:

• Design mechanical metamaterials for functional performance
• Perform computational modelling and simulation
• Prototype and experimentally characterise designs
• Optimise structures for manufacturability and performance
• Collaborate closely with the computational design and biomechanics researchers

Job requirements

• MSc (or equivalent) in Mechanical Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, or a closely related discipline
• Strong background in mechanics and finite element analysis
• Experience with topology optimisation and/or inverse design
• Experience with additive manufacturing or mechanical testing is an advantage
• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or C++ is desirable.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Working at TU Delft means contributing to solutions that really make a difference.

For over 180 years, we have been training engineers who make an impact worldwide in companies, government bodies, or as entrepreneurs. Our alumni turn knowledge into concrete solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow. These challenges are changing rapidly. That is why we focus on themes such as energy, climate, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart mobility every day. Our education and research are directly aligned with what society needs now and in the future.

At TU Delft, our people make the difference. With their knowledge and curiosity, our staff provide a high-quality education and conduct pioneering research that extends beyond the campus. You will have the opportunity to take the initiative, work with others, and grow as a professional. Working at TU Delft means join an international community of professionals and students. Together, we create knowledge, innovations, and solutions that help move the world forward.

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering
Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.

IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.

In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.

(Junior) Researcher on Biomechanics and evaluation for 3D printed footwear

Job description

The Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft is seeking three highly motivated researchers to join an exciting collaborative research project on 3D-printed footwear innovation, carried out in close collaboration with industrial partners.

The project aims to develop an integrated computational design and digital fabrication workflow for next-generation footwear. The research combines biomechanics, computational design, mechanical metamaterials, additive manufacturing, and digital workflows to create novel footwear concepts with improved performance and manufacturability.

One of the three positions focuses on Biomechanics and evaluation.

This researcher will be responsible for the evaluation of the biomechanical and functional performance of footwear concepts and prototypes. They will translate findings from gait analysis, plantar-pressure measurements, and participant studies into design requirements and recommendations for prototype development.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct gait-analysis experiments and biomechanical measurements.
• Collect, process and analyse plantar-pressure and related biomechanical data.
• Contribute to the design and execution of participant studies.
• Help translate measurement results into functional design requirements.
• Evaluate footwear prototypes through participant-based testing.
• Communicate findings within the team and contribute to iterative prototype development.

Job requirements

• An MSc or equivalent degree in Industrial Design Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Human Movement Sciences, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Familiarity with biomechanical measurement, experimental research or quantitative data analysis.
• An interest in applying biomechanical research to product development.
• Good communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience with gait analysis, motion capture, plantar-pressure measurement or participant studies is an advantage.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Working at TU Delft means contributing to solutions that really make a difference.

For over 180 years, we have been training engineers who make an impact worldwide in companies, government bodies, or as entrepreneurs. Our alumni turn knowledge into concrete solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow. These challenges are changing rapidly. That is why we focus on themes such as energy, climate, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart mobility every day. Our education and research are directly aligned with what society needs now and in the future.

At TU Delft, our people make the difference. With their knowledge and curiosity, our staff provide a high-quality education and conduct pioneering research that extends beyond the campus. You will have the opportunity to take the initiative, work with others, and grow as a professional. Working at TU Delft means join an international community of professionals and students. Together, we create knowledge, innovations, and solutions that help move the world forward.

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering
Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.

IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.

In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.

Postdoc in Trustworthy Multi-Model Optimization for Railway Timetabling (ICAI Robust)

Job description

The Dutch railway network is approaching its capacity limits, and the timetable that keeps it running is one of the most consequential optimization problems in the country — spanning many orders of magnitude in detail, from macroscopic capacity-planning down to millisecond-level microscopic simulation. No single algorithm spans that whole range on its own.

ICAI Robust RAIL Lab — a joint initiative of TU Delft, Utrecht University, and NS/ProRail under the NWO LTP-ROBUST programme — is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to help bridge that gap, along two connected directions.

1. Trustworthy multi-model optimization. Combine models at different levels of abstraction — macroscopic capacity planning, mesoscopic scheduling, microscopic simulation — into a single, computationally tractable pipeline, without sacrificing trust in the result. Draw on recent work on self-certifying optimization proxies — fast machine learning surrogates that carry their own provable optimality guarantee, falling back to an exact solver only on the instances that need it — and on the broader idea of building a relaxation that's fine-grained exactly where a query needs it and coarse elsewhere. This hybrid, multi-model philosophy motivates decision support in other domains as well.
2. Timetabling for a multi-operator railway. ProRail's system for allocating rail capacity is shifting from an operator-request model to one where train paths are effectively "sold" to multiple, competing railway operators — turning capacity allocation into a genuine market-design problem. How do you allocate scarce train paths fairly, efficiently, and strategy-proofly across operators who each hold private information about their own needs? This is a live mechanism-design question, not a hypothetical one: it echoes the FCC's landmark two-sided spectrum incentive auction.

You'll work with researchers in the Algorithmics section, headed by Mathijs de Weerdt, contacts at ProRail and NS, and some of the lab's researchers (PhD tracks on hub planning, real-time rescheduling, crew rostering, energy-efficient operation) — with freedom to shape your own research agenda within this scope.

What we offer: a postdoctoral position for 16 fte months (working days per week and exact duration negotiable), embedded in a well-resourced, industry-connected lab.

Job requirements
We're looking for: a recent PhD graduate in optimization, operations research, machine learning, or a closely related field, with strong mathematical/algorithmic grounding and a genuine interest in working at the interface of theory and a large, real-world system for sustainable transport.

(Junior) Researcher for Computational design of mechanical metamaterials for 3D printed footwear

Job description

The Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft is seeking three highly motivated researchers to join an exciting collaborative research project on 3D-printed footwear innovation, carried out in close collaboration with industrial partners.

The project aims to develop an integrated computational design and digital fabrication workflow for next-generation footwear. The research combines biomechanics, computational design, mechanical metamaterials, additive manufacturing, and digital workflows to create novel footwear concepts with improved performance and manufacturability.

One of the three positions will focus on mechanical metamaterials design.

This researcher will develop computational methods and experimentally evaluate mechanical metamaterials for footwear applications.

Responsibilities:

• Design mechanical metamaterials for functional performance
• Perform computational modelling and simulation
• Prototype and experimentally characterise designs
• Optimise structures for manufacturability and performance
• Collaborate closely with the computational design and biomechanics researchers

Job requirements

• MSc (or equivalent) in Mechanical Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, or a closely related discipline
• Strong background in mechanics and finite element analysis
• Experience with topology optimisation and/or inverse design
• Experience with additive manufacturing or mechanical testing is an advantage
• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or C++ is desirable.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Working at TU Delft means contributing to solutions that really make a difference.

For over 180 years, we have been training engineers who make an impact worldwide in companies, government bodies, or as entrepreneurs. Our alumni turn knowledge into concrete solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow. These challenges are changing rapidly. That is why we focus on themes such as energy, climate, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart mobility every day. Our education and research are directly aligned with what society needs now and in the future.

At TU Delft, our people make the difference. With their knowledge and curiosity, our staff provide a high-quality education and conduct pioneering research that extends beyond the campus. You will have the opportunity to take the initiative, work with others, and grow as a professional. Working at TU Delft means join an international community of professionals and students. Together, we create knowledge, innovations, and solutions that help move the world forward.

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering
Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.

IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.

In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.