PhD position LIX/MSR

Ph.D. position in Optimization/Simulation (with an application to smart buildings)

Call for applications

Leo Liberti, Claudia D’Ambrosio, Youssef Hamadi

LIX École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK

09/10/2012

A Ph.D. position is open at LIX, Ecole Polytechnique (until filled) on the topic of optimization techniques in simulation, motivated by an application to smart buildings.

Smart buildings integrate architecture, construction, technology and energy systems; they make use of building automation, safety and telecommunication devices, and they are managed automatically or semi-automatically on the basis of local information provided by a sensor network. The functioning of such a complex system necessarily depends on several tunable parameters, with respect to which the whole system can optimize several objectives (cost, energy efficiency, ambience comfort and so on). For any given parameter value, system performance can only be evaluated by a computationally costly simulation procedure. The object of this Ph.D. thesis is to devise new methodologies for optimizing smart building systems under such computational constraints.

The successful Ph.D. candidate will be co-supervised by:

• Dr. Youssef Hamadi (Microsoft Research, Cambridge,research.microsoft.com/en- us/people/youssefh/).

• Dr. Claudia D’Ambrosio (LIX, Ecole Polytechnique,www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~dambrosio/)

• Prof. Leo Liberti (LIX, Ecole Polytechnique, www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~liberti/)

Most of the thesis work will take place at the Laboratoire d’Informatique (LIX) of Ecole Polytechnique, within the System Modelling and Optimization (SYSMO) research team, which counts around 10-15 people, including 6 permanent researchers, and more precisely within the research group that grew around the Microsoft-CNRS “Optimization and Sustainable Development (OSD)” Chair. A part of the thesis work will take place at Microsoft Research headquarters in Cambridge.

The salary will be 33,333EUR/year gross for a non-renewable maximum of three years, which should roughly correspond to 1500-1600EUR/net plus social security (the precise amount depends on the personal situation and cannot be foreseen precisely). Some internships at Microsoft Research Cambridge might provide additional remuneration for short time periods.

Interested candidates should send a PDF-formatted CV and two PDF-formatted, signed reference letters to Dr. D’Ambrosio (dambrosio@lix.polytechnique.fr).