Ref LXI_MSCA_01 - Postdoc candidate for a MSCA PF in Industry 4.0, Manufacturing Technology, Laser Welding, Industrial Robots and Value Stream Management

The University of Luxembourg, Department of Engineering (DoE) is interested in hosting a postdoctoral fellow within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship programme. 

Project idea

• The “Laser Technology Competence Center” (LTCC) is aimed to support the structural change of national economy by developing, communicating and teaching laser process knowhow related to “laser joining of dissimilar materials”. The LTCC at the University of Luxembourg has the mission to develop innovative laser process knowhow, to explore novel opportunities of this versatile production tool and to support mainly, but not exclusively, national industry with a pre-competitive communication platform. We cooperate with industrial and academic partners to create scientific insights gained by systematic investigations related to cutting-edge laser manufacturing technology. We focus on Laser joining of dissimilar materials. Until now we have investigated joining of numerous combinations of Cu, Al and Ti; We researched different polymers like POM, PA, PBT, and laser joined heat sensitive, sintered materials.
• Since 2014 the “Robotix Academy”, a consortium composed of university from Luxembourg, Lorraine, Saarland and Wallonie, educate Master and PhD students. This virtual academic network enables us to support industry from the Greater Region with well-educated engineers and at the same time provide them with cutting edge technology related to industrial robots. UL research projects focus on the application of industrial robots in assembly operations, which derives numerous scientific questions like peg-in-hole, detection of constraints, 3 dimensional path tacking, Human-Robot-Cooperation, path planning. Especially low-volume manufacturing applications of customer specific products provide the framework of our research topics.
• The “Operational Excellence” team investigates value creation in supply chain networks. We educate engineering students in Value Stream Management (VSM) and use this method as starting point to consult companies to identify sources of inefficiencies and waste. Our research concluded in the ISO standard 22468, which enables to use VSM beyond physical manufacturing processes also in administrative and virtual processes. Research projects deal with value stream optimization in Supply Chain Networks (SCN). For example we investigate circular economy and remanufacturing processes. Most projects are supported with digital twins of manufacturing processes.

Offer Requirements

• In the pursuit of excellence, we are looking for PDR candidates with a self-starting personality.
• We provide the opportunity to contribute to one of the teams mentioned above both in education and research to shape a solid basis for a successful career.
• The ideal candidate should be able to prove the experience in leading and acquiring research projects.
• Next to English language proficiency either German or French is mandatory.

Institute description: 

The Manufacturing Engineering (M.E.) team of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Plapper, is composed of3 PDR, 11 PhD students, and approximately 14 Master and Bachelor students, who research production related topics.

All research topics of the M.E. team originate from industrial use cases with practical relevance, so every project has an industrial „sponsor“ and many projects are embedded in an international, academic network. The industrial problems are translated into research projects, which are solved with scientific methods in the M.E. learning factory, which spans along the entire product development process. The M.E. learning factory enables the researchers to validate their scientific hypotheses and to demonstrate their findings. The research topics span from product and process development, over process optimization, to circular economy.

The M.E. learning factory is equipped with various laser machines (from 25 W to 2.000 W), a metallurgy laboratory for material analyses, and several robots (like cobots from KUKA, industrial robots from FANUC and ABB and a mobile robot), and several manual assembly stations. With Siemens NX, MS HoloLens and ABB RobotStudio, cutting edge topics related to Digital Twin and Augmented Reality (AR) and human robot interaction (HRI) are investigated.

Benefits

• We offer an excellent network both in international academia and industry
• The UL ME team has well-equipped research labs.

About Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship:

The MSCA PF are postdoctoral fellowships, financed through the European Commission for 2 year positions, covering salary and research costs of the researchers, who can come from anywhere in the world. The evaluation process of these programmes is more about the project and the career development of the candidate, than his/her publication record. The organizations in Luxembourg that want to host such talented researchers include large public research organizations as well as private companies that offer interesting job perspectives after completion of the fellowship.

Minimal eligibility criteria

• Individual: applicant applies together with host institute
• PhD at the deadline (PhD date cannot be more than 8 years ago)
• Not working or living in Luxembourg for longer than 12 months before the call deadline
• For rules see here or contact your NCP

How to apply

Please fill out the application form until May 15^th 2021 – please note that we cannot accept applications without the application form. We need your CV with a list of publications and if relevant a short project proposal (maximum 3 pages) as well as the offer reference you are interested in. You can also send several fine-tuned CVs if you are interested in multiple positions – please fill out a new application form in that case. Make sure you address the text and requirements mentioned by the respective hosts.

Please note that applications are made through Luxinnovation, your contact point for Horizon Europe in Luxembourg, before being handed over to the host company.

Don’t hesitate to contact us, if you have any questions.

Luxinnovation, the Luxembourgish Innovation agency and National Contact Point for MSCA, will support both you and your future host institute during your application phase. For all applicants coming to Luxembourg we offer guidance documents, webinars, training in proposal writing and we will review your proposals if you wish so (depending on our availability). In 2019, MSCA IF proposals from Luxembourg had an average success rate of 28.5%, and proposals reviewed by our service 42%.

More information can be found on our website.

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