PhD title

PhD #8  Proactive risk mapping and infrastructure safety management

Vacancy description

Within the IVORY doctoral network, this PhD position aims to create an AI framework to process, harmonise, analyse and model an array of different available datasets and provide outputs in the form of risk mapping and network-level evaluations. It will develop new AI algorithms for road attribute collection, along with methodologies to assess and quantify their accuracies, suitable for network applications and including hybrid, e.g., manually collected data and will use the AI-augmented dataset creation effort for a suitable working methodology for the generation of hybrid road attribute data and enhanced proactive risk mapping.

The position contributes to road safety research by formulating a functional framework with the use of AI to exploit road risk information in a meaningful manner, transferable between networks. It will assess and quantify the influence of each examined factor on the output of AI algorithms for safety management. A case study with actionable results will be conducted, compatible with the mission and activities of iRAP – namely, a proactive risk mapping and evaluation of a network and comparison with existing risk-mapping results, and quantification of transferability to a second network.

Project description

IVORY (ivory-network.eu) is a Horizon Europe MARIE SKLODOWSKA-CURIE ACTION Industrial Doctoral Network consisting of 22 partners (universities, industry, and non-governmental organizations). The project aims to develop a new framework for the integration of AI in road safety and train a new generation of leading researchers in the field, in order to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals target 3.6 (halving the number of traffic fatalities by 2030) and EC ‘Vision Zero’ strategy (eliminating traffic fatalities by 2050).

PhD students will obtain their PhD degree from the relevant academic partner, and spend at least 50% of their PhD time at the relevant non-academic partner.

Academic host:  National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece

School of Civil Engineering, Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering

Months 19-36 of PhD

Industry host: iRAP, London, United Kingdom, Months 1-18 of PhD

Secondment(s): FRED Engineering, Rome, Italy, Duration: 4 months

OSeven, Athens, Greece, Duration: 9 months

Research field(s): Transport engineering; Traffic safety; Data science; Spatial analysis

Type of contract: Fixed-term

Employment status: Full time (1.0 fte)

Eligibility criteria

• A Master’s degree (or equivalent);
• Not in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment;
• Recruited applicants can be of any nationality and must undertake trans-national mobility (i.e., move from one country to another) when taking up the appointment. In particular, at the time of selection, the recruited applicant for this position must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the United Kingdom for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Short stays, such as holidays, are not taken into account.

Required skills

• A Master’s degree (or equivalent) in any technical science
• Familiarity and hands-on experience with machine learning algorithms
• Familiarity with statistics (statistical tests and regression) and probability distributions
• Coding skills in Python or R
• Strong conceptual and analytical skills
• Proven capacity to undertake research
• Excellent research, academic writing and presentation skills
• The ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• High level of proficiency in English

Optional skills (preferred but not required)

• Familiarity with data handling and manipulation, experience working with big data
• Passion about road infrastructure and transport safety fields
• Commitment to undertaking multi-year (3 years or more) doctoral research

English requirements

Proof of English language proficiency at a Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) level of C1, or an MSc degree in English, or IELTS: minimum 8.0 / TOEFL: minimum 110

Salary

The successful candidate will receive an attractive salary following the MSCA regulations for doctoral candidates. The exact salary will vary depending on the country of the host partner and will be confirmed upon appointment. The salary includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance, and a family allowance (if the recruited doctoral candidate has or acquires family obligations during the duration of the fellowship), and is very competitive overall.

Other benefits

In addition, the doctoral candidate will benefit from extensive training within the IVORY network, which includes internships/secondments in other laboratories, a variety of training courses (including transferable skills), and active participation in workshops and conferences.

Application process

Candidates should apply electronically using the link indicated in the PhD position(s) of their interest;

Candidates should provide the following documents:

• Detailed CV, including information on the candidate’s proficiency in English;
• Motivation letter (1 page), describing why the position fits the applicant
• Contact information of 2 references

Application deadline: 16 February 2024

Applications to be sent to:  Prof. George Yannis: geyannis@central.ntua.gr

Academic host

The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is the oldest Engineering University in Greece and it plays a paragon role in the scientific, technical and economic development of Greece but also in Europe and worldwide, consistently ranking as the best Greek technical university. Currently, it is ranked among the top engineering and technology universities (3rd in Europe and 7th worldwide) by Shanghai World University Rankings. NTUA has been involved in more than 160 road safety research projects since the early 1990s, comprising 70 European Commission projects, 14 International Organisation projects (UN-ECE, WHO, EIB, World Bank, ITF, CEDR) and 76 Greek projects. NTUA has well established communication channels to promote research findings: more than 800 road safety scientific publications highly cited globally, including more than 220 in scientific journals and 550 in scientific conferences. The NTUA Road Safety Observatory (NRSO) (www.nrso.ntua.gr) has a widespread recognition at the global road safety community as a center of research and innovation excellence on road safety, having received during the last 10 years more than 150.000 road safety visitors and more than 2,800,000 visits (today steadily more than 3.000 visits per month).

Industry host

The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) is a registered charity dedicated to saving lives by eliminating high risk roads throughout the world. Like many life-saving charities working in the public health arena, we use a robust, evidence-based approach to prevent unnecessary deaths and suffering. iRAP works in partnership with governments, road authorities, mobility clubs, development banks, NGOs and research organisations to:

• Inspect high-risk roads and develop Star Ratings, Risk Maps and Safer Roads Investment Plans
• Provide training, technology and support that will build and sustain national, regional and local capability
• Track road safety performance so that funding agencies can assess the benefits of their investments.