Postdoctoral position in Risk and Benefit Analysis

Information about the division
The researchers in the Accident Prevention group within the Vehicle Safety division  conduct world-leading research on road user behaviour spanning normal driving to critical situations (crashes and near-crashes). Additional research addresses the development of methods to assess the safety impact of vehicle and infrastructure based safety systems. Much of our research involves the analysis of quantitative data collected naturalistically - data collected by road users in their daily routines. These data and their analyses are often used as the basis for controlled experiments (e.g. driving simulators or test-track experiments), mathematical simulations, and driver modelling.

The research group has strong ties to the Swedish automotive industry and participate in national and international projects (EU, US and Japan). The division is physically located at the SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers [www.chalmers.se/safer] and utilizes this central positioning to collaborate with the resources of other SAFER partners. Examples of relevant research projects include Drive Me and QUADRAE.

We teach courses in the master's program in Automotive Engineering at Chalmers University on both the technical and behavioral aspects of traffic safety as well as active safety systems. The details of the research group’s activities may be found at [http://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/am/research/vehiclesafety/Pages/Accident-Prevention.aspx].??

The position requires fluent verbal and written communication skills in English. If Swedish is not your native language, Chalmers offers Swedish courses.

Major responsibilities
The successful candidate will conduct research focused on the risk and benefit assessment of road safety issues. There will be a focus on active safety measures that are more difficult to estimate and thus require advanced statistical methods. The main research activities involve numerical analyses and strong programming skills, particularly in Matlab, and experience with these analysis techniques are a prerequisite for the position. The data sources include everything from Microsoft Excel and Access databases, to complex relational databases with combinations of categorical and time-series data.

Analysis topics to be addressed include calculating the crash risk for drivers involved in secondary tasks (eating, talking, etc.) as well as the expected benefit of new technologies like emergency braking systems. These activities require an understanding of road user behaviour and automotive systems.  The research will involve analyses of driver reactions and vehicle kinematics in naturalistic driving data as well as analysis of crash databases. One goal of benefit analysis is to estimate the effect of new assessment methods on real world safety thus designing and interpreting experimental test methods will also be part of research portfolio.  

The research activities are funded through national and international research programs as well as by the automotive industry. Good communication and collaboration skills are needed in this multi-disciplinary environment.

Besides conducting his/her own research, the candidate is expected to support the supervision of MSc and PhD students and contribute to the teaching activities in the group.

Position summary
The position is a full-time temporary employment with a competitive salary and with social benefits. The position is limited to a maximum of two years with a performance review after 1 year.

Qualifications
The candidate must have completed a PhD degree in an engineering related domain or mathematics with statistics experience. Experience in analysis of time-history data and the ability to program (at least in Matlab) is required. Fluent written and spoken English is expected.

Chalmers continuously strives to be an attractive employer. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.

Application procedure
The application should be marked with Ref 20160474 and written in English. The application should be sent electronically via Chalmers webpage.


Application deadline: 1 February 2017

For questions, please contact:
Professor Robert Thomson
robert.thomson@chalmers.se
+46 31-772 3645

András Bálint
andras.balint@chalmers.se
+46 31-772 3648

*** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. ***