Research Assistant - Structural Engineering

This competition is open to all applicants however internal candidates and applicants who were former employees of the University of Alberta in the past 18 months will be given priority consideration before external candidates. Please indicate your internal status using the "Advertisement" drop down menu when applying.

Employment duration: 6 months, with a possibility of extension.

Starting Date: December 01, 2021

Research Group Introduction:

The Advanced Research Group in Timber Systems (ARTS) is part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Alberta. The research group is led by Dr. Ying Hei Chui, the NSERC Industry Research Chair (IRC) in Engineered Wood & Building Systems. The IRC is supported by various industrial partners as well as federal and provincial agencies including NSERC, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Standards Association, national research Council of Canada, MITACS, and Alberta Innovates.

The ARTS group is active in researching innovative engineered wood products and building systems within the areas of structural timber engineering and building materials. The main focus of the research is on the next generation of mass timber construction with new connection techniques. This field includes the structural and serviceability performance of mass timber elements, especially the performance of seismic load resisting systems for tall buildings.

Job description:

We are looking for a newly graduated MSc or PhD student in structural or earthquake engineering discipline that will help us to finalize a software that links structure design program developed in-house with the OpenSees program for the purpose of efficiently analyzing a large number of structural timber systems under seismic motions. The main responsibilities and the required skills and qualifications are summarized below.

Responsibilities:

• Working closely with ARTS researchers and their collaborators to develop the software and supplementary codes using Python language to automize various tasks;
• Assisting in creating an interface software to link the in-house design program to the OpenSees or OpenSeesPy for performing nonlinear dynamic analyses;
• Developing large sets of nonlinear models efficiently and performing nonlinear dynamic time history analysis in the OPENSEES environment and extract the results;
• Assisting in developing an efficient tool for post-processing the analyses results of the structural systems under investigation and evaluate their performance under seismic motions.
• Trouble-shoot and validate the developed models and analyses results as needed;
• Document the tasks performed in the form of research report.

Skills and Qualifications:

• Applicants should have BSc in civil engineering and graduate degree (PhD, MSc or MEng) in structural or earthquake engineering. Graduate students working towards finishing their degree will also be considered.
• Proved expertise in OpenSees or OpenSeesPy is required. Familiarity with other available research and commercial structural analysis software such as PERFORM 3D, Sap2000, Abaqus or Ansys is considered a strong asset.
• Strong scripting and programming skills mainly demonstrated expertise in using Python is necessary.
• A strong academic record in structural or earthquake engineering related courses will be given priority.
• Ability to independently manage time to meet project deadlines, strong interpersonal skills, and ability to work collaboratively with team members are required.

Any questions regarding the job post can be directed to Dr. Hossein Daneshvar at [email protected] .

Document required for application: Cover letter, CV and a sample research paper/thesis demonstrating candidate previous experience in using OpenSees/OpenSeesPy to perform nonlinear dynamic analysis. 

COVID-19 Vaccination: Proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 in compliance with the University’s COVID-19 Vaccination Directive. Fully Vaccinated means a status an individual achieves 14 days after having received the recommended number of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada or the World Health Organization, and requires the individual to maintain the recommended number and type of vaccine doses as updated and required by Health Canada thereafter.

Note: Online applications are accepted until midnight Mountain Standard Time of the closing date.

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those individuals selected for an interview will be contacted.