Postdoc position in Computational Social Science / Large-Scale Traffic Simulation and Smart Cities

Research at the Professorship of Computational Social Science (COSS) is focused on:

• bringing modeling and computer simulation of social processes and transportation phenomena together with technology, experimental, and data-driven work,
• combining the perspectives of different scientific disciplines (e.g., social science, computer science, complexity science and sociophysics),
• bridging fundamental and applied work,
• developing digital tools to support people and studying the resulting behavior.

Further information about the COSS team and its projects can be found on our website .

You would support and/or contribute to ambitious international research projects such as the Dit4Tram project and/or the ERC Project on Co-Evolving City Life (see also here ), which are based on large-scale agent-based mobility modeling, using a distributed control and federated learning approach, utilizing principles of self-organization and collective intelligence. The candidate shall be substantially contributing to and co-leading some of the project tasks.

For Postdocs, the initial contract would usually last for 2 years and may be later extended.

You should have an excellent research background in traffic modeling and simulation, computational social science, complexity science, computer science, data science, and/or socio-physics, with a strong international publication track record in one of the areas mentioned above. Please provide links to your bachelor, master, and Ph.D. thesis, and any further publications you may have. For the successful production of the required project deliverables, the candidate should be creative and proactive, and show leadership.

Excellent scientific and computational skills, English language skills, social skills, and international experience are required. We expect you to appreciate collaborating in a diverse, interdisciplinary, and multicultural team to jointly and systematically address grand scientific challenges.

A background in traffic physics, agent-based simulation, or traffic engineering and experience with machine learning would be favorable. To work with and expand existing simulation frameworks, you should be advanced in programming, data analysis and simulating with a language such as Python, Java, or C++.

If applicable, please indicate, whether you are also skilled and willing to develop a software platform of reasonable complexity or a smartphone app, or able to develop parallel code for parallel processing on supercomputers, and what software environments you are using for this.

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.