The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics is one of 56 institutes of the Fraunhofer-Society. As one of the leading organizations for applied research in Europe it offers ambitious scientists challenging tasks coupled with responsibility and room for creativity.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM in Kaiserslautern, Germany is offering a PhD position in applied mathematics (m/f) on model reduction for coupled electro-acousto-mechanical FE-models as basis of controller design.

Fraunhofer ITWM is one of the biggest research institutes for applied mathematics in Europe. You will participate in the Marie Curie Research Training Network Smart Structures set up by 14 European universities, research institutes, and companies and offering multiple interdisciplinary training activities, visits, and contacts to industry.

Your task is to contribute to a toolbox for reducing finite element models of coupled electro-acousto-mechanical systems appearing in automotive and aerospace industry. The underlying application is virtual prototyping in the field of active noise control by actuators made from smart materials such as piezo ceramics. Reducing the complexity of FE models is essential for both, controller design and performance estimation within optimizations. You are expected to investigate, extend, and implement certain reduction algorithms for large systems with high damping, non-linear behaviour, or frequency dependent boundary conditions.

Requirements
Experience or interest in the following fields will be helpful: numerical methods for PDEs, eigenvalues of large sparse linear systems, system- and control theory, model reduction, robust control, continuous optimization, structural mechanics, acoustics.

Programming skills in Matlab and C++ are expected.

You have to be national of an EU member or associated state other than Germany. You must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Germany for more than 12 months in the last 3 years. If you are interested, but do not meet these criteria, there may be similar vacancies at other Smart Structures partners and you should apply as well.

Application
Contract conditions comply with the EU support programme Marie-Curie. The position is currently limited to three years. Please apply in writing with all important documents and the code number ITWM-4869 before March 16th, 2007 to:

Fraunhofer-Institut für Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik ITWM
Fraunhofer-Platz 1
67663 Kaiserslautern
Germany

or apply online.

Any questions regarding this position will be answered by Dr. Jan Mohring, e-mail: jan.mohring@itwm.fraunhofer.de