Area: Smart supply chain management with application to agri-food and healthcare
Duration: One year renewable for a second year
Start date: Immediately
Annual salary: $45,000 – $55,000, plus $3,000 in research support
Location of work: University of Victoria, Victoria (BC), Canada
The Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria, in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada, is accepting applications for a postdoctoral position on smart supply chain management.
Job Description:
The successful candidate will be part of a partnership research project to work on the investigation and development of smart solutions for the smart supply chain management. This partnership involves an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Victoria, the National Research Council of Canada and Canadian industries.
Major health crises involving infectious respiratory diseases require unity of command, empowerment of front-line workers, and efficient and effective management of critical supplies. Distributed healthcare actors along extended chains must coordinate their forecasting, planning, and essential management of supply (e.g., personal protective equipment PPE, and mechanical ventilators) and weigh multiple risks in dynamic, complex and uncertain environments.
The global distribution of agri-food products is creating more extended and more complex supply chains that obscure traditional oversight, coordination, and collaboration methods. In recent years, there is an increased interest in the digitalization and digital transformation of production processes and supply chains resulting from the acceleration of technological development such as the Internet of Things, and the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).
This project will contribute to the next-generation supply chains by developing the reasoning layer within the digital twin to enable intelligent management of distributed supply chains. The integration of digital twinning and intelligent decision-support systems is the foundation for the development of a smart supply chain. It connects all the physical assets that make up the supply chain to the digital model to extend visibility, control, and simulation of operations to optimize decision-making under uncertainty. The outcomes sought include maximization of productivity, safe operations, transparency, safety quality and cost reduction.
The successful candidate will lead research activities, develop a modelling and simulation (M&S) environment and supervise research assistants involved in this project. The initial appointment is for one year, starting as soon as possible. The renewal of the appointment for a second year will depend on mutual consent, satisfactory performance, and funding availability.
Qualifications:
Applicants must
- hold a Ph.D. in a relevant field such as management sciences, industrial engineering, computer sciences, computer engineering, operational research and data analytics. The Ph.D. degree should not be older than three years by the application deadline,
- demonstrate merits and excellent scientific publications in the field of employment,
- have strong research skills relevant to smart reasoning, management sciences, digital twinning, or multi-agent M&S environment with applications to healthcare or agri-food supply chain management,
- be proficient in English, both spoken and written, and
- have team working abilities.
The successful candidate should be problem-solving driven, entrepreneurial, and autonomous. Knowledge and experience of supply chain management, management sciences, data science and analytics, multidimensional measurement, artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, distributed decision-making and optimization, multi-objective mathematical programming, multiple criteria decision analysis, resource management, etc. are desired.
Experience in industry-university partnerships is preferred.
Application details:
Interested individuals should submit an application package by e-mail to Dr. Adel Guitouni at adelg@uvic.ca. The application package should include:
- An application letter including a statement of research interests and motivation for the position,
- Curriculum Vitae (CV) including a complete list of publications and research projects,
- Samples (max 3) of originally authored research publications and/or technical reports relevant to the position,
- Names and contact information for three persons willing to act as references, and
- Any other information relevant for the position, such as a description of software development experience, or previous industry experience.
The review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. To receive full consideration, please submit your application material as soon as possible, but no later than June 30, 2020.