The Centre for Ocean Energy Research (COER) at Maynooth University, Ireland has a further opportunity for 1 senior or entry level postdoctoral researcher on a prestigious new Science Foundation Ireland ocean energy project:

Economic wave energy through technical innovation (SeaChange)

Some project detail:                                                                                                                                      

Despite the vast global wave energy potential, and the need to diversify the range of renewable energy sources to provide dispatchable carbon-free energy, the current cost of wave energy makes it relatively uneconomic in relation to other renewable, and non-renewable, energy forms. This project proposes a combination of strategic technological improvements, with both broad applicability as well as specific device improvements, to effect a significant impact on the economic performance of wave energy systems and produce the step change needed to accelerate the technical and commercial development of wave power.  Collaborators have been drawn from the University of Illinois (USA), CorPower Ocean AB (Sweden), National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL, USA) and TU Denmark.

This project is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the successful candidate will join a dynamic group of around 25 postdoctoral, PhD and other researchers in COER, who work on the development of wave energy technology, with projects funded from various national and international sources. COER also has a wide range of eminent industrial and academic collaborators.

This post presents significant opportunities for career development in relation to sourcing of independent research funding, research management and supervision; mentoring in these aspects will be provided.

Principal Duties

The principal duties entail a mix of:

  • Control co-design of wave energy systems
  • Development of actuated geometry mechanisms and associated control
  • Wave energy converter (WEC) lifetime enhancement through control action modulations
  • Fault-tolerant control of WECs
  • Economical analysis of results
  • Communication and dissemination activities
  • Collaboration and interfacing with project academic and industrial partners.
  • Some PhD student mentoring and project management.

The ideal candidate will have:

A PhD in mechanical/electrical/electronic/control engineering or a closely related discipline.  They will ideally have some postdoctoral experience and a record of scholarly publication and academic excellence. They will have robust analytic and programming skills. The ideal candidate will have experience with wave energy (control/modelling). They will be required to have good organisational skills and a sense of the broader (e.g. economic) aspects of wave energy.

Apply here before 18th June, or contact CarrieAnne.Barry@mu.ie for more details.