Research Associate in Mechatronics - Durham, United Kingdom - Durham University

Durham University

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Durham, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

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Description

Research Associate in Mechatronics
(Job Number
: )**Department of Computer Science

Grade 7:

£37,099
£44,263 per annum

Fixed Term - Full Time

Contract Duration: 24 months

Contracted Hours per Week: 35

Working Arrangements:

The role is full time, but we are undertaking a hybrid pilot looking at how best our staff can work flexibly and on and off campus.

Closing Date: 10-Jun-2024, 5:59:00 PM

Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement:
Not Applicable.

Working at Durham University

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting - Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK's leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career.

The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside.

Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world.

Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it's also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.

Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential.

Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background.

Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.

The Department
Computer Science at Durham is a UK Top 10 Department (Complete University Guide We are committed to high-quality teaching and research, and the Department increased excellence in all research areas since the last research assessment exercise, moving six places up the ranking to the 20th position for REF 2021.

We are proud of our emphasis on equality, diversity and inclusion and are working hard to make our department the no.1 University in the UK for women to study Computer Science.

The Role
As the world's most successful pollinators, bees play a huge part in every aspect of the ecosystem. Any decline in bee populations could pose a threat to global agriculture.

In this context, the EU-funded Sensorbees project is developing and combining micro-robotic, biological and machine learning technologies into a system that can support the well-being of the honeybee colonies.

Specifically, the micro-robotic system will operate inside of the honeybee hive.

For instance, this multi-robot system will visually inspect comb cells and will interact with the content with its micro tools.

The successful applicant will be responsible for mechanical design, programming and developing controllers, as well as implementation and testing the robotic system and its appropriate frameworks.

Therefore, the main task is the mechatronics design of the actuators and monitoring agent. The second important task will be the low-level programming. You will focus on development of compact circuits and electronics for new types of complex bio-hybrid (insect-robot) entities.

We anticipate it will necessitate close working with our European partners.

You will not be constrained to using any available hardware and algorithm or approaches, and instead will have a creative approach to problem solving, exploring multiple potential techniques.

Ideas will be verified on software systems (e.g. SOLIDWORKS, MATLAB, etc) and with real world tests inside of honeybees' hive, and so, you will be willing to get involved in experimental work for real-world verification with biologists.

The project is an EU-H2020-FET funded collaboration between the University of Durham in the UK, the University of Graz in Austria, Czech Technical University in Prague, and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy.

This role will involve close working with external partners.

You will be expected to visit all of these institutions in the course of your work and will be based in the Biohybrid Robotics Lab at the Department of Computer Science, Durham University.

Key responsibilities:

To conduct individual and collaborative research projects under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grantholder.
To use creativity to design a novel micromechatronic system with a particular focus on social behaviour of honeybees.
To understand and convey material of a specialist or highly technical nature to the team or group of people through p