Scientific Assistant in the Optimization of Rail System Development Processes

ETH Zürich • Zürich • vor 1M

The Chair of Infrastructure Management lead by Professor Dr. Bryan T. Adey in the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management (IBI) of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG), has an opening for a researcher focused on data and process analysis to enable digitalized railway operations.

Project background

Safe and efficient railway systems traditionally rely on centralised control and human-in-the-loop monitoring of its moving parts. However, this requires large amounts of resources for the network operation. Operators, responsible for implementing system developments based on innovative technologies to improve operational efficiency, must adhere to safety requirements for scalable and well-documented solutions to acquire regulatory approval. This requires consideration of approximately 50-80 interconnected documents for a development of a new system, depending on the complexity of the technology. Over the long-duration development process, adjustments to the solution may be necessary. Accordingly, changes to the interdependent documentation to ensure ongoing compliance with safety requirements would also be necessary. Any changes can trigger cascading effects throughout the entire project, potentially increasing costs and delaying development, ultimately slowing down innovation within the railway system.

A new ETH project "ProCargo", co-funded by the Swiss Federal Railways via the ETH Mobility Initiative, will assess the ability to improve processes for rail system development to unleash efficiency gains, with specific examples for the cargo sector. The optimal exploitation of digital tools in system development processes facilitates an effective and efficient process. To effectively capitalise on the existing knowledge base, digital tools, e.g., large language models, can be leveraged to learn from system developers' documentation, then assist the system developers and finally propose modifications to the system developers. This will support digital planners in optimally providing an overview of interdependencies and ensuring the coherence between the documents while assuring a safe rail system. This will benefit system developers in a more streamlined development process, and society as a whole due to the earlier implementation of safe system developments and their earlier effects.

Within this project, ETH Zurich identifies potential process changes and preliminarily assesses the possible benefits related to integrating digital tools and the related procedural changes to facilitate a streamlined uptake of innovative system developments.

Job description

The successful candidate will have the following responsibilities that are aligned with working towards the project's vision:

synthesize and effectively communicate the system development process relevant for SBB Cargo and compare it to the European system development
identify process improvement opportunities for development of safety-critical rail systems.
analyze the findings and propose hypotheses for potential process changes implementing digital support tools and conduct preliminarily assessments of these changes

The successful candidate for this position will be expected to work closely with another researcher and with the Development Systems Engineering team at SBB Cargo. Dependent on the interests of the applicant and the fitting financing opportunity, it is possible that this becomes a doctoral position.

Profile

The successful candidate for this position will have a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering or similar with an interest in data and process analysis as well as a keen interest in the development of rail systems. It is beneficial if the successful candidate has a good grasp of existing system development processes and enthusiasm for learning about artificial intelligence tools, such as large language models. The group's working language is English, but the ability to speak German would be an asset for the project. Developed communication and presentation skills are highly valued.

We offer

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.

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