Assistant Professor Positions-Systems Engineering/Mechanical Engineering
The Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and the Division of Systems Engineering (SE) are collaborating to fill two tenure track positions, both at the Assistant Professor level, beginning Fall 2016. The positions are tentatively called “Mechatronics” and “Cyber-physical Systems,” although the distinction is not sharp, and candidates applying to either one will automatically be considered for the other.
The successful candidate filling the Mechatronics position will broaden the University’s rapidly growing activity in machine autonomy, multiagent systems, and mechatronics. The position will be especially attractive to candidates interested in applications such as aerial robotics, agricultural and environmental robotics, autonomy and vision, manufacturing, and medical and assistive robotics. It is anticipated that the primary departmental affiliation of the Mechatronics position will be Mechanical Engineering. The Cyber-physical Systems position will emphasize cooperative and distributed control of multi-agent systems, control and optimization of networked systems, and advanced approaches to control of the built environment. Application areas for this position will include smart cities, smart grid and other advanced energy systems, health, and manufacturing. The successful Cyber-physical System candidate will have a departmental appointment in either ME or Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). For either candidate, additional appointments with other BU Departments and the Division of Materials Science and Engineering are possible depending on experience and interest.
The ME Department is highly multi-disciplinary with 45 faculty members (35 tenured or tenure-track) having expertise in nanotechnology, materials, systems and control, fluid dynamics, and computational methods in engineering. Current application areas of interest include health, energy and sustainability, manufacturing, and soft materials and coatings. The SE Division has 14 faculty members from the ECE and ME Departments, along with 17 affiliated faculty members from the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Questrom School of Business, and the Medical School. The multidisciplinary expertise of the SE Division includes systems and control, information, computational biology, and production, service and energy systems. Both the ME Department and SE Division are further strengthened by their affiliation with the Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE). In collaboration with the College of Engineering, ME and SE are both implementing ambitious ten-year plans, in line with Boston University’s commitment as a top tier research university engaged in substantial growth in the coming years. As part of this commitment, the College of Engineering and ME department has recently constructed a collaborative laboratory space for ground-based and flying robots. The College has also added a Robotics Specialization to its Master’s Degree portfolio.
Boston University is an AAU institution with a rich tradition dedicated to inclusion and social justice. We are proud that we were the first American university to award a Ph.D. to a woman and that Martin Luther King Jr. received his Ph.D. here. The College of Engineering includes diversity as one of five strategic goals. We create societal engineers who use their engineering foundations and other life-long attributes to influence all facets of society’s grand challenges. The college has a sustained national impact broadening and building the diversity pipeline from K-12 schools into STEM majors and careers. We are dedicated to increasing the participation of all talented students and are committed to the pursuit of engineering by underrepresented groups at BU and beyond.
Candidates interested in either position should have a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering or other relevant field of engineering or applied science, and they should be able to show strong potential for attracting external research funding. The successful applicant should be able to contribute to the graduate and undergraduate programs in ME and SE.
The formal application deadline is January 1, 2016; however, review of applications will begin immediately so applicants are encouraged to apply early. To apply, please go to: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/6240.
Boston University is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Boston University is also a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.