PhD - Deploying Security Measures

University of Twente

Twente, Netherlands

Description

The effects of terrorist and piracy activities, or generally speaking activities of intelligent opponents can have a large impact on the socio-economic and military well-fare. To counter these increasing, multiple threats, security measures/forces should be deployed to surveil and patrol assigned areas to protect valuable objects and critical infrastructure (e.g. harbours, airports, merchant ships and routes). However, current OR models do not always adequately take into account the complexity of these kind of military operations and the scarcity of resources. Therefore, we are facing the challenge to develop adequate models and methods for the assessment of deployment of scarce security forces in an efficient and effective way given multiple, responsive and adaptive threats, also taking into consideration new technological developments. The key challenge to be tackled in this PhD research is: How to optimally deploy security forces to protect critical infrastructures given limited resources and taking into account multiple adversaries and their intelligent responses?

Requirements

We are searching for an enthusiastic, creative and perseverant PhD student that has:

- a MsC in Econometrics, Operations Research, Applied Mathematics or equivalent - good programming skills (e.g. Matlab, Java) - excellent written and spoken English language skills.

- good communication skills, and the ability to work independently and in a multidisciplinary team.

- affinity with Defence, Safety and Security.

More information and applications

As a PhD candidate you will be offered a fulltime position for four years. The monthly salary is € 2083 in the first year to € 2664 in the final year. You will participate in the Twente Graduate School (www.utwente.nl/tgs/) as well as the PhD programme of the Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (www.lnmb.nl), that offer advanced courses to deepen your scientific knowledge. Your PhD project will be performed in intense cooperation with the Netherlands Defence Academy and TNO Defence, Security and Safety. This cooperation ensures the applicability of the developed research and provides a healthy mixture of theory and practice. You will be appointed by University of Twente and stationed at the University of Twente. 

You will be working with TNO the Hague (www.tno.nl) and the Netherlands Defence Academy (Den Helder, www.nlda.nl).

For applications: http://ssl1.peoplexs.com/Peoplexs22/CandidatesPortalNoLogin/ApplicationForm.cfm?&PortalID=2537&VacatureID=611001

More information: Prof.dr. Richard Boucherie: r.j.boucherie@utwente.nl, +31 53 4893432 Dr. Ana Isabel Barros: ana.barros@tno.nl, +31 88 8661077 Dr. Herman Monsuur: H.Monsuur@nlda.nl, +31 223 657566