Interviews: Interviews will be conducted on Tuesday 28 March/Wednesday 29 March 2017

Start date: 1 October 2017

Project description: During this thesis we will work on an integrated planning of multimodal transportation networks. The work includes design of the multimodal network over a planning horizon and establishing synchronized multimodal services taking into account uncertainty. In this thesis we focus on the multimodal transportation at both strategic and tactical decision making levels. The primary focus is on developing mathematical models for bridging the gap between these two levels of decision making aiming at de-stressing the major terminals and ensuring a better balance of flows over the network taking into account environment friendly criteria. We will incorporate tactical routing decisions in presence of multiple modes of transport and develop mathematical models of facility location and routing by taking into account congestion and environmental criteria. We expect that such models be of very large size for which the existing general-purpose solvers are unable to report even a feasible solution in realistic time. Therefore, in parallel, the thesis works on developing efficient solution methods ranging from decomposition techniques in mathematical programming to metaheuristics and matheuristics to obtain provably optimal or provably near optimal solutions as well as heuristic-based methods.

Enquiries relating to the topic should be directed to:  [email protected]; [email protected]

Funding: The studentship will cover tuition fees and an annual grant equivalent to that offered by the ESRC – currently set at £14,057 per annum for 2015/16 for full-time study for a maximum of three years. There is an allowance of £2000 for fieldwork associated with the PhD research. UK/EU residence eligibility conditions apply. This full-time studentship is open to UK/ EU students only and is located in Portsmouth Business School, Hampshire, UK.

Potential applicants can find further information on PBS Research and Research Degrees at:

http://www.port.ac.uk/portsmouth-business-school/research/

http://www.port.ac.uk/portsmouth-business-school/research-degrees/

Qualifications: Applicants will have a good first degree (minimum 2.1 or equivalent) and Masters in mathematics, transportation engineering, operations research, computer science, industrial engineering, economics and/or finance, or another subject relevant to business and management. Solid records in linear optimization and familiarity with (preferably) C/C++ or Java are very essential. Experience and knowledge in general purpose MIP solvers such as CPLEX, Gurobi, or Coin-OR or any knowledge in exact and decomposition methods or metaheuristics is an advantage.

How to apply:  Applications should be sent to: Sue Edwards, Postgraduate Centre, University of Portsmouth Business School, Richmond Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth PO1 3DE. Applications can be submitted electronically via: [email protected] and cc [email protected]

Applications should include:

[Please note to follow this guide to apply for this bursary award]

• a full CV including personal details, qualifications, educational history and, where applicable, any employment or other experience relevant to the application
• contact details for TWO referees able to comment on your academic performance
• a statement of 1,000 (words) outlining the main features of a research design you would propose to meet the stated objectives, identifying the challenges this project might present and discussing how the work will build on or challenge existing research in the above field.

source:jobs.ac.uk