Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor, RISES and ECE

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The Opportunity

The University of Central Florida (UCF) has established several interdisciplinary faculty research clusters to strengthen its academic offerings and research mission. In support of this effort, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) invites applicants for two (2) full-time, 9-month faculty positions at the rank of assistant professor (tenure-earning) or associate professor or professor (tenured) for the university research center on Resilient, Intelligent, and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES). These positions will carry a rank commensurate with the candidate’s prior experience and record.

All candidates whose research is at the forefront of energy systems, resilience, and sustainability will be considered. The technical fields of specific research interest for the two positions include, but are not limited to:

(1) Reliable DERs for Grid Integration:

The selected candidate must exhibit extensive expertise in the reliability of inverter-based resources. This individual should have a strong understanding of the various failure modes and degradation mechanisms common to inverters, micro-inverters, and DC optimizers, and be able to work on solutions to improve reliability and lengthen the operational lifetime of these components. This will likely require a strong background in power semiconductor materials and devices, power electronics, failure mode analysis, data analytics, and various applications of inverter-based resources (e.g., PV, EVs, wind). The selected candidate should be proficient in the design, characterization, and modeling of the various devices and components that make up inverters and have strong connections to top research groups and companies working in this area. Prior experience in national laboratories, industry, or a large research institute is highly preferred.

(2) Resilience of Energy Systems:

The selected candidate will be someone who can creatively use multidisciplinary tools from network theory, optimization, and nonlinear dynamics to analyze interdependent energy systems and develop innovative metrics and methodologies for resilience enhancement. Examples of resilience analysis include quantification of interdependence, identification and characterization of cascaded and common-mode failures, determination, and impact analysis of uncommon but impactful events, mitigation and response strategies for real-time operation, long-term planning, and investment strategies for hardening, etc. Interests and experiences in interdisciplinary, human-centric, and community-based research on resilience are highly desired.

The positions have an anticipated start date of August 8, 2024. Each interdisciplinary hire will be expected to strengthen the RISES Center and the tenure home department, ECE, in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. They will have research impact as reflected in high-quality publications and the ability to build a well-funded and sustainable research program. We are looking for team players who can further enhance our strong campus-wide efforts in energy systems research. The positions will carry ranks commensurate with the candidate’s prior experience and record.