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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # PhD Position Control Theory for Self-Designing Digital Twins of Transportation Systems - **Company:** TU Delft - **Location:** Delft, Netherlands - **Salary:** €3,204.0 - €4,051.0 - **Contract:** Temporary contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Computer Programming, Imaging Technology, Python (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Signal Processing, Information Technology - **Published:** September 1, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.academictransfer.com/en/jobs/363620/phd-position-control-theory-for-self-designing-digital-twins-of-transportation-systems/apply/ ## About the Role * An MSc degree in systems and control, applied mathematics, electrical engineering, computer science, or related fields. * Basic knowledge of control theory and/or machine learning and/or digitl twin technologies (waived if the candidate is particularly skilled on theoretical computer science, optimization, or mobility systems). * Strong analytical skills and an ability to work at the intersection of several research domains, in particular control theory, computer science, and transportation engineering. * Good programming skills are expected, in particular Python. Knowledge of other programming lenguages is not mandatory but apprecated. * Good command of the English language and good communication skills., * (pdf 2) Academic transcripts of both your BSc and MSc degrees * (pdf 3) A (part of your) M.Sc. thesis, a scientific report, or a paper that you have written, in which you demonstrate your writing skills Please highlight in your motivation letter and/or CV examples of projects and achievements that demonstrate your relevant competences. You can address your application to Dr. Carlo Cenedese. Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements. ## Description This PhD builds digital twins that design themselves, using formal control theory to configure and verify them, then puts that theory to work on transportation systems, On this PhD project you will delve into the growing field of digital twins for infrastructure systems, with a focus on transportation systems. Digital twins are high-fidelity simulations combining principle-based models and black-box/data-driven representations of physical systems. While essential for high-accuracy predictions and counterfactual analysis, they are inherently complex and difficult to analyze due to the lack of standardization and a unified design theory. This project will tackle this problem from a theoretical angle in three main ways: * You will develop a framework for the autonomous design of formal mathematical contracts, based on the system description and functional requirements. This will lead to the creation of abstract classes used to describe the digital twin. * You will then design methods for automatically choosing the right parametrization of controllers to autonomously configure them to the abstract classes, ensuring stability and performance based on the requirements and specifications, e.g. via federated, scenario/sampling-based contract compositions. * Additionally, you will theorize how to design and verify complex control policies such as MPC and RL. * Additionally, you will study the effect of interconnecting digital twins of different systems and the effect on their stability. You will be able to work towards improving our state-of-the-art advanced digital-twin of transportation systems (based on SUMO). You will work at the Delft Centre of Systems and Control (DCSC) and will be supervised by Carlo Cenedese & Manuel Mazo. TU Delft is a top tier university and is exceedingly active in the field of Artificial intelligence and Control Systems. The Delft Centre for Systems and Control (DCSC) coordinates the education and research activities in systems and control at Delft University of Technology. The Centre's research mission is to conduct fundamental research in systems dynamics and control, involving dynamic modelling, advanced control theory, optimisation and signal analysis. The research is motivated by advanced technology development in physical imaging systems, robotics and transportation systems. The group actively participates in the Dutch Institute of Systems and Control (DISC)., Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. 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