Postdoctoral Researcher – Ontology and Knowledge Graph Engineering

ETH Zurich is one of the leading universities of the world with a strong focus on science and engineering. In 2010 it established the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) in collaboration with the National Research Foundation (NRF) to do interdisciplinary research on pressing problems.

The Singapore-ETH Centre is home to a community of doctoral, postdoctoral and professorial researchers working in three main programmes: Future Cities Laboratory, Future Resilient Systems, and Future Health Technologies. The centre provides a multicultural and interdisciplinary environment to researchers working on diverse themes, with the shared vision of translating research to practical solutions for more sustainable and liveable cities, resilient physical and social urban systems, and patient-centric healthcare systems.

As a Postdoctoral Researcher – Ontology and Knowledge Graph Engineering, you will be contributing to the ongoing development of a general and interoperable modular architecture to build federations of simulation models. This simulation-as-a-service middleware architecture developed by the Digital Twin Lab is currently powering applications such as the Digital Urban Climate Twin.

More specifically, you will be contributing to the integration of ontologies, knowledge graphs, and related semantic web technologies into this architecture. The final aim is to demonstrate how this integration augments the development of model federations to explore decarbonisation scenarios for Singapore. Your work will enable formally representing semantic domain knowledge, making it interoperable, and developing cross-domain features supporting federation building.  

You will do this work under the guidance of Dr Pieter Herthogs and Dr Heiko Aydt from Singapore-ETH Centre.

Your key responsibilities will be:

1. Developing ontologies (domain, application, and mid-level ontologies). This work includes, a.o.:

• Co-developing and delivering ontologies related to the domains and models of our project and research consortium. This includes contributing to ontology validation actions with external domain experts.
• Ensuring interoperability of your work with ongoing semantic web technology efforts at the Singapore-ETH Centre.
• Co-developing and publishing journal articles.
• Presenting your research to international audiences and visitors.

2. Supporting architecture design and feature development. This work includes, a.o.:

• Co-designing the integration of ontologies and knowledge graphs into a simulation-as-a-service middleware. Performing software engineering and data management tasks in support of the realisation of this architecture.
• Exploring and evaluating different technological implementations of graph databases and related features. Leading requirement engineering actions with colleagues, consortium collaborators, and stakeholders.
• Co-designing and co-developing new features and interfaces supporting the development of semantically coherent simulation federations.

3. Demonstrating innovations. This work includes, a.o.:

• Assembling convincing demonstrators, proof-of-concepts, and examples showcasing new architectures, features, ontologies, and other developments, using data, models, and tools in the portfolio of the Singapore-ETH Centre.
• Presenting our research and developments internally and externally, and preparing material for such presentations.

4. Supporting the research efforts in general. This includes, a.o.:

• Participating in and contributing to team meetings and working meetings.
• Supporting other researchers and software engineers working on the project, and related projects.
• Contributing to academic papers and funding acquisition actions.

Mandatory Requirements:

You have:

• A PhD degree relevant to this position.
• Demonstrable experience with Semantic Web technologies and related concepts (RDF, OWL, SPARQL, graph data stores, applied ontology …) - demonstrated through CV, portfolio, and publications.
• Co-authored at least 3 English-language published journal articles on topics relevant to the module research, at least 2 of which as first author.
• Demonstrable experience related to software engineering, and collaborative software engineering practices.

You are:

• A self-motivated and independent researcher.
• A good communicator:
  • Proactive: you can signal issues, set and commit to targets
  • Rational: you can clearly articulate ideas and thoughts
  • Interpersonal: you are able to take and provide constructive feedback
  • A professional working proficiency in English is required.
• A team player: collaborative and constructive, and always open to help team members
• An experienced programmer, able to easily adopt new programming languages or software design methods for particular purposes.
• Curious and passionate to explore new concepts, methods and technologies. You have the capability to identify and quickly learn the most suitable tools for the research on the go.

Significantly Beneficial Attributes:

• The ability to present your work and progress in an engaging and effective way.
• Detail-oriented and meticulous in your work.
• A strong interest in developing diagrams, frameworks, taxonomies, categorisations, and other ontology-adjacent research activities.

Desirable Attributes:

• Experience with generative AI methods, and integrations of these methods and ontologies & knowledge graphs.
• Domain experience related to the research project’s decarbonisation use cases.

• Accredited with 5 Tripartite Standards by Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) Singapore.
• A diverse workplace with 32 nationalities, offering ample opportunities for mutual learning
• Positive and inclusive working environment
• 25 days of annual leave for fixed-term contracts
• 1 day of Birthday Leave
• Annual dental benefits
• Committed to being a supportive employer as you prioritize your physical and mental wellness.
• Comprehensive healthcare insurance coverage
• Flexible hybrid work arrangement (up to 2 days per week from home)
• Abundant networking opportunities across various disciplines

The Singapore-ETH-Centre is an equal opportunity and family-friendly employer. All candidates will be evaluated on their merits and qualifications, without regards to gender, race, age or religion.