All Things Urban

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a mission-driven Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) active in the fields of materials, environment and IT. By transferring technology to society as well as local companies, LIST contributes strongly to the building of tomorrow’s Luxembourg.

The Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Circularity (SUSTAIN) Unit of the Environmental Research and Innovation department (ERIN) of LIST is developing knowledge, transferable (software) technologies and practical methods for the integrative evaluation and management of the sustainability of human driven systems. Its final purpose is to foster sustainable, technology-driven eco-innovation in industry and to support sustainability-oriented policy-making. In the framework of its activities in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) field, the Unit aims at developing methods and tools to perform the LCA of cities. The internship will start with a state-of-the art survey on LCA of cities and its interconnection with urban metabolism and it will then focus on the identification of some significant "urban activity sectors" (e.g. transportation, or housing) and the quantification of the flows associated with them using data analytics and exploratory data analysis to extract knowledge from available data. The final aim of the internship will be to quantify the selected flows and translate them in environmental impacts using the conventional methodologies of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) in LCA. A previous knowledge about LCA by the candidate is beneficial, but not necessary to successfully complete the internship, as in the last task the trainee will be instructed by the SUSTAIN research group members. During the internship the candidate will learn: - the general principles and the computational underpinnings of LCA - how to translate pollutant emissions into environmental impacts - how to mine data to extract relevant patterns using different data mining techniques - how to write a scientific paper and make public presentations At the end of the internship the candidate will have to give a presentation in front of the staff of the SUSTAIN Unit. It is one of the goals of the internship to produce results that can be published in a in a scientific outlet (ISI journal or indexed conference), in order to contribute to the state of the art on LCA of cities, which is a complex and very timely topic in the LCA community. The SUSTAIN group will offer to the selected candidate the possibility to work in a high-motivation, dynamic and multi-disciplinary team. Open minded setting, creativity and capacity to propose new ideas to solve problems will be encouraged and highly appreciated in the candidate for this position.

- Education: Master (statistics/mathematics/computer science) - Competencies: Programming skills in at least one of the following languages: R, Python - Language: English will be the daily working language. Any other language will be an additional asset

This job is available for international candidates.