Wireless Sensor Development

The National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL's) record of success has been built on understanding the future of energy and the technologies required to make that future possible. We’ve long touted our success in developing the technologies that took on acid rain in the 1970s and mercury in the early 2000s. More recently, NETL has a leading role in President Biden’s ambitious climate goals, including a carbon emission-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050.

Program Goals

The NETL Postgraduate Research Program (PGRP) is a high-intensity program designed to identify recent Master’s and Doctoral graduates of high promise and to foster advanced skill development. It allows the postgraduate to systematically outline career goals and helps provide the means of achieving these goals. NETL principal investigators and leads serve as mentors to PGRP participants during the program. This interaction affords the postgraduate a unique opportunity to develop critical skills needed to become an independent professional.

The program goals include providing the opportunity to participants to:

• Develop skills and knowledge in their field of study
• Engage with new areas of basic and applied research
• Network with world-class scientists
• Exchange ideas and skills with the Laboratory community
• Use state-of-the-art equipment
• Contribute to answers for today's pressing scientific questions
• Collaborate with the broader scientific and technical communities

Project Details

Through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), this posting seeks a post-Doctoral or post-Master's researcher to engage in projects with the Research Innovation Center (RIC) at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in the area of natural gas infrastructure under the mentorship of Ruishu Wright. This project will be hosted at the NETL Pittsburgh, PA campuses.

The team seeks a participant with a strong background in microwave devices, wireless sensor network, and novel measurement technologies for automated monitoring of infrastructures. The participant will also collaborate on development of novel measurement methodologies to characterize electromagnetic components for power conversion applications. The participant will collaborate on an interdisciplinary team spanning industry, academic, and national laboratory partners that seeks to develop a wireless sensor network for infrastructure sensing and demonstrate advantages of advanced magnetic components for emerging power electronics. Knowledge of microwave sensor devices, sensor network algorithms, instrumentation automation, and hands-on experience working with RF and microwave propagation systems and electric measurements involving voltages in the order of kV are highly desired.  An ideal participant would also be capable of leveraging analytical models, finite element modeling, and other simulation tools for device modeling, sensor network development, and instrumentation automation. Publications in high quality scientific peer-reviewed journals, presentations at national and international technical meetings, and development of new intellectual property are all expected outcomes of the research to be performed. 

The participant will further develop skills in wireless sensor development and functionalization for energy system monitoring, and gain experience in R&D and field validation of wireless telemetry and sensor deployment.

Stipend: The selected participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience.

• Post-Master's stipends start at $3,720 per month.
• Post-Doctoral stipends start at $5,518 per month.
  Actual stipend rate offered may be increased based on experience.

Deliverables: To document the effectiveness of the program, participants are required to submit a pre-appointment and post-appointment survey, as well as a reflection on their appointment experience when they renew or end their appointment. The reflection should summarize their project(s), additional activities, and overall experience. Details are provided as the appointment end date approaches.
Participants may also have the opportunity to contribute to manuscripts, journal articles, book chapters, conference presentations, posters, patents, and other publications as a part of their appointment. Such achievements should also be reported to ORISE; additional details are provided after an offer has been accepted.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory system, is owned and operated by the DOE. NETL supports the DOE mission to advance the energy security of the United States. This is an educational opportunity offered by NETL and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Participants in the program are not considered employees of NETL, DOE, the program administrator, or any other office or agency.

Qualifications

To be eligible, you must either:

• have received a Doctoral degree within the last five years or be currently enrolled in a Doctoral degree program and complete the degree prior to the appointment start date.
• have received a Master's degree within the last three years or are currently enrolled in a Master's degree program and complete the degree prior to the appointment start date.

The ideal candidate would have some, but not necessarily all, of the following:

• Advanced degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Computer Science, or a related field (MS or PhD preferred)
• Experience with designing and applying electronics and electrical test equipment including impedance measurement systems, LCR meters, network analyzers, oscilloscopes, function generators, current and voltage probes, DSP and PWM
• Experience with modeling and simulating microwave sensor devices and working knowledge in algorithms
• Experience with Comsol or related finite element, multi-physics modeling packages.
• Experience with automated instrumentation, interrogator development, data acquisition, and processing systems using PYHON, LabVIEW, MATLAB, or programming languages.