Research Fellow

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – AI for Urban Microclimate

The Adaptive Design Lab at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is seeking a full-time Postdoctoral Research Fellow for a multi-institution research programme on AI for climate-resilient urban design, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Peter Ortner. The selected candidate will link environmental simulation, deep learning surrogate models and multi-objective optimisation to assess and improve outdoor thermal comfort in urban masterplans.

About The Role

The selected candidate will lead the project's thermal comfort work, translating simulated and AI-predicted environmental simulations into pedestrian comfort metrics for design optimisation.

She/He will also manage the project day to day, integrate software across work packages, and coordinate with investigators, partner institutes and stakeholders. Outputs include peer-reviewed publications and a proof-of-concept web-based design tool for real-world sites in Singapore.

What You Will Do

Research and Technical Development

• Develop automated pipelines that compute outdoor thermal comfort indices (e.g. UTCI) from wind and mean radiant temperature fields.
• Define fitness functions and assessment methods for multi-objective optimisation of urban massing and layout.
• Collaborate with teams working to train, validate and deploy deep learning surrogate models for urban microclimate (PyTorch) on cloud or HPC infrastructure.
• Conduct model sensitivity analysis and contribute to a proof-of-concept web-based design tool.

Leadership and coordination

• Lead project management, including milestones, deliverables, progress reports and presentations.
• Provide intellectual leadership and coordinate across modules, partner institutes and stakeholders.
• Integrate and document software across work packages.
• Lead peer-reviewed publications and mentor junior team members.

Who We Are Looking For

• PhD in Architecture, Urban Design, Building Science, Engineering, Computer Science or a related field.
• Research experience in urban environmental simulation (e.g. microclimate, CFD, solar radiation, thermal comfort).
• Hands-on deep learning experience (PyTorch or TensorFlow) and strong Python skills.
• Track record of peer-reviewed publications, including first-authored journal papers.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

Desired Skills

• Knowledge of thermal comfort indices (UTCI, PET, mean radiant temperature) and tools such as pythermalcomfort, Ladybug Tools or ENVI-met.
• Experience with multi-objective optimisation, sensitivity analysis.
• Familiarity with Git, Docker, cloud/HPC computing, GIS and parametric design tools.
• Experience coordinating multi-partner projects and mentoring junior researchers.