Ph.d.-projekter

Background

Project

Unlike traditional power systems, the Danish energy islands will be a 100% renewable system powered by offshore wind, which is a power electronic based system with zero inertia. To ensure stable operation of such a system, innovative solutions have to be developed and matured. Therefore, this PhD project aims to address stability issues arising from the lack of inertia and low short-circuit power in 100% converter-based energy islands and provide viable solutions. This issue can be resolved through coordinated control of power electronic converters in energy islands and introduction of new control techniques for each of those converters. The goal is to first perform all studies using PSCAD and MATLAB/Simulink. Then, test the proposed control algorithms and techniques in real-time simulators.

Perspectives

The results of my research will provide a coordinated control system for power electronic converters within energy islands. I will also propose novel control techniques for each of these converters, aiming to resolve stability issues arising from the lack of inertia and low short-circuit power in fully converter-based systems. Furthermore, this research will establish guidelines for developing stability assessment criteria for energy island systems. Ultimately, these endeavors will accelerate the deployment of wind energy and facilitate the transition to a power system based on renewable sources.

Co-supervisors: Gen Li and Nicolaos A. Cutululis

Research Group: Electric Energy

Project Period: 2023-2026

Baggrund

The strategy of Banedanmark, the Danish railway infrastructure owner is to “develop and build an attractive, green, safe and efficient railway, by delivering on the three core priorities: Punctuality, Projects, and Orderliness.” Projects at Banedanmark are highly complex because the construction projects must be coordinated with the daily operation of the network, ongoing mega-projects such as the Signalling and Electrification programmes and the development of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). Furthermore the construction, renewal and maintenance projects are most often hybrid projects since they typically include IT development for the power or signalling systems.

Project

Based on interviews with European owner organisations, Winch and Leiringer (2016) proposed a framework of the capabilities that a “Strong Owner” organisation needs to possess. This project proposes to develop this framework by testing it in the context of the Danish railway owner. This will be done by first gauging the level of maturity of Banedanmark as an organisation against the “Strong Owner” framework, then to identify the most important areas for development. Once the results from the above are received, the project will be approached from the perspectives of the three “enabler” domains: systems, projects and people.

Perspectives

At present, there is a need to improve the planning and execution of rail construction and renewal projects, with a focus on delivering on time and to budget. When projects are not completed on time, this directly affects the punctuality and reliability of the service, which reduces the attractiveness of this mode of transport relative to less environmentally friendly modes. 

Principal Supervisor / Co Supervisors: Christian Thuesen, DTU; Søren Stentoft Herping, Banedanmark; Thomas Gottschalck, Implement Consulting

Background

As student populations are ever changing, identifying underlying and existing reasons for student persistence is important. Understanding and addressing these factors can help universities further develop supportive environments for engineering students, leading to improved engagement, motivation, and ultimately higher persistence rates.

Project

This project aims to investigate factors influencing student persistence in engineering education. Higher education is known to contribute to improved life quality and societal equity, and there is a growing demand for STEM graduates, particularly in engineering disciplines. However, various challenges hinder students from persisting in engineering degrees, posing a challenge for universities, and potentially leading to lower graduation rates compared to other disciplines. A students' decision to persist or leave their engineering studies can be for number of reasons. The transition to university, perception of competence, sense of belonging, perceived autonomy, emotional intelligence, and difficulty of foundational subjects like math and physics can influence student persistence. 

Perspectives

The study seeks to shed light on these factors and how didactical strategies in universities can provide further support to enhance student retention and success in engineering education. 

Research Group: Ingeniørdidaktik og -pædagogik

Background

Society is facing a tremendous amount of ‘wicked problems’ such as climate change, pandemics, and inequality. The technology field plays an important role in developing solutions tackling ‘wicked problems’ through ‘social innovation’. However, the technology field faces a challenge: collaboration between people with diverse backgrounds and life experiences is found to be essential for solving wicked problems, but the field lacks diversity in terms of gender and ethnicity. This project sets out to shed further light on gender and ethnic diversity in engineering education with the aim of supporting the technology field in fostering diversity for social innovation purposes. 

Project

The empirical setting of this project is DTU, where fieldwork is conducted amongst students going through social innovation processes at innovation courses. Through observation and interviews, the project explores how gender and ethnic diversity influence social innovation processes and their outcome as well as how engineering students work to construct professional identities at the nexus of profession, gender, and ethnicity.

Perspective

With increased knowledge about the mechanisms at play in engineering education, the project has potential to influence the diversity practices in educational institutions with the purpose of stimulating diversity within the technology field in the long run and thereby make the field better equipped to tackle wicked problems.

The ph.d.-project is part of Diversity In Technology funded by Carlsberg Foundation.

Principal Supervisor: Lærke Højgaard Christiansen

Research Group: Strategy, Organization and Leadership

Project period: Aug 2022 – Aug 2025

Background

Collaborations between universities and firms are among the most fundamental mechanisms that drive innovation processes in our knowledge society. Lately, such collaborations have been shaped in a multitude of organizational forms, from research contracts to students’ mobility, each one being different from the others. This is the result of different institutional logics (academic vs. commercial) and the multi-stakeholder nature of innovation collaborations. As the universities attempt to engage in parallel collaborations a constellation of societal actors, it is important to design interactions that balance out common interests – or shared value creation – so that meaningful engagement is created and knowledge flows are ensured.

Project

The PhD project is supported by both DTU Engineering Technology and DTU Entrepreneurship, which allows Giulio to engage with a multitude of entrepreneurship education courses and the larger innovation ecosystem. The overall objective is to develop frameworks and best practices that can sustain engagement in courses in collaboration with companies, thereby strengthening the knowledge recombination that underlies the university’s ecosystem. In the context of these peculiar courses, this has soon translated into understanding how stakeholders interact with conflicting interests that reflect different value creation approaches. The focus of the PhD project, then, is to examine the directionality between value creation dynamics and the strategic design of entrepreneurship education courses. Such analysis will be integrated also by an External Research Stay period at UC Berkeley, where Giulio will engage with a new ecosystem and course blueprints. 

Perspective

The research is generating finer-grained insights into how universities should deploy their collaborations portfolio in experimental arenas with the broader aim of engaging companies through multiple touch-points and recursive feedback loops. As intended since the beginning, the PhD project is providing contributions both to the academic conversation and to the practitioners: first, the University-Industry Collaborations literature is being expanded towards a more encompassing multi-stakeholder perspective, culminating in a conceptual adaptation of the Service-Dominant Logic; second, local DTU course managers are co-learning about the value co-creation dynamics of their courses and their role in the overall university ecosystem. 

Principal Supervisor: Sara Grex, DTU Engineering Technology with Lars Alkaersig, DTU Entrepreneurship.

Research Group: Innovation Processes and Entrepreneurship

Project Period: April 2021 - March 2024

Background

Several transport megaprojects are under execution worldwide, such as the US$8.59 billion Danish‐German Fehmarn Belt tunnel and the California High-Speed rail project in America. A worldwide survey in 2018 shows that around 28% of projects fail due to imprecise cost estimates (Project Management Institute, 2018). It is expected that these projects are likely to exceed budget or miss scheduled deadlines. This is a major concern to the government and taxpayers as it erodes public confidence in the government. Thus, this research aims to improve the performance of megaprojects so that they can be delivered on time and within budget.

Project

In achieving the delivery objectives of mega transport infrastructure, the topic of construction estimating, and management is paramount, yet due to magnified project characteristics, megaprojects are always over budget and delivered late. This Ph.D. project is about understanding the methods used in developing costs and schedules on selected projects and how accurate they are. We explore the appropriateness of the cost and schedule control forecasting methods on selected mega projects. Finally, we examine how regional contracting methods and government processes relating to cultural qualities affect the cost and schedule management of selected megaprojects.

Perspective

The project will contribute to the available knowledge on the control and accountability of transport infrastructure mega projects. Notably, it will increase understanding of how better project estimation, governance, and contractual management can control cost overruns and schedule delays affecting mega projects. 

Principal supervisor: Steven Harrod

Research Group: Mobility, Environment, and Infrastructure.

Period: 2022-2025

Background

Construction practices are unsustainable as they contribute to the exceedance of absolute environmental boundaries. To attain international goals of keeping the resource consumption within the planetary boundaries, there is a need to reduce the footprint and double the circular material use rate. Academic and industry reviews identify the importance and challenges of implementing circular economy in construction. Especially challenges and opportunities related to value-chain and documentation are currently not supported by systematic research and development activities. 

Project

Platform thinking has developed significantly from the seminal work by Meyer & Lehnerd on product platforms to platform economies based on digital markets. While the technical perspective views platforms as “sets of stable components that support variety and evolvability in a system by constraining the linkages among the other components”, the ecosystem perspective focuses on the actors and infrastructures for organizational learning that allow for optimization across the value chain. By optimizing products, processes, and division of labor, platforms maximize value while minimizing waste. Platforms have proven successful strategies for achieving long-term strategic benefits in industries like automotive, aerospace & defense; their application in construction is limited. Also, there are limited examples of leveraging platforms for sustainability—and even less for circularity. Thus, there is potential for developing platforms that improve the competitiveness of circular construction solutions to support the reduction of the construction sectors’ absolute impact on the environment. 

Perspectives

The overall objective of this project is to investigate the question, whether platforms support the scaling of the circular economy in the construction sector. Thereby, this project aims to contribute to the theory and practice of the shift from a linear to a circular organization of value chains in the construction industry and deliver insights for other industries as well.

Principal Supervisor: Christian Thuesen

Research Group: Bygningsteknologi og processer

Project Period: 2023-25

Background

The cutting-edge innovation of the Information and communications technology (ICT) revolution, the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the upcoming sixth-generation (6G) mobile communications are expected to be the next attention in wireless communication and networking. The role of the Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocol in securing communication is the most crucial component to be implemented in the new 6G network. The AKA protocol is not only facilitating to guarantee of the security of communication between users and the network by verifying the identity of each entity involved but also establishing a shared secret key for encrypted information.

Project

The current standards for traditional symmetric cryptography have been developed and optimized for AKA protocol in 5G communications. Moving to 6G with the upcoming quantum technology as well as when it comes to resource-constrained devices, these primitive standards are very difficult to implement and impossible to resist with the quantum attack. Recent developments in the lightweight post-quantum cryptography scheme have heightened the need for proving the feasibility to implement in a resource-constrained environment. Based on the phenomenon of the advent of the IoT and the upcoming 6G mobile network, there is a need for alternatives to tackle quantum attacks as well as to obtain lightweight authentication. Therefore, research is needed to design the precise lightweight AKA protocol with post-quantum algorithms in order to satisfy the envisioned performance and functionality of the 6G architecture including wireless technologies from the Internet of Thing (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) domains, such as LoRaWAN and Zigbee.

Perspectives

This research project aims to explore cryptography techniques and investigate the possibility to implement a hybrid solution that considers efficiency lightweight computational cost as well as suits 6G application scenarios, for instance, Vehicle-to-everything (V2X), Device-to-Device (D2D), and M2M. It can contribute to the future unified security architecture for the 6G network. Moreover, the hybrid technique must ensure and satisfy the basic security essentials such as confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity when the data are transmitted over the network. It is also expected to bring significant benefits in the implementation of 6G.

Principal Supervisor: Birger Andersen

Research Group: AI, matematik og software

Project Period: March 2023 - March 25