CAReers

We are looking for a qualified business developer to acquire and manage new relationships with potential clients.

OPTIMAD is a fast-growing independent software vendor in the field of numerical simulation, machine learning and optimization. Our team is young, talented, and multi-disciplinary.
Together with ESTECO, we offer integrated solutions that help engineers to design better products and to collaborate over all levels of business. 

Description

One of your greatest challenges will be to create long-term relationships with your clients, to understand their processes and problems and to detect possible improvements in our products that are critical for them. You will support our clients on the use of our solutions, and you will be the key point of contact. 

Objectives 

Your responsibilities include:

• Identify and research potential clients;
• Build strong client relationships, through regular communication; 
• Make and give presentations to prospective clients;
• Contact clients to understand their requirements and work on a sales plan; 
• Suggest company products/services that maximise client satisfaction;
• promote new products/services to existing customers;
• Get involved in all kinds of problems that your clients have: your mission will be to find a solution to each one of them;
• Work hand in hand with different teams – especially with the sales, product, and development team – you will be their main contact person, so the feedback you can provide them will be super valuable;
• Hold regular meetings with all your clients to generate engagement and show them product updates that fit their uses cases;
• Monitor project teams to ensure contracts are executed as agreed;
• Gather useful information from customers and competitors;
• Create and implement processes and policies to support the overall business;
• Develop and manage strategic partnerships to grow business;
• Drive the end-to-end sales process.

Requirements

• You are analytical, organized and a great multitasker;
• You can easily hold a business conversation in English or Italian;
• You have excellent written communication skills in English and Italian;
• You already have experience in business-to-business (B2B) sales;
• You are a good communicator and you empathize quickly with people;
• You are proactive and you like to put forward new ideas;
• Your university education is preferably engineering or business-related ;
• You are familiar with the CAE industry;
• You have problem-solving skills to propose mutually beneficial solutions;
• You are willing to travel for meetings with prospective and existing clients.

What we offer

• Flexible working hours;
• Competitive salary and production bonus;
• generous vacation time to facilitated work-life balance;
• Remote work;
• Friendly work environment.

Multidisciplinary Topology Optimization for Additive Manufactured Micro Channel Heat Exchangers

We are looking for a motivated PhD candidate to join our R&D department on the development of new approached for multi-disciplinary topology optimization for aeronautical applications.

Description

Topology Optimization (TO) is the process of determining the connectivity, shape, and location of voids inside a given design region. TO is different from Sizing Opimization (SiO) and Shape Optimization (ShO) in the sense that the design can attain any shape within the space of feasible design. Therefore, TO allows for greater design freedom than optimization of predefined configurations. As such, TO has great implications in early conceptual and preliminary design phases when the design undergoes to significant changes with strong impact on the final performances. Lately the field has undergone a rapid growth both in the academia, and industrial application to include combinations of structures, heat transfer, acoustics, fluid flow, aeroelasticity, materials design, bio-mechanics, and other multi-physics disciplines.

Micro Channel Heat Exchanger (MCHE) or Micro-Structured Heat Exchanger (MSHE) refers to heat exchangers in which the fluid flows in lateral confinements with dimensions of order of millimeters and are usually made of ceramic or metal. The advantages provided by the microchannel heat exchangers include high volumetric heat flux, compactness, robust design, efficient flow distribution, and moderate pressure drops. Design of MCHE is of paramount importance, since the performances of the heat exchanger can be greatly improved by means of non-conventional designs, such as topology optimization. However, typical output of a topology optimization are shapes characterized by complex topologies, which are difficult (if not impossible) to manufacture via standard techniques. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an advanced manufacturing technique to create “as-designed” structures via “layer-by-layer” joining material, which provides an alternative and flexible pattern for manufacturing complex-shaped components.

Objectives 

The goal of this PhD project is to develop an algorithm for the multidisciplinary topology optimization of additive manufactured MCHE, and to implement a proof-of-concept simulation code targeting industrial applications.
The multi-disciplinary and multi-scale nature of the fluid-dynamic, thermal, and structural phenomena in MCHE will be addressed through the coupling between a Machine Learning (ML) model for the microscale and a standard finite volume/element formulation at the macroscale. The macro-scale model is used to simulate the macroscopic flow and structural behavior given the micro-scale constitutive laws represented by the ML model.

To overcome the complexity due to the explicit representation of the geometry at the microscales, a levelset based approach will be used to represent implicitly the geometry of the microstructures of the MCHE. Benefitting from the implicit representation, level set method can easily and naturally handle complex shape. Topology changes can be achieved by evolving the distance function with a suitable velocity field. Nucleation, merging/splitting are naturally handled without any need for special treatment.

Genetic algorithms are well-suited for multi-objective and multi-constrained optimization, due to their capability to handle complex objective functions and design constraints with minimal code intrusiveness. Evolutionary optimization will be the tool of choice. Genetic algorithms require a large number of model evaluations during the exploration of the design space (from few hundreds to several thousand depending on the specific problem). To achieve this exploration in an acceptable timeframe, the optimization pipeline will be developed for a HPC infrastructure.

Roadmap

• Development of a framework for geometry representation using the level set method;
• Definition of a ML model for microscale fluid-dynamic, thermal and structural characterization;
• Derivation of a multiscale simulation code for the coupling between the macroscopic model and the ML based microscopic model;
• Development and validation of a 2D topology optimization workflow. Numerical results will be validated using data from literature benchmarks and analytical results;
• Development and validation of a 3D topology optimization workflow. Topology optimization will be performed on a variety of test cases, including different objective functions and design constraints coming from additive manufacturing processes. A comparative study will be also conducted between designs optimized for laminar and turbulent boundary layers.

The ideal candidate 

• MSc, Laurea or equivalent degree in applied mathematics, computational mechanics aeronautical/mechanical/energy engineering, physics or related fields;
• Good knowledge of numerical methods for PDEs;
• Knowledge in data driven methods;
• Basic knowledge of C or C++;
• Good programming skills in Bash, Python, Matlab, or similar;
• Proactive attitude and willingness to learn;
• Strong motivation to work in a collaborative environment;
• Excellent communication skills in English and in a professional context (presentation of research results at scientific meetings, colloquial discussions,
  writing of manuscripts).

What we offer

• Challenging tasks and high responsibility in your work area;
• International collaboration within the NextAir network;
• Friendly working atmosphere;
• Competitive salary and benefits.