Smart Living
We’re looking for individuals to help us make our mark in this area, which is critical to economic development in Missouri and the nation.

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is seeking candidates for faculty in either tenure-track at the assistant professor level or mid-career position at either the associate professor or professor level who excel in interdisciplinary research to advance our campus signature area of Smart Living.  Smart Living seeks to improve the human living condition by enhancing the integrated system of people, technology and the environment. Smart Living requires an interdisciplinary effort in numerous fields among the business, computing, economics, engineering, humanities, mathematics and statistics, policy, science, and social science disciplines to advance a sustainable, usable, and healthy society. The Smart Living signature area is one of four signature areas that are part of S&T’s aggressive strategic plan to hire 100 faculty, adding more breadth and depth to our world-class programs. New hires may start in Fall 2018, Spring 2019, or Fall 2019.

Highly qualified, motivated faculty members in various disciplines would join the university at a pivotal moment in its 147 year history assist us in raising our visibility. The university has an ambitious strategic plan strongly supported by the University of Missouri System, and a decade of growth in its enrollments, research expenditures, scholarly activity and overall academic quality. In rising to the challenge, the university is halfway through a plan to hire 100 new faculty members by 2020 — growing the faculty by 20 percent. Part of this bold, ambitious plan includes employing transformative and focused luring in four interdisciplinary signature areas, including Smart Living.

New faculty will build upon and add new dimensions to the existing strengths at Missouri S&T. The positions are broadly defined. New hires must be able to contribute to the Smart Living vision from various perspectives, including secure and private decision-making, smart technologies for business, smart grid, smart buildings, smart transportation, smart environment, leadership, usability, and governance and policy issues.  A Ph.D is required.

Interested applicants should submit an electronic application to Missouri S&T Human Resources, see academic employment section.

Applications must include:

1.      A cover letter.

2.      A current curriculum vitae.

3.      A one-page statement of research interests and experience.

4.      A one-page statement of teaching interests and experience.

5.      A one-page statement detailing plans to create an interdisciplinary research program around  smart living. This plan should describe interactions with existing campus groups and include an explanation of fit with one or more of the clusters described below.

6.      The three statements should collectively demonstrate that the applicant is cognizant of challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic environments, and has plans for addressing these challenges.

7.      Complete contact information for five references.

All reference materials must include reference number 67782 . Application materials that do not include the position reference number will not be processed. Hard copy applications are not accepted. Acceptable electronic formats include PDF and Word.  Review of applications will begin on December 1, 2017 and applications will be accepted and reviewed until the positions are filled.

 

We seek engineers and scientists with strong backgrounds in smart technology, smart living applications and the analysis of the built environment. In particular, we seek individuals with outstanding research capabilities that can contribute to the NAE/NAS Grand Challenges associated with connected communities including smart grid, sensor networks, critical infrastructure systems, cyber-physical systems, smart buildings, and their fit within the realm of interdependent infrastructure and environmental systems vital for the well-being and growth of vibrant communities. Relevant applications include smart sensing/control/algorithms for cyber-physical system, communications, and unmanned/autonomous vehicles; secure communications and control for dynamic smart grid design and management; data mining/analytics and decision making for disaster restoration, and community resiliency for smart and connected health. Other areas that are closely related include sociotechnical systems modeling, complex systems modeling, analysis, and design of infrastructure and the environment, and data-driven decision analytics and policy analysis.  Hires in the engineering and computing cluster will find a home among the nine departments of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural, Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Geological Engineering Geological Science, and Petroleum, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Mining and Nuclear Engineering.  These departments consist of than 200 faculty with over 18 M.S./Ph.D. and undergraduate programs.

Candidates interested in Mathematics and Statistics as their home department should have a Ph.D. with doctoral research in statistics or applied dynamical systems with a strong emphasis on stochastic modeling and data analysis.  The candidate must show evidence of a strong interests in, and a demonstrated capability of, developing cutting-edge methodology and computational tools for solving high-dimensional and complex data intensive problems with underlying stochasticity. The ideal candidate must have experience in collaborative research with scientists in other disciplines on a substantive research project. Those with skills and experience in the application of mathematics or statistics in the modeling of complex systems and/or extracting knowledge and providing insights into mechanisms underlying noisy high-dimensional data will be highly desirable. Training and experience in the use of data visualization tools for high-dimensional data will be a plus.  While establishing a successful collaboration with interdisciplinary teams of engineers as well as behavioral, biological, computer, and social scientists, the ideal candidate should be able develop mathematically/statistically optimal yet practical solutions to the challenges posed by the smart living research initiative.

Candidates whose home department could be in Arts, Languages, and Philosophy; English and Technical Communication; or History and Political Science should have a Ph.D. in their respective fields and an active research program relevant to Smart Living at S&T.  The ideal candidate will be able to contribute to their respective home departments, while establishing a successful collaboration with computer, behavioral, biological, physical, and social scientists working on the smart living initiative. The candidate could have expertise in any of a variety of areas: Languages (intercultural communication, study abroad programs, global competence/intercultural communication competence, bilingualism); History or political science (architectural history; environmental history; government and public service; history of science, medicine, and technology; public or environmental policy; environmental humanities); English and technical communication (social media, user experience [UX], technology diffusion, rhetoric of science, sustainability studies, American studies, or linguistics); Speech (communication and environmental attitudes and policy; rhetoric and environmental controversies/global climate change; policies on wilderness, health, or climate protection issues; news media agenda setting and framing; green marketing); and Philosophy (moral permissibility to monitor consumption, metaethical considerations, ethics of technology).

Candidates interested in Business & Information Technology (BIT) or Economics as their home department should have a Ph.D. in the respective field, which includes strategy/policy, organizational behavior, management, finance, accounting, operations, information systems/science, or economics.  The candidate must have strong interests in integrating one or more areas in business or economics with technology in conducting state-of-the-art research in smart living.  Examples of such research include smart technology for business and industry, usability assessment and human-computer interaction, policy and assessment of privacy and security, assessment of acceptability of smart living technologies, design of business environments for smart living, integrating technology into daily lives, social and sociotechnical dimensions of smart living, business analytics for smart living, visualization of structured and unstructured data from smart environments,  governance and policy for successful implementation of smart living, assessment of large scale smart living system experience, urban and regional economics for smart living, and the economics of technological change.

Candidates interested in Psychological Science as their home department should have a Ph.D. in Psychology or a related discipline.  A desirable candidate should be able to clearly demonstrate how their research area of interest can contribute to the Smart Living signature area by building upon strengths already in place.  Areas of interest can include, but are not limited to organizational behavior, issues surrounding the integration of technology into daily lives, human computer interaction, usability, participatory sensing, environmental awareness, privacy, technology related health issues, or the impact of technology on neuroscience and cognitive processes. While establishing a successful collaboration with engineering, computing, and physical scientists working on the smart living initiative, the ideal candidate will be able to successfully demonstrate an independent line of research and will show a passion for teaching.

Candidates interested in Biological Sciences may support development in areas such as smart health, personalized healthcare, smart food production and distribution, and environmental sustainability.  Relevant expertise includes, but is not limited to, neuroscience, biosensors, biomarkers, and systems biology.  Other areas such as disaster detection, stochastic models, epidemiology and assessment, holistic models and adoptive & environmental awareness, and science & technology policy, and privacy policy will be considered.    Examples of Smart Living in the biological sciences cluster include  remote monitoring and treatment for an aging population (i.e., smart health) and significantly improved agriculture through targeted application of fertilizer and pesticides (i.e., smart food).  Understanding and using big data related to climate change and a growing industrial base ties Smart Living to environmental sustainability.