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Tampere University Electrical Engineering unit at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences offers research positions (Research Assistant positions) to work on interesting research topics in the research group “Smart Grids” of Electrical Engineering.

We are looking for MSc degree students for the research project. We do not expect previous research experience but appreciate enthusiasm to work hard and learn more. The topics are also suitable for MSc thesis based on further discussion. You will be supervised by our researchers and staff who are committed to give you a great experience!

JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

We are doing research to enable future sustainable energy system and society in general. Specifically, we are focusing on electricity market and energy system design, and integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) and distributed energy resources (DER: distributed generation, storage and demand response) to realize electrification and sector integration of electricity system, heating, transportation/mobility, industrial processes and residential sector. Energy system is going through a fundamental change in how it is structured and operated where we want greatly to impact.

Topics of the research looking for the new recruitment cover:

1. modeling and simulation of local energy systems with sector coupling of heating and electricity (6 months)
2. development of components for predictive congestion management in distribution grids with large-scale integration of RESs and DERs and purchase of flexibility from local flexibility market (8 months)
3. development of hardware and software implementations of low-cost solar radiation measurement system (2 months)

Within the first project the research assistant would realize an energy cost optimization model of local energy system with sector coupling of heating and electricity with several flexibility resources. An example case will be utilized to simulate the performance of the sector-coupled system with different design factors. The work will be done in collaboration with the rest of the research team. The local energy system is a low-temperature district heating system connected to centralized heat pump, possible heat storage, heat exchanger to high-temperature district heating system, heat consumption and potential demand response of buildings, and electricity consumption/production and potential demand response within prosumers.

The second topic is related to EU project Hedge-IoT (https://hedgeiot.eu/ ), where the Finnish real-life pilot is related to a distribution grid congestion management. Your role is to develop and implement python-based software components for predictive congestion management. You would work with the research team of Tampere University and the rest of the partners of Finnish pilot. The topic requires a good command of programming skills proofed by concrete examples. In addition to software development, the task includes the functional and integration testing of developed system, and the simulation of benefits of the developed system. You will not start from scratch, but already defined business and system use cases and prototype versions of software components are available.

The third topic is related to finalization of the hardware and software implementation of the low-cost solar radiation measurement system. Your task is to build a Raspberry Pi based implementation of solar radiation measurement collection, storage to a local memory, and reporting the measurements to a cloud storage. Most hardware components have been selected, but few of them are still to be selected.

Requirements

Minimum formal requirements are a high-school degree and a study right in a university in Electrical Engineering or similar fields. We value good study records at Tampere University, or in another well-established university, and ability and high motivation for working with us. We require capability to communicate in English while also appreciate the knowledge of Finnish language.

 We offer

The positions are fixed-term and the expected starting date and the exact length of the employment will be mutually agreed by both parties. Preliminary proposal is for 2-8 months depending on the topic with full-time working contract. A trial period applies to all our new employees.

The salary will be based on both the job demands and the employee's personal performance in accordance with the University Salary System. The position of Research Assistant is placed on the job demand level 1 (the demand level chart for the teaching and research staff). In addition, employees will receive performance-based salary which for Research Assistants is based on their study credits. Salary for a Research Assistant is around 2199 - 2323 € depending on completed study credits. 

 How to apply

Please submit your application through our online recruitment system (link below). The closing date for applications is Wednesday October 29, 2025 (at 23.59 EET / UTC+2). Please write your application and all accompanying documents in English and attach them in PDF format.

Applications should include the following documents:

1. Motivation letter (one page PDF) 
2. CV (max two pages PDF)
3. Transcript of records (MSc students also your BSc transcript)

For more information, contact:

• Topic 1: Pertti Järventausta, pertti.jarventausta@tuni.fi, +358 40 549 2384
• Topics 1-3: Sami Repo, sami.repo@tuni.fi, +358 40 849 0454