Application Deadline: August 30, 2025
The Laboratory of Optimization Methods and Models invites applications for one postdoctoral research position in Operations Research. The successful candidate will work at both the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) and the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA) in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil.
The positions are supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), which offers a monthly stipend of R$12,000.00. Additional funding is available for relocation expenses and participation in international conferences, workshops, and research trips (up to 15% of the annual fellowship). Each position is for a one-year term.
Research Focus Areas:
The project theme is the full truckload pickup and delivery problem, focusing on optimization methods and practical constraints of the supply chain middle mile.
Supervisors:
· Prof. Antonio Augusto Chaves (UNIFESP)
· Prof. Mauricio G. C. Resende (UNIFESP)
Project Description:
This project aims to study a rich variant of the full truckload pickup and delivery problem. The variant is based on the operations of the middle mile in the supply chain. It addresses a configuration where a logistics service provider needs to transport full loads between multiple distribution centers. The logistics operator has a limited fleet of vehicles and has the option of outsourcing part of the demand. In line with the growing environmental and ecological concern, a fleet of vehicles powered by electricity or fuels from renewable sources is considered. This implies the need to establish a plan for refueling vehicles at strategic points in the transport network. In addition to classic routing constraints such as time windows, pairing, and pickup and drop-off points, the variant also handles scheduling the work of a set of drivers over a planning horizon. Each driver has bio-rhythm constraints, which indicate the start and end times of activities, as well as travel limitations, which prevent him from leaving his home for a maximum number of days. These constraints are particularly relevant in the context of middle-mile operations and must be considered when planning the fleet’s itineraries. To solve the problem, a mathematical model and an API (Application Programming Interface) that integrates several metaheuristics in a collaborative and parallel framework will be developed. Such an API will be generic and can be reused to solve other combinatorial optimization problems simply by implementing decoding functions. As a methodological innovation, we intend to explore the concept of random keys, proposed in the Random-Key Genetic Algorithm (Bean, 1994) and Biased RKGA (Gonçalves & Resende, 2011), in several classic metaheuristics from the literature. The implemented algorithms will be evaluated using public datasets from the literature and datasets generated explicitly for the variant under study. At the end of the project, the API will be made publicly available to the academic community.
Eligibility:
Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Operations Research, or a related field, with experience in C++, metaheuristics, mathematical modeling, and exact methods. The Ph.D. must have been awarded within the past five years.
Application Procedure:
Submit the following documents by August 30, 2025:
- Curriculum Vitae, including a list of publications and relevant experience.
- Recommendation letter from a previous supervisor or professor.
- Motivation letter explaining your interest in the position.
All application materials should be sent via email to the supervisor with the subject line: “Postdoctoral Application – FAPESP.”
Prof. Antonio Augusto Chaves: antonio.chaves@unifesp.br