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Advert. no. 2016_0044
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Working at ESO

Are you interested in working in areas of frontline technology and in a stimulating international environment? Do you feel your profile matches our requirements? Learn more about our current vacancies and apply online. Read more..

The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries.

ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in northern Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor (home to ALMA and APEX), and the ESO Headquarters are located in Garching, near Munich, Germany.

At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky" and whose operations will be fully integrated into the Paranal Observatory.

 

For its Maintenance, Support and Engineering Department at the Paranal Observatory, ESO is inviting students from Chilean universities to participate in our programme:

Summer Studentship Chile 2017

Paranal

Vacancy closed on 05/10/2016

Deadline 05/10/2016

The MSE Department of the Paranal Observatory provides technical support to the four VLT 8-m telescopes, to the VLT Interferometer with its auxiliary telescopes and to all instruments available for scientific observations. The telescopes and instruments are complex systems that involve many advanced technologies and require a high level of engineering support. The MSE Department of Paranal has a total workforce of 67 engineers and technicians distributed in 5 engineering groups. The six projects for the period January-February 2017 are:

I.- Instrumentation Group :

"NAOS IR-Wave Front Sensor (IRWFS) performance" The performance study shall be addressed to validate by quantifying and characterizing the main parameters on the Hawaii IRWFS detector used in NAOS. The main tasks to be assigned:

  • Estimation of the Signal-to-Noise for all the readout modes and speed.
  • Temporal transfer function.
  • Statistics of the pupil alignment status. (rotator position, temperature, etc)

This work shall be based on some topics presented into the following documents:

  • Infrared Wavefront Sensor - Analysis Report VLT-TRE-NAO-11650-2210.
  • NAOS infrared wavefront sensor design and performance Proc. SPIE 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II, 195 (February 1, 2003); doi:10.1117/12.460025.
  • NAOS: Pupil alignment status N. Ageorges.

Student Profile:

  • Students of last year in Physics, Electronics or Electrical Civil Engineering.
  • MS Students will be welcomed.
  • Knowledge basics in the field of Astronomical Instrumentation (CCD, Adaptive Optics, etc), or equivalent, are desirable.

II.- Mechanic Group:

"Mechanical equipment monitoring device" The student should develop the following main activities:

  • Continue the analysis of the data already collected.
  • Identify failure patterns on the data recorded.
  • Study the possibility to record other mechanical parameters to better assess the status of the various mechanical components.
  • Verify on test bench the validity of the data recorded with the custom monitoring device.
  • Propose a preliminary project of the monitoring device.

Student profile:

  • Mechanical engineer in the last 2 years of the career with basic knowledge of mechanical rotating equipment and lubrication;
  • Good knowledge of vibrations, ideally with dedicate experience on vibrations measurements.
  • Desirable experience in the industrial field (for example previous studentship programs).
  • Good knowledge of the Excel, Matlab and Inventor software.

III.- Mechanic Group:

"Operation & Maintenance Manual for 8m coater and update of the Maintenance Plan" The student should develop the following activities:

  • Update Operations Procedures (for most important Operations, for example, Maintenance Checks)
  • Update Maintenance Procedures (for most recurrent maintenance)
  • Update Maximo Job Plans (Maximo Update)
  • Update Spare Lists (Maximo Definition)
  • Updated Tools Lists (Maximo Itemization)

Student profile:

  • Mechanical Engineer or Industrial Engineer.
  • Good command in English (written and spoken)

IV.- Software Group:

"Technical Data Archive" The student will evaluate and tune a prototype database solution which meets the requirements of MSE data analysis. In particular:

  • The database must have all the historical Vltlogs, from the start of Paranal operation (billions of line / in few Terabytes of Data), and the DB must be able to deal with it, giving interactive response times (around few seconds).
  • The database must store Fits files and be able to use the fits header as DB fields which could be used for DB queering (SQL over fits).
  • The Database must be able to deal with time series of high resolution (<1sec/sample) data streams.
  • More data sources will be added to this database, such as PPRS and WO (small data).
  • Early problem detection.

Student profile:

  • Student of Software or Information Technology in his/her last university year.
  • Proficiency in database design and administration.
  • Good command in English (written and spoken)

V.- Electronics Group:

"Reactivation of test bench for m1cell active axial supports" The student should develop the following activities:

  • To make the current test bench work again.
  • To make a document with details of the building of the LabVIEW application.
  • To upgrade the application to a newer version of windows.
  • To participate in the diagnosis of some aas.

Student profile:

  • Student of Electrical, Electronics or Software of the last year of career.
  • Knowledge and development experience with LabVIEW software is mandatory.
  • Knowledge of proibus protocol is also required.
  • Good command in English (written and spoken)

VI.- Support & Quality Assurance Group:

"Standardization of spare parts description in the inventory module of Maximo" The candidate student should develop the following activities:

  • To define in agreement with the ESO supervisor, the standard to be used in the spare parts description and information requested. (Serial number, P/N, pictures, etc.). It is going to be based in the internal document of warehouse operation procedures (ESO-254565 Warehouse Operation Procedures)
  • To record the current status of the spare parts description at the level of data base.
  • To modify the spare parts description and add the information missing.
  • To deliver the formal standard for spare parts description.
  • To deliver a report about what was done (problematics, steps, benefits, recommendations, etc.)
  • To provide a presentation for the warehouse team, SQA group and others stakeholders.

Student Profile:

  • Student of mechanical, maintenance, industrial engineering of the last year of career.
  • Good command of word, excel & power point.
  • Good command in English (written and spoken)
  • Knowledge in process of warehouse and/or inventory will be an advantage.
  • Knowledge and previous experience on any CMMS (not mandatory)

We Offer:

ESO offers a special allowance during the period you are performing your apprenticeship with us; transportation arrangements (plane tickets) from and to Santiago are provided by ESO, with accommodation provided on site. The Duty Station is Paranal Observatory, in the II Region, 150km South of Antofagasta. Working schedule will be 8 days on duty and 6 days off duty (8x6). The period of the apprenticeship is January-February 2017.

Application:

We invite all students from Chilean Universities in their career's last period to apply. The apprenticeship should be supported by the University and therefore covered by the accident insurance (Law 16.744). If you are interested in working in areas of frontline technology and in a stimulating international environment, you are invited to apply online at http://recruitment.eso.org/. Applications must be completed in English and should include a motivational letter indicating the project you are interested to apply to, and CV.

Closing date for applications is 5 October 2016.

The post is equally open to suitably qualified male and female applicants.

Contact us

Email vacchile@eso.org

ESO