Location: Remote / Germany–Indonesia collaboration
Project: Bali Ecofiltration – Subak Water Management, Bali, Indonesia
Engagement: Research collaboration / contract / student or PhD project
Start: Flexible / as soon as possible
About the project
We are developing a field-based, nature-based water filtration system for Subak agricultural irrigation systems in Bali, Indonesia.
The system combines locally available and waste-derived materials and biological treatment processes, including sedimentation, filtration, biochar-based adsorption and ecological polishing. The objective is to develop a low-cost, locally maintainable system that can operate under real agricultural conditions and be replicated across different Subak communities.
We are now looking for someone with strong Julia scientific-computing and dynamical-systems modelling experience to help us build a computational model of the system.
What we need
We are particularly interested in someone experienced with:
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DifferentialEquations.jl
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Catalyst.jl or related reaction/network modelling tools
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ODE/PDE modelling
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Fluid-flow and mass-transport dynamics
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Transport, adsorption and/or reaction processes
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Parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis
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Model calibration against experimental/field data
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Scientific visualisation and reproducible computational workflows
The modelling challenge is to represent how water, pollutants, flow rate and treatment media interact over time and through different filtration stages.
Potential model components include:
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water flow and residence time
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pollutant transport
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sedimentation
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adsorption onto biochar or other media
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biological degradation/transformation
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nutrient dynamics
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media saturation
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changing hydraulic conditions
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rainfall and high-flow events
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treatment efficiency under different configurations
We are particularly interested in developing a model that can eventually help answer practical questions such as:
How should a modular Subak filtration system be configured to achieve effective pollutant removal while remaining low-cost, robust and maintainable under variable tropical flow conditions?
Your role
You would work closely with our field team and research partners to translate the physical filtration system into a computational model.
The initial work would involve understanding the existing field setup, identifying the key state variables and processes, defining appropriate equations and assumptions, and developing a first Julia model.
The model would then be progressively connected to laboratory and field measurements from Bali, allowing calibration, sensitivity analysis and comparison between different filtration configurations.
We are open to different levels of involvement — from a focused modelling project to a longer-term research collaboration or potential Master’s/PhD project.
What we can provide
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Access to a real-world environmental engineering problem in Bali
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Field data and experimental results as they become available
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Access to local project partners and Subak communities
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Collaboration with researchers and universities in Germany and Indonesia
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Opportunities for field validation in Bali
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A multidisciplinary environment combining water, ecology, biochar, biotechnology, agriculture and circular economy
Who we are looking for
This could be a good fit for a:
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Scientific software engineer
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Computational biologist
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Environmental modeller
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Hydrologist
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Chemical/environmental engineer
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Applied mathematician
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Master’s or PhD researcher
The most important requirement is strong scientific modelling ability and genuine interest in applying computational methods to a real environmental system.
Experience with Julia and DifferentialEquations.jl is particularly important.
If this sounds relevant to your work, please get in touch with a short introduction and, ideally, examples of relevant Julia modelling projects or GitHub repositories.
Contact: Felix Steckenborn
Bali, Indonesia
Udayana University / Bali Ecofiltration