FM Research Doctorate Internship Structures and Geohazards Summer 2025-AI adoption of tsunami long wave models - Factory Mutual Insurance Company

FM is a leading property insurer of the world's largest businesses, providing more than one-third of FORTUNE 1000-size companies with engineering-based risk management and property insurance solutions. FM helps clients maintain continuity in their business operations by drawing upon state-of-the-art loss-prevention engineering and research; risk management skills and support services; tailored risk transfer capabilities; and superior financial strength. To do so, we rely on a dynamic, culturally diverse group of employees, working in more than 100 countries, in a variety of challenging roles.

Exciting and interesting technical challenges await when you join a world-class research team dedicated to reducing the impact of natural hazards. FM helps clients maintain continuity in their business operations by drawing upon state-of-the-art engineering and research.

Opportunity:

The Structures and Geohazards research group at FM is looking for creative, self-motivated individuals for internships. Selected candidates will work alongside a unique group of scientists to protect the value of FM clients' businesses by developing methods to identify hazards, assess risk, and produce loss prevention solutions that are efficient and cost-effective. The internship will be supervised by senior staff in the Structures and Geohazards research group and provides an opportunity to engage in solving real-world science and engineering problems in the insurance industry.

Traditional methods for modeling tsunami long waves can be computationally expensive, limiting the ability to generate high resolution hazard maps quickly. Physics-informed neural operators (PINO) offer a promising alternative by learning the underlying physics of wave propagations/inundation dynamics, ultimately allowing for faster and reliable predictions of  depths/extents.

The intern will develop a basic PINO model for idealized tsunami inundation scenarios. They will focus on building the model framework, verification and validation using benchmark cases including analytical solutions, lab experiments, and historic events. Will document processes, key findings and areas for improvement.

PhD graduate students (with good academic standing for graduation), who are seeking to expand their research experience beyond academia and bring expertise in the following active research areas:

• Seismology
• Structural/Earthquake Engineering
• Geohazards

General:

• Strong analytical skills and solid knowledge of probability and statistics
• Experience with programming languages such as MATLAB, R, Python, FORTRAN
• Proficiency in processing large volumes of data
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Desired based on Research topic:

• GIS skills (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, GDAL)
• Comfortable writing shell scripts and using APIs to automate workflows
• Comfortable in Microsoft Windows and Linux environments
• Experience in machine learning

This is an in-office role based in Norwood, MA.  Temporary relocation support provided for selected qualified candidate.

FM is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce. 

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