The Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) has 1 vacancy for a PhD position in China Netherlands Joint Scientific Thematic Research Project (JSTP) supported by ZonMw and NWO. Topic of research is: Smart MeDiCa - Smart Wearable Medical Devices for Monitoring Cardiovascular Health of Elderly at Home at Department of Industrial Design, Designed Intelligence Group.
Job description:
The increasingly ageing population poses challenges on long-term care for elderly. Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the major cause of death in the world, is one of the most common diseases found in the elderly. Acute cardiovascular deaths mostly occurred outside hospitals. Therefore, comprehensive home centric care solutions are in a pressing need and subsequently will have significant impact on the quality of life of the elderly people, their families and society.
The proposed ZonMw project aims for providing reliable and comfortable health monitoring for elderly at home, which will be achieved by user friendly design and multi-modal sensing integration. The PhD will work on the design of novel unobtrusive smart wearable medical systems for home monitoring of CVD-related physiological signals and parameters, such as electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, blood pressure (BP), etc. The research will include system level design, sensor testing and integration, develop and implement schemes for improving sensing quality and system robustness, and system evaluation. Besides the technological research, comfort of users, social cultural aspects and aesthetics of the system and devices will be taken into account for the user centered design. During the PhD, iterative design process will be carried out, including design concept generation, integration of sensor technologies into the body sensor network, and design evaluation by experimental testing and performance analysis.
The PhD candidate working on the project will have extensive collaboration with different partners of the project team. The Chinese PI Professor Yuan Ting Zhang will lead the R&D on algorithm-based development at the Key Lab for the Health Informatics, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenzhen, China. TU/e Industrial Design will lead the unobtrusive smart wearable medical systems design, prototyping, and evaluation. The PhD candidate will work closely with researchers from TNO Netherlands on technological development. The PhD candidate will be able to get access to professional knowledge on cardiovascular disease and monitoring performance testing with the help of our clinical partners.
The project will support the PhD candidate to travel to China for meetings and academic conferences and conduct research in the Chinese host institute for a couple of months during his/her PhD.
Requirements:
Candidates should have a Master’s degree in Industrial Design (Intelligent system design), Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Sensor Systems, or similar, with excellent grades (first class honours or equivalent). Outstanding candidates who will finish their Master study in half a year are welcome to apply as well.
Experience on designing health monitoring systems or experience on wearable sensors or body area sensor networks are desired. Key attributes of the candidate’s profile include:
- User centered system design skills,
- Concept development and prototyping skills,
- Experience on designing health monitoring systems,
- Experience with medical related projects,
- Experience on wearable sensors or body area sensor networks,
- Hardware (sensors, electronics) and prototyping skills,
- Software (data acquisition, signal processing) skills,
- Sense of aesthetics, comfort and culture,
- Ability to devise and evaluate prototypes,
- Good skills for experimental design, user testing and evaluation,
- Excellent communication skills in both speaking and writing,
- Excellent social and team working skills for conducting research both in Netherlands and China.
Appointment and salary
What we offer:
- An appointment for 4 years (48 months). Estimated starting date is May 01, 2012.
- A salary of € 2,042 gross per month in the first year up to € 2,612 gross per month in the fourth year (Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) based on a full time appointment
- Moreover 8% bonus share (holiday supplement) and 8.3% bonus share (end-of-the-year allowance) are provided annually.
- Assistance for finding accommodation will be provided.
- Excellent secondary labour conditions like childcare and sports facilities.
Information:
- Further information about the project can be obtained from Dr. Wei Chen, Dept of Industrial Design, phone +31 (0)40 247 3563, e-mail: w.chen@tue.nl, website: www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/w.chen, and Prof. dr. ir. Loe Feijs, Dept of Industrial Design, phone +31 (0)40 247 5215, e-mail: l.m.g.feijs@tue.nl.
- General information about the organization and the hiring process can be requested from drs. Jelmer Sieben, personnel department, Dept of Industrial Design, phone +31 (0)40 247 5954, e-mail: j.m.sieben@tue.nl, or the personnel department: HR-IndustrialDesign@tue.nl
Application:
The application should consist of the following parts:
- a cover letter explaining your motivation to the PhD study and specific interests in this project
- extensive curriculum vitae
- academic transcripts
- any other supporting documents (e.g. publications, awards)
Please send us your application before January 15th, 2012
For more information, please visit official website: jobs.tue.nl.
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Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure the above information is current and correct. However, applicants should contact the appropriate administering body before making an application, as details do change frequently.