Position nr.: HR_2019_JS2
Department: Dept. of Physics (Vision Lab)
Date posted: Tuesday, 22 January, 2019
Position status: Full Time Salaried
Project title:
PhD student position in Statistical Shape Modelling and Analysis of knee structures (f/m)
Description:
Imec-Visionlab and the Orthopaedics research group at the University of Antwerp have an open position for a PhD student to work on developing innovative methods for Statistical Shape Modelling and Analysis of knee structures. This multidisciplinary project will be supervised jointly by prof Jan Sijbers (Imec-Visionlab) and prof Peter Verdonk (Orthopaedics research group at the University of Antwerp).
The aim of the project is to develop an innovative treatment algorithm for patients after a meniscectomy and to provide anatomical input for a novel meniscus implant design by means of statistical shape modelling.
Statistical shape modelling is a technique to capture the natural variation within a population of shapes. It has a wide range of applications in medicine, industry, and science. In this PhD project, new methods will be developed to recommend a specific type of meniscus implant based on the shape of various knee structures.
Tasks:
The project consists of two main tasks. First, a statistical shape model of the knee joint is to be created in order to represent the knee shape in a compact and concise way. Second, this statistical shape model is to be integrated with machine learning techniques in order to recommend a specific choice of meniscus implant.
This PhD project will proceed in coordination with MEFISTO: a large EU-funded Horizon 2020 project involving 4 Universities and 9 Companies throughout Europe. Various opportunities will be presented within this PhD position to collaborate with top researchers and industry partners.
Qualifications:
• Degree: You have a M.Sc. degree in the field of Computing Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering and a special interest in anatomy and orthopaedics. Candidates with a Medical degree and a strong interest in engineering and excellent engineering skills are also encouraged to apply.
• Computer programming experience
• Ability to work independently as well as in team
• Highly motivated and driven to explore research questions in depth
• Excellent oral and written proficiency in English
• Willing to travel abroad to collaborate with international partners and participate in international conferences
You love interdisciplinary science, and want to advance the field of shape modeling with your skills, creativity and novel solutions. You like to develop theory and afterwards code to put your new methods into practice. You also want to tell the world about your findings with sparkling presentations.
Labs involved:
The Vision Lab (http://visielab.uantwerpen.be/) is a strong and exciting research group and has unique expertise in the development of algorithms for reconstruction, processing and analysis of imaging data. The working environment is strongly interdisciplinary, combining techniques and insights from Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science. The group has a broad range of national and international collaborations with both academic and industrial partners. Recent Vision Lab publications on statistical shape modelling can be found on http://visielab.uantwerpen.be/research/shape-modeling.
The orthopaedics research group at the University of Antwerp is part of a multidisciplinary research team that incorporates the fundamental, clinical and translational research activities around reconstructive knee surgery with a particular interest in meniscus pathology.Our offer:
• An exciting research trajectory towards a PhD
• Applied research with direct impact on patient treatment methods
• Multidisciplinary research: cooperation with strong academic research and industrial partners
• A world-class research environment with state-of-the-art instrumentation
Starting date:
01/03/2019
Applications:
Interested candidates are invited to send a motivation letter, a detailed CV (including followed courses, honours, grades, previous work, programming skills, publications, …) and contact info of two references to Christine.waerebeek@uantwerpen.be with cc to jan.sijbers@uantwerpen.be and pverdonk@yahoo.com with subject ‘PHD_MEFISTO_2019’.
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