PhD positions in Health Technology

The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), in Odense invites applications for fully-funded positions as PhD fellow in Health informatics and technology. The positions are available starting 1st of November 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter. The application deadline is 1st of September 2021.

SDU Health Informatics and Technology (HIT) strive to develop novel and ready to deploy technical solutions in a transdisciplinary manner. SDU HIT has a large portfolio of transdisciplinary projects involving numerous partners from healthcare, academia, industry and network organizations.

PhD project description

In the motivation letter, the applicant has to state the project number of the PhD project the applicant applies for. If the applicant wants to apply for more than one project, the applicant has to provide a prioritized list.

Project 1

This project will explore novel methods for unobtrusive health monitoring of elderly people living in their domestic environment. A special focus will be set on nutrition monitoring. The candidate will develop suitable sensor devices, explore novel measurement scenarios and work on methods for smart sensor and signal fusion.

Project 2

This project will explore techniques for the prediction and monitoring of decubitus ulcer:

The risk of developing decubitus ulcer could be determined, and hence significantly reduced, by monitoring the respective tissue area at risk by sensor technology, e.g. the measurement of pressure, pressure localization, humidity, and skin perfusion. Furthermore, literature provides a solid foundation that Infrared Thermography (IRT) and Bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) of body areas with early pressure ulcers (stage I and stage II) carry information on deep tissues that are invisible to clinicians.

In the course of the project, a clinical study will be conducted and an in-silico tissue model will be developed. The acquired clinical data and simulation results will be used to identify such sensor signals that are suitable indicators for decubitus prediction. Based on these findings, a decubitus ulcer prediction algorithm will be proposed. This algorithm will incorporate information extraction as well as information fusion and could be based on data-driven methodologies or model assumptions.

The candidate will also be responsible for setting-up the measurement equipment.

What we offer

The PhD fellow will be part of a trans-disciplinary team dedicated to developing health technology that improves the treatment, safety and/or comfort of patients and citizens.

We offer a challenging and innovative position, in an international, stimulating and highly interdisciplinary environment that forge new research by crossing the traditionally separate domains of engineering-, health- and humanistic research, for the benefit of the users and society as a whole.

The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute is an internationally recognized research department with strong research units in robotics, drones, artificial intelligence, software engineering, energy informatics, and health informatics and technology.

SDU HIT possess various competences including embedded systems, participatory design, acoustics, innovation management, software engineering, and data analytics. These competences are currently being deployed in areas such as training robots, audiology, telemedicine/eHealth/mHealth, clinical decision support, and healthcare ecosystem modeling.

Denmark is known to be a great place to live and work. There is a high quality of life in and around Odense, and at SDU we value a well-functioning work-life balance. More information about the benefits may be found here.

What we expect

You have a master's degree (equivalent to a Danish master's degree) in Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Engineering or similar, where:

You have formal qualifications in the development and implementation of the following items:

Project 1 (at least one)

• Electronic circuits
• Embedded systems
• Signal processing

Project 2 (at least two)

• Image processing
• Bioimpedance Analysis
• Optoelectronics
• Electronic circuit development and testing
• Signal processing
• Data-driven/classification algorithms
• Modelling and Simulation

combined with an interest to apply this to bodily interaction and clinical settings.

Knowledge, experience and skills in the following - or related - topics will be considered benefits:

• Biosignal acquisition
• Physiology
• Wireless data communication
• Matlab, Python, numPy
• Mobile app programming

As a PhD student you are expected to communicate scientific results in English (written and spoken) and to communicate clearly with project participants in either English or Danish.

Contact information

Further information about this position is available from Associate Professor Daniel Teichmann at email: date@mmmi.sdu.dk.

If you experience technical problems you must contact support-sdujob@sdu.dk.

The assessment process

Read about the Assessment and selection process. Shortlisting may be used.

Application procedure

The Faculty expects applicants to read the Faculty information for prospective PhD students and How to apply before applying.

The application must be in English and must include - the required forms must be found at the above mentioned Faculty website.

You can only apply for the position through our website http://www.sdu.dk/en/service/ledige_stillinger.

Your application must be registered in our system on the 01-09-2021 at 23.59.59 CET at the latest.