Knowledge about the individual bone morphology plays a key role in the new generation of innovative personalized biomedical products and treatments. Bone morphology can be used to answer research questions, such as quantifying the progression of degenerative diseases; analyzing gender, age, and ethnic differences within a population; or building a digital twin model to aid in anatomic reconstruction, and direct design applications of implants and prostheses. Despite the need, such data are rarely available. The reasons are manifold: the access to large numbers of medical image data is limited, implementation of image processing strategies is challenging, data are collected only for isolated questions or applications, and legal uncertainties play a role with respect to privacy and conflicting economic interests. In addition, knowledge from a variety of disciplines is required.

Objective
The PhD’s objective is to develop the contours and pilot work of an open-access virtual processing platform for uploading, processing, enriching, and storing medical image data in order to provide a large number of fully processed bone morphology data to various research communities. Thereto, an overview is made of running initiatives; and pros and cons are evaluated. Optionally, we will team up with these initiatives. The PhD develops robust (semi-) automatic segmentation and processing methods applicable to different bony structures. We demonstrate the benefit and potential of such a virtual platform by selected use cases in the orthopaedic domain, e.g. joint replacement. Our ambition is to evolve the PhD candidate’s work into an open-access and sustainable platform, which can be operated and used in the long term to provide and enable for future research.

• You have, or will shortly acquire, a master’s degree in Computer science, Software Engineering, Medical Informatics, Electrical Engineering, Vision Robotics, or equivalent
• You have profound knowledge and skills in medical image segmentation, image processing, and statistical shape modelling
• You have excellent experience in software design and (MATLAB & Python) programming
• You have affinity with medical applications and device design and are willing to dive deeper into these topics
• You have good team spirit and like to work in an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented environment
• You are fluent in English, both spoken and written, and have strong analytical and organizational skills

We offer a very stimulating position in a dynamic and international environment with enthusiastic colleagues, excellent working conditions and a green and lively campus.

• A fully funded full-time 4-year PhD position;
• Excellent mentorship and a stimulating international research environment;
• A training program as part of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will determine a plan for a suitable education and supervision;
• A gross monthly salary ranging from € 2.770,- (first year) to € 3.539,- (fourth year)
• A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• The flexibility to work (partially) from home;
• Minimum of 29 holidays per year in case of fulltime employment;
• Free access to sports facilities on campus;
• We encourage a high degree of responsibility and independence, while collaborating with close colleagues, researchers and other staff.