This Postdoc position will be part of a project in collaboration with the Sailing Innovation Center (www.sailinginnovationcentre.nl/), whose goal is to create excitement for the sailing sport by involving modern technologies. This includes the combination of video streams from drones, use of sensors and on-ship cameras, involvement of augmented and virtual reality, interactive devices, and computer graphics technology.

A sailing athlete has to consider complex information; the boat, the wind, the sea currents and more to decide how to act and react. While athletes are trained in combining these factors, for external observers, the decisions that are taken are not always clear. Further, many of the factors that went into the decision are not directly available and it is quite difficult to follow a competition without the necessary background knowledge. In collaboration with several partners, a data center at the sea will be created in the Hague, which will rely on several inputs from sensors, predictive models, and imaging/video to extract information about the parameters of the sailing competition. The goal of this project is to make the information understandable and accessible to a larger audience to improve the engagement of the observers. This step includes examining how new technology, such as augmented and virtual reality will enable a virtual presence or lead to a better understanding of the relevance of the extracted information. The project will also be coupled to a PhD student, who is investigating data models to discover patterns in order to improve training analysis. The developed research is intended to be employed in future sailing competitions by the Dutch Sailing Team. The work will be developed in a practical setting with strong collaboration with the sailers and coaches.   

We are looking for a candidate who meets the following requirements:

• You are a talented and enthusiastic researcher.

• You have a PhD in Computer Graphics or Visualization, ideally with focus on Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality.

• You have relevant publications for the project and in the field of computer graphics and Visualization.

• Preferably you finished a master in Computer Science, (Applied) Mathematics, (Applied) Physics or Electrical Engineering.

• You have excellent programming skills and experience.

• You have good communication skills, and the ability to participate successfully in the work of a multidisciplinary research team.

• You are creative, ambitious, hardworking and persistent.

• You have a good command of the English language (knowledge of Dutch is not required).    

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty’s excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. Within this interdisciplinary and international setting the faculty employs more than 1100 employees, including about 400 graduate students and about 2100 students. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics.

The Department of Intelligent Systems (INSY) conceptualises computer science methodologies to sense, abstract, learn, reason, elicit and adapt data and their meaning in ways that respect human values in order to increase human effectiveness, well-being and social innovation. At the heart of the department is therefore research and teaching in computer science theory, algorithms and solutions for information processing systems that support humans (e.g. robotics), new products (e.g. Internet services), and science (e.g. biology).    

The aim of the TU Delft Sports Engineering Institute is to promote and organize research and education in the field of performance enhancement in elite sports, and the promotion of sports, play and exercise to create a healthier society. By means of interdisciplinary collaboration between faculties and collaboration with companies, TU Delft aims to fulfill the potential of reaching a unique international position as the most engineering oriented University in the fields of sports research and education. Sport research offers the opportunity for national and international exposure of the excellent Delft research capabilities and innovations to a broad audience, and it is appealing for students in for example MSc assignments and Dream Teams. Challenges in elite sports are well defined. Thereby, elite sports offer a great environment to test new ideas and principles.

The Computer Graphics and Visualizsation  Group has a strong research record and is known for its expertise in visual analytics, visualisation in general, modelling, game technology, and rendering. Besides these major topics, interaction techniques, virtual/augmented reality, vision, perception, computational photography, and simulations play an important role. The group also participates strongly in the Delft Research Initiatives “Environment” and “Health”, thus aiming to find solutions for tomorrow’s problems. It maintains a strong network of partners worldwide from academia, medical centres and industry.          

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/eemcs/the-faculty/