PhD positions in Surgical Robotics – autonomous intraluminal surgery

The ATLAS project is a Marie Curie ITN-EJD (Innovative Training Network – European Joint Doctorate). Within this scheme, 15 PhD positions are funded (https://atlas-itn.eu/we-are-hiring/vacancies/).

The proposed vacancies are Joint Doctorates. This means that part of the PhD will be hosted at the Main Institution, while part will be hosted at the Secondary Institution (a period between 6 month and 1 year).

The ESR will have the opportunity to achieve a double or joint PhD degree, fulfilling the requirements of both institutions.

Each ESR project foresees one or more secondments to relevant companies or research centre, not necessary in the same country of Primary or Secondary Institutions. Candidate mobility, as well as motivation, is a requirement.

Successful candidates will advance the state of the art in the following fields:

• lumen reconstruction and lumen modelling,
• sensor technology for intraluminal perception,
• actuation technology for continuum robots, and
• distributed control and decision making for autonomous continuum robots.

 Upon successful completion, each PhD-candidate will be awarded a double PhD degree.

The working conditions of KU Leuven are applicable (see: kuleuven working-conditions).

KU Leuven is dedicated to education and research in nearly all fields. Its fifteen faculties offer education, while research activities are organized by the departments and research groups. These faculties and departments, in turn, are clustered into three groups: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), and Biomedical Sciences. Each of these groups has a doctoral school for its doctoral training programmes.

ATLAS stands for “AuTonomous intraLuminAl Surgery”. Intraluminal navigation, a particularly challenging branch,  reappears in many minimal invasive surgical (MIS) interventions that rely on steering flexible instruments through fragile lumens or vessels. 

The project, coordinated by the University of Leuven, is implemented by a consortium of seven Universities and many industrial partners.
The Consortium is formed by

• KU Leuven
• TU Delft 
• Université de Strasbourg
• Politecnico di Milano
• Università di Verona
• Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
• Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.