The Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences of Eindhoven University of Technology has a PhD position in its Human Technology Interaction (HTI) group to work on the visual and non-visual properties and effects of light in Human-Centric Lighting systems and their digital twins, within the EU-funded AI-TWILIGHT consortium.

Project context: the AI-TWILIGHT consortium and the TU/e Intelligent Lighting Institute
This PhD position is one of three TU/e positions at the core of the AI-TWILIGHT consortium, funded by a H2020-ECSEL grant from the EU. In the AI-TWILIGHT consortium 25 participants from academia and industry join forces to create self-learning digital twins of LED-based luminaires that can be used for health monitoring as well as for predicting maintenance, performance and product lifetime. The digital twin models apply modern mathematical and artificial intelligence methods to drastically reduce the amount of test data needed and will widen the predictive power of multi-domain (i.e., involving optical, mechanical, electrical, electronic, thermal and human perception aspects) LED models. The consortium is led by Genevieve Martin of Signify and combines world leading industry partners representing the product and the application sides of the value chain. The academic partners focus on the development of the digital twins and their self-learning capabilities and on the methodology how to derive the parameters and perception indices from data sets.

The core objectives of AI-TWILIGHT are:

• create self-learning digital twins of lighting systems (LED sources, driver electronics/modules and luminaire), and use these to predict performance and lifetime of LED products and optimize infrastructure design and management in an autonomous world
• create self-learning models using AI and analytics techniques 
• facilitate the implementation of the digital twins in digitalized design flow (for SSL product design) and facilitate their applications upstream, up to lighting systems of large infrastructures/buildings.
• test AI-TWILIGHT methods, models and tools within selected application domains (e.g. automotive, horticulture, general and street lighting) and implement them within consortium partners to harvest their benefits

Three TU/e groups participate in the AI-TWILIGHT consortium: the Scientific Computing group, the Statistics group and the Human Technology Interaction group, with 2 postdocs and a PhD position respectively. The consortium will enable the TU/e and its Intelligent Lighting Institute (ILI) to develop new scenarios, services, data analytics and enabling technology for intelligent, integrative and human-centric lighting applications that balance energy savings, lifetime, human performance, (visual) comfort, health and wellbeing aspects.

PhD position: The visual and non-visual properties and effects of light within LED applications and models
The Human Technology Interaction department of the TU/e is seeking an enthusiastic, ambitious young researcher to work in our team on the execution of the AI-TWILIGHT tasks 'Spectral Power Distribution Modelling for Calculation of all Application Indices' and 'Application
Use-cases'.

Job description
We aim to develop and implement performance indices for visual and non-visual effects/perception of light within (i) LED digital twins, (ii) lab studies, and (iii) a general lighting use-case/field test. The overall aim of this PhD project is to expand digital twin models of LED solutions to also include aspects like visual (dis)comfort, discrimination thresholds, temporal-light artefacts, biological (i.e, non-visual) potency, thus enabling for an improved prediction and control of application benefits across the lifetime of LED luminaires and Human Centric Lighting installations. In the lab studies established light-quality metrics will be compared and complemented with more detailed subjective and objective assessments that concern visual perception, (dis)comfort, alertness and psychophysics, also exploring interindividual variability and potential age-dependencies. In the use-case we will evaluate benefits and digital twin model predictions for a smart Human-Centric Lighting solution with a 24 hr dynamic light cycle that is designed to strengthen circadian rhythms and be more supportive of human health, sleep, mood, wellbeing and functioning, as compared to a conventional static lighting installation.

You will conduct your research under the supervision of prof. Ingrid Heynderickx, Yvonne de Kort, dr. Luc Schlangen and dr. Raymond Cuijpers. You will be a member of the light group in the HTI department at TU/e, the Intelligent Lighting Institute of the TU/e, and the larger
AI-TWILIGHT community.

• A master's degree or an equivalent university degree in (electrical) engineering, applied physics, experimental/classical psychology, visual perception, chronobiology, neuroscience, human-technology interaction, or a related discipline
• Experience with and affinity for (human-centric) lighting, lighting technology, measurement (psychometrics) and research methods
• Expertise with empirical research among humans
• Advanced statistical and modelling skills
• Experience with chronobiological paradigms in the field of lighting is considered a plus
• A strong interest in lighting and lighting technology
• A research-oriented attitude 
• Strong conceptual thinking and planning skills; you are creative and proactive
• Ability to work in an international and interdisciplinary team and interested in collaborating with industrial partners.
• Fluent in spoken and written English.

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.
• A full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months.
• To develop your teaching skills, you will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• To support you during your PhD and to prepare you for the rest of your career, you will make a Training and Supervision plan and you will have free access to a personal development program for PhD students (PROOF program).
• A gross monthly salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• Additionally, an annual holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary, plus a year-end allowance of 8.3% of the annual salary.
• Should you come from abroad and comply with certain conditions, you can make use of the so-called '30% facility', which permits you not to pay tax on 30% of your salary.
• A broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes.
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.