Project description

The PRINTYOURFOOD project is concerned with manufacturing of personalized foods with varying macronutrients and textures using 3D printing technology, which is an emerging technology. In extrusion-based food printing, many aspects such as rheological paste behavior, geometric product design, and post processing are crucial for the resulting printed product. Current approaches to handle complex viscoelastic formulations and steer texture design in food printing are relying on trial-and-error which makes personalized food printing extremely challenging. The PRINTYOURFOOD project focuses on understanding the relationships between composition & rheology of food inks, printing/postprocessing conditions and the texture of the product.

Position description

In this project, the PhD student will focus on the development of a digital twin for personalized 3D food printing by combining multiscale rheology models, data driven texture models, printer operations and design specification in a structured way. It is expected that the PhD student will collaborate with other researchers within the project and will interact with a number of Dutch SME's and industrial partners in the food industry.

You have:

• a Masters Degree in Systems & Control, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical or in any related fields from top universities
• strong academic credentials, written and spoken English proficiency

Group Description

The research mission of the Control Systems Group is to master complexity present in mechatronics, power systems, automotive systems and industrial processes. The group focuses on fundamental research in model reduction, spatial temporal systems, Lyapunov methods for real-time control and distributed systems, and system identification. Furthermore, many industrial projects are being carried out in the area of automotive, process control, wireless sensor networks, power systems. The group actively participates in the Dutch Institute of Systems and Control (DISC). For more detailed information on the activities of the group please check http://tue.nl/cs/

• 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.