A PhD position is offered within the Department of the Built Environment of the Eindhoven University of Technology. You will be working in the Chair of Steel Structures, of the Structural Engineering and Design unit of the department.

This position is funded by NWO through the project 'Holi-DOCTOR: Holistic framework for Diagnostics and monitoring of wind turbine blades'. The project is a collaboration of TU Delft, WUR and industrial partners. The Holi-DOCTOR project aims at designing and implementing an experimental methodology for the non-intrusive damage monitoring of wind turbine blades located off-shore.

Within the project, the PhD candidate will develop a Deep Learning framework for damage detection in wind turbine blades. This will be done on the basis of already available measurements acquired in a wind tunnel and in-field monitoring. The challenging framework will combine acoustic, infrared, and vibration measurements to detect the damage present on wind turbine blades.

The project is supported by the Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute (EAISI).

Applicants require to hold an MSc degree in Engineering (Aerospace, Mechanical, Civil, or similar) or applied mathematics. Moreover, the ideal candidate will meet as many of the following requirements as possible:

• Have experience in applied mathematics (network optimization, numeric PDE analysis, probability theory), mathematical engineering (fields like signal/image processing or robotics), and computer science.
• Have experience with damage mechanisms  in composite materials.
• Strong experience with programming languages such as Python (and Matlab or Mathematica) where experience with deep learning platforms (e.g. Tensor Flow, PyTorch) is preferable. Basic knowledge of C++ programming is also considered a plus.
• Experience or interest in working with Artificial Intelligence and applying it to civil infrastructures for damage detection.
• Fluent English skills (C1), both written and spoken.
• Ability to function in cooperation with industry and a consortium of PhD and PostDocs.
• Interest in co-supervising MSc projects.

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (min. € 2.541,- max. € 3.247,-).
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.