PhD in Designing Embodied Sensing Systems for Preventive Healthcare

The PhD candidate will be mainly executed at the Department of Industrial Design TU/e (TU Eindhoven) and partly at the Department of Health Technology, DTU (Technical University of Denmark), where cross-disciplinary research is fostered in cooperation. The research will be performed in collaboration with hospitals in the Netherlands and Denmark. The accepted candidate will be uniquely positioned at the forefront of human-computer interaction research in future healthcare.

The PhD candidate will explore product and service design opportunities for preventive healthcare, aiming to provide healthcare services in people's living environments instead of in healthcare settings. We anticipate using precise sensor technologies in preventive healthcare applications to enable new prevention, diagnosis, and treatment possibilities. However, some sensors, such as microscopes, may be difficult to wear due to their technical requirements. To address this issue, this project focuses on embedding sensors in everyday objects familiar to people, allowing them to engage and interact with the sensors more naturally and frequently. These sensor-embedded tangible artifacts will be easier to use and more accessible as they capitalize on people's physical skills and familiarity with real-world objects.

The PhD candidate will leverage the existing network to develop a focus group for user-centered design, using the existing hardware and software tools of DTU and the experimental equipment and infrastructures in TU/e. During the first two years, the candidate will be based at TU/e and spend six months at DTU in the second year to construct the experimental apparatus. The last two years will be spent in TU/e to finish the research and the thesis. The project will involve the continual improvement of techniques to integrate object identification, context awareness, physiological sensing, and human activity recognition into everyday artifacts through a combination of existing (e.g., Bluray, near-field communication) and emerging (e.g., self-sustainable embedded systems) technologies, creating proof-of-concept systems with applications in preventive healthcare and evaluating their user experience with user-centered design methodologies.

The PhD candidate is expected to continuously publish their findings in leading international conferences and journals in human-computer interaction and health technologies throughout the four-year project and to conclude the studies with recommendations for tangible and embodied sensing systems designs for preventive healthcare applications by the end of the project. The findings will be made more accessible and practical by translating them into design principles and guidelines that are both generative and evaluative for future human-centered preventive healthcare applications.

Candidates should hold a Bachelor's and Master's degree in an area relating to Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a closely related topic. They should be competent or eager to master full-stack engineering, including hardware prototyping, front-end, and back-end web development. Moreover, candidates should demonstrate track records or a genuine interest in engaging with users and stakeholders to understand their needs, conduct co-design activities, and perform evaluation work.

All candidates should be proficient in both written and spoken English. Fluency and a good command of Dutch will be valued when carrying out further research and design activities with target users and stakeholders. Additionally, they should be proactive in collaborating with other PhD students, colleagues, and supervisors from various backgrounds regarding research and education.

Excellence in creativity, autonomy, and dedication are expected personal qualities. A genuine interest in research, familiarity with design thinking, experience in academic writing and publishing scientific research, and experience in collaborative research projects will weigh positively.

The candidates should have (and will further develop in this project) strong professional and communication skills to collaborate with remote partners in a multi-national and multi-disciplinary research team.

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.
• 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.