Postdoctoral vacancy (36 months) on automated software workflow for medical application of 3D printed technologies

3D printing or Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies carry the promise of revolutionizing the quality and efficiency of healthcare. However, the required technologies, even when available, are currently too fragmented to be integrated into routine, affordable and streamlined solutions that can benefit a large number of patients. The challenge thereby is to deliver 3D printing technologies that enable:

• Patient-specific solutions: personalized medical devices that are designed using the images acquired for individual patients and best fit their treatment needs;
• Complexity and miniaturization: complex shapes, articulations and miniaturized geometries of implantable medical devices and instruments have the potential to radically enhance treatment effectiveness and post-treatment recovery;
• Streamlined care: the ability to integrate diagnosis, design and manufacturing of AM medical devices into a validated software platform is the key to delivering fast, affordable treatments with dramatic life-saving potential.

The INTERREG project 3DMed aims to improve affordability and large-scale accessibility of medical treatment using 3D printed devices. This will be achieved by increasing the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of state-of-the-art 3D printing technologies for medical applications and integrating them into a streamlined, fast, cost-effective software platform for use in routine clinical practice. 
This project contains 17 partners from The Netherlands, Belgium, France and United Kingdom, including universities, hospitals, software suppliers, 3D printing companies, clinical observers, manufacturers of medical devices and implants,... The project is coordinated by TUDelft.

In this postdoctoral position, it is the purpose to develop a streamlined, fast, cost-effective software platform to connect the design and production of 3D printed devices with clinical evaluation (pre- and postoperative). This involves data transfer protocols to link image acquisition, design and the manufacture (3D printing) of the device; software collection and evaluation; software development; software interfacing; process automation; protocol collection and validation of the software platform for the selected categories of medical devices. 
Interfacing various software tools also involves formatting the input and output of each software so that automated interaction with the other software components is possible. Each input and output must be expressed in a terminology that is understandable by both clinicians and engineers and uses a consistent set of variables and measures for defining the medical device under consideration. 
Setting up this tool chain of different (commercial) software packages and programming the necessary data protocols to achieve an integrated software platform is the goal, and to achieve this goal, a close collaboration will be required with the researchers at TUDelft, clinical observers, AM service providers and software companies.

Only candidates with a PhD degree or equivalent experience should apply. The candidate should have strong programming skills (Python, C++, C#,...) and has experience with different software tools for patient-specific design of implants, for example: (i) medical image segmentation software (Mimics, SimpleWare, Amira,...), (ii) FE tools (Abaqus, Ansys, Simcenter,...), (iii) topology optimization (Autodesk Within Medical, Altair/Optistruct, Frustum/Generate,...). He/she will closely work together with the other postdoc in the team (see other vacancy) and is willing to travel frequently to meet and discuss with the other project partners in the neighbouring countries. 

More information can be found on: http://www.composites.ugent.be/PhD_job_vacancies_PhD_job_positions_compo...