Postdoc human factors on advanced architectures for supporting young patients with cancer

Adolescents and young adults (AYA) oncological patients (with cancer or cancer survivors) are in a unique phase of their life, with special needs and challenges, distinct from their younger and older counterparts. AYA patients form unique personal identities, establish careers, and build relationships. The present project aims to build and test in a Multicentric approach, a digital architecture to support a “personalised digital follow-up environment”. This is based on data integrated from wearable sensors, and processed by AI tools to support AYA patients in their journey to recovery.

This position is part of the European Union Project LATE-AYA, and you will collaborate within a large multinational network to define the requirements of this digital architecture. Are you eager to contribute to groundbreaking research on personalized approaches with the potential for a significant patient impact? Then this project is perfect for you!

We are looking for a motivated, steadfast, innovative and open-minded postdoc researcher who can work in a diverse environment of clinicians, sensor developers, experts, and patients to drive the processes required for successful hardware and software integration. You should be ready to travel regularly around Europe for project meetings and communicate successfully with stakeholders.

You will gain experience in project management, supervision, and grounded work (may include biosensor integration) under the direct supervision of Dr Simone Borsci and Dr Russell Chan.

Research Engineer Microphysiological Systems and Engineering

As a Research Engineer, you will join a new team of experts from both UT and TNO to kick-start the roadmap activities of the B/MSC at the UT campus in Enschede. During the start-up, you will coordinate with stakeholders of the B/MSC from both organizations. The success of your technological breakthrough will immediately translate into the success of the innovation centre. Join us and be part of this pioneering endeavour.

Your activities

• Join R&D activities on microphysiological platform development for drug development and toxicity testing in the laboratories of the University of Twente.
• Co-develop our (modular) microfluidic technology. This includes prototyping new microfluidic modules, or modify existing designs to allow mass-production, integrate a wide variety of sensors, and built systems (setups) that can do fluidic control and allows for automated experiments.
• Set up equipment, laboratories needs and operation, and contributing to hands-on laboratory work such as testing the developed system, sensors, readouts etc.

EngD Position: Design and Manufacturing Process of Smart Damping Components for Aerospace Applications

About the Project

Shock absorbers play a critical role in aerospace systems by protecting structural integrity during launch, flight, and landing. They do this by mitigating extreme forces acting on key components, such as launcher brackets and sensitive payloads. The "SMART DAMPER" project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to develop an intelligent damping system by combining the geometric versatility of additive manufacturing (AM) with the adaptive properties of NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs).

Superelastic NiTi SMAs possess unique characteristics, including the ability to recover their original shape after deformation. This allows them to be reused across multiple loading and unloading cycles. Additive manufacturing, particularly Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), enables the direct integration of energy-dissipating features, making it possible to design customizable structures with mechanical properties tailored to specific payload requirements and varying operational conditions.

The project focuses on the design and fabrication of a structural prototype, such as a payload support or structural bracket, that incorporates NiTi SMA lattice structures. This prototype will serve to demonstrate the practical benefits and technological advancements made possible through the integration of AM and SMAs.

Your Role
We are seeking a highly motivated Engineering Doctorate (EngD) candidate to contribute to the development of a systematic framework for the design and manufacturing of a smart damping component. The focus of your research will be on investigating the relationship between damper design, microstructural quality, and the functional performance of 3D-printed dampers for aerospace applications.

The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) is a post-master's program offered by the university. Approximately 50% of the two-year program will be dedicated to this specific assignment, while the remaining time will involve a tailored educational program. This educational component consists of post-master courses and workshops designed to prepare you for the management and execution of this and future design projects. Upon successful completion of the program, you will be awarded the academic title of EngD and registered as a Technological Designer in the Dutch register maintained by the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI).

You will collaborate closely with interdisciplinary experts from various institutions, gaining practical experience in applied research, design methodologies, advanced material characterization, and project management. In addition, you will be expected to contribute to scientific publications and support the dissemination of project outcomes.

PhD position Sensor based modelling of social and physical activity in high schools

In this PhD research, you will specifically focus on the design of machine learning and data mining algorithms that can integrate and combine multi-modal data acquired from a variety of sources (smart watch sensors, spatial maps, building information sources (drawings and digital models), questionnaires) and addresses a more in-depth problem of social inclusion and mobility. This will lead to an understanding of how the social, cultural, and physical environment influences children’s activities and social interactions for better and for worse.

In this project you will bring this approach to high schools, to better understand the lived experience of high school students. You will especially focus on how vulnerable youth such as students with autism experience their school environment. Through developing and applying advanced machine learning approaches, you will develop a system that can help schools see the weaknesses in their school environment and predict the effect of possible interventions to improve the environment.

In this position, you will collaborate closely with another PhD student addressing the problem from psychology and education perspectives. Furthermore, you will collaborate in a large multidisciplinary team spanning several universities and other organisations. You will perform high-quality and internationally visible research that gets published at top-tier conferences and journals.

PhD position on Power Electronics and Battery Management Systems for Modular Mobile Charging

Are you ready to engineer the future of high-power charging for electric aircraft and heavy-duty EVs? The University of Twente invites applications for a PhD position in Power Electronics and Battery Management Systems (BMS) within the Interreg-funded project MOMO-C (Mobile Modular Charger).

In this role, you will design scalable power converters and intelligent BMS architectures for mobile charging platforms, contributing to the prototyping and real-life testing of a modular mobile charger capable of supplying power to electric aircraft. This international project, coordinated by Fraunhofer FFB, unites academic and industrial partners across Germany and the Netherlands.

You will work in the Power Electronics Group at UT and collaborate with experts from Seine Batteriesysteme, NRG2Fly, and multiple airports. The project also supports open-source developments in MW-charging protocols and hardware. Expect a dynamic, cross-border innovation ecosystem where your contributions directly influence the future of sustainable transport.