PhD Position in Mechanical Engineering

The PhD stipend is available within the general study programme “Mechanical Engineering”. The study will be conducted in close cooperation with researchers at the Department of Health Science and Technology.

The stipend is affiliated with the research project AnyBody Inside, co-financed between the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, AnyBody Technology A/S and Aalborg University. The purpose of the project is to investigate and develop reliable methods for prediction of natural postures and movements by means of musculoskeletal models of the human body. The project is therefore inter-disciplinary in nature comprising elements from mechanics, numerical mathematics, software development and physiology.

The hypothesis of the project is the idea that voluntary postures and movement strategies in humans are guided by a desire to optimize performance according to some criteria. It is the purpose of the project to identify these criteria, cast them into a mathematical form and implement them in musculoskeletal models using the AnyBody Modeling System.

The study programme will likely contain the following items:

    * Literature review of state-of-the- art in the field.
    * Biomechanical analysis of the problem resulting in candidate criterion functions and constraints.
    * Innovation of models and examples suitable to investigate different formulations of the optimization problem.
    * Experiments and simulation.
    * Conclusions and final implementation of the methods.

Key topics: Musculoskeletal simulation, posture and movement prediction, optimization.

Applicants for the PhD position should hold a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, mathematics, numerical methods, software engineering (or a related field) and should have an interest in physiology and biomechanics. A good command of oral and written English is also required.

Qualification requirements:
PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a Masters degree. PhD stipends are normally for a period of 3 years. It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Doctoral School of the Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine, in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 18 of January 14, 2008 on the PhD Programme at the Universities. According to the Ministerial Order, the progress of the PhD student shall be assessed every six months. It is a prerequisite for continuation of salary payment that the previous progress is approved at the time of the evaluation.

The qualifications of the applicant will be assessed by an assessment committee. On the basis of the recommendation of the assessment committee, the Dean of the Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine will make a decision for allocating the stipend.

Appointment and salary acc. to the Ministry of Finance Circular of January 11, 2006 on the Collective Agreement for Academics in Denmark, Appendix 5, regarding PhD fellows, and with the Ministry of Finance Circular of June 13, 2007 on the employment structure at Danish Universities.

For further information about stipends and salary contact Ms. Tine Lützhøft, The Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine, email:tl@adm.aau.dk, phone: +45 9940 7380.

The PhD application form can be downloaded from the following address:

    http://www.phd. ins.aau.dk/ get-a-phd/ 3591832

The faculty has a research school, The Doctoral School of Engineering, Science and Medicine: http://www.phd. ins.aau.dk and a Network for all PhD students: http://pau.aau. dk

You may obtain further information from Professor John Rasmussen, phone: +45 9940 9307, email: jr@me.aau.dk concerning the technical aspects of the stipend.

Application marked with the PhD stipend No. 562/06-15-29129, should include in four copies: the PhD application form, the Masters diploma including grades, publications, Curriculum Vitae and any other material, as well as a list of submitted material. Due to legal constraints electronic applications will not be accepted. The application must arrive at Aalborg University with the morning post by the 30 June 2009.

Application is to be forwarded to :

Aalborg Universitet
De Ingeniør-, Natur- og Sundhedsvidenskabel ige Fakulteter
Niels Jernes Vej 10
DK-9220 Aalborg Øst