phd position | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans - Part 6

PhD Position at LIRMM-INRIA, Montpellier, France: Whole body control framework for lower limb stability in computational rehabilitation

INRIA is the French national institute for research in computer science and control. DEMAR project’s research interests are centered on the human sensory motor modeling, including muscles, sensory feedbacks, and neural motor networks.

research direction:
Identification of biomechanical dynamics and muscle dynamics for neurologically damaged patient is already challenging as the system
response can drastically vary depending on the degree of the patient deficiencies. In FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation), movement
synthesis and control are still a challenging task due to the complexity of whole body dynamics computation and the nonlinearity of
stimulated muscle dynamics. One of the challenge concerns the feedback (torque, EMG, joint angle) that can be used to control joint angle,
torque or stiffness. Moreover, control strategies have to be designed in order to be performed on portable architecture and tuned through
advanced modeling and simulation.
In this context, the goal of this PhD work is to study the optimization-based motion synthesis and real-time control framework
which can generate stimulation patterns from the pre-computed motion synthesis database. Motion capture system together with the estimation of the Center of Mass would be used to assess the strategies. This work aims at the development of automatic method to establish deficient limb stability in computer-aided rehabilitation.
This PhD work is performed under the collaborative project named @walk (artificial walking) between INRIA DEMAR project and AI lab of
Stanford University.

Research background:
-Master in control engineering, computer science, biomechanics, robotics or related disciplines.
– good knowledge of C/C++ programming and matlab.

Scholarship Application Deadline: Contact Employer

Further Scholarship Information and Application

Phd Position in Biomechanics and Engineering Design at K.U.Leuven, Netherlands

During minimally invasive (robotic) surgery (MIS), the surgeon cannot feel the forces he/she is exerting on the tissue, and is thus risking unwanted damage to the tissue. This PhD is part of an interdisciplinary project of which the ultimate goal is to impose safety margins on the surgical instruments to avoid tissue damage during robotic surgery. The focus lies on cardiovascular tissue.

This focus of this PhD will be to search for and/or design accurate models of cardiovascular tissue on the one hand, but fast models of this same tissue on the other hand. Accurate constitutive and finite element models are required to define the maximum allowable load a tissue can bear. On the other hand, fast models are required to estimate and apply these thresholds intraoperatively and thus in realtime during surgery. This research has computational as well as experimental aspects to it. There will be a close collaboration with cardiac surgeons, biotechnologists and the engineers of the division of production, machine design and automation.

Scholarship Application Deadline:
2011-08-01

Further Scholarship Information and Application

PhD Position ‘Annotation and Experimental Evaluation of Functional Regulatory Elements in Plant snoRNA/scaRNA Genes’, Poland: Molecular Biology or Bioinformatics

MPD International PhD program is seeking a doctoral student to undertake a project exploring the factors controlling snoRNA and scaRNA biogenesis in plants. The work plan includes two major steps: (1) In silico analysis of all available plant snoRNA and scaRNA gene promoters and (2) experimental validation of promoter elements in transgenic plants.

Academic Criteria
The successful applicant should:
– hold a Master degree in Molecular Biology or Bioinformatics;
– have some experience in laboratory work with plants and genome annotation;

Scholarship Application Deadline:28.03.2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application