1. You have completed a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
2. You have a keen interest in experimental and computational soft tissue biomechanics.
3. You are proficient in English equivalent to B2 level.
4. You are ambitious, well organized, a team player, and have excellent communications skills.
5. You can work independently and have a critical mindset.
6. Previous experience in multi-axial biomechanical tissue characterization, parameter optimization, nonlinear continuum mechanics, finite element analysis, and/or constitutive model development is considered a plus.
The main goal of the RESSURG project is to achieve a new generation of surgical training phantoms that realistically simulate the biomechanics of their biological counterparts, have integrated sensors to track interactions during training and are fully reusable. A rising need for these new surgical phantoms is fueled by the increasing complexity of surgical procedures, advances in personalized medicine, and a shift toward cost-effective and robust medical training.
Specifically, this PhD project will focus on the development of biomechanical digital twins of relevant organs and tissues, such as multi-layer skin patches, and the aorta in pathological and healthy state. Digital twins for both the biological tissue/organ counterpart and synthetic phantom counterpart will be developed to serve as a design basis for the synthetic phantoms. The objectives are: 1) Validation of mechanical test methods for soft biological tissues through the use of repeatable and biomimetic synthetic materials. 2) Material characterization of biological tissues using multi-axial mechanical testing devices and constitutive law fitting. 3) Development of biofidelic finite element models using the obtained (localized) material properties.
The project will be mainly carried out at KU Leuven, but in close collaboration with other researchers within the consortium, at VUB and imec.
This research is part of a multidisciplinary and inter-university project RESSURG (REalistic Self-healing SURGical trainers), aimed at investigating the potential of self-healing polymers in the context of surgical trainers. The project is a collaboration between research groups at KU Leuven, VUB Brussels University, and imec. The proposed position at KU Leuven will be embedded in the Soft Tissue Biomechanics (STB) group, led by Prof. Nele Famaey, and the FIBEr Core facility for biomechanical experimentation. The STB group's mission is to improve mechano-compatibility in soft tissue applications through in vitro, in vivo, and in silico biomechanical analysis. Our in vitro work is facilitated by FIBEr with an extensive collection of biomechanical testing equipment and expertise on biomechanical characterization. Our in silico work consists of the biofidelic computational modeling of biological soft tissues at various scales in relevant pathological applications. The STB group and FIBEr are part of the BioMechanics Section of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KU Leuven. The work will be performed in collaboration with the VUB Sustainable Materials Engineering research group, and the imec Brubotics research group.We offer a full-time (100%) doctoral fellowship for 1 year, to be extended to maximum 4 years upon positive evaluation, embedded in a multidisciplinary team of researchers at KU Leuven, VUB and imec. The start date can be discussed and will be no earlier than the 1st of May 2026.