You have a MSc degree in engineering or data science
You are familiar with machine learning
You have good programming skills in Matlab, Python
You have proven your proficiency in English language equivalent to B2 level
You are enthusiastic and result oriented
You can work independently and have a critical mindset
You are a team player and communicate well
This PhD project will mainly focus on automating analysis in high-frame-rate echocardiography, with a particular focus on shear wave elastography. Echocardiography plays a crucial role in the early detection of cardiac disease, which is essential for preventing irreversible pathological processes and ensuring appropriate patient management. Recent advances in high‑frame‑rate echocardiography now enable myocardial stiffness assessment, which is an appealing biomarker as changes in stiffness precede functional and morphologic changes of the heart and the onset of clinical symptoms. Our lab at KU Leuven developed a high-frame-rate echocardiographic tool to non-invasively assess myocardial stiffness by estimating the speed by which naturally generated shear waves travel through the myocardial wall. Even though the tool has shown promising results in clinical studies, the post-processing pipeline requires user input in several stages, affecting not only the variability and thus the specificity and the sensitivity of the technique but also slowing down the work flow. The main goal of this project is to automate the pipeline in order to prepare the technique for validation in large patients cohorts and integration into clinical workflow. In addition, the student will also contribute, to a lesser extent, to the development of an AI-based clinical decision support system (second pillar of COMPASS). During this project, the student will closely collaborate with the Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Trondheim) and GE Healthcare (Oslo, Norway).
This PhD project will be conducted at the Cardiovascular Imaging & Dynamics laboratory of the Department Cardiovascular Sciences (KU Leuven, located within the Medical Image Research Center (MIRC) at university hospital Gasthuisberg, Belgium). Within the MIRC, the PhD candidate will work closely with engineers, physicists, clinicians and medical scientists, fostering collaboration within a dynamic research team. This PhD project is embedded within the COMPASS project (“Cardio-Oncology Multidisciplinary Patient Assistance Solution”), a consortium of 67 partners structured around three core pillars. The first pillar focuses on extraction and validation of novel biomarkers and parameters for cardiotoxicity. The second pillar aims to develop and implement AI-powered risk stratification models and real-time monitoring systems to enhance early detection, personalized treatment and prevention of cardiovascular toxicity in cardio-oncology patients. The third and last pillar aims to establish sustainable and patient-centered cardio-oncology care pathways.
We offer a 4-year PhD position with market conform wages in a large, multidisciplinary research center in the heart of Europe, equipped with state of the art research infrastructure. The position is immediately available and the effective start date is to be defined mutually but should be before summer 2026.