Netherland: Ph.D in Fetal Monitoring

The Technische Universiteit Eindhoven(TU/e) has the following vacancy
Ph.D in fetal monitoring (V36.280)
at Signal Processing Systems, Departmentof Electrical Engineering.

The Department of Electrical Engineeringconcerns the research and education of the Electrical Engineering discipline.Electrical Engineering covers the application of electrical phenomena withrespect to energy transfer, telecommunication, and calculation and processingof information and the technology involved. Both hardware, in the form ofelectronic circuits and accessories, and software, in the form of systemsoftware for electro-technical application, are the subject of study. Existingand new electrical components and systems are analyzed, designed and realized.In addition, the maintenance of these systems is the subject of research, as isthe relevance for society of electrical engineering and informatics.

The Project
This position relates to a collaborative project between the EindhovenUniversity of Technology (TU/e) and the Maxima Medical Center (MMC) inVeldhoven, the Netherlands.MMC has a large semi-academic perinatologydepartment that specializes in care for high-risk pregnancies. Thesepregnancies are becoming more prevalent because of the progressively higher ageat which women get pregnant, and involve preterm delivery, fetal growthretardation, or hypertension. In these pregnancies both the life and quality oflife of the fetus are threatened. Therefore, the state of the fetus must becarefully and frequently monitored in order to be able to intervene promptlywhen necessary. Existing fetal monitoring techniques such as the cardiotocogram(CTG) have serious accuracy limitations and are only applicable in thehospital. The project at hand aims to develop an electrophysiologicalalternative for the CTG that largely overcomes these drawbacks. The ultimateobjective is a prototype system with wearable electrode arrays whose outputsare continuously analyzed in order to detect both premature uterine activity(through extraction and interpretation of the uterine electromyogram (EMG)) andfetal health (through extraction and interpretation of the fetal ECG inrelation to the uterine EMG). This should pave the way to reliablearound-the-clock at-home monitoring of high-risk pregnancies, permitting earlywarnings for preterm delivery and for deterioration of fetal condition. At theheart of this ambitious project are sophisticated adaptive signalmodelling and analysis techniques that reliably separate the electrical sourcesof interest from a variety of other sources and artifacts. Development andclinical validation of these techniques involves advanced concepts in systemidentification and adaptive signal processing, translation of these conceptsinto practical solutions that meet a variety of additional constraints (on e.g.complexity, robustness, clinical acceptance), and clinical validation andfine-tuning of these solutions in a highly multidisciplinary setting.

Tasks

Development of these techniques will be ajoint task of the Ph.D. student along with a postdoctoral research fellow, withextensive support from signal-processing experts at TU/e and clinicalspecialists at MMC. MMC provides both infrastructure and staff support forclinical trials and experimental validation. Within the project, the Ph.D.student will focus on specific aspects of the above subject matter, such as:
- development of signal validation and interference rejection techniques foruse with novel capacitive elektrodes;
- development and validation of physiologically inspired parametric models ofthe fetal/maternal system that can be used as a basis ofsignal-processing and parameter-estimation techniques;
- development and clinical validation of robust parametric techniquesestimation of maternal and fetal ECG and uterine activity;
- development of improved model-based interpretation techniques of the CTG.

Requirements

We are looking for a candidate who meetsthe following requirements:
- a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or Physics;
- a strong basis in mathematics, signal processing and control;
- and a strong affinity with medical applications.
- other key attributes include good analytic, experimental and(object-oriented) programming skills, excellent social and team working skillsand an ability to turn chaos into order.

Appointment and Salary

What we offer:
The appointment is for four years. As an employee of the university you willreceive a competitive salary as well as excellent secondary benefits (holidayallowance, compensation health insurance, etc.). The research in this projectmust be concluded with the attainment of a PhD degree. A salary is offeredstarting at EUR 1813,- per month (gross) in the first year and increasing up toEUR 2394,- per month (gross) in the last year. Moreover 8% bonus share (holidaysupplement) is provided annually. Assistance for finding accommodation can begiven.

Information

Further information may be obtained fromProf. Jan Bergmans at TU/e (j.w.m.bergmans@tue.nl, +31 40 2474438) and fromProf. Guid Oei at MMC (guidoei@planet.nl, +31 40 8888385).
For information concerning employment you can contact Mrs. Femke Verheggen,personnel officer, ( f.verheggen@tue.nl, room EH 1.07, +31 40 247 4796.

Application

If you are interested in this position,please respond before September 15, 2005 by sending adetailed curriculum vitae, a motivation why the proposed research topicinterests you, a publication list, your course program and correspondinggrades, references and all other information that might be relevant to yourapplication to the address below, mentioning the vacancy numbers V36280.
Send your written application to:
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Building Ehoog
Prof. J.W.M. Bergmans
P.O. Box 513
5600 MB Eindhoven
The Netherlands