Research Associate & Scientific Software Developer Openings in image computing/modelling, Sheffield, UK

A couple of new exciting projects have been awarded to CISTIB and will start in early 2013. Both projects are funded by the European Commission and involve multi partner consortia with a combination of academic, clinical and industrial partners across Europe. Projects are related to patient-specific musculoskeletal and brain modelling in the context of paediatric diseases and dementia syndrome. We are receiving expressions of interest of prospective candidates for upcoming positions as Research Associates and Scientific Software Developers. We seek proactive and talented individuals with proven track record of publications in leading international journals and conferences. Candidates must hold a PhD degree and have expertise in the area of interest. Background or strong interest in biomedical engineering and proficiency in spoken and written English is expected. 

The candidates will have to demonstrate expertise in one or various of the following areas of computational imaging and modelling: 

• Non-rigid image registration: we are seeking individuals with experience in non-rigid image registration with application to brain, musculoskeletal, cardiac and vascular registration of multimodal imaging. Experience in advanced registration techniques for volumes and surfaces, diffeomorphic registration approaches, statistical deformation analysis, biomechanically-based non-rigid deformations

• Diffusion tensor image processing: we seek for candidates with experience in tensor-based image processing, diffusion tensor image analysis, connectivity analysis, fibre tracking, statistical modelling of fibre tracks, tensor processing. Strong background on mathematics and computing are required. We are seeking to characterise tissue anisotropy so as to be integrated in personalised models of brain biophysics.

• Statistical shape modelling and image analysis: we are seeking candidates with expertise in statistical shape and appearance models interested in developing 3D and 3D+t multi object and multi resolution approaches for cardiovascular and musculoskeletal image segmentation and shape analysis.

• Image-based brain tissue elastography: we are looking for researchers with track record in soft-tissue mechanics and image analysis experience to develop novel ideas of image-based tissue elastography based on new MR-based imaging. In particular, we are interested in recovering brain tissue elastic and poroelastic properties. Methods will be generic so as to be applied to other soft-tissue domains like cardiac and vascular tissues.

• Subject-specific biophysically-based simulation of brain MRI in dementia: we are looking for researchers with experience in MR image formation and reconstruction as well as on MRI simulators. We aim at linking biophysical models of brain tissue degeneration with MRI intensity modelling through machine learning. Our aim is to understand how chronic biophysical conditions may influence image appearance in dementia patients so as to develop image-based biomarkers underpinned by mechanistic understanding of tissue degeneration.

• Modelling of circadian and lifestyle physiological changes: we are seeking an outstanding candidate with background in signal processing and modelling to develop circadian and lifestyle models of physiological signal variability based on pervasive sensing and monitoring. The goal is to utilise the derived models to establish personalised and lifestyle-specific boundary conditions for image-based patient-specific biophysical models. The ideal candidate will have substantive expertise in control theory, signal processing, system identification and physiological modelling.

• Scientific software developers: we are seeking scientific software engineers that will be providing services and expertise relating to the development of codes and software applications used by CISTIB researchers. The team works with researchers across the group to develop best practice for research programming. They will have a key role in furthering the development of the framework and clinical software prototypes based upon GIMIAS, our open source framework (www.gimias.org), and our computational imaging libraries, the CISTIB Toolkit.

We are interested in individuals with excellent communication and leadership skills, able to work in a multidisciplinary and international team and contribute to the visibility of the centre in the international scientific community. The ability to interact with other disciplines is essential. The candidate will cooperate with members of the lab working on related topics as well as with our collaborators at several academic institutions in UK and across Europe.

If you feel you qualify and would be interested in applying for one of these positions, please, send your CV for an informal discussion to Prof Alejandro Frangi a.frangi@sheffield.ac.uk with CC to Dr Zeike Taylor (z.taylor@sheffield.ac.uk) and Dr Alberto Marzo (a.marzo@sheffield.ac.uk).

More information:

The INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicineis an initiative between the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sheffield and the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. INSIGNEO will realise the scientific ambition behind the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH), producing a transformational impact on healthcare. INSIGNEO performs cutting edge research in areas of fundamental and applied biomedical modelling, imaging and informatics. It will pursue the research agenda of the VPH initiative; in particular, in the first five years it will focus on the Digital Patient, In Silico Clinical Trials, and Personal Health Forecasting. It will achieve transformational impact on healthcare through multidisciplinary collaboration in strategic areas, which initially will include personalised treatments and independent, active and healthy ageing.

The Center for Computational Imaging and Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine(CISTIB) at the University of Sheffield is part of INSIGNEO. CISTIB focuses on algorithmic and applied research in the areas of computational imaging, modeling and simulation. CISTIB is working in different areas of medical image segmentation, anatomical modelling, statistical shape analysis, tissue characterisation and image-based personalized computational modelling in the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neurological domains. The centre hosts academic members from the University of Sheffield and collaborators at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, as well as research fellows, research associates, PhD Students and scientific software developers forming a cross-disciplinary team of biomedical engineers, computer scientists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, physicists, and mathematicians. The main objective of CISTIB is to contribute to the development of technologies for advanced screening, diagnostics, interventional guidance and therapy planning of cardio- and neurovascular diseases as well as growing activity in the musculo-skeletal system. Converging technologies such as computational imaging, computational physiology and virtual implantation of medical devices are integrated with state of the art multimodal acquisition systems to achieve an enhanced interpretation of human physiology and pathology and supply integrative approaches for in silico medical device customization, optimization and image-based efficacy assessment. Core technologies include spatial and temporal image segmentation, non-rigid image registration, multimodal image fusion, pattern recognition, statistical shape analysis, multi-view geometry, image-based tissue property estimation, tissue deformation quantification, computational geometry, image-based mesh generation, computational fluid dynamics and electro-mechanical simulation.