Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Open Ph.D. Position in musculoskeletal modelling at the LBMC (Lyon1, Ifsttar, France)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Open Ph.D. Position in musculoskeletal modelling at the LBMC (Lyon1, Ifsttar, France)

    A Ph.D. scholarship is now open at the Biomechanics and Impact Mechanics Laboratory (LBMC, http://www.inrets.fr/ur/lbmc/), a Joint research unit of the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (UCBL) and the French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks (Ifsttar). Note that Ifsttar is a recent public research institution resulting from the merger of the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS) and the French Central Laboratory of Roads and Bridges (LCPC).

    The position will officially start in October 2011 (or shortly after) for three years, as part of the “MIME” ongoing research project funded by the French ANR JCJC Grant (National Grant for young researchers), within the “Biomechanics and Orthopaedics” team of the LBMC.

    This Ph.D. research project is focus on muscle modelling. The aim of this research project concerns the development of a patient-specific multi-scale musculoskeletal model, including deformable volume muscle models with contraction capability, and dedicated to movement simulation. A more detailed description of the position is provided at the end of this message.

    Informal enquiries can be made to Dr. Yoann LAFON-JALBY, Principal Investigator of the MIME Project (email: yoann.lafon@univ-lyon1.fr).

    Interested candidates should apply from 01/04/2011 until 29/04/2011. Applications and selection will follow a formal online process described at:
    http://www.inrets.fr/publication/the...dats/index.php.
    In addition, note that the candidates will have to send via email to Dr. Yoann LAFON-JALBY, until 20/04/2011:
    - a CV including the contact details of a referent teacher,
    - a letter of motivation addressing the above selection criteria.


    __________________________________________________ ___________________

    Open Ph.D. Position: “Deformable volumetric model of the musculoskeletal limb”

    About the research team.
    The LBMC laboratory is made of four research teams, with specific research fields in biomechanics: “Biomechanics & Orthopaedics”, “Impact & Biomechanics”, “Biomechanics & Ergonomics” and “Structures”. This Ph.D. project will be hosted within the young and multidisciplinary research team “Biomechanics & Orthopaedics”, mainly focused on the dynamic modelling of the human movement for orthopaedics, sport and rehabilitation applications. Around 20 clinicians and researchers in biomechanics and about 10 Ph.D. students collaborate on several projects within this team. The team’s methodology is based both on in vivo experiments and numerical models, to improve biomechanical knowledge on the behaviour of the human musculoskeletal system, for applications in orthopaedics, physical rehabilitation, sports and ergonomics.

    The team has developed an expertise in rigid-body modelling on the musculoskeletal system, inverse dynamics, muscle activation computation and model personalization, with many applications on the upper and lower limb. Recently the team concentrates research efforts in integrating deformable muscle models in dynamic simulation. This enthralling field of research, funded by both a national (ANR) and an international grant (Marie-Curie), is the natural continuation of the current LBMC research program and will take advantages from its scientific background. The three year Ph.D. position is part of the “MIME” ongoing research project funded by the French ANR JCJC Grant (National Grant for young researchers).

    Scientific stakes of the project.
    Numerical biomechanical models present many clinical and ergonomic applications, especially within the context of disorders such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis or bone fracture that are associated with an ageing and over-weighting population. From a numerical point of view, many authors experience that one of the challenges in improving musculoskeletal model models goes through integrating patient-specific deformable models of muscles to dynamic simulations.

    Aim of the project.
    The aim of this research project concerns the development of a patient-specific multi-scale musculoskeletal model, including deformable volume muscle models with contraction capability, and dedicated to movement simulation. This research objective stands for one of the major issues in biomechanics.

    Global Methodology.
    The methodology is based on a multi-disciplinary approach. Researchers in movement simulation work on integrating muscle volume models in dynamic simulations. The aim of this project is to contribute to such a subject-specific development, by investigating the promising features of recent advanced numerical methods and taking advantages of the LBMC strong experience regarding modelling of the musculoskeletal system. This research work will be structured in the following main parts:
    • Development of a deformable volume muscle model with contractile capability. Various numerical approaches will be evaluated to provide a generic deformable muscle model yielding to fast and robust dynamic simulations.
    • Development of a multi-scale musculoskeletal model of the lower limb integrating the previous deformable muscle models with contractile capability.
    • Integration of methods to personalize the multi-scale model from in vivo subject-specific data (MRI…)
    • Validation of this patient-specific multi-scale musculoskeletal model regarding in vivo data from previous acquisitions.
    • Subject-specific clinical applications.

    Required skills and scientific knowledge.
    With a MSc or an Engineer degree (diplôme d’ingénieur) in mechanical or biomedical engineering, the candidate should have a solid background in mechanics, as well as strong knowledge and experience in computation mechanics and finite element methods. The candidate will be able to use and develop numerical tools for simulating non-linear deformable & rigid systems, and for analyzing a large amount of data. Any experience in image processing will be considered as a plus. Enthusiastic, self-motivated, independent and able to take initiative, the candidate could carry out relationship between clinical and academic research teams. This position also requires excellent oral and written communication skills in French and English.

    Keywords.
    Mechanics, biomechanics, musculoskeletal, muscle contraction, simulation, numerical methods, deformable volume model, patient-specific, multi-scale approach.
Working...
X