Fellowship in Computational Knee/Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Biomechanics, Hospital for Special Surgery, Biomechanics Department, New York, NY

[Carl Imhauser]

Fellowship in Computational Knee/Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Biomechanics
Hospital for Special Surgery, Biomechanics Department, New York, NY
Position start date: Immediately
Position duration: 2 years minimum with opportunity for yearly extension thereafter
Degree Requirement: PhD in Biomechanics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent specialty; or MS with at least three years of experience after graduation in research or industry
Correspondence: HSS job portal at https://www.hss.edu/careers/careers.htm (under Research)
or Carl Imhauser, PhD imhauserc@hss.edu

Post-doctoral Fellowship in Computational Knee/Anterior Cruciate Ligament Biomechanics, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City, USA

The mission of the Biomechanics Department at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is to enable world-class orthopaedic care through innovative engineering. The goal of the current project is to establish tools for personalized treatment of traumatic knee injuries (e.g., anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture). This is a multidisciplinary, translational research efforts conducted in close collaboration with the Sports Medicine Service at HSS. To this end, our group utilizes computational, cadaveric, statistical, and patient models integrating robotics, multibody dynamics, epidemiology, clinical data, and uncertainty analysis.

In this project, we will scale-up our computational knee modeling efforts to incorporate large clinical data sets to identify mechanical factors associated with non-contact ACL injury and reinjury of ACL grafts. Our goal is to develop comprehensive, personalized tools to counsel patients and to inform clinicians of ACL injury risk and to provide clinical recommendations on activities, therapy, and surgery.

Achieving this objective requires support at the doctoral level under the supervision of Carl Imhauser, PhD in the Biomechanics Department and our multidisciplinary team of orthopaedic surgeons, radiologists, bioengineers, clinical epidemiologists, and statisticians. An extraordinary masters level engineer with at least three years of experience working in industry or in a research laboratory will also be considered.

We are looking for an individual with the following characteristics:

• Desire to rapidly learn new skills to creatively solve problems in a dynamic and evolving work environment
• Strong interest in orthopaedics and musculoskeletal biomechanics
• Strong organizational skills
• Independently motivated, self-directed, and solution-driven
• Ability to work independently and as part of a diverse team of clinicians and engineers
• Ability to set and adhere to timelines
• Attention to detail in documenting research activities

Responsibilities:

• Streamline our computational knee modeling pipeline to rapidly develop populations of models at scale with sample sizes of 50+ knee models
• Collaborate with statistical experts to isolate geometric and soft tissue properties associated with increased risk of ACL injury
• Develop surgical simulation algorithms for ACL reconstruction
• Organize large data sets for data mining and hypothesis testing
• Maintain software, licensing, and data storage infrastructure
• Communicate results of analyses to a diverse group of engineers, surgeons, epidemiologists, statisticians, and therapists through oral presentations at weekly/monthly group meetings
• Disseminate findings thorough presentation at national and international conferences and through publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals
• Integrate diverse 3D imaging and in vitro and patient-based biomechanics data to develop and evaluate computational models of the knee joint
• Help supervise research engineer(s) providing technical support to the fellow’s research project(s)
• Help train engineering undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, and orthopaedic residents and fellows, who become involved in research projects, to develop managerial and leadership skills

Required qualifications:

• Outstanding computer programming skills covering Python, C, MATLAB, etc.
• Graduate training in the theory of multibody dynamics, systems, and control
• Experience in clinical and translational biomechanics research
• Exceptional written, spoken, and interpersonal communication skills
• Experience in project management and organization
• Extensive experience (≥3 yrs an asset) using multibody dynamics software including MSC ADAMS and associated scripting languages
• Demonstrated ability to implement mathematical optimization techniques
• Understanding of statistical methods and uncertainty analyses
• Experience in image processing methods including exposure to commercial packages for 3D reconstruction of medical image data such as MIMICS
• Experience with CAD and reverse engineering software. E.g., SolidWorks, ProEngineer, GEOMAGICS, and DesignX
• Experience and interest in integrating cadaver and patient-based joint biomechanics into computational workflows

Desirable qualifications:

• Training in computer science and software architecture
• Knowledge of OpenSim COMAK for musculoskeletal modeling and FEA packages, such as ABAQUS and FEBio, with specific experience in contact modeling
• Graduate course work in statistics including Bayesian methods
• Knowledge of applied data science techniques (i.e., machine learning)

To apply, please upload your resume, cover letter, and statement of career goals including a description of why you are well-suited to work on this project using the HSS job portal at: https://www.hss.edu/careers/careers.htm (under Research) OR send to Carl Imhauser.

Salary is commensurate with experience.

Carl Imhauser, PhD
imhauserc@hss.edu
Biomechanics Department
Hospital for Special Surgery