PhD Position Joint Motion Monitoring Devices for Home Environments

Are you passionate about shaping the future of healthcare? Do you want to develop technology that truly matters in people’s lives? Join us in creating radical innovations that enable patients to manage their disease at home.

Job description

The Department of Sustainable Design Engineering in the Faculty of  Industrial Design Engineering and the department of Biomechanical Engineering, faculty of Mechanical Engineering are seeking a hardworking and motivated PhD candidate to join us for a full-time, fully funded, 4-year project. You will be supervised by prof. K.M.B. Jansen and dr. G. Smit.

The Challenge

Healthcare systems worldwide face a dual and growing challenge: costs are rising while the availability of healthcare professionals is decreasing. At the same time, millions of people with chronic mobility conditions—such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Stroke, and Parkinson’s Disease—struggle to maintain independence in their daily lives. We urgently need new approaches that can bridge the gap between hospital-based care and remote patient management.

These will be developed with the ‘Care is coming home!’ program. This program will be executed the coming 5 years by a large consortium consisting of 2 technical universities (TU Delft, UTwente), 6 hospitals (Amsterdam UMC, Erasmus MC, Leiden UMC, Maartenskliniek, Maastricht UMC, Radboud UMC), 13 companies (Able Human Motion, Biomex, Cue2Walk, DanuSports, Kinetic Analysis, Lode Holding, Madglove, ModelHealth, Moveshelf, Orikami, Sabender (Enterprising Company), Trinoma, VicarVision), 1 rehabilitaion centre (Daan Theeuwes Centrum) and  5 patient organisations (Hersenletsel.nl, Hersenstichting, Parkinson Vereniging, ParkinsonNL, ReumaNederland).

As a PhD candidate in this project, you will contribute to a multi-disciplinary research effort focused on empowering individuals with chronic mobility limitations. You will help design, develop, and evaluate innovative medical technology that enables people to manage their health at home—safely, independently, and with confidence.

More specifically, for this position we aim to develop novel measurement devices for monitoring joint motion in chronically ill patients in home environments, enabling quantitative assessment of disease progression. For rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, you will develop a finger stiffness measurement device to assess finger joint dexterity. To unobtrusively assess changes in joint movement in stroke patients without relying on cameras, you will also develop a drift compensation algorithm for combined IMU and stretch sensor configurations.

As a PhD candidate in this project you will collaborate in particular with Erasmus MC, ReumaNederland and Madglove

Job requirements

Your profile:

• You hold a master’s degree in biomechanics design, biomechanical engineering or equivalent.You have  prove skills in prototyping and testing as well as dynamics and programming
• You have affinity with electronics
• You have high-level analytical, and organizational skills
• A strong interest in medical technology
• Affinity with giving education, as you will spent some time on educational tasks
• You are fluent in English, both spoken and written. For working with patients knowledge of Dutch is a pre
• Affinity for working with patients and clinicians.
  
  

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering

Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.

Conditions of employment 
Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met. 

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from €3059 - €3881 gross per month, from the first year to the fourth year based on a fulltime contract (38 hours), plus 8% holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.  

As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. 

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.  

Will you need to relocate to the Netherlands for this job? TU Delft is committed to make your move as smooth as possible! The HR unit, Coming to Delft Service, offers information on their website to help you prepare your relocation. In addition, Coming to Delft Service organises events to help you settle in the Netherlands, and expand your (social) network in Delft. A Dual Career Programme is available, to support your accompanying partner with their job search in the Netherlands.  

Additional information
If you would like more information about this vacancy or the selection procedure, please contact Kaspar Jansen, via k.m.b.jansen@tudelft.nl or Gerwin Smit via g.smit@tudelft.nl.

Application procedure
Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 4 July 2026 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• CV
• Motivational letter

You can address your application to Kaspar Jansen.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements. 

Please note:

• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post. 
• As part of knowledge security, TU Delft conducts a risk assessment during the recruitment of personnel. We do this, among other things, to prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology. The assessment is based on information provided by the candidates themselves, such as their motivation letter and CV, and takes place at the final stages of the selection process. When the outcome of the assessment is negative, the candidate will be informed. The processing of personal data in the context of the risk assessment is carried out on the legal basis of the GDPR: performing a public task in the public interest. You can find more information about this assessment on our website about knowledge security.
• Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.