PhD Position Video-based Hand Motion-tracking for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis at TU Delft

Are you passionate about human movement and developing clinical tools for understanding human movement disorders?

Job description

Challenge: Over a quarter of a million people in the Netherlands alone have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with a majority suffering from debilitating pain and inflammation that makes hand dexterity and work, at times, impossible. While anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs are the main line of relief, new drugs and treatments are needed and being developed for long-term care. At the same time a major challenge in RA management is quantifying the effectiveness of treatments under real-world conditions.

Change: We need technologies to measure and quantify changes in hand function due to daily life factors (sleep, stress, etc.…) and treatments/drugs in the home setting. These technologies would enable drug developers, physiotherapists and physicians to make objective and quantitative assessments regarding the effectiveness of treatments.

Impact: Once we understand the effects of stressors and treatments on RA flare ups and hand function, clinicians will be able to more closely target treatments and plan daily routines that minimize pain and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

We are seeking a PhD candidate for a 4-year contract to develop and apply computational models and video-based tools to capture hand movement and function with deployment in the home environment as the target. Furthermore, you will apply these tools to help us investigate the potential causes and timings of flare ups during patients’ daily lives. You will work primarily with video data, musculoskeletal models, and pose estimation algorithms. The models and algorithms you develop will be part of open source and data repositories affiliated with the broader research program and TU Delft’s commitment to Open Science.

You will be an integral part of the ‘Care is coming home!’ program: a 5-year project executed 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 rehabilitation centre (Daan Theeuwes Centrum) and  5 patient organisations (Hersenletsel.nl, Hersenstichting, Parkinson Vereniging, ParkinsonNL, ReumaNederland). In total the program will encompass 9 PhDs and 5 postdocs to address the issue of translating health care to the home environment.

This PhD position is hosted by the Biomechanical Engineering Department at TU Delft where you will be a part of both the Computational Biomechanics (Seth) and Neuromuscular Control (Mugge) Labs.

In addition to research, there are many opportunities to develop your academic career by mentoring and teaching BSc/MSc students, presenting at international conferences, and participating in workshops/training and exchange programs abroad. 

Job requirements

You should have:

• MSc in engineering or similar discipline by the start date of the position

• Experience with mechanical modeling and simulation

• Experience in computer programming/scripting (e.g., C++, Python, Matlab, etc.)

• Experience collecting human experimental data (movement, video, or similar)

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English

• The following aspects will help you stand out:

• Thriving in multidisciplinary environments

• Curiosity-driven and self-motivated working attitude

• Knowledge of biomechanical modeling, anatomy, vision-based motion capture, machine learning, control systems

Keep in mind that this describes the background we imagine would best fit the role. If you do not meet all the requirements, but believe that you are up for the task, we absolutely want to hear your motivation and how you would fit! The PhD process is a learning experience, so let us know what you want to learn and develop as a PhD candidate.

You can view the full job vacancy here.

Application deadline: 21 October 2026