Opportunities

Research Assistant/ Associate in Haptics and Medical Simulation

Salary:

Research Assistant:   £34,397 - £37,486 per annum

Research Associate:   £37,486 - £39,135 per annum

(Level of appointment will be dependent on qualifications and experience)

Campus: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital within the Imperial College Centre for Engagement and Simulation Science.

Applications are invited for a Researcher in Haptics and Medical Simulation position in the Simulation and Modelling in Medicine and Surgery research group within the Division of Surgery. The Division is a world leader in simulation research with strong links to engineering, computing and related disciplines within and outside Imperial.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a multidisciplinary team of researchers using Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and haptics to develop simulator prototypes and simulation tools for training, assessment and patient engagement (www.imperial.ac.uk/simms). Led by Professor Fernando Bello, the team consists of computer scientists, clinicians, engineers, prosthetics experts, and educationalists.

Funded by the Imperial Health Charity (www.imperialcharity.org.uk), the project aims to develop and validate a haptics and VR simulation platform for training and assessing the core skills necessary to safely and adequately conduct Vaginal Examinations (VEs) of pregnant women. It will consist of three phases: Analysis and Design, Simulation Platform Development, and Validation. A detailed task analysis of VE on a modified benchtop model and physical measurements of forces and trajectories of the examining fingers will advance our understanding of VE, the learning process, and inform simulator platform design. Development will include a modified haptic interface set up and a virtual pelvic anatomy simulation environment supporting the VE. Validation consisting of small pilot studies, questionnaires and interviews will be iterative throughout the project to inform development and refinement. A more formal and larger study looking into training and assessment effectiveness will be conducted towards the end of the project.

The post requires design, engineering and programming abilities, as well as good communication and interpersonal skills. The ideal candidate will be educated to postgraduate degree level (MSc for appointment as Research Assistant or Ph.D. for Research Associate) in a relevant scientific or engineering discipline (e.g. Mechanical/Electronic Engineering, Mechatronics/Robotics, Computing/Computer Science), have practical experience in the design and construction of haptics and/or robotics/mechatronics systems, good programming skills (C/C++/C#) and a solid foundation in maths and physics.

Further Information

The post is full time for a fixed term of 18 months in the first instance and based at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital within the Imperial College Centre for Engagement and Simulation Science.

Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Professor Fernando Bello (F.Bello@imperial.ac.uk).

For technical issues when applying online please email recruitment@imperial.ac.uk

Imperial Expectations guide the behaviour of all our staff.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity, we are also an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident Employer and are working in partnership with GIRES to promote respect for trans people.

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation

To apply, visit www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs and search by the job reference MED01116. The closing date is 11 April 2019.