PhD on Data Sensemaking Tools for Home-based Cardiac Care (TU/e, Industrial Design)

Introduction

The PhD position is part of the interdisciplinary research project CardiacCare@Home, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO, Perspectief programme). The project aims to improve care for heart failure patients by relocating monitoring and rehabilitation to their home environment. Through co-creation involving patients, healthcare professionals, and industry partners, CardiacCare@Home develops innovative solutions integrating wearable data, biomarkers, and tele-rehabilitation. This includes continuous monitoring of physical signals using multiple wearable devices from industrial patterns, combined with machine learning algorithms to predict deterioration. However, the resulting data streams overwhelm clinicians who struggle to extract meaningful insights. This is a key problem to address with concrete implications on how remote patient monitoring (RPM) will be accepted and adopted by patients and healthcare professionals alike.

Your research will focus on bridging the critical gap by designing and developing data sensemaking tools that transform complex physiological and behavioral data into actionable insights for diverse stakeholders. The main goal is to design data sensemaking tools and user-centered human-AI interfaces that facilitate informed healthcare decisions for all involved stakeholders. Thereby, we want to bridge technological innovations (WP1), tele-rehabilitation strategies (WP2), and data platform integration (WP3). The project offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research at the intersection of Interaction Design (IxD), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the potential to create transformative societal impact by revolutionizing remote patient monitoring and establishing new paradigms for home-based healthcare delivery.

Job Description

As a PhD candidate, your tasks will include:

• Designing and developing a data sensemaking tool providing clear and actionable insights into patient behaviors and physiological signals.
• Creating human-AI collaborative interfaces and visualizations to effectively communicate insights from machine learning models based on wearable and biomarker data.
• Collaborating closely with consortium partners to identify stakeholder needs and align these across the different work packages.
• Developing and prototyping novel interaction techniques that translate AI capabilities into meaningful, accessible, and engaging collaborative experiences for healthcare stakeholders
• Integrating developed solutions into an eHealth platform, ensuring usability for clinicians, physiotherapists, and patients.
• Conducting user studies and iterative design processes to validate and refine Human-AI interaction concepts in real healthcare settings.

The PhD will be under the supervision by Prof. Dr. Hareld Kemps, Dr. Janet Huang, and Dr. Mathias Funk, collaborating closely with clinical and industrial partners across the Netherlands.

Prospective starting date: September 2025.

Job Requirements

We are recruiting a PhD candidate with a strong background in interaction/industrial design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and prototyping, combined with expertise in AI, data science, and healthcare informatics. If you have a passion for blending creativity, technology, and research to create impactful, user-friendly AI systems that can transform healthcare delivery, this PhD offers an excellent opportunity to explore, innovate, and make a meaningful difference in patients' lives. We seek strong communicators and team players who love to actively engage researchers, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders in this project context.

We seek candidates with: 

• A Master's degree in Industrial Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, Data Science, Biomedical Engineering, or related fields.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively with diverse groups (patients, medical professionals, developers).
• Experience or interest in:
  • Data-driven visualization and human-AI interfaces
  • Co-design and user-centered research methods
  • Health informatics and telemedicine
  • Ethical technology development and privacy considerations
• A proactive and collaborative attitude, and the capacity to work in an interdisciplinary, real-world context.
• Fluency in English; Dutch language skills are desirable but not mandatory.

Conditions of Employment

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you: 
• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate assessment after nine months. You will spend a minimum of 10% of your four-year employment on teaching tasks, with a maximum of 15% per year of your employment. 
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (min. € 2,901 max. € 3,707).  
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%. 
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process. 
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.  
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs. 
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates. 

Information

Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact the hiring manager Prof. Dr. Hareld Kemps (h.m.c.kemps@tue.nl).

Visit our website for more information about the application process or the conditions of employment. You can also contact HR Services Industrial Design (hrservices.id@tue.nl).  

Are you inspired and would like to know more about working at TU/e? Please visit our career page.

Application

We invite you to submit a complete application by using the apply button. The application should include (in English) a:

• Cover letter in which you describe your motivation and qualifications for the position.
• Curriculum vitae, including a list of your publications and the contact information of three references.
• A portfolio (mandatory for candidates with a design or HCI background).
• Reference letters, if available.

Please note that a maximum of 5 documents of 2 MB each can be uploaded via the apply now button. If you have more than 5 documents you will have to combine them.

Applications per e-mail are not accepted.

We look forward to receiving your application and will screen it as soon as possible. The vacancy will remain open until the position is filled.