PhD Student in Generative Acoustics in Surgery / PhD Student in Generative Acoustics in Surgery

Job Opportunity at the University of Zurich

The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a variety of attractive positions across diverse subject areas and professional fields. With around 10,000 employees and 12 professional apprenticeship streams, the university provides an inspiring working environment focused on cutting-edge research and top-class education. Join us and put your talents and skills to work at UZH!

Your Responsibilities

The PhD student's primary responsibility is to conduct original research at the intersection of signal processing, machine learning, and medical imaging, with direct applications to orthopedic surgery. The student will concentrate on developing generative audio models to create a realistic, action-conditioned soundscape for surgical procedures while enhancing the multimodality of current surgical simulations. The role entails:

• Data collection through ex-vivo experiments.
• Development of novel scientific methods and integration into a functional prototype.
• Validation through user studies.

The work is expected to yield methodological contributions documented through publications in leading journals and conferences such as MICCAI, IPCAI, and Medical Image Analysis. In the initial phase, the candidate will review the state-of-the-art and construct a structured multi-year research plan in collaboration with their supervisor. The PhD position is part of the graduate school at the University of Zurich, which includes serving as a teaching assistant for 1-2 courses per year.

The PhD project will specifically involve:

• Advancing the state-of-the-art in generative models for creating action-conditioned realistic soundscapes for next-generation multimodal surgical simulations.
• Developing an advanced data capture setup and acquiring datasets from realistic ex-vivo experiments at OR-X.
• Benchmarking existing generative approaches for realistic soundscapes relevant to surgical tool-tissue interaction.
• Conducting validation and user studies to evaluate the effectiveness of developed methods.
• Collaborating with surgeons and engineers to ensure translational relevance.
• Disseminating results through scientific publications, patents, and prototype demonstrations.

Your Profile

The ideal candidate holds an excellent MSc degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science, with a strong background in signal processing, machine learning, computer vision, and image processing, preferably within the context of computer-assisted surgery. You bring excellent programming skills, hands-on experience with hardware (e.g., audio capture devices, cameras, tracking systems, imaging devices), and proficiency with software frameworks (OpenCV, Open3D, ROS2, AI/ML libraries).

We are looking for candidates who demonstrate:

• A solid understanding of generative models and proven experience with multimodal data (images, 3D data, natural language, audio).
• Familiarity with AI/ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and signal processing libraries (e.g., SciPy, librosa).
• Practical experience in computer vision and/or machine listening, with proficiency in relevant libraries (e.g., OpenCV, Open3D, librosa, PyAudio).
• Excellent communication skills in English (German is an asset), along with initiative, problem-solving abilities, and a spirit of teamwork.

Apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.

Contact Information

For inquiries, please contact:

Joelle Kunz
Assistant
+41 44 510 73 66
Joinrocs@balgrist.ch