Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Soft Robotics

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated Postdoctoral
Research Assistant in Soft Robotics, to work in the research group of
Professor Liang He, within the Podium Institute for Youth Sports Medicine at
the University of Oxford. The full-time post is funded by the Podium Institute
and is fixed term for 6 months. The Podium Institute sits within the Institute
of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) in the University’s Department of Engineering
Science. This is a fantastic opportunity to play a crucial role in the design
and creation of origami-inspired personal protection equipment (PPE).





The participation of young people in sports has important physical and
psychosocial health benefits, including greater self-esteem, motor skill
development, socialisation, teamwork, competition, and stress reduction.
Although it is often assumed that sports injuries are the results of
‘accidents’, they are often the result of circumstances that predictably lead
to injuries. Unlike injuries occurring in adult elite sports, the largest
proportion of injuries in young people occur at non-professional sporting
events. This might lead to decreased sport participation, lower levels of
physical activity and increased levels of obesity in adulthood, with an
increased associated all-cause morbidity.





You will be part of an interdisciplinary team of pioneering researchers, with
the primary aim to develop cutting-edge robotics and AI technologies that,
will revolutionize how we understand and respond to human behaviour in both
real-time and long-term contexts. Your responsibilities will encompass
developing new mechanism hardware, benchmarking testing setup, and
computational models to facilitate the design of novel PPE.





By being part of Professor He’s research group, you will be expected to devote
a substantial portion of your research time in the field of Youth Sports
Medicine. You will help ensure a healthy and vibrant research environment
within The Podium Institute for Sports Medicine at the University of Oxford.
This will involve leading, devising, coordinating, and supervising research
projects in this area, including the work involved in the collaborations with
project partners, guidance to researchers and students, and applying for
further funding to underpin the research.





You will hold a relevant PhD/DPhil (or be near completion) together with
relevant experience in the field of robotics, biomedical engineering,
information engineering, electrical engineering, computer science or other
field relevant to the proposed area of research. You will also possess
sufficient specialist knowledge in origami design and mechanism computation,
as well as proven programming experience in Python, MATLAB or C/C++.





Informal enquiries may be addressed to liang.he@eng.ox.ac.uk.





For more information about working at the Department, see
www.eng.ox.ac.uk/about/work-with-us/





Only online applications received before midday on **19 February 2024** can be
considered. You will be required to upload a covering letter/supporting
statement, including a brief statement of research interests (describing how
past experience and future plans fit with the advertised position), CV and the
details of two referees as part of your online application.





The Department holds an Athena Swan Bronze award, highlighting its commitment
to promoting women in Science, Engineering and Technology.