Individual PhD Project Information:
Host institution: KU Leuven, Belgium
Supervisory team: Prof. Nele Famaey (PhD supervisor, KU Leuven), Dr Mathias Peirlinck (PhD co-supervisor, TUDelft), Prof. Patrick Segers (PhD co-supervisor, UGent), Prof. Christian Gasser (secondment host, Vascops).
Enrolment in Doctoral School: Enrolled in the Arenberg Doctoral School for Science, Engineering & Technology (KU Leuven) and the Graduate School of the TU Delft Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (TUDelft).
PhD project description:
This PhD project will focus on defining a prospective patient-specific failure criterion for ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms, based on non-invasive patient measurements and retrospective data of patients. The objectives of the project are: 1) Create a framework to estimate a patient-specific probabilistic risk of rupture based on biomechanical criteria to improve the outcome of clinical decision-making; 2) Perform uncertainty quantification and uncertainty propagation activities for the computational framework; 3) Define a surgical decision-making framework.
A successful project will improve failure criterion for ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms correlating to patient-specific risk factors replacing the current generic maximum diameter criterion approach, will provide a novel hybrid modelling approach for the computational workflow, improve our understanding of the impact of uncertainty from patient-specific measurements on the computational framework and generate curated dataset of mechanical properties of the aorta in an elderly patient population.
Planned secondments:
- TU Delft: Focused on gaining knowledge on data-driven modelling techniques for integration into their framework.
- Vascops: It will provide hands-on experience for the DC on an already commercially available digital interdisciplinary system combining medical image processing with biomechanical analysis for abdominal aneurysms.