PhD position on the development of new wearable sensors for plants to monitor real-time leaf transpiration

The highly interdisciplinary project will be executed in close collaboration between the department of materials engineering, the department of bioscience engineering and the department of electrical engineering. The student can thus benefit from the complementary expertise of the different supervisors. The current position exploits the capabilities and experimental facilities of Prof. Bloemen (additive manufacturing via melt electrowriting) and Prof. Mignon (polymer science) and bridges to the field of sensors (Prof. Taurino’s core expertise) for plant diagnostics (Prof. Van de Poel).
KU Leuven, established in 1425, ranks number 42 on the Times Higher Education list. Moreover, according to the Reuters ranking, it is the seventh most innovative university worldwide (number one in Europe, after six American universities).

Project

Sensor development for health has made great progress over the years, especially with respect to wearable electronics that measure in real-time patients’ physiological processes. However, this technology has not yet been applied to other life forms such as plants. With the era of smart farming at our doorstep to make crop production more sustainable, we want to develop a novel real-time wearable sensor that is able to measure leaf transpiration from different crops. We will deploy the latest technologies in electrowriting and microfabrication technology, to develop new wearable and stretchable sensors tuned to measure humidity changes in the boundary layer of a leaf. This new sensor will enable us to quantify leaf transpiration in real time and assess the plant’s physiological behavior, detect abnormal transpiration patters to allow early stress detection. This novel electronic plant sensor could be an important addition to plant diagnostics field, and finds its implementation in the field of smart farming.

More specifically the project aims to:

• use the unconventional melt electrowriting (MEW) technology to create a MEW substrate as part of the 
• optimize polymers for MEW with the right hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity
• unravel the methods that can be used to integrate humidity-sensitive materials on the MEW substrate
• test the functionality of the developed wearable sensor in agricultural relevant crops under normal and stressed conditions

Profile

Our team is recruiting two highly motivated PhD candidates, who have a strong interest in sensor development and applied plant sciences. We are looking for PhD students with the following requirements.

• You hold a master’s degree in engineering, bioscience engineering or equivalent and graduated with distinction.
• You are a team-player with a critical mind, work accurately and have a profound interest in plant physiology, polymer science, additive manufacturing or microfabrication. 
• You have good interpersonal skills and motivation to work in a multidisciplinary research team
• You are able to work independently, pay attention to experimental accuracy and precision with new concepts in a creative and critical way
• You have good communication skills to report results (written and oral)
• You are very fluent in English, both spoken and written

Previous experience as a research assistant or industrial expertise in a specific domain of the position is a plus

You are willing to write a PhD fellowship proposal for national funding

We are looking for enthusiastic PhD candidates who shows a proactive attitude towards research in developing original sensing concepts.

Offer

We offer a full-time position for 1 year (prolonged to four years upon positive evaluation). Our young and dynamic team will support you to successfully obtain a PhD degree via a proper scientific training at a top-ranked university. You will have an advanced training in material sciences, electrical engineering, sensor development and applications in agriculture. You will participate in a larger multidisciplinary project, and receive supervision of multiple PIs. You will have opportunities to participate at national and international meetings/conferences, and establish your own network. You are also strongly encouraged to follow extra-curricular courses provided by the Arenberg Doctoral School in support of your broader (non-)academic training.
info about a PhD at the KU Leuven

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. ing. Veerle Bloemen, tel.: +32 16 30 10 95, mail: veerle.bloemen@kuleuven.be or Prof. dr. Irene Taurino, tel.: +32 16 32 01 66, mail: irene.taurino@kuleuven.be.

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