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Department: College of Engineering and Computing

Web Announcement:

George Mason University
Volgenau School of Engineering, Bioengineering
Postdoctoral Research Fellows

The George Mason University Department of Bioengineering, within the Volgenau School of Engineering (VSE), is seeking highly motivated candidates for multiple Postdoctoral Research Fellow positions to work on interdisciplinary research spanning medical imaging, biomechanics, sensorimotor control, and rehabilitation engineering.

The interdisciplinary research team is based at the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain Body Interactions (CASBBI). The research group has multiple ongoing collaborations in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, including national laboratories and hospitals, and provides a stimulating environment of interdisciplinary research. The laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art instruments for imaging, functional assessment, neuroscience and human movement research, and our research is funded by multiple federal agencies.

George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason's academic and culturally inclusive environment.

About the Position:

The Department of Bioengineering is looking for candidates who possess strong technical skills, values entrepreneurship, is strongly motivated, and has a passion for working on the next generation prosthetic technology, and delivering immediate impact to patients in need. At the core we are looking for a tinkerer, someone who is passionate about coding and building electronics components and lives to solve technical challenges. Candidates who can thrive in a highly collaborative interdisciplinary environment and can take leadership roles in developing their own independent research initiatives are highly desired.

Responsibilities:

The successful scholars are expected to take a leadership role in ongoing research projects, and will also be encouraged to develop personal research aligned with the broad goals of our laboratories and collaborators. We are seeking candidates for multiple projects. One project involves working on a U.S. Department of Defense funded position for the development of custom ultrasound sensors and instrumentation and their application to control external devices such as prosthetic hands and exoskeletons.

The chosen candidate will be closely involved in the clinical evaluation of the aforementioned projects. A second project involves working with an interdisciplinary team of clinical collaborators to understand the role of asymptomatic carotid disease in contributing to deficitis in cognitive and mobility function. As part of the postdoctoral experience, applicants will receive mentoring for developing research proposals, and participation in career development activities will be strongly encouraged.

The successful candidate will have excellent opportunities for professional growth. Specifically, candidates will have a chance to:

Work on Interdisciplinary Projects

• Collaborate closely with engineers, scientists and clinicians from many different disciplines;
• Develop existing technical skills as well as acquire new disciplinary skills.
  
  

Work Closely with Cutting Edge Technology

• Work on technologies such as multi-articulated prosthetic hands, flexible electronics, and small form factor/low energy components, as well as state of the art machine learning and data science applications.
  
  

Product Launch

• Opportunities to be involved with every aspect of product development cycle, from acquiring user needs to building early prototypes to launching a product and continual support of the product after launch;
• Opportunities to be involved in a new start up venture.
  
  

Required Qualifications:

• Applicants must have received a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science or equivalent degree by the start date of the position;
• Strong aptitude for math and physics;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to communicate with people outside of the field.

Preferred Qualifications:

• At least 5 years of experience either in embedded system and instrumentation design and testing, or in medical image analysis and data science;
• Experience with biomedical imaging and instrumentation, specifically ultrasound;
• Project management experience;
• Experience with signal and image processing;
• An entrepreneurial spirit and unrelenting intellectual curiosity.
  
  

About the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain Body Interactions

CASBBI brings together scientists, engineers, health care professionals, and community stakeholders to pursue transdisciplinary fundamental research and to create translational innovations aimed at challenges related to disability. CASBBI consists of 18 core faculty and 8 affiliate faculty spanning a number of departments at Mason. Ongoing projects at CASBBI bridge multiple disciplinary areas including bioengineering, neuroscience, psychology and rehabilitation through extensive collaborations. Our laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art instruments and research platforms for imaging (ultrasound, MRI, near infrared spectroscopy), neuroscience (multichannel EEG, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, transcranial Doppler), as well as clinical research facilities for cardiovascular, neurosurgery and rehabilitation research applications through our clinical partners.

CASBBI faculty conduct research funded by a number of federal agencies, including the NIH, NSF, DoD and the VA, with over $5 million/year in research expenditures. CASBBI faculty have active collaborations with healthcare institutions including INOVA, Children's National Medical Center, National Rehabilitation Hospital, government agencies such as the FDA, as well as federal laboratories such as the Naval Research Laboratory, NIH Clinical Center, and a number of academic medical centers in the National Capital Region. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to be immersed in this highly interdisciplinary environment.

The Biomedical Imaging Lab within CASBBI conducts translational research using imaging to investigate pathophysiology and function. One overarching focus of our research is the investigation of brain-body interactions through imaging. In particular, we are studying the interactions between the central and peripheral nervous system and the musculoskeletal system in a number of clinical conditions of major public health significance, such as chronic pain, stroke, spinal cord injury, and amputation. The interdisciplinary group conducts pre-clinical research for developing new technology as well as translational research on human subjects. The group uses state-of-the-art ultrasound and laser instrumentation for developing new ultrasound, optical, and hybrid imaging techniques. Our research has potential applications in noninvasive diagnosis, screening, and treatment monitoring for a number of diseases, as well as for understanding underlying mechanisms of disease.

Mason Engineering: The Future of Engineering is Here

The Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University is a fast-growing force for innovation in research and education. The school boasts more than 8,600 students in 37 undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degree programs, including several first-in-the-nation offerings. Of the 250 full-time faculty who comprise the School, 90 are tenured, 50 are tenure-track, 85 are instructional faculty, and 25 are research faculty. As part of a nationally ranked research university, its research teams expended more than $60 million in sponsored research awards last year and has projects with over $400 million in current and anticipated awards. Located in the heart of Northern Virginia's technology corridor, Mason Engineering stands out for its research in many leading areas including artificial intelligence, data analytics engineering, cybersecurity engineering, biomedical imaging and devices, community-based healthcare, autonomous systems, 5G communications, systems architectures, computational biomedicine, advanced materials and manufacturing, sustainable infrastructure, and more. The School encourages multidisciplinary research and provides faculty with opportunities to work with other disciplines.

George Mason University is the largest public research university in Virginia, with an enrollment of over 38,000 students studying in over 200 degree programs. Mason is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with national distinction in a range of academic fields. It was classified as an R1 research institution in 2016 by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutes of Higher Education. Mason is located in the City of Fairfax in Northern Virginia at the doorstep of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, with unmatched geographical access to a number of federal agencies and national laboratories. Northern Virginia is also home to one of the largest concentrations of high-tech firms in the nation, providing excellent opportunities for interaction with industry. Fairfax is consistently rated as being among the best places to live in the country and has an outstanding local public school system.

In conjunction with Amazon's decision to establish a second headquarters in Northern Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia announced a multi-year plan to invest in the growth of degree programs in computing, and George Mason University has committed to accelerate its plans to grow its capacity in computing and high-tech fields. Among the exciting initiatives being undertaken by the university are the launch of the Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDEA), a university think tank and incubator to serve the digital economy, and the expansion of its Arlington Campus with a planned 400,000 square foot Digital InnovAtion Building. These initiatives reflect hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment by Mason that will rapidly elevate Mason's already leading national position in computing and related areas. We also expect multiple joint faculty positions funded by Virginia's Tech Talent Investment Program.

Salary: Commensurate with education and experience.

Location: Fairfax, VA

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