PhD in Circular Product Design for High-Tech Manufacturing

Are you interested in circular product design and multi-criteria decision support for high tech products? Do you want to develop frameworks and tools that help engineers generate and evaluate circular design alternatives from the earliest design stages? Join our exciting STRIDE project at TU/e, in collaboration with industry leaders ASML, Neways, Prodrive, KMWE, and Eriks, where you can make a significant impact in practice and contribute to the transition toward circular high-tech manufacturing.

Job Description

We are seeking a highly motivated research assistant to develop innovative frameworks and decision support tools for circular product design and multi criteria evaluation of circular design alternatives, culminating in a PhD. This position is part of the STRIDE project (Strategic Design for Circular High Tech Manufacturing), which aims to embed circularity in both product design and supply chain design for high tech systems.

STRIDE consists of three interconnected work packages: circular product design and multi criteria evaluation (WP1, this position), circular supply chain network design (WP2), and data driven simulation of present and future designs (WP3). Together, these work packages enable integrated decision making for circular high-tech manufacturing.

For the position in WP1, the candidate will focus on generating early-stage circular design alternatives for high tech products, developing multi-criteria evaluation methods across financial, environmental, and energy dimensions, and contributing to an integrated design support environment that connects product design choices with supply chain feasibility through close collaboration with WP2 and WP3.

• Create novel methods and frameworks for generating circular product design alternatives and for multi-criteria evaluation of circular designs, including interactive decision support and visualization tools that enable stakeholders to jointly assess tradeoffs and design strategies across circularity, environmental, energy, and cost dimensions.
• Collaborate with Industry Leaders: Work closely with ASML, Neways, Prodrive, KMWE, and Eriks to understand their circular product design challenges, co develop design generation and evaluation methods, and validate your approaches using real high tech product cases and industrial data.
• Design for Collaboration: Develop shared design and evaluation frameworks and interactive decision support environments that enable engineering and supply chain stakeholders to collaboratively explore circular design alternatives, compare reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling options, and assess their impacts across multiple performance dimensions.
• Engage with the Research Community: Collaborate with university colleagues and the international research community, discussing your findings and insights on the (inter)national stage.
• Present Your Work: Report your developments at prestigious international conferences, in leading journals, and at industry events.
• Achieve Academic Excellence: Contribute to the field through your research and ultimately write a PhD thesis.