Postdoctoral Research Associate - Generative AI Fracture Modeling and Digital Twins

The organization is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer (AA/EOE/M/F/Disability/VETS/Drug-Free Workplace).

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Generative AI for Fracture Modeling and Digital Twins

Position Number: 26-045

College or Other: BATTEN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

Department: ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING

FT/PT Status:
Full Time

The Medical Simulation and Computer-Assisted Intervention Laboratory at Old Dominion University invites applications for afull-time Postdoctoral Research Associate to develop next-generationgenerativeAI models for anatomically accurate bone fracture simulation as part of a multidisciplinary translational research program involving Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Sonogen Medical. The project is supported through a Virginia Catalyst collaborative award focused on AI-enabled orthopedic technologies and digital twin development.

The successful candidate will lead the development of fracture-aware generative anatomical models capable of producing high-fidelity 3D representations of healthy and fractured skeletal anatomy. These models will support AI algorithm development, digital twins, biomechanical simulation, medical device validation, and future clinical translation.

• Generative AI
• Medical image analysis
• Biomechanical simulation
• Digital twins
• Orthopedic engineering
• Medical device innovation

The postdoctoral fellow will execute a one-year research program consisting of four major phases.

• Months 1–3:
  Foundation and Baseline Models
  • Define target anatomical representations
  • Assemble and curate CT/MRI/X-ray datasets
  • Build computational infrastructure
  • Develop baseline diffusion and/or GAN-based anatomical generation pipelines
• Months 4–6:
  Fracture-Aware Generation
  • Introduce fracture-conditioned generation
  • Improve anatomical realism
  • Incorporate biomechanical and clinical constraints
• Months 7–9:
  High-Resolution Modeling and Validation
  • Produce publication-quality anatomical models
  • Integrate finite element and biomechanical plausibility
  • Validate models for engineering and clinical applications
  • Prepare conference and journal publications
• Months 10–12:
  Generalization and Software Release
  • Improve robustness and diversity
  • Package reusable software
  • Finalize curated datasets
  • Prepare future NIH, NSF, and DoD proposals

These activities align with the ODU milestones in the Virginia Catalyst project, including foundationgenerativemodels, fracture-aware generation, high-resolution validation, and refinement/generalization.

The successful candidate will have opportunities to

• Publish in leading AI and biomedical engineering journals
• Present research at premier international conferences
• Collaborate with clinicians, orthopedic surgeons, and AI researchers across multiple institutions
• Participate in development of next-generation AI-enabled medical devices

• Full-time, anticipated to last 12-month r enewable subject to funding availability
• Start date:
  
  Immediately available (preferred)

• Literature review, including finding relevant open-source software
• Designing architecture of image analysis system
• Implementing and training image analysis system
• Validation of system.
• Publishing on innovations.

• Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Medical Imaging, Applied Mathematics, or related discipline

Required

• Strong programming skills in Python
• Experience with PyTorch or Tensor Flow
• Experience with deep learning and generative AI

Preferred

Experience in one or more of:

• GANs
• Medical image registration
• Mesh processing
• Point clouds
• Biomechanics
• Digital twins
• Scientific computing (CUDA desirable)

Candidates with publications at MICCAI, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, AAAI, RSNA, or similar venues are especially encouraged to apply.

Excellent oral and written communication.