PhD position for NWO project ECHoFAIR: empowering collaborative human-AI teaming for failure analysis and intelligent risk assessment
Are you passionate about improving the safety, reliability, and trustworthiness of complex high-tech systems, and their design and development processes?
We offer a challenging PhD position in the Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design group (SEMD) of the department of Design, Production and Management.
Are you passionate about improving the design and development of complex high-tech systems through intelligent tools and collaboration? We offer a challenging PhD position in the Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design (SEMD) group at the Department of Design, Production and Management.
Failure Analysis and Risk Assessment (FARA) play a critical role in ensuring the reliability, safety, and performance of complex systems. However, current industrial practices, such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), are time-consuming, rely heavily on scarce expert knowledge, and struggle to cope with uncertainty, large data volumes, and increasing system complexity.
At the same time, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) offer opportunities to support engineers in failure analysis, risk assessment and decision-making. Yet, these technologies are not yet sufficiently reliable, integrated, or tailored for safety-critical engineering applications.
This project aims to bridge the gap between traditional engineering practices and AI-driven methods by developing human-AI collaborative approaches for failure analysis and risk assessment.
You will investigate current FARA practices at leading high-tech companies and identify limitations in existing workflows, tools, and knowledge management. Building on this, you will contribute to the design of an integrated, AI-supported FARA process and toolchain, enabling more efficient, consistent, and scalable risk analysis across system lifecycles.
Your research will focus on enabling effective collaboration between human experts and AI systems. This includes developing methods to capture and structure tacit engineering knowledge, designing explainable AI support for risk assessment, and improving how engineers interact with intelligent tools during analysis and decision-making.
Ultimately, you will contribute to the development of a collaborative platform and methodology that combines human expertise with AI capabilities to:
- Improve the identification and understanding of failures and risks
- Enhance communication and collaboration across multidisciplinary teams
- Enable reuse of knowledge across projects and organizations
- Reduce time and effort in risk analysis while improving quality and robustness.
You will work closely with industrial partners in the Dutch high-tech sector and collaborate with researchers in systems engineering, AI, and data science. The position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to next-generation engineering practices at the intersection of Systems Engineering and Artificial Intelligence.
Information and application
Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before 30 June 2026 and include:
- A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest, qualifications, motivations to apply for this position.
- A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
- An IELTS-test, Internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT), or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE). Applicants with a non-Dutch qualification and who have not had secondary and tertiary education in English can only be admitted with an IELTS-test showing a total band score of at least 6.5, internet. TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT) showing a score of at least 90, or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE).
For more information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact Maarten Bonnema (g.m.bonnema@utwente.nl), Saber Darmoul (s.darmoul@utwente.nl) or Jakup Ratkoceri (j.ratkoceri@utwente.nl)
About the department
At SEMD) we investigate designing in the field of multidisciplinary systems and research the role of Systems Engineering (SE) as an integrative discipline next to the traditional engineering fields. We apply systems thinking and system design tools in a systematic way, to facilitate multidisciplinary development projects.
We are a diverse and international team that values collaboration and initiative. We support and challenge each other to achieve high quality research output and we love to teach at bachelor, master, post-master levels and in industry.
About the organisation
At the Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET), we work on engineering for impact: developing smart, sustainable, human-centred and technological solutions for societal challenges. We connect fundamental education, research and practice across five core domains: Asset & Maintenance engineering, Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, Personalised Health Technology, Resilience Engineering, and Sustainable Production, Energy and Resources.
We work on education and research in mechanical engineering, civil engineering and industrial design engineering. Together, we learn by making, creating, and innovating, addressing challenges in a solution-oriented way. Quality, connection and inclusivity are the foundation of our culture.
In our open community, students, researchers and staff collaborate with industrial and societal partners. This enables us to develop insights, applications and solutions that add value to society.
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