Product Development

As products become increasingly complex and development cycles accelerate, there is a growing need for approaches that combine creativity with analytical rigor, and innovation with quality assurance. Within the division, we study how product development can be carried out more effectively and efficiently, using methods that reduce risk, cost, and lead time while maintaining or improving product quality.

A central part of our research focuses on how early design decisions influence the final performance, quality, and sustainability of a product. We develop methods to manage uncertainty and variation, for example related to manufacturing tolerances, assembly, material behavior, and usage conditions. Through model-based approaches, simulation, and data-driven methods, we enable better decision-making and shorter lead times from concept to finished product.

We also work on methods for systematic and user-centered innovation, including how teams and organizations can structure development work, balance requirements, cost, and performance, and integrate new technologies in a controlled manner. Our research often combines theory with industrial case studies, ensuring relevance for both academia and industry.

For PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, we offer a research environment with strong industrial collaboration and high scientific ambition. Our work often results in both scientific contributions and practical methods, tools, and workflows that can be implemented in industry. We collaborate widely, both within Chalmers and internationally, and conduct projects together with companies and funding bodies. Our ambition is to contribute to the future of product development – faster, more robust, and more sustainable.

All open positions are announced here. You are also welcome to contact the respective research group leader if your profile matches the group and you are interested in pursuing doctoral studies with us.

Research Groups

Systems Engineering Design

This group studies how complex products and systems can be developed and integrated in a more structured and value-driven way – from early needs and requirements to design decisions, architecture, and verification. The group combines systems engineering with engineering design and investigates, among other things, how digitalization and sustainability influence product development capabilities and decision-making in industry. Research is often conducted in close collaboration with the manufacturing and transport sectors, using methods that link stakeholder value and expectations to technical requirements and design choices.

Geometry Assurance & Robust Design

In this group, research is focused on ensuring geometric quality and functionality throughout the entire realization process – from concept and design to production and in-factory follow-up. Core competencies include variation and tolerance simulation, robust fixturing, tolerance optimization, and digital twins for optimizing geometric quality. Within variation simulation, the group has a particular focus on non-rigid simulation methods, where material properties and springback effects are taken into account.

Machine Elements

This group conducts research on machine elements with a particular focus on machinery and systems for crushing, screening, and processing of rock materials in the mining, mineral, and aggregates industries. The group is internationally recognized for modeling performance and wear in, for example, cone crushers and screens, as well as for optimization of crushing and processing plants. The research combines fundamental understanding of material and machine behavior with data-driven models and industrial case studies in close collaboration with industry partners.

Infrastructure

The division has access to tools and environments for model-based development and simulation, including CAD/CAE, variation analysis, optimization, and robust design.

Chalmers Rock Processing Lab provides facilities for comminution of ore into different shapes and particle sizes, as well as opportunities to study energy consumption in the crushing process.