PhD Studentship : Optimal Sensor Placement for Environmental Analysis, NERC GW4+ DTP PhD Studentship for September 2025 Entry

About the Partnership

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP).  The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/

Project details

For information relating to the research project please contact the lead Supervisor via D.J.Walker2@exeter.ac.uk

Project Aims and Methods

The question of where to place environmental sensors is common to all branches of environmental science, and there are well-established techniques – including those using Gaussian Processes - that are used to determine optimal placements strategies. A recent study explored the use of a relatively new technique that uses Convolutional Gaussian Neural Processes (ConvGNPs) to determine optimal locations for air temperature sensors across Antarctica (Andersson et al 2023). This technique has several advantages over alternative methodologies, including the ability to fuse multiple data streams and to easily handle missing data, and was demonstrated to out-perform a more traditional approach based on the use of Gaussian Neural Processes.  

In this project, we propose to investigate the use of  ConvGNPs for determining the optimal placement of various marine sensors, and to contrast their performance with alternative methodologies. Target applications could include determining the optimal placement of wave buoys, or the placement of new biogeochemical sensors (e.g. for measuring pCO2, which is used to determine the air-se flux of carbon dioxide). 

Training

The DTP offers funding to undertake specialist training relating to the student’s specialist area of research. 

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