EPSRC PhD Studentship in: Data Fusion and Analytics for Proactive Network Management

Start Date: 25^th September 2023 (contract duration 4 years)

The UK’s clean water pipe network is losing water at an alarming rate of 1161 million m³/year, or over 20% of the treated water put into supply. In response to this Northumbrian Water are developing the National Leakage Research and Test Centre (https://waterinnovation.challenges.org/winners/nlrtc/) while the University of Sheffield have already set up the Integrated Civil and Infrastructure Research Centre (https://icair.ac.uk/). These new bespoke facilities will be open to the student to detect, locate and to characterise leakage and onset of damage in clean water networks by using miniature robots and advances sensors. The student will develop new data fusion methods to analyse the collected data to estimate independently the accuracy and efficiency of a range sensing technologies in realistic clean water pipe networks. They will develop and apply autonomous robotics and machine learning algorithms that can work with minimum human intervention. These experiments will thoroughly evaluate the capabilities of the emerging technologies to detect structural faults and leaks that are currently hidden. Ultimately, the research will help enable the sustainable delivery of safe clean drinking water through ageing infrastructure.

The research programme to be completed in this project will be undertaken as part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Infrastructure and Resilience (CDT WIRe). CDT WIRe is a collaboration between the three leading UK Universities in water resilient infrastructure. Students will benefit from a bespoke training scheme delivered by world leading experts from academia and industry, access to world leading experimental and computational facilities as well as close and regular contact with industry and end user partners.  CDT WIRe is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive community, and offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies. For further information on the CDT WIRe scheme visit the web site at:  https://cdtwire.com/

The project will be supervised by Professors Kirill Horoshenkov and Joby Boxall in collaboration with partners from Northumbrian Water and other key water utilities in the UK and overseas.  There will be generous opportunities to travel to visit our academic and industry partners in the UK and overseas.

Eligibility Criteria

This studentship is supported by EPSRC WIRe CDT and the University of Sheffield.

Eligibly criteria are based on residence; further information can be found at:

https://www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/developing-people-and-skills/esrc/funding-for-postgraduate-training-and-development/eligibility-for-studentship-funding/

International applications to this CDT are subject to a quota; hence overseas applicants may not receive feedback until sufficient applications have been processed. 

The selection criteria for the position are;

• A good honours degree (or equivalent experience) in Engineering, Physical Science, Mathematics, Computer Science or a related subject.
• Enthusiasm for research
• Good level of written and oral communication skills, as appropriate for disseminating research and communicating with project partners.
• Willingness to collaborate with other researchers, industry and end-users.
• Aptitude for research in a relevant area (e.g. experimental design, sensing and monitoring systems, data/time series analysis, robotics, water resources) as evidenced by previous experience.

How to apply

Interested candidates should email a covering letter and their Curriculum

Vitae to Lindsay Hopcroft (l.hopcroft@sheffield.ac.uk)

For information and informal enquiries please contact: Professor Kirill Horoshenkov, k.horoshenkov@sheffield.ac.uk

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