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PhD position in adaptive and collaborative weather radar networking

Opening for: PhD student

We seek a motivated PhD student to work on a 4-year NWO funded project called SMARTER (Strategic Monitoring of Atmospheric Threats using Enhanced Radar). The goal of this project is to develop a new adaptive and collaborative weather radar network for the Netherlands in which individual radars can adapt their behavior and react (in real-time) to what the other sensors in the network are seeing or doing. This is an open challenge in the current literature, that can be applied also to other scenarios of radar-based surveillance of manmade objects and not only to atmospheric phenomena. Compared to traditional radar networks in which each radar follows a fixed, predefined measurement plan, adaptive networks offer substantial advantages for high-resolution monitoring of rapidly developing localized phenomena, such as heavy rain and hail.

At TU Delft we have unique research facilities with many different types of radars including polarimetric S-band, X-band and C-band precipitation radars, vertically profiling micro-rain radars and cloud radars. But what is missing at the moment is the 'brain' that can control them, and adapt their operations and processing as a function of scientific needs and user requirements. The development of the tools and algorithms that can turn several independent radars into a truly cooperating, cognitive radar network is the focus of this PhD.

During this PhD, you will work in the Microwave Sensing Signals and Systems (MS3) research group at the Department of Microelectronics of TU Delft. This group has extensive research facilities and excellent track record on the full pipeline of microwave and radar sensing, from hardware development to signal processing and automatic object classification.

Your Main Responsibilities Will Be To:

• Develop codes, databases and strategies to adapt the configuration of radars in a network and decide the best scanning strategies as a function of the current weather situation, taking into account scientific needs and user priorities.
• Formulate mathematical models for key radar parameters, feature extraction, and target identification/tracking for atmospheric threats in heterogeneous radar networks.
• Experimentally validate methods using numerical simulations and in-situ observations.
• Collaborate with another PhD student within the same project in the Department of Geoscience & Remote Sensing (CITG Faculty) to exchange knowledge, perform joint experiments and make sure all project objectives are met.
• Participate in knowledge utilization activities and disseminationof research findings.

Relevance: the monitoring and prediction of heavy rain and hail has great scientific value and clear societal benefits. In the Netherlands alone, heavy rain and hail cause millions of damages every year. Because of global warming, the frequency and intensity of such events will gradually increase over the next decades. SMARTER will help increase our scientific knowledge of these destructive phenomena, which will lead to better damage mitigation and climate adaptation strategies.

 

Candidates are also encouraged to look at another related PhD vacancy within the same project here, in the group of Dr. Marc Schleiss at the Dept. of Geoscience and Remote Sensing (CITG Faculty).

 

Application procedure:
Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply before April 15, 2023, via the application website here and upload:

• Motivation letter + explanation for why you think you are capable of doing this research.
• Detailed CV (with the contact detail of two referees.)

A pre-employment screening can be part of the selection procedure.
You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.

Requirements

To be considered for this position you should have:

• A Master's degree in electrical/electronic engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics or other related fields.
• Knowledge and interest in radar signal processing, preferably but not necessarily on weather radar.
• Excellent knowledge in machine learning, preferably reinforcement learning techniques for management/adaptation of systems.
• Programming experience in MATLAB/Python or C/C++, preferably in relation to remote sensing applications (weather radar systems and/or processing of remote sensing data).
• A curiosity-driven mindset, the ability to learn new things and a passion for (doing) research.
• An open-minded personality for cooperation with colleagues and co-supervision of students. Willingness to help out with education related tasks (e.g., teaching assistance).
• Good English language and communication skills (written and oral) in order to closely cooperate with colleagues and students as well as write project documents.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

Contact

dr. Francesco Fioranelli

Associate Professor

Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems Group

Department of Microelectronics

Additional information

In The Netherlands, almost all PhD positions are linked to funded research projects. This has several implications:

• PhD students are employed: they receive a salary rather than a grant. Most projects have a duration of 4 years.
• Positions become available once a project is funded. This can happen at any time during the year.
• It typically takes 6 to 9 months for a project proposal to receive funding. In this period, a position may be anticipated but the outcome remains insecure. Once a project is funded, the open position needs to be filled as soon as possible.

If you are interested in our research, it merits to inquire whether openings will be available. We collect resumes of prospective PhD students throughout the year, for each of our research tracks.

General requirements

We make our selection based on the following general requirements:

• Formal requirements regarding prior education: you should have earned an MSc degree at a recognized institute for higher education.
• Background: you should have a background that fits the requirements of the project
• Excellence: your Grade-Point-Average should be above 8 (10). Also your MSc thesis should have received a grade above 8 (10).
• English: you should be able to communicate well in english (written and oral). Provide TOEFL/IELTS scores if available.
• Originality: your MSc thesis or later work (publications) should reflect some original ideas. Critical and independent thinking is very important.
• Team player: you should be able to work well in a team of other project members.

Your resume should contain contact information of prior advisors/supervisors who can provide feedback.