Remote Sensing/Imaging Post-Doctoral Research Fellow for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) (ref. no. STARC_PDF_21_01)

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is a non-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation, emphasizing international collaborations, cross-disciplinary research, innovation, and post graduate education. CyI, through its established research centres, addresses challenging issues that are important at both the regional and international levels. Many of its research activities are being carried out in partnership with International leading institutions in the respective thematic areas.

In order to further extend its research activities in the field of heritage protection and monitoring through UAV-based systems and to further develop new aerial imaging applications in the field of surveillance to prevent looting and illegal archaeological excavations, the Cyprus Institute accepts applications for a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Remote Sensing with experience in data acquisition, live data streaming and processing of aerial remote sensing data.

The successful candidate will engage in a wide range of activities, focusing on the implementation   of new remote sensing data collection methodologies collected through aerial platforms both in the 2D and 3D domain and with a different array of sensors. Additionally, the successful candidate will collaborate on the optimization and development of algorithms for UAV flight data planning, streaming of real-time data, and on-board decentralized processing. He/she will participate in test flights, deployment, and demonstrations of UAVs; collaborate in hardware development with other lab’s team members; and participate in field campaign in Cyprus and abroad.

This position is supported by the ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­RIF CPU_0619_0060 project SHIELD (Safeguard Heritage in Endangered Looted Districts) funded through the Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage (JPICH).

SHIELD Project aims at designing and building an artificially intelligent Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to patrol archaeological and heritage sites using the latest technologies in imaging techniques, live data streaming, decentralized (on-board) processing, Machine Learning, and flight data management.

The successful candidate will be a member of the Research and Development Team of the USRL under the supervision of the SHIELD Project Leader.

Responsibilities

1. Implementation   of new remote sensing data collection methodologies for the identification of looting activities
2. Optimization and development of algorithms for UAV flight data planning for archaeological sites surveillance
3. Optimization and development of algorithms for real-time data streaming and onboard decentralized processing for the identification on illegal excavations
4. Assisting in the development of hardware components.
5. Participating in scheduled Test Flights for the purpose of the development and optimization of the imaging systems.