Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship to join the Nottingham Geospatial Institute based in the Research Division of Infrastructure, Geomatics and Architecture (Faculty of Engineering) at The University of Nottingham. With a research income which exceeds £120M per Year, the Engineering Research Power of the University currently ranks 4th in the UK, while the Faculty of Engineering is ranked in the top 5 out of 85 engineering departments in the UK in the last Research Assessment Exercise.

Project description:

The GNSS technology has been introduced in structural health monitoring, and proved to be a valuable method for evaluating structure response. Furthermore the continuous rapid development of the GNSS (i.e. high sampling rate, multi-system) is leading to the improvement of the measurement accuracy and broadens the application field, mainly in monitoring dynamic motions (rigid structures response, earthquakes, vehicles, etc.). However, further research is required to limit the impact of error sources (i.e. multipath, etc.) in the GNSS time series in order to provide more accurate and reliable estimation of the dynamic motion. This research will undertake investigation of the noise characteristics of the GNSS time series met in a dynamic motion, contributing to the modeling of the noise pattern of the GNSS measurements and finally limiting its impact on the displacement signal.

The PhD student will be required to deploy and carry out GNSS measurements for monitoring dynamic motion, which may correspond to controlled experiments simulating dynamic motions or probably monitoring the dynamic response of real structure. The PhD student will process and analyse the GNSS measurements, focusing on the time series characteristics. Good communication skills will also be required. The PhD student will be part of the Nottingham Geospatial Institute, which carries out research across the key disciplines of GNSS technology and geodetic deformation monitoring and has excellent laboratory facilities.

Applications are invited from students of high academic merit with a background in Civil, Surveying Engineering, or a relative engineering discipline and be in possession of (or be expecting to obtain) a 1^st class degree (BSc or MSc) with distinction or equivalents.

The student will be required to have experience on experimental measurements and a solid background in numerical modelling and time series analysis.

The studentship will cover PhD tuition fees and a tax free stipend for three years (approximately £13,726 for 2014-2015) for UK/EU students, due to funding restrictions. An additional £2,000 may be awarded for students with a 1^st class degree/MSc distinction from a UK Russell Group University or equivalent.

Supervisor: Dr. Panagiotis Psimoulis Faculty of Engineering, Nottingham Geospatial Institute

Informal enquiries should be addressed to Dr P. Psimoulis panagiotis.psimoulis<στο>nottingham.ac.uk. 

Early application is strongly encouraged.