Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in electrical engineering and sensor development? Do you want to further your career in one of the UKs leading research intensive Universities?

Technological approaches to large-scale biological monitoring are essential to catalogue the changing responses of the natural world to human activity. The University of Leeds is recruiting an excellent early career researcher as part of a project to use acoustic sensors to monitor biodiversity in African agricultural landscapes. This project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), will combine our institution’s research strengths in sensor technology and biodiversity conservation to produce a step change in the way in which biodiversity is monitored. 

As part of this exciting project, we are searching for a dynamic and skilled electrical engineer with strong skills in machine learning, hardware development and experience of data analysis to help lead on the design of a bioacoustic sensor for field deployment. The successful applicant would join a small but growing number of interdisciplinary scientists working at the interface of technology and biodiversity, and would gain considerable skills throughout the project.

The wider project will involve a combination of techniques that are brought together to deliver a high impact, novel approach to biological monitoring. These will include acoustic recording of birds, bats and insects, machine learning to detect and classify biological sounds, and visualisation of data for a lay audience. The bioacoustic data will be groundtruthed using field surveys of biodiversity carried out by partners at an African institution. The core output of the project will be the delivery of a hardware and software solution that can operate in low infrastructure regions with a view to a larger funding bid to develop the project further. 

The work has the potential to revolutionise the way in which biological diversity is monitored, with a high degree of impact through large-scale networks of similar devices and integrated data pipelines. The successful applicant would join a thriving research group where they would also have opportunities to work across disciplines.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: 

Dr Syed Zaidi, University Academic Fellow 
Tel: +44 (0)113 343 5578 or email: S.A.Zaidi@leeds.ac.uk

Further information 

The Faculty of Engineering is proud to have been awarded the Athena Swan Silver Award from the Equality Challenge Unit, the national body that promotes equality in the higher education sector. Our equality and inclusion webpage provides more information.

Location:  Leeds - Main Campus
Faculty/Service:  Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences
School/Institute:  School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
Section:  Institute of Robotics, Autonomous Systems and Sensing Category:  Research
Grade:  Grade 7
Salary:  £33,797 to £40,322 p.a.
Working Time:  37.5 hours per week
Post Type:  Full Time
Contract Type:  Fixed Term (Until 31 July 2020 due to grant funding)    
Closing Date:  Monday 02 March 2020
Interview Date:  To be confirmed
Reference:  EPSEE1014
Downloads:  Candidate Brief