Opportunities

Opportunity: Field testing of GNSS reflectometer for snow depth and surface soil moisture measurements

Start date: Winter/ spring 2018

A Master’s of Science position is available in the ‘Transformative sensor Technologies and Smart Watersheds for Canadian Water Futures’ project (TTSW) at the University of Waterloo. TTSW aims to develop, test, and employ advanced terrestrial, sub-orbital, and satellite remote sensing tools connected through “smart” watershed networks. These technologies are targeted to support research regarding the emerging spectrum of water-related issues throughout cold regions.

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Water supply and water quality are two critical concerns relevant to water resources not only in Canada, but globally in a warming climate. Through collaboration with industrial partners, this project works towards the design, development, and deployment of remote sensing technologies that will better prepare end users to respond to the threats of changing water futures.

Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry has shown potential for the retrieval of water and land surface properties including soil moisture and snow depth. The surface reflected (passive) GPS signals measured onboard drones, aircrafts, or satellites are expected to revolutionize land/hydrology mapping. GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R) will be used as a form of passive remote sensing that uses signals from GNSS satellites, most commonly GPS to correlate to the reflected signals from earth to characterize and measure several properties such as the dielectric properties of a frozen land or soli moisture content.

The successful student will collaborate with researchers and private industry in order to carry out field testing of a GNSS reflectometer as well as collect coincident field measurements.

Eligibility

A background in electrical engineering is required, with preference given to those who have remote sensing/ environmental science experience. Students are expected to have strong interests/background in electrical engineering concepts pertaining to radar basics and hands-on experience and testing. Majority of the testing will be performed on a quad-copter platform for the payload proof of concept and design.

The student will work under the supervision of Professor Armaghan Salehian from University of Waterloo's Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department.

Application Instructions

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter stating their motivation and expectations. In addition, a curriculum vitae, unofficial transcripts, and contact information for three references should be included in a single pdf file and sent to salehian@uwaterloo.ca with MSC4-TTSW-YourName in the subject line. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only selected candidates will be contacted.

Aa of Global Change is a collaborative initiative between multiple Canadian universities and partner organizations. The research program is led by the University of Saskatchewan and is funded in part by a $77.8-million grant from the Canada First Excellence Research Fund. GWF aims to deliver risk management solutions for water resources and services - informed by leading edge water science and supported by innovative decision-making tools - in Canada and throughout the cold regions of the world.

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The information and knowledge required to understand and adapt to changing water futures within Canada’s diverse landscape will be founded on data collected within the natural environment at both a scale and degree of complexity that is unprecedented. Technology associated with sensors, data collection platforms, communication pathways and data processing is advancing rapidly and promises to provide the core tools required to assemble the data streams upon which future water decisions will be based. Appropriate integration and delivery of data from orbit-based platforms, low-elevation systems (drones) and terrestrial sensor networks represents a major challenge that will require the collaborative skills of a wide range of disciplines.

To facilitate the interdisciplinary research required to address this grand challenge, this project will establish a network of “smart” observatories at different geographic and climatic settings at a pan-Canadian scale. These observatories will support the development of novel monitoring strategies for both physical and ecological systems, provide natural settings to test emerging sensors and data logging systems, act as “ground truth” points for airborne and remote sensing systems and deliver dense, real time data streams for the development of data management and visualization tools. TTSW aims to develop, test, and employ advanced terrestrial, sub-orbital, and satellite remote sensing tools connected through “smart” watershed networks. These technologies are targeted to support research regarding the emerging spectrum of water related issues throughout cold regions.

Eligibility

Applicants must have specialization in hydrology/hydrogeology or a related field with experience in performing field and laboratory technical duties, including operation of state-of-the-art environmental technologies. Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated skills and experience in experimental work in environmental sciences, or a related field.

Responsibilities

Funding for the position is available for three years. During the course of the three years of the project, the PDF, in concert with the key end user and partner team, will evaluate the current sensor networks, data logging platforms and transmission systems to initiate the process of testing and integrating emerging technology to optimize the nature and form of the data, its collection and communication. The PDF will work under the supervision of professor David Rudolph and will collaborate with researchers and students, as well as government and private partner organizations in order to implement and manage these observatories and incorporate the emerging approaches.

Application instructions

Send your application to Marie Hoekstra (mhoekstra@uwaterloo.ca ). Please include “PDF1-TTSW-YourName” in the subject line and attach a single PDF file that contains:

• A cover letter stating your motivation for applying to this position and your research interests
• Curriculum vitae
• Copy of unofficial transcripts
• Contact information for up to three references

Closing date: Applications will be reviewed as they are received. The position will remain open until filled. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those individuals selected for an interview will be contacted.

Opportunity: Estimation of snow water equivalent from airborne Ku and L-band SAR

Start date: 1 September 2019 or before

A fully funded four year PhD position is available in the ‘Transformative Sensor Technologies and Smart Watersheds for Canadian Water Futures’ project (TTSW) at the University of Waterloo. The position is part of Global Water Futures: Solutions to Water Threats in an Era of Global Change, a large collaborative initiative involving multiple Canadian universities and partner organizations. TTSW aims to develop, test, and employ advanced terrestrial, sub-orbital, and satellite remote sensing tools targeted to support research regarding the emerging spectrum of water-related issues throughout cold regions.

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The objective of this PhD project will be to better quantify large-scale distributions of snow water equivalent (SWE) on land across various regions of Canada. In this project, a unique Ku and L-band SAR system called CryoSAR, under procurement through a successful CFI grant, will be deployed in different environments in Canada. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the capabilities of airborne imaging Ku and L-band SAR to create local to regional maps of SWE over several different domain types (tundra, prairie, maritime, alpine, and forested). The remote sensing science will focus on backscatter SAR signatures from these domains and explore InSAR opportunities. The candidate will have access to a unique facility with remote sensing data that are considered highly desirable for novel cold region observation studies.

The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Professor Richard Kelly through his Theoretical and Applied Earth Observation Science Lab, and will collaborate with researchers and private partner organizations for the airborne deployment of CryoSAR during dedicated field campaigns at selected sites from our network of instrumented observatories.

Eligibility

Ideally, the successful candidate will have a strong background in quantitative remote sensing science, preferably with an understanding of Earth system science processes, especially hydrological science. You should hold a degree in geographical science, geophysics, Earth science or engineering will be ideal. The candidate should have strong analytical capabilities with a high degree of comfort across coding environments such as C, Python, R, IDL, Matlab or other programming languages commonly used in remote sensing. Strong communication skills are essential and the candidate should be able to work both independently and within a group setting both in field environments and in the lab.

Full funding is available for four years, pending satisfactory progress through the PhD program.

Application Instructions

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter stating their motivation and expectations. In addition, a curriculum vitae, unofficial transcripts, and contact information for three references should be included in a single .pdf file and sent to Dr. Richard Kelly with [PhD-TTSW-RichardKelly] in the subject line.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only selected candidates will be contacted.

Applications for a postdoctoral position in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo are invited. The successful candidate will work on a Global Water Futures funded project on lake ice modelling. Duties will include coupling the Los Alamos sea ice model CICE to the MITgcm and conducting validation studies for Lake Erie.

Eligibility

Candidates should have a background in physical and computational modeling of fluid flows. Strong coding skills and experience with high-performance computing are essential. Experience with couple ice-ocean modelling is desirable. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary teams involved in other Global Water Futures projects and with government partners. A PhD in applied mathematics, physical oceanography, engineering or a related discipline is required upon appointment. The anticipated start date is January 7, 2019, but is flexible. The salary range for this position is $45,000-$50,000.

Application instructions

Applicants should send a CV and a statement of research experience (one page) to Kevin Lamb at kglamb@uwaterloo.ca, and they should arrange to have two letters of recommendation sent to the same email address. We will review applications as they are received until the position is filled.

The University of Waterloo respects, appreciates and encourages diversity and is committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals including women, members of visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority in the recruitment process.

We appreciate all replies to this advertisement, but only applicants under consideration will be contacted.

Lake Futures seeks  one graduate student (PhD) and one postdoctoral fellow (PDF) interested in research on the causes, impacts and mitigation of water quality issues in the Great Lakes and their watersheds. The successful candidates will work with a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Windsor as well as with industry, government and community partners. Projects involve a combination of fieldwork, data synthesis and numerical modeling. We are specifically looking for candidates for the following sub-project: 

Project 2: Lake Impacts and Responses (PhD positions)

The overall goal of this project is to advance the predictive understanding and modeling of the biogeochemical responses of large lake systems to changes in nutrient inputs and climate warming at temporal scales ranging from days to decades, with an emphasis on nutrient cycling and the management of algal blooms.

PhD 2.1 will work on nearshore-off shore exchange in Lake Erie, with a focus on modeling the plume from the Grand River, via high-resolution numerical simulations using a three-dimensional numerical model. Applicants are required to have a background in fluid dynamics and computational mathematics. Supervisor: Kevin Lamb

Project 5: Transdisciplinary Integration (PDF position)

The overall goal of this project is to enhance the integration across the WPs of Lake Futures in order to deliver knowledge-based decision support tools and socially acceptable, user-driven solutions.

The primary responsibility of PDF will be to create and apply basin-scale, coupled lake-watershed models to predict nutrient dynamics from headwaters to offshore waters. Specifically, PDF will (a) develop basin scale water quality models for watersheds draining into lakes Erie and Ontario using the HYPE modeling framework, (b) integrate the impacts of watershed and reservoir management on downstream water quality, (c) collaborate with another PDF to integrate the effect of past land use, (d) collaborate with lake modeler Dr. Bocaniov at UW to develop coupled watershed-lake models that can be used to predict the effect of current and future land use and climate on lake water quality.

This position will allow autonomy in aligning the project's broad goals with the interests of the successful applicant. Minimum qualifications are a PhD in hydrology, engineering, earth science, biogeochemistry, agriculture, or geography; and experience with GIS. Preferred qualifications include proficiency in handling large datasets (eg NETCDF files), computer modelling, and biogeochemistry. Initial appointment is for one year; second year is contingent upon funding and performance.

Application Instructions

The applicants should have research experience in the fields corresponding to the particular position to which they are applying, as detailed above. They will work with a cross-university team of researchers and must be effective in a multidisciplinary, team-based environment. Excellent communication and organizational skills are required. To apply to any of the positions listed above, please submit a complete application as a single PDF document to Kirsten Grant (kirsten.grant@uwaterloo.ca), with the subject line: PositionName_your surname.

In your application, please include:

• The position to which you are applying (if you are interested in more than one position, please note that)
• A letter explaining your motivation for applying to the position and how your research interests align with the position(s)
• Curriculum vitae
• Copy of transcript(s)
• Contact information for 3 references

Closing date: Applications will be reviewed as they are received. The positions will remain open until filled.

We thank all applicants for their interest. However, only those individuals selected for an interview will be contacted. 

The University of Waterloo encourages applications from all qualified individuals, members of visible minorities, native peoples, and people with disabilities.