PhD position

A PH.D. STUDENT POSITION--Computer-Vision-Based Automatic Recognition System for African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus) on Robben Island, South Africa. This is a unique opportunity to join a small interdisciplinary team that is developing a fully automated system that will be able to identify and monitor nearly all the individual penguins in a single colony. This species has been chosen as the test-bed for technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way population monitoring in field conservation and ecology is done. Images from remote cameras are analyzed in real-time to determine whether or not a penguin is present, and if a bird is present the images are further analyzed to extract the unique pattern of spots on its chest. Each biometric recording is then catalogued in a database together with the date, time, location and where possible information about the bird's behavior, etc. We have already demonstrated that this is all possible in a short pilot study. During the three year project, fully funded by the Leverhulme Trust, we will set up a full system on Robben Island (about 8km offshore from Cape Town). This will involve developing further camera systems including ones that can actively search for and track birds as they come ashore, methods to extract information about the behaviour of birds, methods that fit 3D models to extract physiological data about the birds, and to extend the methodology to other species. As well as the three academic staff noted above the PhD student will be in regular close contact with the post-doctoral worker on the project Tilo Burghardt, who created the pilot system and who is expert in computer vision. Tilo will lead the software development parts of the project. The PhD student will take overall responsibility for the data generated by the system and its analysis, they will also be actively involved in setting up and commissioning the system on Robben Island and with the development of hardware for the system. The large African penguin colony on the island has been monitored by our colleagues at the University of Cape Town for many years, and the logistics for field work are all in place. The student will receive training across many disciplines, giving them an almost unique set of skills and thus highly employable in a market which demands greater fusion between the biological, physical and information sciences. The student will need to be able to analyze large data sets to extract data of interest to biologists, they will need to be able to set up and maintain computer infrastructure, they will need to be able to fault find and repair camera and computer systems in the field. The Student will need to spend several weeks each year in South Africa, with travel and accommodation funded by our research grant. We are seeking a student with a good degree (2.1 or better) in a science or engineering discipline who is computer literate, multi-skilled and is willing and able to learn new skills as and when required. The stipend for the project will be £12,300 per annum and tuition fees (at the level for UK and EU based students) will be paid. For further details and enquiries contact PETER BARHAM (EM: peter.barham AT bristol.ac.uk), NEILL CAMPBELL (EM: Neill.campbell AT bristol.ac.uk) or INNES CUTHILL (EM: i.cuthill AT bristol.ac.uk). For some further details about the project see http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/penguin/.