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Eight new positions at SPAN open now
Applications are invited for the following eight (8) positions at the SPAN Centre / RMIT University
- one permanent Lectureship position (Job ref: 54822)
- five (5) research fellow positions (Job Ref: 544817, 544820, 544821, 544818, 544813)
- one project manager (Job ref: 544829)
- one project coordinator / center manager (Job ref: 544597)
These positions are officially open now. Those who contacted me before need to lodge their documents through RMIT Human Resources website at http://www.rmit.edu.au/yourcareer.
The position information can be also found at:
We are seeking highly motivated, dynamic and talented individuals with a PhD degree in GPS/Geodesy/Surveying or other closely related areas, preferably specialising in one or more of the following areas: real-time GNSS precise positioning, GNSS radio occultation, space weather / atmosphere, real-time POD/space tracking and GNSS reflectometry.
A cover letter along with detailed CV (with a full list of publications, research projects conducted, key skills/experience, qualifications,detailed contacts of three referees) is required. Please also indicate the Job Ref number(s) you are applying for.
Salary range: AU$84,000-AU$100,000 p.a. (including 17% employer superannuation contribution, with an annual increment of ~3-4%)
Deadline: 19 September 2010.
Other opportunities:
- Visiting researcher – SPAN also offers a number of visiting researcher opportunities every year.
- PhD scholarship –RMIT international PhD scholarship are open for application. The value of the scholarships is upto AU$45,000/p.a. (AU$25k/p.a for tuition fee, AU$20k/p.a for living allowance).
More detail ...
Seven (7) employment opportunities in SPAN, RMIT University, Australia
Six research scientists and one project executive manager positions in Australian Space Research Program (ASRP).
The ASRP project involves developing advanced platform technologies for space-related research, including in-space tracking and navigation, precise positioning, space weather, atmospheric modelling and climate monitoring. New algorithms will be developed in the context of new generation navigation
and geo-environmental satellite programs to enhance Australia’s capability in space research.
Seven (7) positions - six (6) research scientists and one (1) project executive manager - are available for this project. The appointees are expected to contribute to the research
activities of the research consortium in the specialist areas of GPS/GNSS, geodesy/surveying, data
assimilation/numerical weather prediction modelling, precise orbit determination, debris tracking and
surveillance, modelling space weather and forecasting space weather events, GNSS meteorology and
atmosphere science. The successful applicants are expected to lead, undertake and participate in dayto-
day operation of the research work, including management of the research projects, documentation
and reporting, software and algorithm developments, and carrying out field experiments when
appropriate. Excellent communication skills including inter-personal and English language (both in
written and oral forms) are required.
More detail ...
INVITATION TO SEMINAR -
RMIT launches a $7 million space research initiative
Date: Friday 18 June 2010
Time:3.30pm - 4.30pm
Venue:RMIT University, City Campus, Access Grid Room, Building 8, Level 9, Rm 64-66
On 26th February 2010,
Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr announced the winning projects in the fi rst round of the Australian Space Research Program (ASRP). This program aims to boost Australian space research strengths and promote new opportunities and new investment in Australian space science and Australian space industry.
Professor Kefei Zhang will
present an outline of the ASRP scheme and its background as well as the RMIT space research initiative. This will include the aims and objectives of the project and anticipated outcomes. Key issues related to the research work and challenges confronting Australian space research and space industry will be discussed. Some refl ections on the application process of our ASRP success will also be presented. Finally, our view on future possible space research related to GNSS which is a key component of the ever-expanding future earth observation systems will be given.
More detail ...
RMIT researchers lead way into space - a $7m RMIT initiative (Report from RMIT News)
RMIT News - 24 May 2010.
The RMIT-News story on the space research has been published on the RMIT home page.
An RMIT University team leading a $7 million international space technology consortium has received Federal Government funding through the Australian Space Research Program (ASRP).
Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr announced the funding for the “Platform Technologies for Space, Atmosphere and Climate” project under the Government’s $40 million ASRP.
Professor Kefei Zhang from the School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences will lead a team of researchers from RMIT, the Bureau of Meteorology, Curtin University of Technology, the University of NSW, Electro Optic Systems Space System, GPSat Systems Australia Pty Ltd and National Central University, Taiwan, in conjunction with the Taiwan National Space Organisation. The project will develop advanced platform technologies for space-related research, including in-space tracking and navigation, precise positioning, space weather, atmosphere and climate monitoring.
This $3 million ASRP funding for RMIT's contribution to the project is part of the Federal Government's $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative, which supports projects that build on Australia’s research strengths. A significant investment will also come from partner organisations.
More detail ...
Report about ASRP Grant on DIISR News.
The Centre of Satellite Positioning and Navigation (SPAN) is awarded a prestigious Australian Space Research Program (ASRP) project from The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR). The project is "Platform Technologies for Space, Atmosphere and Climate – developing technologies for space research, including tracking and navigation, weather and climate monitoring, and atmospheric modelling. "
The Australian Space Research Program will provide $40 million over four years through a competitive merit-based grants program to support space-related research, education and innovation activities. Announcing the four successful projects, Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr praised the consortiums behind them for their smart approach to the program, which encourages applicants to assemble national and international teams with wide skills and experience. The program is part of the Australian Government’s $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative, which supports projects that build on Australia’s research strengths.
The other three projects are:
Pathways to Space: Empowering the Internet Generation – a collaborative, hands-on program enabling year 10-12 students to plan space exploration projects using a living laboratory to simulate realistic scenarios and gain an understanding of space engineering challenges.
Scramjet-based Access-to-space Systems – taking Australia’s world-leading scramjet technology one step closer to possible future use in a fuel-efficient hybrid launch vehicle for transporting payloads into space.
Antarctic Broadband – developing satellite-based broadband communications technology for use by the Antarctic community to transfer data; the project will also build expertise in small satellite communications systems that can be applied throughout Australia.. More detail ...
Report about ASRP Grant on RMIT Platform Technologies News, PTRI's quarterly newsletter.
Platform Technologies News is the quarterly newsletter of the Platform Technologies Research Institute (PTRI).
The Institute aims to sustain an open, inclusive and supportive research culture that nurtures careers, celebrates achievements and promotes industry-oriented research and innovation. Platform Technologies News has been developed to celebrate achievements of researchers within the Institute.
Platform Technologies News – Issue 3, April 2010. RMIT University places a high value on research income and last year PTRI members were very successful in obtaining Category 1 Australian Competitive Grants. In previous issues of Platform Technologies News we celebrated members’ achievements and it is also great to congratulate the Professor Kefei Zhang. Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr recently announced the funding for the Space, Atmosphere and Climate project led by PTRI’s Professor Kefei Zhang under the Government’s $40 million Australian Space Research Program (ARSP).
The $2.85 million grant, in addition to significant cash contribution from partner organisations, will allow Professor Zhang and a team of national and international researchers to develop advanced platform technologies for space-related research including in-space tracking and navigation, precise positioning, space weather, atmospheric modelling and climate monitoring. The consortium includes researchers from the University of New South Wales, Curtin University of Technology, Bureau of Meteorology, Electro Optic Systems Space System, GPSat Systems Australia Pty Ltd, National Space Organisation and National Central University Taiwan, and NOAA’s World Data Centre for Meteorology.
More detail ...
Professor Steven Tingay visits SPAN
Professor Steven Tingay from Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy visited the Satellite Positioning and Navigation (SPAN) group in RMIT on Friday 23rd April 2010.
Professor Steven Tingay reviewed the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a $3 billion radio telescope project that would probe the contents and evolution of their Universe. The SKA will be approximately 50 times more powerful than existing radio telescopes and is a mega-science project that will sit alongside facilities such as the LHC or space-borne telescopes. He discussed the basics of radio astronomy, some of the science goals of the SKA, some of the engineering challenges, and gave an up-to-date status report. The ICT and data volume characteristics of the SKA mean that a broad cross-section of the technology community will be required to deliver the instrument. He briefly reviewed some of the technology demonstrator telescopes for the SKA that are currently under construction around the world.
Steven Tingay is Professor of Radio Astronomy at Curtin University of Technology and appointed as a Western Australian Premier's Research Fellow. Previously Prof. Tingay worked at Swinburne University of Technology, was a Bolton Fellow at CSIRO and was a National Research Council Research Associate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He completed a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU and an Honours degree in Physics from The University of Melbourne. Tingay has founded the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy and is a Deputy Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, a $100m Joint Venture between Curtin University of Technology and The University of Western Australia. Tingay has spent a decade working on the design of the Square Kilometre Array, a $3 billion dollar radio telescope project, as part of Australian and international consortia. Tingay has published over 180 papers and has been involved in securing over $40m in research funding.
More pictures ...
Prof Alexander G. Pavelyev visits SPAN
Professor Pavelyev is visitng SMGS for a period of two months (March-May, 2010) and will be work with Prof. Kefei Zhang and other colleagues in RMIT and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on a number of research projects related to the atmosphere modelling, effects of radio wave propagation, GNSS radio occultation for climate changes analysis, weather prediction, and GPS reflectometry.
Prof. Alexander G. Pavelyev is a radio physicist and the Head of Laboratory of Radio Wave Propagation in Space at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is one of the world leading experts in the areas of environmental investigation of planets of the Solar system (Venus, the Moon, and the Earth) using radio physical methods. Prof. Pavelyev has authored over 100 high-ranked journal publications and been a visiting professor to world leading space-related research organisations in Germany, Japan and Taiwan.
Prof. Pavelyev’s current research interest are concentrated on developing new radio holographic methods for accurate estimation of parameters of the Earth’s atmosphere and surface using high-stable signals of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) / GPS. He is also involved in developing theory and providing data analysis of radio occultation experiments. This includes the Earth’s and planetary atmospheres, radio wave’s propagation in the communication links (satellite-to-satellite), atmospheric remote sensing, atmospheric parameter’s retrieval, and bistatic radar.
More pictures ...
SPAN leads international consortium in $2.85m Space Research Grant
Professor Kefei Zhang led an international consortium, securing funding for the Platform Technologies for Space, Atmosphere and Climate project. (SPAN) group Professor Kefei Zhang has led an international consortium to secure funding in the first round of the Government’s $40 million Australian Space Research Program (ARSP).
The $2,847,160 grant, in addition to significant cash contribution from partner organisations, will allow Professor Zhang and a team of international researchers to develop advanced platform technologies for space-related research including in-space tracking and navigation, precise positioning, space weather, atmospheric modelling and climate monitoring.
The consortium includes researchers from the University of New South Wales, Curtin University of Technology, Bureau of Meteorology, Electro Optic Systems Space System, GPSat Systems Australia Pty Ltd, National Space Organisation and National Central University Taiwan, and NOAA's World Data Centre for Meteorology. The funding is part of the Australian Government's $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative, which supports projects that build on Australia’s research strengths.
More detail ...
Dr. Lidia Cucurull visits SPAN
Dr. Lidia Cucurull from Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) USA visited the Satellite Positioning and Navigation (SPAN) group in RMIT on Thursday 15 Oct, 2009.
Dr. Lidia Cucurull led the effort at the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation in conducting testing and exploitation of Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, the Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) data in the Global Forecast System, following its launch in April 2006. By December 2006, Dr. Cucurull and her colleagues demonstrated the benefits of COSMIC data on numerical weather prediction forecasts, and its implementation was scheduled for the next operational upgrade of the Global Forecast System, in the third quarter FY07. Due to Dr. Cucurull's exemplary efforts, five-day global upper air forecasts improved by three percent, and this new satellite data was ready for operational use in models less than one year after launch. This is extremely fast for a significantly new technology to be made useful to operations.
(From: http://www.accessnoaa.noaa.gov/index111907.html).
Dr. Yuriy Kuleshov, Prof. John Le Marshall and his wife, Dr. Lidia Cucurull and her husband attended the meeting.The three groups (RMIT Uni., BoM and JCSDA) discussed various issues related to the project of Assimilation of GPS Radio Occultation Data with Numerical Weather Prediction System for Climate Monitoring. More pictures ...
Dr. Michael G. Sideris visits SPAN
Dr. Michael G. Sideris, President of IAG (International Association of Geodesy), visited the Satellite Positioning and Navigation (SPAN) group in RMIT on Friday 9 Oct, 2009.
Dr. Michael G. Sideris is a Professor of Geodesy and Associate Dean (Engineering) in the Department of Geomatics Engineering, Schulich School of of Engineering (SSE), at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is also the Associate Dean for Engineering in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. His research interests are mainly in the field of physical geodesy, including spectral and wavelet methods for precise geoid determination, satellite altimetry, airborne and satellite gravimetry and gradiometry, and the solution of geodetic boundary value problems. Since 1988, He has taught many graduate and undergraduate courses in statistics, signal processing, surveying, geodesy and optimization. He has also been involved with the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) since 1987 in many capacities.
(From: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~sideris/).
Michael and Prof Kefei Zhang discussed various issues related to potential collaboration in future. More pictures ...
Professor Peter Teunissen and Dr Dennis Odijk visit SPAN
Professor Peter Teunissen and Dr Dennis Odijk from Curtin University of Technology visited the Satellite Positioning and Navigation (SPAN) group in RMIT on Friday 21st of August, 2009.
Peter is the first and only Federation Fellow in geospatial and he is also a key research leader of the newly approved CRC-SI2 GNSS/geodesy theme. The meeting was an all day event. Prof Kefei Zhang first welcomed Peter and Dennis' visit, then introduced staff and students at SPAN and offered an overview of the research projects and key research directions undertaken by RMIT. Peter introduced the current research activities in Curtin University of Technology and gave a presentation on GNSS initiatives. Dennis also gave a talk on (network) GNSS RTK.
The two groups also discussed various issues related to potential collaboration in future. More pictures ...
ION GPS/GNSS student paper competition - another success
I
am very pleased to announce that our PhD student, Ms Suqin
Wu, has been selected for an Institute of
Navigation (ION) student paper award.
Our warmest
congratulations go to Suqin for her success in
this prestigious student competition.
The award recognizes
students who demonstrate excellent research in navigation. Each award
comprises of a US$2,500 travel sponsorship (plus free conference registration
and other benefits). This will give student authors the opportunity
to present their papers at the world's leading international Global
Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) conference.
The title of the paper is "Performance Evaluations of Regional Error
Models for NRTK in Victoria".
Suqin is supervised by Dr David Silcock
and Prof
Kefei Zhang. This award represents the continuous success of
the SPAN group. Mr Ming Zhu and Mr Erjiang Fu won
ION award in 2008. More pictures...
Welcome new research staff members - Dr Robert Norman and Dr Carl Wang
I am very pleased to introduce two new research staff - Dr Robert Norman and Dr Carl (Chuan-sheng) Wang. Both Robert and Carl joined us recently.
Robert holds a B. Sc. with Honours in Mathematics and a Ph. D. in Physics (Solar Terrestrial And Space Physics) from La Trobe University. His PhD thesis is titled with "Ray tracing techniques in anisotropic media" where he developed a variational ray tracing technique for anisotropic media where the medium of interest was the Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere. Robert has extensive scientific research experience working both in Australia and overseas (e.g. the United Kingdom). He has been working on various projects as a researcher since completing his PhD in mid 1990s. Robert was involved in GPS radio occultation ionosphere research through the first Australian-built micro satellite - Fedsat in early 2000s.
Carl holds both BSc and MSc in surveying from National Chiao Tung University and PhD from National Central University of Taiwan. His PhD thesis is titled with "A Study on the Relationship between Tropospheric Delay and Accuracy of GPS High". He has extensive experience of GPS data processing for meteorological purposes using Bernese dedicated GPS processing software package.
Both Robert and Carl have substantial research experience including numerical analysis/computer programming, grant application and journal publications. They will work on both our ARC and DIISR/ISL projects. The research consortium consists of RMIT, UNSW, Bureau of Meteorology, JCSDA/USA, Wuhan University and National Central University (Taiwan).
These ARC/ISL projects will investigate innovative approaches for global profiling of temperature, pressure and humidity from Earth's surface to the stratosphere by employing a satellite-based radio occultation technique. New space-borne and ground-based satellite positioning and remote sensing techniques, atmospheric sounding technologies and their fusion to overcome the constraints of sparse atmospheric sensor distribution for weather forecasting and climate monitoring will be studied. This pioneering technique is promising as it is able to map the detailed refractivity profiles and to study the structure of the atmosphere inexpensively with a fine vertical resolution and high spatio-temporal sampling density. It is expected that this research will contribute significantly to the new national weather broadcasting system/mainframe under development.
Robert is located at 12.10.26 (ext: 53278) and Carl is located at 12.10.24 (ext: 51016). Please feel free to contact them. I am sure they will make a significant contribution to our research program and other academic activities. Please join me to welcome Robert and Carl.
Award of The Learning
and Teaching Investment Fund (LTIF)
Development
of an Assessment and Feedback Framework for a 3D/4D Multimedia Learning
Tool Based on Industry and Student Input, Zhang K. et al. ($31,400)
Investigators: Zhang K., Liu
G. etc. (RMIT), Shi C. Liu J., Ning J., Xu X. etc. (Wuhan University)
Title:
GPS radio occultation data
processing and assimilation system for weather forecast.
Award of DIISR International Scientific Linkage
(ISL) Australia-China
Special Fund for S&T Cooperation, Round 8
(2009-11) click here for more information ...
Investigators:
Zhang K., Cartwright W., etc.
(RMIT), Gao J., Wang J. etc. (China University of
Mining and Technology)
Title:
Global Navigation Satellite
System continuously operating reference stations network and its synergized
disaster monitoring
Award of a DIISR International Scientific Linkage
(ISL) Competitive Grant
(2008-2011) click here for more information ...
Investigators: Zhang K., Le Marshall J. (BoM), Riishojgaard P. (JCSDA/US), Wu F. (RMIT), Weymouth G. (BoM), Kuleshov Y. (BoM), Cucurull L (JCSDA/US), Liou Y. (CSRSR/TW), Xu X. and Smith B. (
NASA/US)
Title: Assimilation of GPS Radio Occultation Data with
Numerical Weather Prediction System for Climate Monitoring
Award of an Australian Research Council
(ARC) Project (2008-2011) , click here for more information ...
For employment, PhD
scholarship and visiting scholar opportunities,
check the following website
http://user.gs.rmit.edu.au/kefei/EmploymentOpp.htm.
Currently, we have two PDF, two PhD scholarship and 1-2 visiting scholars
under offer.
Two PhD students won US
ION GPS/GNSS2008 student paper competition
I am very pleased to
announce that two Geospatial Science postgraduate students, Ming Zhu and Erjiang Fu, have been selected for an Institute of Navigation (ION) student paper award.
Our warmest
congratulations go to Ming and Erjiang for their
success in this prestigious student competition.
The award recognizes
students who demonstrate excellent research in navigation. Each award
comprises of a US$2,500 travel sponsorship (plus free conference
registration and other benefits). This will give student authors the
opportunity to present their papers at the world's leading international
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
conference. The titles of the two papers are "Novel Positioning
Algorithms for RFID Assisted 2D MEMS INS Systems" and "Assessing
Space-based GNSS
Technology for Meteorological Studies in Australia" respectively.
Mr Ming
Zhu was also given the presenter award.
Erjiang is supervised by Prof Kefei
Zhang and Dr Yuriy Kuleshov
and Ming Zhu is supervised by Prof Kefei Zhang and Prof William Cartwright . This
is the first time in RMIT University that a student has been successful in
this competition.
Again, our
congratulations to Erjiang and Ming.
For more information on
the competition, visit http://www.ion.org/meetings/gnss2007students.cfm
Current employment and scholarship opportunities
[Position 1], Research fellow in GPS/Geodesy/Meteorology, position description, 3 yrs initially with a further extension of
three years subject to performance and funding availability
[Position 2], Research Fellow in Meteorology / atmosphere /
GPS, position description, 2 yrs initially with a further extension of 2-3
years subject to performance and funding availability
[APAI scholarships], Two PhD scholarships,
tax-free $25k-$35k
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