Full PhD scholarship available at Adelaide University, South Australia:
SRTSR0347 Constellation-Scale Onboard AI for Early Wildfire Detection.

Apply now (due 30/9):
https://app.smartsheet.au/b/form/019eedeef91978fdbc2b67718479eac6?project_id=SRTSR0347

Wildfires cause severe loss of life, property and ecosystems, making rapid detection vital. Small satellites can now use onboard AI to detect fires and transmit alerts rather than imagery, as demonstrated by our team on different SmallSat missions.

This PhD will address two key limitations: limited labelled training data and the isolated analysis of individual satellite passes. It will investigate Earth-observation foundation models to improve fire detection from limited training data and develop lightweight models for onboard deployment. It will also explore agentic AI and constellation-scale approaches to combine repeated observations across Australian-led satellite constellations, helping confirm fire progression, reduce false alarms and prioritise urgent alerts. The research will advance Adelaide University’s SmartSat CRC-funded work towards operational early wildfire detection.

See also https://adelaide.edu.au/study/how-to-apply/research/ 

Contact: Stefan Peters, stefan.peters@adelaide.edu.au