PhD opportunity: BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED HERDING OF ANIMAL GROUPS
Closing date: 23 January 2023
Funding: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) DTP PhD. This scholarship is open to candidates of any nationality.
Subject areas: Collective animal behaviour, flocking, swarm systems, agent-based models, robotics, UAVs
Project start date: 1 October 2023
Project supervisors: Dr Andrew King & Dr Miguel Lurgi
Project description:
A single sheepdog can bring together and manoeuvre hundreds of sheep from one location to another. Engineers and biologists are fascinated by sheepdog herding because of the potential it provides for bio-inspired strategies for herding real animal groups. Herding of animal groups over the sea, on land, and in the air using UAVs (for example) has potential to solve a variety of ecological problems that are currently impossible, dangerous, and/or costly for humans to manage directly. The student will use existing data and collect new data on a variety of animal systems to research and develop biologically inspired models for herding animal groups – “bioherding”. The student will be based at www.SHOALgroup.org, Swansea University, and supported by a highly interdisciplinary team of international collaborators that includes biologists, mathematicians, and engineers. The student will travel to collaborator labs to complete specific project objectives.
Eligibility:
Candidates must normally hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level in Biosciences or a related subject, or a master’s degree with a minimum overall grade at ‘Merit’ (or Non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University). We are looking to hire a biology graduate with strong quantitative skills, or an maths/engineering/computer scientist graduate with a strong interest in biology. An enthusiasm for tackling challenging computational problems is essential and prior experience with programming (e.g., in R, Python, MATLAB, etc.) is required. The candidate should have strong interpersonal skills and be enthusiastic about working across disciplines.
More details and how to apply:
New perspectives article, providing background to the PhD topic: