SFU SARlab recently won an NSERC Alliance grant (with industrial partner MDA) titled:

“Enhancement of SAR research methods to identify and create community-centric mapping applications for Canada's North”.

The project pairs directed research and engineering development of advanced synthetic aperture radar methods with a strong outreach component to design applications with and for lay members in Canadian Northern communities to improve their daily livelihoods and empower traditional and scientific knowledge exchange (see concept flowchart).

Concretely we are looking for three PhD (or MSc) candidates to work on the following sub-topics (starting Spring 2025 or earlier):

HQP3: T1-PhD3: Deep Learning (DL) - Maritime awareness

HQP6: T1-PhD6: DL - Change detection of linear features (Coastline, Infrastructure)

HQP7: T2-PhD1-Real-time SAR satellite image products for non-expert users

The first two topics are “classical” engineering topics, while the third topic calls for a different candidate profile, successful applicants need to combine (general, less specialized) understanding of engineering methods with enthusiasm and some social skills to engage effectively with Northern communities (including some travel).

Please refer to the MSc and PhD positions for general requirements.