I should be grateful if you would bring the following advert to the
attention of any likely MSc students or recent graduates... A pdf advert is
attached.
Please note that this position is being re-advertised. Previous candidates
are permitted to re-apply.
Thanks, Robert.
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Dr Robert G. Aykroyd,
Department of Statistics,
University of Leeds,
LEEDS, LS2 9JT, UK.
UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS
EPSRC/CASE PhD Studentship
A WAVELET-LIFTING APPROACH TO SPATIAL-TEMPORAL PREDICTION APPLIED TO CROP
MONITORING
The Department of Statistics, in collaboration with the Central Science
Laboratory York, invites applications for a fully funded EPSRC/CASE PhD
studentship. The studentship is available for 3 to 3.5 years and will cover
fees and maintenance. The tax-free maintenance allowance is at the level of
15,000 pounds per year plus a further statistics enhancement of up to 2,000
pounds per year.
Please note that the full studentship is open to applicants from the UK and
EU (with 3 years residency in the UK), and for fees only for other EU
applicants.
PROJECT OUTLINE
Defra have funded the monitoring of pests and diseases across a wide variety
of important crops over the last three decades. In particular, the Central
Science Laboratory have access to a unique database containing records of
pest numbers, incidence and severity of disease (taken at various time
intervals) and effectiveness of crop management practice. The aim is to
analyse the data to predict risk to the crops, seasonal variation in this
risk and the effectiveness of control strategies, to alert farmers of
emerging threats and advise on appropriate actions.
Statistically, the problem we wish to address is one of describing the
densities of key environmental quantities over a large and geographically
diverse region given measurements on an irregular grid. In some cases,
several different quantities are measured (often on different grids),
resulting in several densities or response surfaces. Further, for some data
sets, these measurements are made at irregular time points, creating a
complex three- dimensional data set. Once these response surfaces are
estimated, they will be used to predict the incidence of pest explosions or
other undesirable events. Both logistic regression and Bayesian modelling
will be considered as methods of making these predictions. In addition, you
will receive training in a wide variety of modern applied statistical
techniques, computing and other transferable skills, and there is the
opportunity to attend courses and conferences in the UK and overseas.
The studentship is open to UK and EU candidates. Applicants should have, or
expect to obtain, at least an upper second class honours degree (or
equivalent) in mathematics, statistics or related subject. Note that
standard EPSRC regulations apply to this studentship.
For further details see the departmental web pages:
www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/statistics
the School of Mathematics Postgraduate brochure:
www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/school/postgraduate/BrocPDF4web.pdf
and the Central Science Laboratory web site pages:
www.csl.gov.uk/
Interested candidates should contact one of the following:
Dr Robert G Aykroyd or Dr Stuart Barber
Tel: 0113 343 5167; Tel: 0113 343 5146
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www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/~robert www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/~stuart
Department of Statistics,
University of Leeds,
Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
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