Home Education PhD Students PhD Students The following PhD scholarships have commenced. Their topics cover a variety of SmartSat CRC’s strategic and priority research areas ranging from Space IoT communications through to AI-powered autonomous operations in space. The majority of the PhD thesis topics have one or more industry partners to support the practical application of the proposed thesis topic, demonstrating SmartSat’s commitment to fostering Australia’s space industry through building strong linkages between academia and industry. Current PhD Students Franke Agenbag An automated method of detecting, characterising, and responding to radiation events in space Defence, Science and Technology Group / University of South Australia Emily Ahern Compact Clock for Small Satellite Applications University of Adelaide Robert Andriambol Integration of Earth Observation data and ground-based measurements to accurately map the effect of Urban Heat Islands Curtin University Zachary Auhl Using Blockchain and DRBs to Orchestrate an IoT Network La Trobe University Harrison Bennett Machine learning-enabled satellites for Agile Space Operations The University of Adelaide Anne Bettens Autonomous navigation of satellites for space exploration University of Sydney Yue Cai Deep learning-based Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites task offloading and massive MIMO implementation The University of Sydney Konstantinos Chatzopoulos Vouzoglanis Exploring the utility of high frequency satellite information on wildfire characterisation and impact estimation RMIT University Xiongren Chen Interpretable Machine Learning for the Early Smoke Wild-fire Detection University of South Australia Jason Dail Towards effective adaptive monitoring of UN SDG #15: Protect and Sustain Terrestrial Ecosystems using EO Data, Products and Services University of Queensland Charith Dissanayake P1.27 Cognitive Satellite Radios RMIT University Thomas Graham Responsible AI in Space Swinburne University of Technology Vinicius Guedes Goncalves de Oliveira The cybersecurity of the Australian Space Infrastructure – A legal and policy analysis Flinders University Nermine Hendy Interference modelling, detection, and mitigation for improving spaceborne SAR performance RMIT University Francis Karimi Kagai Emergency Buddy System Swinburne University of Technology Skevos Karpathakis Communications engineering, phase- and spatial-stabilisation system development University of Western Australia Chang Liu Building damage estimation after natural disaster using multi satellite source data based on machine learning UNSW Sydney Alvaro Valenzuela Quinteros Active fire detection from satellite Earth Observation Gillian Rowan Using space-based Earth Observation to map Australia’s kelp forests for a stronger Blue Carbon economy The University of Queensland Hira Saleem Natural Hazard prediction and damage assessment using multimodal satellite data in self-supervised XAI model Jordan Shipard Efficient Subnets for Scalable Onboard AI in Space Queensland University of Technology Harikesh Singh An Empirical and Dynamic tool for Prediction of Forest Fire Spread Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Technique University of the Sunshine Coast Sabrina Slimani Using Quantum Entanglement to Remotely Synchronise Clocks University of Adelaide Vibhor Thapliyal Fabrication of 3-D, Wavelength-Tuneable Photonic Crystals for Space-Based Mm-Wave, Terahertz, and Infrared Communications La Trobe University Kou Tian Deep Learning for Advanced Physical Layer Communications The University of Sydney Nur Fajar Trihantoro Real Time Fire Analytics RMIT University Lucas Tsutsui da Silva Semi-Supervised Learning for Automatic Improvement of Onboard Object Detection Models on Small Satellites University New South Wales Sydney Uakomba Uhongora Development of Intelligent Security Controls for Software Defined Networking-based Space Systems University of South Australia Sai Vallapureddy A Machine Learning Based Solution for Space Situational Awareness and Space Sustainability RMIT University Brandon Victor Using Satellite Data to Locate and Phenotype Plants from Space La Trobe University Kithmini Weththasinghe Signal processing of cognitive satellite communication University of Technology Sydney Liang Zhao Satellite image-based smoke detection for bush fire detection University of South Australia Graduated PhD Students Benjamin Dix-Matthews Phase- and spatial-stabilisation system development University of Western Australia Artur Medon Small satellite thermal management with 3D printed metal heat sinks containing phase change material thermal storage University of South Australia Jordan Plotnek Measuring Control System Resilience to Cyber-Physical Threat in a Satellite Context University of South Australia Mohamed Shehata Potentials and Limitations of the IEEE 802.15.3d Standard for Terahertz Satellite Communications University of Adelaide Kathiravan Thangavel Artificial Intelligence for Distributed Satellite Systems Autonomous Operations: An Integrated Approach to Space and Control Segments Co-Evolution RMIT University Ahsan Waqas Distributed Beamforming for Satellite Applications University of South Australia