Taking snaps of plant life conditions: designing a new Crop Autonomous Micro-Environmental Recording Array

Director of Studies: Dr Anne Plessis
2^nd Supervisor: Dr Paul Davey
3^rd Supervisor: Dr Simon Ussher  

Applications are invited for a 18 months ResM. The studentship will start on 1 January 2025.
 

In order to maintain future food production, there is an urgent need to improve crop resilience to stresses related to climate change. Monitoring plant environmental conditions is an essential step to better understand crop stress responses. While there have been major advances in remote sensing for agricultural fields, there are no established systems for ground based environmental monitoring suited to pot experiments. Plants are very sensitive to apparently small variations in their environment, a phenomenon that has been considered more of a nuisance than an opportunity so far but can actually provide a valuable source of information to decipher plant environmental responses. However, we can only access this information if we can develop the appropriate technology to monitor precisely environmental conditions around each plant in an experiment.

In this project, you will develop a new automated sensor system to monitor environmental conditions for each individual pot within a large-scale experiment (50-100 pots). Your aim will be to design, build and test a cost-effective, robust, reliable and fit for purpose system to measure relevant aspects of the plant environment (solar irradiance, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and soil temperature) at a high temporal and spatial density. You will select/build appropriate atmospheric and soil sensors and integrate them into a wireless network continuously recording environmental conditions for each pot. Finally, you will create a use friendly platform to organise the large dataset generated into the format required to model plant responses to the environment.
 

Applicants should have a first or upper second class honours degree in Electronic, Electrical Engineering, Robotics or similar, with experience in embedded IOT coding using C/C++ especially for wireless sensor data collection. Knowledge of data encoding and decoding principles, along with some JavaScript or Node JS, and MQTT, JSON is desirable. Additionally, some experience setting up and using WiFi routers and switches as well as 3D printing are also desirable. Candidates should also have basic understanding of electronic components, and be able to fault find at a component level using standard laboratory test equipment, and custom code. 

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum English requirements for the programme, IELTS Academic score of 6.5 (with no less than 5.5 in each component test area) or equivalent.

The studentship is supported for 18 months and includes full home tuition fees plus a stipend of £19,237 per annum 2024/25 rate. The studentship will only fully fund those applicants who are eligible for home fees with relevant qualifications. Applicants normally required to cover international fees will have to cover the difference between the home and the international tuition fee rates (approximately £13,244 per annum 2024/25 rate). 

If you wish to discuss this project further informally, please contact Dr Anne Plessis.

Please see our Apply for a postgraduate research programme page for a list of supporting documents to upload with your application. 

For more information on the admissions process generally, please visit our Apply for a postgraduate research programme page or contact the Doctoral College at research.degree.admissions@plymouth.ac.uk. Applications will not be considered if information is missing.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview shortly after the deadline. We regret that we may not be able to respond to all applications. Applicants who have not received a response within six weeks of the closing date should consider their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.