NSF Funded Ph.D. Position(s) Remote Sensing and Computer Vision at the University of California at Merced

Highly-motivated PhD students are sought to start in fall 2018 in the EECS program under Professor Shawn Newsam in the areas of computer vision, image analysis, spatial analysis, and remote sensing.

I anticipate recruiting one or more students to work on an NSF funded project on images and videos captured from unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly known as drones:

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1747535&HistoricalAwards=false

Drones are democratizing overhead image and video capture. Within an hour, someone can purchase a drone from a local electronics store for a few hundred dollars and capture high resolution imagery of the Earth which can be made available to the world through the Internet.

Rather than focus on specific applications, I am seeking to develop a suite of fundamental analysis techniques for drone images and videos.

Funding for students is expected to be in the form of research and/or teaching assistantships.

Desired qualifications:
- A BS or preferably an MS in CS, EE, or related areas.
- Strong mathematical background.
- Strong programming ability.
- Experience/interest in one or more of the following:
-- Image processing and computer vision
-- Pattern recognition and machine learning
-- Remote sensing
-- Geographic information systems/sciences
- Desire to publish in top conferences and journals. This includes computer vision as well as remote sensing venues.

For further information:
- Professor Newsam's research lab: http://vision.ucmerced.edu/
- Professor Newsam's webpage: http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/snewsam/
- EECS graduate group at UC Merced: http://eecs.ucmerced.edu
 
To be considered for the above positions, you must apply to the EECS graduate program at UC Merced. For more information about the application procedure, please see:

- Application procedure: http://graduatedivision.ucmerced.edu
 
The application deadline is January 15, 2018.

The selection process is expected to be very competitive.

PLEASE BE SURE TO MENTION PROFESSOR SHAWN NEWSAM and your interest in the project(s) above in your Statement of Purpose.

The Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) graduate group at UC Merced consists of 15 faculty members and over 65 mostly PhD-level graduate students. The group has collective interests in machine learning, computer vision, speech processing, computer graphics, robotics, sensor networks, distributed systems, databases, intelligent systems, and computational neuroscience, among others areas. UC Merced is the tenth campus of the University of California and the first American research university built in the 21st century. It is located in the California Central Valley, approximately one hour drive from the Yosemite National Park and two hours from the San Francisco Bay Area.

----
Shawn Newsam
Associate Professor and Founding Faculty
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
School of Engineering
University of California, Merced
Email: snewsam@ucmerced.edu
Web: http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/snewsam