Project description
Sewer systems are critical infrastructure for modern urban societies. Sewer management is currently more reactive than proactive. It is often triggered by incidents such as flooding or odour complaints, which represent a system failure. The use of real-time control (RTC) is currently limited and restricted to local loops for local goals. This project aims to develop novel real-time optimisation algorithms, supported by efficient data-driven predictive models for proactive sewer management, including sewer overflow or flooding, sewer inflow, infiltration and exfiltration, sewer corrosion and odour, and sewer greenhouse gas emissions. The project offers excellent opportunities for training PhD students in multiple disciplines, including chemical and biological processes, mathematical modelling, and automatic control.
Research environment
The Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB) at UQ is one of the top research centres worldwide in innovative water science and technology. UQ is ranked No.1 in the world in the field Water Supply and Treatment (The Australian Research Magazine, 2021). The Centre is well-known globally for its concurrent high impact in both academia and industry. Through this project, you will have access to the state-of-the-art facilities at ACWEB and diverse real-life sewer networks to investigate advanced control strategies for practical applications. You will establish a strong research link with the Australian water industry, which provides not only strong expertise in technology innovation, but also industry experience in sewer monitoring and maintenance. In the meantime, you will be supported by the advisory team to attend international conferences.
Scholarship
This project is supported by the Research project scholarship.
This scholarship includes:
- living stipend of $36,400 per annum tax free (2025 rate), indexed annually
- tuition fees covered.
Learn more about the Research project scholarship.
Supervisor
Principal supervisor
Dr Jiuling Li
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology
Associate supervisor
Professor Damien Batstone
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology
View Professor Damien Batstone’s profile
You must contact the principal supervisor for this project to discuss your interest. You should only complete the online application after you have reached agreement on supervision.
Always make sure you are approaching your potential supervisor in a professional way. We have provided some guidelines for you on how to contact a supervisor.
Preferred educational background
Your application will be assessed on a competitive basis.
We take into account your:
- previous academic record
- publication record
- honours and awards
- employment history
A working knowledge of process control, electrical engineering, computer science, and urban water/wastewater management would be of benefit to someone working on this project.
You will demonstrate academic achievement in the field/s of control engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, or related areas and the potential for scholastic success.
A background or knowledge of automation, information and communications technology is highly desirable.
How to apply
To be considered for this scholarship, please email the following documents to Dr Jiuling Li (jiuling.li@uq.edu.au):
- Cover letter
- CV
- Academic transcript/s
- Evidence for meeting UQ’s English language proficiency requirements eg TOEFL, IELTS
Please note the following: Submitting the above documents does not constitute a full application for admission into The University of Queensland’s PhD program. If you are selected as the preferred applicant, you will then be invited to submit a full application for admission. You can familiarise yourself with the documents required for this process on the UQ Study website.
