About the Project
Project Description:
The College of Business, Technology and Engineering draws on talents, expertise and facilities across Sheffield Hallam University. The vision is to be the leading provider of applied research excellence delivering business, materials, computing, science and engineering innovations meeting the development needs of industry.
This project is part of a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (Sheffield Hallam University | About the University | 33 PhD programmes in English – FindAPhD.com) scheme, in which the successful applicant will undertake certain teaching duties associated with the student experience, in addition to working towards a PhD qualification. They will contribute up to 180 hours of support for research or teaching related activity per academic year. This activity forms part of the scholarship and there is no additional payment.
PhD Research Topic:
Urban waterways, including Sheffield’s River Don and Derbyshire’s River Derwent, face escalating pressures from storm-water overflows, road runoff, industrial residues, and ageing water infrastructure. These pollution sources generate complex, short-lived, and spatially heterogeneous contamination events that pose risks to ecosystems, infrastructure, and public health. However, the tools currently used to monitor urban river water quality provide only fragmented and delayed insights. Conventional approaches rely heavily on infrequent manual sampling at fixed surface locations, resulting in sparse datasets that fail to capture transient pollution dynamics. This creates a critical evidence gap that limits timely intervention, informed regulation, and effective river restoration planning. Consequently, environmental and ecological regulators and researchers continue to operate with incomplete, retrospective datasets, undermining the ability to respond proactively to episodic contamination events that increasingly characterise urban river systems under climate change and urbanisation pressures.
To address the research question of “how urban river systems can be effectively monitored and managed in the face of complex contamination dynamics”, the project introduces a new non-traditional paradigm—a pragmatic approach that integrates low-cost sensing technologies with easy-to-deploy agile aquatic platforms combined with AI-driven intelligence in order to overcome the spatiotemporal limitations of traditional urban river monitoring. MOSAIC aims to develop an integrated monitoring framework that combines low-cost, agile autonomous aquatic robots with advanced spectral sensor fusion, uniting IoT-enabled robotic platforms and an intelligent data-analysis pipeline to collect real-time water-quality data from both mobile robots and fixed sensing stations, thereby capturing the spatiotemporal dynamics of contamination in urban waterways.
By rapidly generating high-resolution spectral and chemical fingerprints, MOSAIC enables timely identification and classification of contaminants, supporting proactive and data-driven water-quality management. This PhD will investigate and determine the most effective sensor fusion and classification architectures for real-time water quality monitoring, moving beyond simple detection to proactive contaminant fingerprinting. This system collapses traditional “days-to-data” monitoring cycles into minutes, transforming monitoring from reactive and episodic to proactive and intelligence-led. While demonstrated on the River Don, the approach is designed to be scalable and transferable to urban waterways across the UK and internationally. MOSAIC is envisioned to provide actionable intelligence through open-access datasets and a public-facing, data-driven visual analytics platform, enhancing transparency and fostering community engagement in river stewardship.
Eligibility
Applicants should hold at least a 1st or 2:1 Honours degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Maritime Engineering or a related discipline.
We strongly encourage applications from individuals from groups underrepresented in postgraduate research, including but not limited to women, LGBTQ+, and minoritised ethnic groups.
Information for international applicants
English language requirements of IELTS 7 with a minimum score of 6.5 in all test areas (or equivalent) are mandatory if English is not your first language. Qualifications should have been taken within the last two years. Further information can be found here.
How to apply
To apply for this GTA scholarship, please use our online application form.
You must ensure that you upload:
1. A personal statement (up to 2 pages maximum) detailing your interest in the project and how your experience in academia, industry, research or social activities makes you the best candidate (Please upload this in place of a proposal). We’re looking for evidence of:
• motivation and curiosity for postgraduate research
• analytical and technical expertise related to the research proposal
• ability to communicate clearly
• planning and organisational skills
• ability to work independently and collaborate with others
• commitment to integrity and responsible research
• resilience to setbacks and challenges
• where you might contribute to teaching
2. A two page (maximum) CV
3. Two letters of reference, or details of two referees, at least one from an academic and both dated within the last 2 years
4. Copy of your highest degree certificate and transcript. If your degree is not yet awarded then submit a copy of your latest transcript.
5. Non-UK applicants must submit IELTS results (or equivalent) taken in the last two years and a copy of their passport
If you are applying for multiple GTA projects, please clearly list them all in your application. You will need to submit a tailored personal statement for each project.
Application deadline: 07 May 2026
Start date: October 2026
Interviews: TBC
Information about our research degrees can be found here.
Funding Notes
The GTA scholarship is for 3.5 years of full-time study and provides tuition fees at both the UK (home) and international level plus a maintenance bursary in line with guidance from UK Research and Innovation and the Living Wage Foundation (for illustrative purposes, the Sheffield Hallam University bursary for 25/26 is £22152). GTA scholarships are open to both UK (home) and international applicants.
