SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (SmartSat) has announced that two of its PhD students have been selected to work on satellite research in a new internship program at the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Φ-lab (Phi Lab).
Brandon Victor, from La Trobe University, and Nermine Hendy, from RMIT University, will travel to ESRIN, ESA’s Specialised Centre of Excellence for Earth Observation, in Frascati, Italy, in January 2024 for a three-month research internship funded by SmartSat.
"Over the past few years, our relationship with Φ-lab has grown stronger through our shared strategic research initiatives in the Kanyini and Φ-sat satellite missions," said SmartSat CRC Chief Executive Officer Professor Andy Koronios.
"We’re delighted to send these talented students to Φ-lab, which is at the forefront of Earth Observation technologies. This international collaboration is a great testament to the progress being made in Australia’s space industry and a chance to showcase our nation’s expertise."
Brandon Victor recently completed a Computer Science Honours in Deep Learning at La Trobe University, and will use this opportunity to further his research using satellite data to locate and phenotype plants from space.
Nermine Hendy is an Electrical and Electronic Engineering PhD researcher at RMIT University and plans to research interference modelling, detection, and mitigation for improving spaceborne SAR performance.
"We welcome these stellar students and look forward to the ideas and learning this program will inspire," said Dr Nicolas Longepe, Earth Observation Data Scientist at ESA, who will be their mentor at Φ-lab for the internship.
"Earth observation has immense potential to improve life on Earth, particularly as we face climate change and increased natural disasters, combined with food security pressures of the world’s expanding population. Bringing together the best scientific minds will further space research and foster stronger international relationships between nations."