Adelaide University

Adelaide University is a major public research university in Adelaide, South Australia, formed by the 2026 merger of the University of Adelaide (founded 1874) and the University of South Australia. With around 70,000 students across seven campuses, it's a member of the Group of Eight, Australia's leading research-intensive universities, and ranks #82 globally in the 2026 QS World University Rankings.

Homepage: https://adelaide.edu.au/

Wildfires cause severe loss of life, property and ecosystems, making rapid detection vital. Small satellites can now use onboard AI to detect fires and transmit alerts rather than imagery, as demonstrated by our team on different SmallSat missions.

This PhD will address two key limitations: limited labelled training data and the isolated analysis of individual satellite passes. It will investigate Earth-observation foundation models to improve fire detection from limited training data and develop lightweight models for onboard deployment. It will also explore agentic AI and constellation-scale approaches to combine repeated observations across Australian-led satellite constellations, helping confirm fire progression, reduce false alarms and prioritise urgent alerts. The research will advance Adelaide University’s SmartSat CRC-funded work towards operational early wildfire detection.

https://app.smartsheet.au/b/form/019eedeef91978fdbc2b67718479eac6?project_id=SRTSR0347

see also https://adelaide.edu.au/study/how-to-apply/research/

For question regarding the application please contact: augrs.experience@adelaide.edu.au