PhD Studentship: Sensing the Ocean Through Surfing: A New Wave in Ocean Observation

Overview

This studentship explores how recreational platforms, specifically surfers and surfboards, can be utilized as low-cost tools for ocean observation in dynamic coastal environments. Traditional oceanographic methods depend on expensive and specialized instruments deployed from research vessels, fixed stations, or autonomous platforms, which limits spatial coverage due to cost and logistics. This research investigates whether recreational water users can help monitor rapidly changing coastal areas by transforming everyday equipment into environmental sensing platforms.

What you get

The position provides funding for university fees along with a stipend of £21,805 per annum for the 2026/7 period.

Requirements

The project covers biological and physical oceanography, engineering, environmental sensing, and social citizen science. Research tasks include integrating miniaturized sensors into surfboards without disrupting normal use, evaluating sensor accuracy under variable recreational conditions, combining opportunistic data from multiple users to assess spatial and temporal coastal variability, and examining the motivations of recreational water users who participate in data collection. The student will engage in sensor development, experimental testing, field observations, data analysis, and citizen science methodologies, working in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a UK surfboard manufacturer, and an open-hardware company.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 2026-12-08.