The emergence of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), combined with the expansion of underwater infrastructure has led to a huge opportunity for underwater optical communication and sensing. Surveying and monitoring now create huge quantities of data and being able to wirelessly transfer them to operators and the cloud in close to real time is vital.

This project seeks to exploit advances in spatial and wavelength diversity transceivers together with optical design and advanced signal processing to develop robust underwater photonic communication and sensing systems. A system engineering approach will be taken to integrate these systems into practical devices with a view to deployment and demonstrations in challenging real-world underwater environments.

Working within the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics alongside researchers, engineers, and other students, you’ll have the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams within project consortia spanning across academia and industry. Academic support will be provided through the University of Strathclyde whose world-leading Institute of Photonics specialises in novel optical devices.

You’ll be based in the Technology & Innovation Centre where both the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics and the Institute of Photonics are located. You’ll gain expertise in a wide range of optical technologies and will work with researchers and engineers at both centres. Experimental proof-of-concept demonstration is an important aspect of this project, and you’ll learn details of experimental work and prototyping during this project. Research findings will be published in high-impact journals with the opportunity to present at flagship international conferences.

Further information

Institute of Photonics

The Institute of Photonics (IoP), part of the Department of Physics, is a centre of excellence in applications-oriented research at the University of Strathclyde. The Institute’s key objective is to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial applications and development in the area of photonics. The IoP is located in the £100M Technology and Innovation Centre on Strathclyde’s Glasgow city centre campus, at the heart of Glasgow’s Innovation District, where it is co-located with the UK’s first Fraunhofer Research Centre. Researchers at the IoP are active in a broad range of photonics fields under the areas of Photonic Devices, Advanced Lasers and Neurophotonics, please see our research pages for more information.

Strathclyde Physics is a member of SUPA, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance.