PhD Position at the intersection of Agriculture and Computer Sciences

Management decisions in crop fields are based on crop traits such as the current developmental stage or the fertilization status that are combined with spatial metadata such as information on soil, weather and disease pressure in the region. The project ‘Digitwin Wheat’ aims at establishing an approach that allows for improved decision support based on a high-quality visual representation of the past, current and projected future status of the crop field. It makes use of thousands of images acquired by the group of Crop Science of ETH Zürich (Prof. Achim Walter, Dr Lukas Roth) in Eschikon (‘FIP field’) and of image processing capabilities of the DS3Lab of ETH Zürich (Prof. Ce Zhang). As part of the project, these image time series will be enriched with project-specific, newly collected data. Wheat will be the core crop to be worked on. Modelling approaches that represent its temporal development will be complemented with metadata such as soil and weather information as well as field management data.

You are expected to work towards a doctoral degree and participate mostly in the research and teaching activities of the group of Crop Science, but also in those of the DS3Lab. You will capture images in our field site at Lindau-Eschikon, 20 km away from Zurich, on a regular basis and you will interact with farmers and scientists conducting experiments there. The full-time position offers you an excellent opportunity to delve into the world of data science and crop growth modelling, and at the same time improve your practice-oriented knowledge of real-life agriculture. You will join an inclusive and supportive working environment that praises scientific curiosity and creativity.

You are a highly motivated, committed and creative candidate, who can work in a multidisciplinary team and who has outstanding communication skills. At the time of appointment, you have completed a Statistics, Computer Science, Data Science or similar Master’s degree. A strong command of programming languages such as Python and R is required. Experience in Agriculture is of high advantage for an application. Excellent English and German communication skills are essential.

ETH Zurich is a family-friendly employer with excellent working conditions. You can look forward to an exciting working environment, cultural diversity and attractive offers and benefits.