Summer Scholarships at the Biometry Hub

Experience real-world data science and statistics as you boost your skills through a Summer Research Scholarships (SRS) in the Biometry Hub.

A summer research scholarship through the Biometry Hub is a great way to experience research and work in the field of statistics and data science! These scholarships are open to undergraduate students, and students from universities other than the University of Adelaide are welcome to apply. For more information about any of the projects, please contact the Director of the Biometry Hub, Dr Olena Kravchuk. For more information about the Summer Research Scholarship Program, please visit the faculty information page. To apply for a scholarship, please complete an online application form. The closing date for applications is 18th September 2020.

In the summer of 2020/2021, there are three projects available:


Developing web applications for data pipeline in agronomy experiments

Supervisors: Olena Kravchuk and Sam Rogers

E-mail: olena.kravchuk@adelaide.edu.au

Project Outline

Field observations are collected nowadays in automatic or semi-automatic way, when human observations, image, spectral and other type of data are combined together to describe objects in experiments or field surveys. The data collection process is prone to human error and may cause inefficiency in projects or bias in data analyses and interpretations. This project uses the Shiny R software package to develop several data pipelines for typical projects for on-farm trials for grains and meat and livestock experimentation in the Southern region.

Techniques/Skills Learnt:

  • Fundamentals of statistical principles for design and analysis of single-site
  • Basic use of R for data management, tabulation, presentation and checking for data quality
  • Basic use of Shiny for designing efficient single-machine apps for data pipelines

On incorporating spatially balanced sampling design for the quality control of field maps

Supervisors: Olena Kravchuk and Peter Kasprzak (Blair Robertson, University of Canterbury, NZ, external supervisor)

E-mail: olena.kravchuk@adelaide.edu.au

Project Outline

Yield and soil maps are commonly available nowadays for general field operations as well as research purposes in agronomic inquiries. Anecdotally, there has been raised an issue with the lack of reliability of the quality of such maps in the agronomy studies in Australia and worldwide. Cammarano et al. (2020) proposed a simulation model to study temporal and spatial yield variations. This project applies similar principles to build simulations of crop variability for yield maps available for the Southern region in Australia for various crops. We are interested in investigating strategies for spatial sampling competing with the standard geostatistics grid sampling for checking the quality of the maps.

Cammarano, Davide, Jonathan Holland, and Domenico Ronga. "Spatial and temporal variability of spring barley yield and quality quantified by crop simulation model." Agronomy 10.3 (2020): 393.

Techniques/Skills Learnt:

  • Fundamentals of precision agriculture, yield and soil maps
  • Fundamentals of geo-statistics and spatial sampling
  • Basic use of R and specialised packages for simulation studies of crop maps

Understanding field sampling strategies for snails and slugs

Supervisors: Olena Kravchuk and Russell Edison (Kathy Ruggiero, University of Auckland, NZ, external supervisor)

E-mail: olena.kravchuk@adelaide.edu.au

Brief Project Outline:

Various strategies are applied for field sampling of snails and slugs for monitoring and comparative purposes. In our recent encounter with a large field survey, seasonal, temporal and spatial variation in sampling were understood as having a substantial influence on the scope of conclusions which can be drawn from the samples collected. This project undertakes a systematic literature review of publications on snails and slugs sampling in crops, and designs simulation sampling scenarios based on some key publications.

Techniques/Skills Learnt:

  • Fundamentals of probability sampling for crop pests
  • Designing systematic literature reviewB
  • Basic use of R and specialised packages for text procession and simulation studies of crop distribution of the pest
Tagged in Biometry Hub, Summer Research Scholarship, Students, Undergraduate