Virtual and Augmented Reality of South African Palaeolithic and Early Hominin fossil sites.

Location: Bundoora, Victoria

Project (or theme) title: Virtual and Augmented Reality of South African Palaeolithic and Early Hominin fossil sites.

Name of Principal Supervisor: Andy Herries

50-word project or theme description: Archaeologists collect rich and complex spatiotemporal data in the course of their fieldwork. The aim is to incorporate this data into a 3D immersive VR database, as well as create in field AR tools for the reanalysis of archaeological legacy data. This will be done at the Palaeolithic site of Amanzi Springs and early hominin site of Drimolen in South Africa

Any special conditions that will apply to selected candidates:

Indication of whether the scholarship is for a doctoral or masters candidate: PhD

Indication of whether the scholarship is to be allocated at the end of 2020, or in the 2021 mid-year round: end of 2020

Full Advert:

The opportunity

La Trobe University’s Department of Archaeology and La Trobe Department of Computer Science and Information Technology are jointly seeking a PhD student who will develop new tools and techniques that apply immersive (virtual, mixed, and/or augmented reality) technologies to the analysis of South African archaeological data. Archaeologists collect rich and complex spatiotemporal data in the course of their fieldwork. The aim is to incorporate this data into a 3D immersive VR database, as well as create in field AR tools for the reanalysis of archaeological legacy data. This will be done at the Palaeolithic site of Amanzi Springs and early hominin site of Drimolen in South Africa. The successful candidate will already be a capable and experienced computer programmer; previous training in archaeology is not required, but an open mind and a willingness to learn are. Over the course of their study, they will work closely with archaeology researchers at La Trobe to develop and evaluate new tools, techniques, and best practices for analysis of archaeological data. The outcomes of this work, in the form of these tools, techniques, and best practices, have the potential to fundamentally change the way archaeological research is conducted.

The person

A curious and hard-working student with a background in computer science is sought to work with Prof Andy Herries and Dr Richard Skarbez at La Trobe. Very good written and oral communication skills are also required. Excellent computing skills, particularly programming in C#, C++, Java, or a similar language, are required. A background in archaeology is not a requirement, but a willingness to learn is.

Other desirable (but not required) characteristics include:

- Experience with virtual reality, mixed reality, or augmented reality technologies

- Experience with scientific visualization

- Experience working with geospatial data

- Experience developing using the Unity or Unreal game engines

- Experience with 3D modeling, using tools such as Blender, Maya, or 3ds Max

Applicants must fulfill the PhD admission criteria for La Trobe University and demonstrate excellent capacity and potential for research. Entry requirements can be found at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/research/future/apply.