Job Description
Job title:
Department/School:
Salary:
Location:
KTP Project Engineer (Acoustic Tomography) –
KTP Associate
Physics and Electronic and Electrical
Engineering
£25,000 to £28,500 p/a depending on
qualifications and experience, plus an additional
£4,000 personal training and development
budget
The post is fixed term for 24 months
Seiche Ltd. (Bradworthy, Devon)
Bradworthy is a very small rural village with no
public transport therefore the Associate will
need to have their own transport and be able to
finance his/her own transport to work
Job purpose
To develop the first high frequency acoustic tomography based cetacean
identification system capable of automatically detecting animals at risk of
being affected by seismic survey airgun impulses.
This is a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Seiche
Ltd, the Department of Physics and the Department of Electronic and
Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath, overlapping by 1 year with a
previous 2-year KTP project investigating acoustic measurements. The two
Associates are expected to work in close cooperation.
Source and nature of management provided
The KTP project is delivered by the Associate and is managed through a Local
Management Committee (LMC). This is chaired by the senior company executive
and comprises the Company and Academic leaders/supervisors and a KTP
Advisor (InnovateUK representative), and meets every 4 months. Monthly
progress meetings are held with the Company and Academic Supervisors. Dayto-day management will be organised by the Company’s Technical Manager.
During Year 1 of the project, another Associate (in Year 2 of his part of the
project) will be working in liaison with the Associate, providing the necessary
acoustic measurements and expertise. Each Associate will be coming with a
distinct set of skills and will have specific objectives.
Staff management responsibility
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There is no direct management responsibility. During Year 1, the Associate will
interact daily with the other Associate already in place on an equal basis.
Limited management of technical staff might be envisaged at specific times, if
justified by the project’s operational requirements.
Special conditions
The Associate must be able to travel as required, to attend KTP residential
schools and any meeting in the UK or overseas as is necessary for the
successful completion of the project.
The Associate might have to assist with data collection at sea, as required by the
project.
Main duties and responsibilities
1
Design an acoustic tomography software to detect marine mammals at depth
and within selectable ranges, using measurements provided by Associate 1.
Provide information on movements of animals and response to seismic
activity.
2
The project will make full use of acoustic measurements and utilise/modify
software code provided by Associate 1, and the applicant will need to
understand enough acoustics (or be willing to learn enough) to enable
efficient communication between the two parts of the project and full
achievement of the project’s goals.
3
Teamwork and motivation. Year 1 of the project will be in close
coordination with Associate 1, making use of his results and communicating
effectively to achieve the project objectives. This project is part of a wider
team effort and flexibility will be required when scheduling tasks and there
will be some mini-projects in addition to the KTP projects.
4
Initiative and problem-solving. The main objectives of the project and the
desired timeline are set but how they will be achieved will be dictated by the
evolution of the research. The Associate must therefore be self-motivated to
complete the tasks and manage the project accordingly.
5
Analysis of results will require awareness of tomography and, later in the
project, underwater acoustics in the wider context of seismic exploration and
regulations (training will be provided if required). The Associate will need to
combine different fields to make best use of the results.
6
At specific times in the project, the Associate might be expected to supervise
technical personnel for completion of specific tasks, either in person or
remotely.
7
Liaison and Networking. The project relies on a good dissemination of
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results but also the pro-active search for the right information, sometimes
outside the applicant’s direct skill set, and sometimes to show external
customers the results of the project and how it matches their objectives.
Timely and relevant exchanges of information are primordial.
8
Communication. The Associate is expected to write monthly progress
reports and prepare executive summaries and other reports for the Local
Management Committee (LMC) meetings. Within the limits of commercial
confidentiality, the Associate will have the opportunity to deliver papers at
conferences and will be expected to co-author articles in peer-reviewed
international publications. Excellent written and oral communication skills are
therefore important.
The Associate will be an employee of the University of Bath and based at the
company for most of the time.
You will from time to time be required to undertake other duties of a similar nature
as reasonably required by your line manager. You are required to follow all
University policies and procedures at all times and take account of University
guidance.
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Person Specification
Criteria
Qualifications
Essential
A PhD in Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computer
Science, Engineering, or other appropriate subject

Desirable
Experience/Knowledge
Programming experience in a high-level language such as
Matlab or C.


Familiarity with high-performance computing would be
desirable
Experience of working in multi-disciplinary project teams to
agreed project plans and specifications

Project management experience or demonstrated selfmotivation in industry and/or research settings

Strong software or mathematics background and will have
previous industrial or research project experience in
inverse problems and/or image/signal processing and/or a
background in electromagnetism/acoustics.

Demonstrate they have, or could rapidly develop the ability
to undertake the software development of 3D/4D image
reconstruction and acoustic inversion algorithms.

Demonstrate they have, or could rapidly acquire, the data
interpretation skills to validate the complex scattering
models and how to use Associate 1’s output data.

Skills
Excellent written and verbal communication skills (proven
experience of writing reports, giving presentations,
interacting with customers or other third parties
communicating complex technical information to
stakeholders at all levels).
Teamwork and motivation: experience of working as part
of a small team.
4


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Demonstrated high-level investigation, analysis and
research skills.


Ability to manage time critical projects
Ability to conceptualise and understand the commercial
imperative for the project
Excellent problem solving skills


Attributes
Self-motivated: ability to “take ownership” of the project
and bring it to successful completion

Awareness of the principles of KTP and a willingness to
embrace them

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