Stealth Integrated Sensing and Communications
PhD Scholarship
Keep military drones hidden from enemies! This PhD develops cutting-edge stealth communication tech so UAVs can coordinate and sense their environment without ever revealing their presence.
Stealth Integrated Sensing and Communications (Stealth-ISAC)
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will become critical assets in future warfare, as evidenced by their extensive deployment in the current Ukraine-Russian conflict.
With rising geopolitical tensions in the South China Sea and the broader Indo-Pacific region, equipping Australia with cost-effective yet highly functional defence technologies is a strategic imperative.
Three essential capabilities in this context are
- secure and reliable communication among UAVs,
- the ability to detect adversaries and the environments, and
- stealth, i.e., not revealing one’s presence to adversaries.
Recent advancements in integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) have demonstrated that a single wireless transceiver can be leveraged for both functions. However, conventional secure communication relies on encryption, which, while preventing data interception, still allows adversaries to detect and jam transmissions. This limitation underscores the need for an advanced approach that ensures both stealth and functionality.
This project proposes to develop Stealth Integrated Sensing and Communication (Stealth-ISAC), a paradigm where communication and sensing signals remain undetectable to adversaries. By building upon recent breakthroughs in covert communications and ISAC, this research will:
- Establish the theoretical limits of Stealth-ISAC by deriving fundamental performance bounds.
- Design transmission codes that achieve these theoretical limits, ensuring optimal trade-offs between detection avoidance, sensing accuracy, and communication reliability.
- Develop advanced beamforming strategies for multi-antenna systems to enable precise and stealthy transmission of signals, minimising detection while maximising operational effectiveness.
This scholarship will be filled upon appointment of a suitable candidate. Early applications are strongly encouraged. All applications must be submitted by 15 December 2026.
PhD Scholarship details
Funding: $38,938 per annum (2026 rate) indexed annually, plus a Defence Innovation Network Top-up of $5,500 per annum for 3 years. For a PhD candidate, the living allowance scholarship and tuition fee scholarship are for 3.5 years. Scholarships also include up to $1,500 relocation allowance.
Supervisor: Lawrence Ong, Duy Ngo, Chandra Thapa
Available to: Domestic students
PhD
Eligibility Criteria
The applicant will need to meet the minimum eligibility criteria for admission and be able to commence before 31/03/2027.
Application Procedure
Interested applicants should send an email expressing their interest along with scanned copies of their academic transcripts, CV, a brief statement of their research interests and a proposal that specifically links them to the research project.
Please send the email expressing interest to Lawrence.Ong@newcastle.edu.au by 5pm on 15 December 2026.
Applications Close 15 December 2026 Apply Now
- Contact: Lawrence Ong
- Phone: +61 2 4921 5385
- Email: Lawrence.Ong@newcastle.edu.au
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