Professor Linlin Ge

Linlin is currently a Professor of remote sensing and earth observation in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. He has been studying earth observation techniques since 1985. Among many other prestigious awards, Professor Ge and his team’s work to support the Sichuan Earthquake rescue effort won them the highly prestigious JK Barrie Award for Overall Excellence at the 2008 Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards. He was named "NSW Scientist of the Year 2009" in the category Physics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Astronomy for his work in near real-time satellite remote sensing.

He received his PhD in GPS and remote sensing from UNSW, Sydney, MSc in Crustal Deformation from the Institute of Seismology, and BEng (1^st Hons and University Medal) in Optical Engineering from the Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping. In 1997-1998, he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency sponsored by the Science and Technology Agency of Japan.

Linlin is a foundation member of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute. He is a Member of the IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) and a Life Member of the AGU (the American Geophysical Union). He is also a Principal Investigator for satellite missions such as Envisat, ALOS, COSMO-SkyMed, Radarsat-2 and ALOS-2.
 

Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research interest

Level 1: I use digital images to map the surface of the Earth

Level 2: I combine remote sensing with GPS and GIS to produce cost-effective and highly reliable maps

Level 3: Integrating radar and optical remote sensing with GPS and GIS, we measure the subtle change on the surface of the Earth with minimum latency using data collected from satellite, airborne and UAV platforms

Interest in engineering

Why did you get into engineering?

Engineering delivers practical and innovative solutions to difficult problems in our daily life

What are your research goals?

To make remote sensing more timely, accurate, affordable and widely applicable

What do people not understand about you do?

Remote sensing, especially satellite remote sensing, is perceived as high tech and hence hard to study and difficult to be applied in daily life.

Advice for prospective Civil & Environmental engineers

Because of the significant progress in micro-electronics and computing, remote sensing has become the most cost-effective and efficient way to support Civil & Environmental engineering and other engineering disciplines.

Lectures/Courses taught

Principles of Remote Sensing

Radar Remote Sensing

Earth Observation System and Applications

Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry

Surveying for Civil Engineers

Surveying for Mining Engineers

Surveying and GIS

Electronic Surveying Instrumentation

Students 

Number currently in lab: 5

Number graduated: 25

Student Projects:

Persistent scatterer radar interferometry (PSI)

Differential radar interferometry (DInSAR)

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR)

Integration of InSAR, GPS and GIS

Remote sensing with satellite, airborne and UAV platforms

Remote sensing with multi-temporal imagery

Remote sensing with sub-pixel analysis

Near-real-time satellite remote sensing

Remote sensing applications in natural disaster monitoring

Looking for students for projects related to:

Persistent scatterer radar interferometry

Near-real-time satellite remote sensing

Remote sensing applications in natural disaster monitoring

Digital image processing

Sensor networks

Internet of Things (IoT)

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

Smart Cities

Natural disaster mitigation (bushfire, flood, landslide and earthquake)

Professional Organisations and Consulting positions

2011 - present

The CEOS WGCV SAR Subgroup (Working Group on Calibration and Validation, Synthetic Aperture Radar Subgroup, The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites)

2008 - present

Member, Remote Sensing Sub Committee, the Data and Information Management Working Group, New South Wales, Australia (a NSW Government cluster group comprising NSW Government agencies in the natural resources and planning sectors).

2008 - 2012

Member, Spatial Governance Committee, Department of Lands, New South Wales, Australia

2008 - 2012

International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Working Group V/I on Land-based mobile mapping systems

2008 - present

Chair, Study Group 6.2 Optimal Use of InSAR, International Federation of Surveyors

2004 - present

Foundation Member, SSI (the Spatial Sciences Institute, Australia)

2002 - present

Member, IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.)

2002 - present

Life Member, AGU (the American Geophysical Union)

Awards, Grants, Patents

Awards

2010 UNSW Inventor of the Year, finalist in the category: Information and Communication Technology 

NSW Scientist of the Year 2009 Award in the Physics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Astronomy Category 

University of New South Wales Research Showcase Best Poster Award, 2009

Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards - the J K Barrie Award for Overall Excellence, 2008 

Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards – People and Community, 2008

NSW Awards for Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information, Finalist, 2008

Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards, Finalist, 2005

The Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2002-2004

Best Tutor Prize, School of Geomatic Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia, 2001

Best Student Paper Award, the U.S. Institute of Navigation, USA, 1999 

Top-up Postgraduate Scholarship, School of Geomatic Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia, 1998-2000

Supplementary Engineering Postgraduate Award (SEPA), Faculty of Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia, 1998-2000

International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS), Commonwealth of Australia, 1998-2000

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Meteorological Research Institute, the Science & Technology Agency, Japan, 1997-1998

Current Grants

ARC Discovery grant “Advanced techniques for imaging radar interferometry”

Australian Space Research Program “SAR Formation Flying”

ARC Super Science Fellow “Towards operational monitoring of key climate parameters from synthetic aperture radar”

GDF SUEZ Energy Australia, "Monitoring subsidence in Hazelwood Mine with Advanced Persistent Scatterer Interferometry"

Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Authority, "Flood mapping with satellite SAR"

CO2CRC, "InSAR mapping of Otway and Iona sites"

Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment, "Monitoring Subsidence in Gippsland with InSAR"

Australia-China Group Mission, "Monitoring Mining Environment with Satellite Remote Sensing"

ARC-Linkage,"Measurement of paddock scale pasture biomass using synthetic aperture radar remote sensing"

Ministry of Science and Technology, China, "Satellite SAR for monitoring illegal mining activities"

ARC-Linkage, "A new approach to structural design that incorporates the effect of non-structural components"

Queensland, Victorian, Western Australia, and New South Wales governments, "Near real-time flood mapping with satellite SAR"

Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Joint Coordination Group on Clean Coal Technology (JCG), "Integrated radar and optical satellite remote sensing for safeguarding carbon capture and storage"

Education

PhD/postgraduate

Ph.D., University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

M.Sc., Institute of Seismology, China Seismological Bureau, Wuhan, P.R. China.

Undergraduate

B.Eng. (1st Hons. and University Medal), Wuhan Technical University of Surveying & Mapping, Wuhan, P.R. China.