Fully Funded PhD Opportunities in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Human-Robot Cooperation, and AI for Smart Cranes at Monash University Monash University in Australia

Monash University in Melbourne, Australia is advertising two fully funded PhD positions in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The projects are supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and are supervised by Dr Yihai Fang, Senior Lecturer and Director of the ICON Research Lab.

The research themes focus on safe human-robot cooperation on construction sites and artificial intelligence for smart cranes. Specific topics include context representation, intelligent reasoning, human-robot cooperation in complex construction environments, human-AI shared autonomy, multimodal perception, large language models (LLMs), and intelligent safe lifting systems. This opportunity is especially relevant for students interested in Civil Engineering, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Mechatronics, and related intelligent systems work.

The scholarship is described as fully funded and includes an annual stipend of approximately AUD 37,145 tax-free, a full tuition waiver, and the possibility of additional income through teaching assistant work. The post also notes that applicants should preferably have a strong master's or bachelor's degree in one of the listed engineering or computing fields, along with skills in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, LLMs, data analytics, and construction informatics.

Initial application materials requested are a CV and academic transcripts. A short research interest statement and publication list are recommended. The deadline for the initial letter of interest to the supervisor is 10 July 2026, and the deadline for the formal university application is 31 July 2026.