Engineering research

Bold ideas, real impact

Our researchers

Professor Mia Woodruff

Mia Woodruff has more than 20 years experience in biomedical engineering. She is as an internationally renowned expert in tissue engineering and biofabrication, with extensive experience in all aspects of biomaterial scaffold fabrication techniques, pre-clinical models and histological analysis.

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Associate Professor Sara Couperthwaite

Sara Couperthwaite's research focuses on the advancement of sustainable technologies, with an emphasis on recycling wastewater and waste residues produced by industry for the development of new materials and the optimisation of plant operations.

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Distinguished Professor Dietmar W Hutmacher

Distinguished Professor Dietmar W. Hutmacher is internationally recognised for his research in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, advanced additive biomanufacturing and soft robotics, including the use of patient-specific 3D-printed scaffolds to repair bone and other tissue.

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Dr Laura Bray

Laura Bray is a senior lecturer at QUT and deputy director of the ARC Training Centre for Cell and Tissue Engineering Technologies. She was awarded the inaugural Prime Minister’s Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Postdoctoral Award, which is awarded to only one woman in Australia.

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Associate Professor Niko Suenderhauf

Associate Professor Niko Suenderhauf conducts research in robotic vision at the intersection of robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. His research focuses on scene understanding and how robots can learn to perform complex tasks that require navigation and interaction with objects, the environment, and humans.

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Professor Michael Milford

Professor Michael Milford conducts interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and is the Joint Centre Director of QUT's Centre for Robotics.

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Professor Felipe Gonzalez

Felipe Gonzalez has more than 20 years of experience developing drones for remote sensing. He leads the Airborne Systems Lab and is co-lead for Perception and Localisation research program at the Centre for Robotics. He has received five innovation awards and leads several ARC and Microsoft AI for Earth grant projects.

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Professor Tommy Chan

Within the broad field of structural engineering, Professor Tommy Chan’s main research interests include structural dynamics, bridge design and construction, weigh-in-motion studies, damage detection and structural health monitoring. He’s currently researching how to mitigate vehicle crashes into masonry buildings and developing ways intelligent structures can self-evaluate deterioration.

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Professor Mahen Mahendran

Professor Mahen Mahendran is an in structural engineering expert with a special interest in wind and fire engineering. He leads QUT’s Wind and Fire Engineering Lab which offers full scale testing facilities for low-rise buildings under wind loads, air-box facilities to test cladding systems, and fire testing facilities for beams, columns, walls and floors.

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Dr Tatheer Zahra

Dr Tatheer Zahra’s vision is to promote innovative and sustainable engineering materials in construction. Her main research interests are structural masonry and auxetic materials that can flex when force is applied. She has been investigating the performance of interlocking mortarless masonry under various loading conditions and is working with Standards Australia on design guidelines for these materials.

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Australia's highest ranked research for the fifth year in a row

(Australian Research Magazine, 2024)

Centre for Robotics

Progress in the development of intelligent robotic systems is exciting. We're exploring ways for robots to visually sense, understand and interact with complex and unstructured real world environments.

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Our research strategy

To achieve internationally recognised excellence and impact, the QUT Faculty of Engineering is committed to the consolidation and growth of our research capacity in priority and emerging areas.

The faculty’s research strategy provides context around the research priorities and the external challenges that we seek to collectively address. These research priorities are firmly anchored in tackling significant, complex and ongoing challenges that shape our global landscape.

Download the QUT Faculty of Engineering Research Strategy (PDF file, 2.5 MB)

Real world research

Mackay Renewable Biocommodities Pilot Plant

Our Mackay Pilot Plant is pioneering research and innovation in biorefining. By turning agricultural biomass into cleaner bioproducts, we’re supporting an increased uptake of renewable processes and creating a more profitable and sustainable agriculture sector.

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STRATA Research Group

We provide high-impact solutions to industry by integrating sustainable process engineering practices with fundamental science and delivering workforce skills and industry-relevant educational programs and commercial outcomes.

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Our research groups and projects

Displaying 19 - 24 of 28 research projects

Mechanical Metamaterials, Devices, and Surfaces

Mechanical meta-materials, also known as architectured or architected materials, are an emerging class of materials in which mechanical properties can be tailored by altering their internal architectures. Analogous to these materials, the same concept has been used to modify devices and surfaces, leading to mechanical meta-devices and mechanical meta-surfaces. For example, robotic pick-and-place devices can be architectured to tune their shape and stiffness in situ so they can interact with objects with various shapes and hardnesses. Or surfaces of biomedical implants can be nano-architectured (nano-structured) to lyse the bacteria cells, a strategy pioneered in nature, for example, in insect wings. This website showcases our research in new classes of mechanical meta-materials, -devices, and -surfaces. For design, we use analytical and finite element models. We develop novel manufacturing techniques for fabrication, including ceramic 3D/4D printing. And we use state-of-the-art characterisation techniques, such as mechanical testing under in-situ stereo-imaging and in-stu computed tomography, to understand the architecture-property relationships, which can then be used for optimisation.

QUT-Sealy Centre for Biomechanics and Sleep Research

The QUT-Sealy Centre for Biomechanics and Sleep Research aims to combine real-world biomechanics and sleep research into mattress creation and production. The centre is based on the collaboration between QUT's Biomechanics and Spine Research Group and leading mattress manufacturer Sealy Australia.

Quantitative Ultrasound Imaging

Delivering excellence in quantitative ultrasound

Biomechanics and Spine Research Group

The Biomechanics and Spine Research Group is a collaboration between Medical Engineering at QUT and the Spinal Orthopaedic Surgeons at the Queensland Children's Hospital. Our aim is to conduct quality research into paediatric spinal deformity and ensure patients receive the best management possible.