QUT offers a diverse range of student topics for Honours, Masters and PhD study. Search to find a topic that interests you or propose your own research topic to a prospective QUT supervisor. You may also ask a prospective supervisor to help you identify or refine a research topic.
Found 210 matching student topics
Displaying 145–156 of 210 results
Glassy 2D molecular materials
Modern semiconductor technologies are based on crystalline materials with well-defined physical and electronic structures.However, molecular materials, such as organic semiconductors, may present interesting opportunities through disordered structures.The focus of this project will be on conjugated 2D materials without long-range order: molecular glasses. Through control of the chemical composition, atomic bonding motifs, and lateral size, we will be able to modify the properties of these materials.Our focus will be on synthesising and studying these new materials to better understand the relationship …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Considering economics when prioritising species conservation
There are limited funds available for saving threatened species globally. Investing that money wisely can help ecologists and the government achieve more bang for their buck, and help more species and ecosystems.We can use many approaches to help guide those investment decisions, including mathematical optimisation and operations research. However better considerations of economic factors are needed in order to reflect the complexity of real ecosystems and governments.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Maxwell's Demon revisited: Molecular simulations as a statistical physics learning tool
In his 1871 'Theory of Heat', James Clerk Maxwell introduced a fictitious being who can violate the second law of thermodynamics by following the trajectory of every molecule within a gas.The being, later dubbed 'Maxwell's Demon' by Lord Kelvin, would operate a small trapdoor in a partitioned container to allow hotter and colder molecules of the gas to pass to opposite sides of the container. The Demon would be able to raise the temperature of the gas in one half …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
High-performance scoring of CRISPR targets
The CRISPR-Cas9 technology allows the modification of virtually any gene in any organism of interest. It's generated a lot of interest, both in the research community and the general population.One of the crucial components of CRISPR experiments is the design of the "guide RNAs" that will control where modifications occur. It's vital that the modification is made at the desired location and not elsewhere.We developed a method utilising high-performance computing to efficiently assess the "off-target risk" of each guide RNA …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Digital business models
The ongoing proliferation of a digital lifestyle and the exposure to global innovation raises the expectation level of customers for new products and services. The ongoing technological innovations make this possible, but require digital business models to turn them into viable commercial offerings.This is not only relevant for new (‘born-on-the-web’) companies, but also for traditional companies who run the risk of having their core business disrupted. While some struggle with the new business models (e.g. Kodak), others turn it into …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Information Systems
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Future Enterprise
Business model innovation
Business models are becoming an important focus of innovation activities of practitioners and innovation studies of academics.When organisations want to introduce new products or services or need to transform their existing products or services, a viable business model is a critical requirement for commercial success. For example, many internet services are provided for free and require providers to find alternative sources of revenue, such as advertisements or premium services.In addition, the innovation of the business model itself is often a …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Information Systems
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Future Enterprise
Molecular simulation of rotational diffusion in ideal liquids
Rotational tumbling of molecules in a liquid is an important phenomenon in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) because it determines the spin-relaxation rates of the resident nuclei which can determine MRI contrast.For a relatively simple molecular process, the theoretical description of rotational motion of molecules in liquids remains controversial. The most commonly used model, the Debye model, assumes that:the rotational diffusion propagator of a tumbling molecule is a solution of the diffusion equation on a spherical surfacethis solution is described by …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Haptics controllers for natural interactions in VR
Virtual reality (VR) technologies have become cheaper and more accessible in the last couple of years. This allowed for exploring their use in different areas including gaming, health, education and training settings.While VR can provide high immersion via augmenting our senses in the virtual environment, user interaction with the virtual environment has been limited relying on pre-set gestures or default controllers designed by the companies who built the VR gears.The Vive Tracker is an accessory for HTC Vive which allows …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Human-in-the-loop techniques to debug machine learning models
Machine learning models are being deployed in critical domains such as healthcare, education and fintech. The current approach to deploying machine learning models is based on considering a data-centric approach where the models are evaluated using performance measures on a test set. However, the high performance of the model on test data is not indicative of its reliability,An important aspect of reliability is in the understanding of what exactly a machine learning model encodes, and to verify if it learns …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Information Systems
Tailoring 2D materials via interface engineering
2D materials are crystalline materials with only a single layer thickness. The best known 2D materials is graphene, but it also encompasses a large family of materials , such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs).2D materials are set for breakthroughs in fundamental research and transformative technologies. They have few surface dangling bonds and unique atomic-level uniformity which make them very appealing for developing optical, electronic and energy applications.These materials also bring a new degree of freedom to combine highly distinct materials, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
2D heterostructures for future electronics
The traditional approach to the miniaturisation of electronic devices is coming to a halt. Experts agree that the Moore’s law prediction of doubling the number of transistors per chip every two years will cease to be fulfilled in 2020, as the heat produced in small structures cannot be cooled down quickly enough.However, by reducing the size of the device, the quantum nature of atoms and solids can be turned into an asset. By exploiting the phenomena occurring at these scales, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices
Surface engineering for nanoelectronic devices
Ga2O3 is an emerging wide-bandgap semiconducting material that has received enormous attention in recent years. This is due to its potential application in power devices, UV detectors and military applications that are unattainable by conventional semiconductors such as silicon.The operation and performance of these type of electronic devices rely critically on the surface quality and properties of the semiconducting materials. However, the surface atomic structures and electronic structures of Ga2O3 single crystals are not yet fully understood.The principal aim of …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices
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