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 336 matching student topics
Displaying 301–312 of 336 results
Bio-inspired design to create strong and toughness composites
A fundamental challenge to materials design for mechanical capability is to attain both strength and toughness at the same time in one body. Conventional metallic materials generally have relatively large plasticity due to having massive population of microstructural defects and effective plastic deformation mechanism, which have long been exploited for fabricating flaw tolerant (toughness) materials for structural applications. By the same token theseStructural defects render the materials relatively low strength, thus low load-bearing capability. In contrast, ceramics and intermetallic compounds …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Green polymer-inorganic composite materials
Composite materials are widely researched and widely used in applications such as aircraft, automobiles, ships, structural components and even the space industry.There is a need to create new composite materials which are environmentally friendly and do not use fossil fuel based products. Moreover, the properties of the composites need to be improved while at the same time minimising the costs involved.Consequently our research group is working on composite materials which not only include inexpensive inorganic fillers from the mining sector …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Application of fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal microscopy for the study of the microbial communities responsible for nutrient removal from domestic wastewater
The removal of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater is critical to the prevention of eutrophication in receiving water systems and is carried out by complex microbial communities.Eutrophication can have devastating consequences on aquatic life and natural ecosystems, with toxic algal blooms also posing a risk to human health.Understanding the microbiology of phosphorus (P) removal from wastewater is considered essential to knowledge-based optimisation of enhanced biological P removal (EBPR) systems.Most of the species in these systems are novel …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for Microbiome Research
Understanding capsular polysaccharide diversity is key to next generation therapies for multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections
Bacteriophage therapy is an attractive innovative treatment for infections caused by extensively drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, for which there are few effective antibiotic treatments remaining.Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) is a primary receptor for lytic bacteriophage, thus knowledge of the chemical structures of CPS produced by the species underpins the identification of suitable phage for therapeutic cocktails.As many phage depolymerases cleave a specific CPS linkage formed by either a glycosyltransferase or polymerase enzyme, characterisation of these proteins are essential.However, these remain largely …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for Immunology and Infection Control
The efficacy of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training in community sport
Organised sport is primarily community based in Australia; and the benefits of sport participation to individuals and communities are well documented. However, there is also evidence that participating in organised high-performance sporting programs is associated with psychological distress, elevated relative to community norms, which would usually warrant a need for care by a health professional. As such a case for improvement in mental health education and practice in sporting communities exists.Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a standardised, psychoeducational programme …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
The Law and Policy of Satellite and Large Data in Environmental and Land Use Management
Dr Evan Hamman is looking for PhD/MPhil candidates wanting to explore the relationship between space technologies and large data sets in the mapping, managing and directing of human land use. Candidates interested in exploring the relationships between land use management, data science and environmental law and regulations are particularly encouraged. The focus can be Australia, comparative or public international law. This topic is led by the QUT School of Law within the Datafication and Automation of Human Life research group. …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Law
Better bus stops for climate, context, and community
Bus stops are crucial touch points for a public transport system, and have the potential to impact human health and wellbeing, as well as rider experience. As a ubiquitous aspect of the urban fabric within a city, bus stops impact the character and function of the streetscape and their design can impact people’s experiences within the public realm. Yet their role in shaping everyday places is usually neglected and is under researched. In addition, with increased temperatures and extreme weather …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
Australian Ganoderma species for the production of bioactive metabolites and new functional materials synthesis
Fungi are essential components of all ecosystems in roles including symbiotic partners, decomposers and nutrient cyclers and as a source of food for vertebrates and invertebrates. While vital to soil health and organic matter turnover, fungi have great potential in sustainable design and medicine.Ganoderma strains in particular produce bioactive compounds and display growth characteristics that favour their use in medical and applied biotechnology. Some species produce triterpenoids, such as ganoderic acids, and have been used in traditional Asian medicine for …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Biology and Environmental Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Advanced materials for perovskite solar cells
Solar cells using metal halides perovskite materials to absorb light is one of the most important scientific discoveries. These cells have the potential to provide cost-effective solar electricity in the future. In the last decades, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) demonstrated unprecedented progress towards this goal. This technology holds the world record for energy conversion efficiency and is comparable to commercial crystalline silicon, but at a much lower cost.Currently their instability and use of toxic lead are key issues that restrict …
- 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
Identifying protein and metabolite markers of burn injury and trauma
It can be difficult for clinical teams to determine the severity of burn injuries when the patient first presents to the hospital. This is because burn wounds continue to deepen/progress over time, in a process known as burn wound conversion. Some wounds may deepen over days or weeks and require aggressive surgical treatment e.g. grafting, and some wounds don’t progress, stay superficial in depth, and they can be managed conservatively with the application of different bandages or dressings. We have …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Understanding urban complexity for climate resilience
Addressing the urgent need for community resilience amid escalating climate risks, including floods, extreme heat, and bushfires, is crucial for burgeoning cities. These cities comprise intricate networks of social, ecological, physical, and technological subsystems with structural and functional interdependencies. Understanding this complexity is vital for evaluating a city's resilience to climate risks and formulating effective policies and planning strategies. By applying complexity science principles, researchers can illuminate the dynamic relationships within these networks, revealing opportunities for sustainable urban development and …
- Study level
- PhD
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for the Environment
Capturing the impact of patient variability in a novel cancer treatment
In 2015, the Food and Drug Association (FDA) approved a lab-engineered virus for the treatment of melanoma (skin cancer). Since then, there has been a significant increase in the number of lab-grown viruses that are being tested in clinical trials as potential treatments of cancer. Unfortunately, it seems that a large number of patients in these clinical trials fail under this treatment and currently there is no way to distinguish between responders and non-responders to treatment.Fortunately, we can use mathematics …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
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