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 26 matching student topics
Displaying 1–12 of 26 results
Laser light sensors that see through containers
Raman scattering has been used as a powerful 'fingerprinting' technique for more than 80 years, and is widely used by security and law enforcement for detecting hazardous threats. To better safeguard the community, QUT has developed a unique eye -safe laser Raman sensing system for detecting threats, that works at distance from a target (> 10 m) and operates in real time. Increasingly however, threats are being concealed in order to avoid detection. This project will investigate what range of …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
Separating nonlinear optical effects in optical limiters
Optical limiting uses a medium’s nonlinear response to allow light at low intensities to be transmitted, but restricts transmission at high intensities so as to safeguard sensitive detectors including the eye. A popular nonlinear process used in optical limiters is two photon absorption where two high intensity light photons are simultaneously absorbed thereby reducing the light transmission through the medium. Unfortunately, in gold nanoparticle optical limiters a second nonlinear process can arise – saturated absorption which leads to an increase …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Two dimensional heterostructures on SiC for new electronics
The present electronic technology is approaching the limit to the smallest circuit element achievable, and the future electronic devices will depend critically on the development of novel approaches. Two dimensional materials seem to offer an exciting perspective, and the advent of graphene (a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb structure) sparked a huge interest, but its application to electronics are limited by the absence of a band gap.A new perspective has been open by other 2D materials which …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Growth and characterisation of epitaxial graphene for electronic and sensing applications
The extraordinary properties of graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms (e.g. monodimensional structure, high conductivity, low-noise characteristics) are expected to be exploited in the next generation of electronic devices and gas sensors. These applications require a perfect control of the growth of graphene layers, and an optimum integration with the processes and materials used in the semiconductor industry.This project aims at studying the growth of graphene obtained by heating crystalline SiC at high temperature in Ar atrmosphere and ultra …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Physics-informed machine learning
Recent advances in computer vision have demonstrated superhuman performance on a variety of visual tasks including image classification, object detection, human pose estimation and human analysis. However, current approaches for achieving these results center around models that purely learn from large-scale datasets with highly complex neural network architectures. Despite the impressive performance, pure data-driven models usually lack robustness, interpretability, and adherence to physical constraints or commonsense reasoning.As in the real world, the visual world of computer vision is governed by …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
Physics-informed reinforcement learning for complex environments, using graph neural networks
Neglecting to incorporate physics information into world models for reinforcement learning leads to reduced adaptability to dynamic and complex environments and overall learning outcomes.In this project, we endeavour to develop and implement learnable models in reinforcement learning (RL) based on graph neural networks (GNNs). These models will integrate object and relation-centric representations to enable accurate predictions, strong generalization, and system identification in complex, dynamical systems. Additionally, we will focus on leveraging extensive world knowledge or physics information to refine representations …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
A new physics informed machine learning framework for structural optimisation design of the biomedical devices
The machine learning based computer modelling and simulation for engineering and science is a new era. The optimisation analysis is widely used in the design of structures.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Low-cost portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging for clinical applications
The aim of this project is to develop accurate low-cost medical imaging methodology for pseudo-3D mapping of Mammographic Density (MD) within the breast. MD is the degree of radio-opacity (“whiteness”) in an X-ray mammogram. It has implications for breast cancer risk, ease of detection of breast cancer, and monitoring of the efficacy of hormonal breast cancer prevention or anti-cancer treatments.Healthcare ChallengeThere is a growing need for affordable and accurate quantitative assessment of MD without ionising radiation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
Assessing visual acuity errors in pre-school children (CVER01)
Measuring visual acuity is in preschool children is challenging. In particular, young children will be prone to making mistakes in identifying symbols on eye charts, even when they can see what those symbols are, so called “false negative responses”.This project uses an established vision assessment protocol, EVA testing, and assesses the extent of false negative responses in this task. The protocol assesses the effects of an intervention, pointing to the target on a card, which may decrease false negative responses. …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Clinical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for Vision and Eye Research
Identification of novel melanoma biomarkers using exosomes
Tumour cells excrete exosomes, membrane vesicles (30-150 nm diameter) that encapsulate and transport proteins, metabolites and genetic material. They mediate intercellular communication within the tumor microenvironment, metastasis formation via circulation, and development of drug resistance. Circulating tumor-derived exosomes can be isolated from blood patients as a non-invasive liquid biopsy.The chemical composition and overall properties of the exosomal membranes are expected to be similar to those of parent cell membranes and to modulate blood circulation time, and uptake and targeting of …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Motivation to exercise: how does a virtual cycling stimulus influence performance on a stationary bicycle?
This research project will use Zwift exercise bikes at the QUT Gardens Point Campus to investigate how different sources of visual information influence physiological (e.g., RPE, HR) and psychological variables (e.g., engagement, enjoyment, motivation, immersion). The visual information will be presented on a large screen in front of the rider. The rider will view themselves on a virtual cycling course where inclines and declines will be mapped to the resistance the rider experiences through the pedal cranks. There is a …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
Promoting incidental physical activity and social interactions in public space
The World Health Organisation recently raised the alarm on the critical importance of physical activity and social interactions for mental and physical health, highlighting the need for active environments that support people to engage in healthy activities. In order to address the high-rates of physical inactivity and social isolation, we need additional research evidence to design high-quality public spaces that promote health and wellbeing for all ages. This study lies at the intersection of built environment, human behaviour, and health …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
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