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 496 matching student topics
Displaying 25–36 of 496 results
Optimising landfill leachate treatment with innovative bioreactors
Landfill leachate, a highly polluted liquid, can pose serious risks to the environment and public health if not treated effectively. Without proper management, it can contaminate groundwater and surface water, threatening ecosystems and water resources.This project focuses on using innovative bioreactors to treat landfill leachate efficiently and sustainably. By optimizing these reactors, we aim to remove harmful pollutants like ammonia, addressing a key challenge in managing high-strength wastewater. Your work will contribute to practical solutions for real-world environmental problems.
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Advanced biosolid treatment: volume reduction and PFAS mitigation
PFAS, often called 'forever chemicals', are among the most persistent and harmful pollutants found in the environment. These substances accumulate in biosolids, a nutrient-rich by-product of wastewater treatment, making it challenging to safely reuse or dispose of them. Biosolid management becomes even more complex due to the large volume produced by treatment facilities, creating a pressing need for innovative solutions that address both PFAS contamination and waste volume reduction.This project focuses on cutting-edge approaches to treat biosolids, reduce their volume, …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Transforming wastewater treatment with anaerobic granular sludge technology
Are you interested in solving real-world environmental challenges? Wastewater treatment is essential for protecting the environment, and anaerobic granular sludge technology is at the forefront of creating sustainable solutions. Think of it as using natural microorganisms to clean water in an energy-efficient way, while also recovering valuable resources like nutrients and energy.In this project, you’ll dive into how anaerobic granular sludge works - tiny but powerful clusters of microbes that improve wastewater treatment by breaking down pollutants. This cutting-edge technology …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Hostile Interaction Design
Hostile interaction design has emerged as a critical issue in contemporary digital environments, where design decisions increasingly prioritise institutional and corporate interests over the needs of users and citizens. Drawing parallels to hostile architecture—where physical spaces are designed to control behaviour, such as anti-homeless spikes or uncomfortable public seating—hostile interaction design manifests in digital systems as frustrating, impersonal, or obstructive experiences. These designs often shield corporations and governments from accountability, erecting barriers that prevent users from seeking help, lodging complaints, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
- Digital Media Research Centre
Design Lab
Designing Robotic Intention Visualisation
This project is part of the Human Robot Interaction program in the Australian Cobotics Centre, an ARC Training Centre for Collaborative Robotics in Advanced Manufacturing.People effectively coordinate (co-located) teamwork through various social approaches that make team members aware of what they are doing or intend to do. Collaborative robots (cobots) are being introduced to the workplace to enable tight integration of human and robotic work activities, such as assisting human workers with repetitive or strenuous physical tasks. But robots may …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
Scene Understanding for Underwater Imagery
Underwater ecosystems, including coral reefs and seagrass meadows, play a critical role in maintaining marine biodiversity, providing coastal protection, and supporting fisheries and tourism economies that millions depend upon globally. These habitats are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, pollution, and other anthropogenic impacts, demanding urgent efforts to monitor and restore them. Accurate scene understanding of underwater imagery enables fine-scale ecosystem monitoring across spatial and temporal scales, supporting essential activities such as habitat and biodiversity assessment, validation of aerial and remotely …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Robotics
Metal halide perovskite solar cell performance based on impurity profiles from Australian sourced precursor materials
Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying precursor materials for next-generation metal halide perovskite solar cells, leveraging its abundant critical minerals and strong mineral processing capabilities with an innovative "mineral to precursor to final product" strategy.This project will demonstrate the performance of next-generation metal halide perovskite solar cells using Australian sourced materials, complimented with computational modelling to understand the elemental interactions of any impurities.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Recovery of metal halide perovskite precursors from Australia sources
Investigate, model and experiment on the extraction and recovery of cations and anions, used in the synthesis of perovskite solar cells, from Australian resources.Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying precursor materials for next-generation metal halide perovskite solar cells, leveraging its abundant critical minerals and strong mineral processing capabilities with an innovative 'mineral to precursor to final product' strategy.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Construction materials in extreme chemical and thermal processing environments
Investigate and identify materials that can be used to construct chemical plants using extreme chemicals and processing conditions.Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying critical minerals for current and emerging energy technologies, however the extraction and recovery of these minerals are requiring more aggressive chemicals and processing requirements that are not suitable for traditionally used construction materials, such as stainless steel.Thus, this project will perform experimental material testing on a range of construction materials under extreme chemically corrosive …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Hierarchical forecasting: forecasting a collection of time series
Hierarchical forecasting is a method used to generate forecasts at multiple levels of aggregation within a structured hierarchy. This technique is particularly valuable in situations where data can be organised into a hierarchy based on different dimensions, such as geography, product categories, or time. The approach ensures that forecasts at the top levels (e.g. total sales) align with forecasts at the lower levels (e.g. regional or product-level sales), creating a coherent and consistent forecasting process across the entire hierarchy.In many …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Bayesian focused learning
Forecasting renewable energy production is crucial for ensuring stable and sustainable energy grids. Traditional approaches often involve a two-stage process: first, energy production forecasts are generated, then decisions, such as how much energy to produce from various sources (wind, solar, fossil fuels), are made based on those forecasts. This disjointed process, where forecast accuracy and decision-making optimization are treated separately, can lead to sub-optimal outcomes due to conflicting objective functions.The goal of this project is to bridge these stages by …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Optimising inventory control and demand forecast accuracy though multi-objective optimisation
In today’s competitive business environment, effective inventory management and accurate demand forecasting are critical for minimising costs and maximising profitability. This project aims to address these two challenges simultaneously by applying a multi-objective optimisation approach. The primary objectives are to improve demand forecast accuracy while optimising inventory control decisions, balancing trade-offs between conflicting business goals such as minimising stockouts, reducing excess inventory, and maintaining customer service levels.Traditional approaches to inventory management and demand forecasting often treat these processes separately, which …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
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