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.

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Found 66 matching student topics

Displaying 37–48 of 66 results

Experimental validation of a novel tricuspid valve design

The tricuspid valve is responsible for regulating the flow of blood between the right atrium and the right ventricle of the heart. During ventricular systole, it closes to prevent the backflow of blood from the right ventricle into the right atrium. This closure ensures that blood is pumped forward into the pulmonary circulation. In contrast, the tricuspid valve opens during ventricular diastole, allowing blood to flow from the right atrium into the right ventricle.When the tricuspid valve fails to close …

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

Do people really intend to adopt renewable energies? Exploring the consumer adoption paradox

Consumers generally express positive attitudes towards renewable energies, recognizing system values such as environmental benefits and sustainability advantages (Zhang et al., 2024). However, the actual adoption and use of renewable energy services may not align with their expressed preferences.This paradox stems from various customer value-related barriers, such as high upfront costs, limited awareness, and concerns about reliability or convenience, which hinder widespread consumer adoption of renewable energy solutions (Jridi et al., 2016).In this project, we analyse the consumer adoption paradox …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
School
School of Information Systems
Research centre(s)

Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology

Leveraging Big Data and AI/ML for Smart Transport Solutions

This PhD position aims to harness the potential of big traffic and mobility data alongside cutting-edge AI/ML algorithms to pioneer innovative solutions for optimizing smart motorways and/or arterial traffic flow. By leveraging these technologies, the project endeavours to develop and test smart algorithms, with the goal of significantly enhancing the efficiency and safety of road networks.Send via email to Prof. Ashish Bhaskar (ashish.bhaskar@qut.edu.au):a brief statement detailing your suitability for the positiona detailed curriculum vitae, including a list of publications, if …

Study level
PhD
School
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research centre(s)
Centre for Data Science

The Martyrdom Effect: why we hurt to give

Most theories of motivation and behaviour consider pain and effort to be deterrents. In contrast to this widely held belief, researchers have identified that the prospect of enduring pain and exerting effort for a cause can promote contributions to the cause. Specifically, research has shown that willingness to contribute to a charitable or collective cause increases when the contribution process is expected to be painful and effortful rather than easy and enjoyable.This project extends this theory to a shopping context. …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Interaction design for enhanced science communication and citizen science

Science communication is typically done by scientists, but interaction designers and artists have the capacity to create for people's engagement. Technology and design for active engagement, such as embodied interaction design, can leverage people's understanding and engage them in more effective and sustainable behaviours. For example, invasive mosquitoes are one area of citizen science that poses significant risk to our environment and health in SEQ yet is little understood by the general population. Mosquito borne disease is a major killer …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
School
School of Design

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

Investigating DNA repair mechanisms in aging adult stem cells

When we age the DNA repair systems of our cells become down regulated. This results in reduced DNA repair capacity, enhanced rates of mutation load and may lead to the development of chronic aging-associated diseases including osteoporosis, Alzheimer's and cancer(1). So it is no surprise that genome instability and stem cell exhaustion, which also strongly correlates with the accumulation of DNA damage, are considered hallmarks of aging(2).However, we still lack a clear understanding on how the decrease in DNA repair …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences

A soft robotic manipulator for spinal surgery

The geriatric population in Australia (4.2 million 2020, ABS), is growing steadily with numbers expected to double in the coming years. Incidences of spinal disorders requiring surgical treatment are therefore predicted to increase, incurring an estimated lifetime cost of AUD 3.7 billion per case (The Treasury). Robotics, an increasingly important component of modern medicine, is well suited to address the minimally invasive surgical needs of treating the spine.This project proposes the use of a soft-robotic manipulator to carry out spinal …

Study level
PhD
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
School
School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
Research centre(s)
Centre for Robotics

The role of complex singularities in geometric flows

A popular topic in differential geometry involves studying the singularity structure of geometric flows. The most well-known example is mean curvature flow. In this example, surfaces evolve according to a flow rule that relates the speed of the surface to its curvature. Certain surfaces will evolve until singularities occur in finite time, and these singularities can be studied using similarity solutions and asymptotic analysis.In this project, a different perspective is applied to these problems, namely the use of complex variable …

Study level
Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Science
School
School of Mathematical Sciences

Digital publics

Digital and social media platforms provide new opportunities for public communication, and the formation of distinct publics and communities around shared interests and identities. Such publics may engage in political debate, popular media fandom, science communication, vernacular creativity, and other activities; but they may also be affected by, or actively engage in promoting, mis- and disinformation and other problematic content. Their activities are also shaped by the features and affordances of the platforms they use, from Facebook and Twitter to …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy
Faculty
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
School
School of Communication
Research centre(s)
Digital Media Research Centre

Weakly nonlinear water waves in the complex plane

Weakly nonlinear waves are described by dispersive pdes, such as the famous Korteweg–De Vries (KdV) equation. These models have applications to a variety of phenomena in physics, including the propagation of water waves, but they are also interesting from a mathematical perspective because they can have special properties.While the KdV equation and its variants are well-studied in the literature, a new approach is to attempt to learn about wave propagation by investigating solution behaviour in complex plane. For example, there …

Study level
PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Science
School
School of Mathematical Sciences

Identifying individuals at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Dementia is the greatest cause of disability in Australians over the age of 65 years. In the absence of a significant medical breakthrough, more than $6.4 million Australians will be diagnosed with dementia in the next 40 years. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), accounting for 60-80% of cases. The pathogenic process of AD begins decades prior to the clinical onset, so it is likely that treatments need to begin early in the disease process to …

Study level
Master of Philosophy, Honours
Faculty
Faculty of Health
School
School of Biomedical Sciences

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