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 220 matching student topics
Displaying 49–60 of 220 results
Virus Search Algorithms
Meta-heuristics are powerful search algorithms for solving intractable optimization problems. There are many population based approaches, like genetic algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, particle swarm, etc. but most of these have a static population size.Viruses arise and attack populations periodically. They typically appear when populations become abundant. Viruses infect population members, and often reduce the number of individuals. Viruses create spaces for more individuals and balance competition.The concept of viruses may be mimicked and could be a useful optimization paradigm.
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Network Flow Improvement
Network flow is impeded by the arcs present in the network and their associated length/weighting. Arcs can be added or removed to debottleneck the network. But which ones? At what cost?
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
Scalable Bayesian Inference using Multilevel Monte Carlo
Bayesian inference is a popular statistical framework for estimating the parameters of statistical models based on data. However, Bayesian methods are well known to be computationally intensive. This fact inhibits the scalability of Bayesian analysis for real-world applications involving complex stochastic models. Such models are common in the fields of biology and ecology.Multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) methods are a promising class of techniques for dealing with the scalability challenge. These approaches use hierarchies of approximations to optimise the trade-off between …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Coarse-grained molecular dynamics modelling in expansive soil
Expansive soil/active soil has wide applications in geotechnical engineering and other engineering disciplines due to its desirable special properties - for example, low permeability and swelling pressure under saturated condition. But these materials are highly susceptible to experiencing huge volume change and even damage due to moisture content reduction. However, the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon is still not clear for geotechnical engineers. Therefore, there is no optimum solution available to solve the problem.In this project, a special modelling approach …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Elucidating the gas-phase reactivity and photochemistry of halide anions
Bromine and iodine are suspected to be responsible for most of the halogen-induced ozone loss in the stratosphere but are not currently included in atmospheric models due to a paucity of knowledge of the gas-phase chemistry and photochemistry of their anions and radicals.This project will develop and deploy advanced mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy techniques to enable precision measurements of the reactions and photo- reactions of gas-phase iodide and bromide anions and their oxides.These state-of-the-art measurements of reaction kinetics and …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Time-series analysis of 2D diffraction patterns for Synchrotron rock physics
The interaction between deformation, fluid flow, chemical reactions, and heat flow in rocks constitutes a research frontier in the Earth Sciences. In addition to fundamental academic interest in this subject, there are many applied industrial problems, which require a sound understanding of this coupling. Examples include: the long-term sequestration of carbon dioxide in rocks, the energy-efficient processing of future-mineral resources, the design of unconventional geothermal-energy operations, and the prediction of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.The advisory team pioneered new methods for …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Surrogate models for accurate prediction and inference in mathematical biology
High fidelity mathematical models of biological phenomena are often complex and can require long computational runtimes which can make computational inference for parameter estimation intractable. In this project we will overcome this challenge by working with computationally simple low fidelity models and build a simple statistical model of the discrepancy between the high and low fidelity models. This approach provides the best of both worlds: we obtain high accuracy predictions using a computationally cheap model surrogate.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Branching processes, stochastic simulations and travelling waves
Branching processes are stochastic mathematical models used to study a range of biological processes, including tissue growth and disease transmission.This project will implement a simple stochastic branching process to generate simulations of biological growth, and then consider differential equation-based description of the stochastic model.Using computation we will compare the two models, and use phase plane and perturbation analysis to analyze the resulting traveling wave solutions.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Low Cost Catalysts for Biofuels Production
As the world transitions from fossil fuels to biomass based fuels there is a corresponding drive to create new technologies to enable this situation to come to fruition.Biofuels represent one option in terms of mitigating the impacts of global warming.The conversion of biomass to biofuels typically requires a catalyst. Many different materials have been investigated, with zeolites showing considerable promise.However, zeolite catalysts can be expensive and thus there is a challenge to create new catalysts which are low cost.This project …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Investigating factors impacting urban heat vulnerability in subtropical cities
In recent years, with the rise in climate change impact, urban heat has become a major issue for many cities to tackle consequently. Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change, which has directly caused a substantial increase in heat-related morbidity and mortality. This indispensably puts an extra burden on medical systems and national finance. Meanwhile, the urban heat island effect has been exaggerating the consequences caused by the increased extreme heat in metropolitan areas. …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
From LiDAR or drone imagery to structural geometries
LiDAR geo-spatial data (3D coordinates) are freely available from government websites such as "QSpatial data portal". Alternatively, the use of drones have also become popular in aerial surveys and imagery.The geospatial data from these sources include 3D coordinates of various built structure. The data can be downloaded (in case of LiDAR) or processed from images (in case of drone survey) to create actual 3D picture of building structures. This work is commonly done using rendering software. The use of this …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for the Environment
Finite element modelling of 3D auxetic structures
Protection of structures has become a priority for saving lives and preventing structural collapses caused by increased natural or man-made disasters. Most injuries and mortalities in these disasters are caused due to fragmentation of structures, and therefore, structural protection through systems that can absorb more energy and effectively contain the fragments (debris) are needed. Additive manufacturing (such as 3D printing) can be used to develop special geometries called auxetic geometries and composites using sustainable bioplastics which can absorb shock energy …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
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