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 88 matching student topics
Displaying 61–72 of 88 results
Advanced numerical modeling to study dust deposition mechanisms on photovoltaic panels for the agrivoltaic industry.
The increase in global energy demand necessitates further advancement in photovoltaic (PV) systems. Advancements in PVs could potentially play a role to help meet the Paris Agreement of limiting global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius. In conjunction with the rising demand for clean energy production, the global agricultural industry needs to keep pace with rising food demand which is expected to increase by 50% by 2050 to feed over a projected 10 billion people. The scarcity of fertile …
- Study level
- PhD, Honours
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Mathematical modelling of spatial plant patterns in a sub-Antarctic island
Various spatial patterns naturally emerge in ecology. These include stripes, spots, hexagons, and donuts, to name just a few. However, it can be puzzling to figure out how these patterns form.Systems of partial differential equation models can be used to simulate these patterns, and thereby provide ecologists with testable hypotheses for how these patterns formed.
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment
Mathematical modelling of ecosystem feedbacks and value-of-information theory
Ecosystems respond to gradual change in unexpected ways. Feedback processes between different parts of an environment can perpetuate ecosystem collapse, leading to potentially irreversible biodiversity loss. However, it is unclear if greater knowledge of feedbacks will ultimately change environmental decisions.The project aims to identify when feedbacks matter for environmental decisions, by generating new methods that predict the economic benefit of knowing more about feedbacks. Combining ecological modelling and value-of-information theory, the outcomes of these novel methods will provide significant and …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment
Interactive (and collaborative) robot programming using language (Project 2.5 - Joint CSIRO/ACC)
Programming robots to carry out desired tasks is difficult and time-consuming. This PhD project focuses on collaborative and instructional dialogue agents to help human operators program robot tasks.In this collaborative scenario, a human operator converses with an AI agent to explain the steps that are to be performed, using high-level references and abstractions that make sense to the human, as opposed to simple verbal instructions corresponding to rudimentary robot movements. The AI agent must interpret the high-level instructions and translate …
- Study level
- PhD
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
-
Design Lab
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
Enhancing 3D visual understanding through multimodal data fusion
The demand for 3D scene understanding through point clouds is rapidly growing in diverse applications, including augmented and virtual reality, autonomous driving, robotics, and environment monitoring. However, the field faces challenges due to limited data availability and predefined categories. Training deep 3D networks effectively for sparse LiDAR point clouds requires significant amounts of annotated data, which is both time-consuming and expensive. Building on the advancements in 2D models that leverage the power of image and language knowledge, our project aims …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
A mathematical model of disrupting cell-to-cell communication by bacteria
The emergence of resistance of bacteria to antibiotics presents a global healthcare challenge that intensifies the search for strategies to increase the effcacy of therapy. Several mechanisms are involved in resistance of bacteria against antibiotics such as mutations in genes, horizontal gene transfer, and biofilm formation. Bacteria can communicate with each other through production and response to local concentration of small molecules called autoinducers.This mechanism is called quorum sensing (QS).It has been suggested that QS can influence the resistance of …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Digital business models
The ongoing proliferation of a digital lifestyle and the exposure to global innovation raises the expectation level of customers for new products and services. The ongoing technological innovations make this possible, but require digital business models to turn them into viable commercial offerings.This is not only relevant for new (‘born-on-the-web’) companies, but also for traditional companies who run the risk of having their core business disrupted. While some struggle with the new business models (e.g. Kodak), others turn it into …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Information Systems
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Future Enterprise
Optimising sampling design for model discrimination of coral reef recovery
Natural disturbances including severe storms and bleaching events have devastating impacts on the Great Barrier Reef's health. Unfortunately, the increasing pressures associated with climate change are causing these disturbances to occur more frequently, for a longer duration and with more intensity.It's essential to understand the recovery dynamics between major disturbances so we can manage the health of the Great Barrier Reef under increased environmental pressures. Many studies modelling reef recovery assume a specific form for the growth dynamics. However, the …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Using systems architecture to model neuropathic pain
Neuropathic pain effects '1 in every 10 adults over the age of 30'. The treatments available for neuropathic pain can at best be described as having 'moderate efficacy'. Due to the nature of neuropathic pain, the ability to scientifically study and understand its fundamental causes has been limited to animal models and trials. There are over 27 animal models for neuropathic pain where pain has been induced by macroscopic and microscopic nerve lesions, chemotherapy, viral infections and diabetes mellitus.Looking at …
- Study level
- PhD
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
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
Synergic identification of prestress force, moving force and interfacial force for corroborative substructural modelling
We are looking for an appropriate PhD candidate working for a recently awarded ARC Discovery Project. The PhD candidate will work on the further improvement of the previously developed Synergic identification of prestress force [1] and moving force applying to continuous supported prestressed concrete bridges using regularisation techniques [2-7] and corroborative substructural modelling.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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