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 32 matching student topics
Displaying 1–12 of 32 results
The role of genetics in the development and mechanism of human traits
The Statistical and Genomic Epidemiology Laboratory (SGEL) studies the role of genetics in the development and mechanism of human traits, with particular emphasis on migraine, and the specific goal of identifying genetic risk factors and detecting common genetic links with other disorders, in particular depression, endometriosis, and epilepsy.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health
Advancing precision control in atomic force microscopy
To advance precision positioning control technology through instrumentation of an 800×800 μm XY positioning table, equipped with two piezoelectric actuators to manoeuvre samples under a microscope. Positioning control systems designers struggle with trade-offs between positioning accuracy, actuation range, response time, and cost.Our goal is to enhance the positioning systems, used in atomic force microscopes, to improve their imaging accuracy and resolution while reducing overall hardware costs. By quantising analogue positioning sensors to simulate low-resolution (low-cost) encoders, we will explore new …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Robotics
Atomic-scale identification of catalyst active sites using electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy
Catalysts have an important role to play in electrochemical reactions. By reducing the energy required for a reaction, they can save electricity and make feasible the reactions that will enable future sustainable technologies, such as the evolution of hydrogen from water. Optimisation of catalysts requires a detailed mechanistic understanding of their function. A key aspect of this is determining, at the atomic scale, the reactive sites on the catalyst surface. This type of insight can be provided by performing atomic-scale …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Information retrieval and coding methods for large scale bioinformatics
Advances in sequencing technologies over the past two decades have led to an explosion in the availability of genomic sequence data and an increasingly urgent need for scalable clustering and search facilities. One approach is to encode sequences as binary vectors in a high-dimensional space, simplifying the comparison and allowing it to be computed very rapidly using bit-level operations.Coupled with these ideas is the need to provide clustering methods and efficient indexing and lookup in response to search queries. One …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Visualisation and sonification for genomic data sets
Successive revolutions in sequencing technology over the past two decades have led to an explosion in the availability of genomic data. Analysing biological datasets and identifying relationships within them is challenging - some of the process can be automated but interactive exploration offers a number of advantages, and supports serendipitous discovery.This project looks at visual analytics and sonification - the use of sound and musical encodings - to enhance our understanding of biological networks.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Surprising genomes
Genomic sequencing has changed radically since the first public sequencing projects more than 25 years ago. The original human genome project cost more than two billion dollars; sequencing a human genome now costs as little as a thousand, and we may sequence whole viruses and bacteria as a matter of routine.The challenge now lies in rapidly analysing these genomes as they appear, and understanding quickly whether there is anything interesting in the new sequence to warrant further inquiry. This project …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Genome to phenome: exploiting multi-omics and deep learning strategies to decipher importance of isoforms in health and behaviour
The molecular process that leads to multiple mRNA transcripts being produced from the same segment of DNA (aka gene) is known as alternative splicing (AS). This is a common form of regulation in higher eukaryotes, enabling the production of novel protein isoforms, which in turn are known to have a big impact on phenotype. Understanding the regulatory factors involved in AS, including epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, will offer key insights into important biological phenomena (health disease, behaviour, production). …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Biology and Environmental Science
Technology, Innovation and Health
Professor Belinda Bennett is interested in talking to students who wish to undertake research on legal issues related to technology, innovation and health, regulation of innovative health technologies, legal issues related to genomics, the use of artificial intelligence in health care, and the use of robotics in health care.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Law
- Research centre(s)
-
Australian Centre for Health Law Research
Novel therapeutic strategies to treat advanced colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer is a very common disease, with over 15,000 new cases diagnosed in Australia annually. Metastatic colorectal cancer describes advanced disease that has spread beyond the primary site. This is very aggressive and incurable in the vast majority of these patients. To improve outcomes for colorectal cancer, we are using cutting edge genomic and cell biology techniques to understand disease heterogeneity and optimise drug response. We are developing novel therapeutic interventions based on unique molecular signatures and are testing …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Value-adding waste materials
Many industries generate copious amounts of waste products.Of particular interest are those wastes generated by the mining sector as typically a large fraction of the ore bodies are dumped or the agricultural sector.Potential solutions we are investigating include:converting aluminosilicate waste to zeolitestransforming inorganic waste to catalyst materialscreation of materials for water and wastewater treatmentmaking activated carbonrenewable fuels,
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Small business resilience in times of economic uncertainty: Examining retailers and regional businesses
Regional Australia is undergoing significant structural, economic, social, and environmental change which is impacting the viability of small businesses (Regional Australia Institute, 2018). Regional small retail businesses, estimated to contribute $21.9bn to local economies (Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, 2019) are particularly susceptible to economic shocks, have lower survival rates, more volatile revenues and are generally less resilient than larger business (Barraket, Eversole, Luke & Barth, 2019).Disruptive external events such as the acceleration of e-retailing, COVID-19 travel restrictions, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
- Research centre(s)
-
Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research
Economics of sustainability
This project investigates how a society moves to strong sustainability and sustainable development in a more efficient and equitable way. Students can choose the scale unit of analysis, such as regions, countries, states, firms, organisation, households or even individual level. The research is very inspirational. Methodological approach to the research include theoretical and/or empirical elements.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Economics and Finance
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