Student topics

To meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C, methane emissions from ruminants such as beef and dairy cattle must be reduced by 11–30% by 2030 and by 24–47% by 2050 compared to 2010 levels. A newly funded Future Fellowship project is hiring 2 PhD students who will tackle this challenge by creating a thorough mechanistic understanding of the microbiological, biochemical and genetic processes that cause methanogenesis in the cow rumen. These activities will identify core beneficial microbiota that …

Study level

PhD

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Microbiome Research

We're seeking a motivated student to join the multidisciplinary project that brings together computer vision and deep learning field with pollen aerobiology. This is a fully funded PhD program for a three-year period starting in 2024. It's part of the project funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Program—Digitally-Integrated Smart Sensing of Diverse Airborne Grass Pollen Sources. The successful candidate will be primarily based in the Allergy Research Group at QUT's Kelvin Grove campus.Grass pollen is the main outdoor allergen …

Study level

PhD

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Robotics
Centre for Immunology and Infection Control

Projects may address entrepreneurial skills, behaviours and attributes as learnable human capabilities across a diverse range of educational contexts. Sub-topics may include entrepreneurial alertness, risk taking and productive failure, values formation and creation,  agency-passivity, emancipatory entrepreneurialism, antifragility, entrepreneurial leadership, global mindset, emotive experiences and interplay with learning for entrepreneurial capabilities, opportunity creation.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

School

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Research and practice often focus on how leadership is successfully developed or built. Little attention is given to the factors that may undermine leadership. Understanding these factors may help shed light on how effective leadership is sustained through challenges and setbacks.Taking a social identity approach to leadership, this research may investigate:the potential destabilisers of leadership within teams and organisationsthe lifecycle of leadership within groupsthe factors that turn followers away from their leader.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

School

School of Management

There is a full PhD scholarship available in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to support the newly awarded ARC Linkage Project on Next-generation traffic signals using artificial intelligence-based video analytics for safe, efficient and green intersections. The stipend has a cash value of $32,500 per annum for 3 years.To apply for this position, please submit the following documents via email to m1.haque@qut.edu.au:a detailed curriculum vitae (CV) highlighting academic achievements, research experience and …

Study level

PhD

School

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The adage “united we stand, divided we fall” has frequently guided leadership practice – that is, for one to lead others effectively, one first needs to unite them. However, large groups of people often comprise smaller subgroups with distinct identities. How, then, does the leadership process look like when these smaller subgroups are polarised into conflicting factions that cannot simply be united under a common superordinate identity?This research broadly examines the process of leadership within teams and organisations where there …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

School

School of Management

The shopping centre (mall) is the central hub of modern retailing and holds a significant role in developing a first overall impression. As a result, shopping centres (malls) have focussed on creating positive customer experiences in shared public spaces. Bringing natural elements such as green plants, flowerbeds, water features, aquariums, animals, birds, and butterfly gardens into the hotel service setting, is an innovative approach known as biophilic design.The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of biophilic elements …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Recent work has identified outcomes of sustained customer aggression, however an opportunity lies in identifying the drivers of the specific dimensions of customer aggression. (See Mortimer, G., Wang, S., & Andrade, M. L. O. (2023). Measuring customer aggression: Scale development and validation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 73, 103348.)Future research may also assess the extent to which each customer aggression type individually affects the different attitudinal and behavioural outcomes tested herein. Both expressive aggression forms may be stronger drivers …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, employee associations (unions) are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe. One such tactic was an ‘under-name-badge’ message (“I’m someone’s daughter”, “I’m someone’s dad”). Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into the effect of such messaging.Does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘someone’s daughter/son’ mitigate aggression? Alternatively, does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘a local/attends a local …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, retailers are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe – assets such as body worn cameras (BWC) and duress watches. Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into these technologies in a retail setting, with much of the earlier research being undertaken in corrective services, policing and train guards.Current research identifies, in some cases, the presence of such technologies can lead to a ‘back-firing’ effect (the aggressive individual becomes more aggressive), …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

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

Materials play a crucial role in shaping people's perceptions, experiences, and emotional responses to the products they encounter. In automotive design, this significance is particularly pronounced within the interior cabin space, especially in the age of sustainability and electric vehicles (EVs).The materials utilised heavily influence how customers and users perceive the value, quality, and emotional aspects of their interactions. While numerous studies have examined the link between interior materials and traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, the advent of EVs …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice

School

School of Design

Research centre(s)

Design Lab