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 9 matching student topics
Displaying 1–9 of 9 results
Climate vulnerability of nut and pulse food systems in Australia
Arable land, water resources and biodiversity are under pressure from increased human populations and resource needs. On top of that, natural and agri-food systems are rapidly changing due to natural disturbances, with climate change likely to increase the impacts of extreme events like drought and wildfire.With climate change, negative impacts on agriculture are predicted with disruptions to food supply; many ecosystems have already been impacted by increased frequency and severity of extreme fire events; coral reefs will be threatened by …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Biology and Environmental Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Centre for the Environment
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
Automatic Generation of Software Vulnerability Datasets for Machine Learning
In recent years, machine learning has enjoyed profound success in a range of interesting applications such as natural language processing, computer vision and speech recognition. It has been possible mainly due to, in addition to better computing resources, the availability of large amounts of training datasets to these applications. However, in software security research, the lack of large datasets is an open problem that makes it challenging for machine learning to reason about security vulnerabilities found in real-world software. The …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Fine-grained software vulnerability detection using deep learning techniques
Software vulnerability is a major threat to the security of software systems. Thus, the successful prediction of security vulnerability is one of the most effective attack mitigation solutions. Existing approaches for software vulnerability detection (SVD) can be classified into static and dynamic methods. Powered by AI capabilities, especially with the advancement of machine learning techniques, current software has been produced with more sophisticated methodologies and components. This has made the automatic vulnerability proneness prediction even more challenging. Recent research efforts …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Semantic-based source code embeddings for software vulnerability discovery
Operational Technology (OT) is a field of computing which is becoming increasingly prominent in modern society. It is responsible for a variety of critical services, especially in industrial contexts, including power generation, manufacturing, transport, and many others. This important role makes OT an especially tempting target for malicious attackers. In order to counter this, tools must be developed to locate vulnerabilities and flaws in OT software systems before attacks can be launched. Vulnerability discovery in computer software systems including OT …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Climate equity in multi-hazard vulnerability assessments
The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as intense heatwaves, floods, and bushfires, is triggering disruptive disasters that have a significant impact on communities, ecosystems, and economies. While our national climate change adaptation strategy places a paramount focus on enhancing community resilience, it is crucial to recognise that not all communities face climate risks in the same manner. Diverse communities exhibit varying capacities to respond and adapt to distinct climate hazards. This reality underscores the imperative for …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
- Research centre(s)
-
Centre for the Environment
Interpretable software vulnerability detection using deep learning techniques
Software vulnerabilities have been considered as significant reliability threats to the general public, especially critical infrastructures. Many approaches have been proposed to detect vulnerabilities in source code to avoid any damages they pose when exploited. Conventional approaches include static analysis and dynamic analysis. Static analysis uses pre-defined patterns or vulnerability dataset to scan and examine software source code to identify potential vulnerable code snippets. These patterns are manually crafted or identified by software developers or security experts, which are time-consuming. …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Image-based assessment of atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability: Towards a computational tool for early detection and prediction
Plaque characteristics and local haemodynamic/mechanical forces keep changing during plaque progression and rupture.Quantifying these changes and discovering the progression-stress correlation can improve our understanding of plaque progression/rupture. This will lead to a quantitative assessment tool for early detection of vulnerable plaques and prediction of possible ruptures.Our research project aims to combine medical imaging, computational modelling, phantom experiments and pathological analysis to investigate plaque progression and vulnerability to rupture in both animal models and patients with carotid stenosis.We will identify and …
- 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
Using a natural β-carboline dimer compound to target metabolic vulnerabilities linked to glycolysis in prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is an androgen dependent cancer and treatments are aimed at preventing activation of the androgen receptor. Part of the development of resistance to therapies involves prostate cancers reprogramming their metabolism to overcome metabolic stress induced by these therapies and support growth and survival. This reprogramming involves increases in the rate of glycolysis and intermediate pathways branching from glycolysis. Previously in our laboratory, the natural compound, beta-carboline dimer, BD, was identified to have potent effects on cell viability, cell …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
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