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QUT DECRA recipients come from a range of disciplines including engineering, robotics, biomedical science, justice, chemistry, mathematics, and built environment.

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik said QUT was in seventh position nationally in terms of the number of new grants awarded, which was an admirable result.

“QUT’s success in the early career research space is rooted in our deep commitment to developing the brightest young minds in an integrated effort with experienced academic leaders, who actively sponsor and mentor the next generation of QUT researchers,” Professor Barner-Kowollik said.

(Image: Inset: Dr Qian Liu, Dr Annah Piggott-McKellar Front: Dr Juan Bai. Second row from left: Dr Nathalie Bock, Associate Professor Danielle Watson. Back row from left: Dr Weidi Liu, Dr Leah South, Dr Xiaolei Shi, Dr Adrianne Jenner, Dr Tobias Fischer.)

The recipients are:

Dr Juan Bai, from the School of Chemistry and Physics, has received $448,400 for a project titled Bioinspired 2D nanocatalysts for inorganic nitrogen cycle.

Dr Bai’s project aims to develop novel catalysts for high-efficient nitrogen by learning from natural enzymes which convert nitrogen or nitrate into reactive ammonia at very mild conditions.

“There is a global shortage of the important plant growth nutrient, nitrogen, affecting the future food supply and, at the same time, an environmental crisis from the use of artificial nitrogen fertilisers and nitrogen in waterways,” Dr Bai said.

“This project will provide a sustainable approach to solve the current unbalanced inorganic nitrogen cycle in the world and contribute to a green, artificial nitrogen cycle with minimized environmental impact.”

The project will involve two PhD researchers, two masters research students and two honours students.

 

Dr Nathalie Bock from the School of Biomedical Sciences has received $450,000 for the project, Engineering microenvironments to regulate osteocyte 3D networks in vitro.

This project, using bioinspired engineering, will employ advanced biomaterials to biofabricate, for the first time, 3D osteocyte (specialised bone) cell networks in vitro to discover how different types of bones are formed.

“This project will deliver a valuable tool for bone research because most knowledge of bone is based on just a fraction of cells that comprise bone. This is because 90 per cent of bone cells – the osteocytes – cannot be easily grown or studied outside the body,” Dr Bock said.

“A combination of additive manufacturing, advanced biomaterials and biomimetic culture will be used to bioengineer osteocyte 3D networks in vitro to control their architecture and biomineralization and identify how matrix cues support network formation and functions.”

This project will involve two PhD research students and two research honours students.

 

Dr Tobias Fischer, from the School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics and QUT Centre for Robotics, has secured $462,044 for his project entitled Adaptive and efficient robot positioning through model and task fusion.

This project seeks to develop dynamic positioning systems that can seamlessly adapt to varying and evolving environments. The research holds significant implications across the fields of robotics, computer vision, and neuromorphic computing.

“Three core challenges addressed by the project are: current robot positioning systems struggle to adapt from one environment to another, such as transitioning from rural to urban settings; existing algorithms fail to utilise information from non-positioning tasks like object detection; and concerns around sustainability are amplified by increasing power consumption,” Dr Fischer said.

“Expected outcomes of this project include ground-breaking place recognition techniques that should provide accelerated deployment of mobile robots, drones and augmented reality usage in manufacturing, defence, healthcare, household and space.”

The project will involve two PhD research students, three masters research students and six honours students.

 

Dr Adrianne Jenner  from the School of Mathematical Sciences has been awarded $443,237 for a project titled Behind the barrier: using mathematics to understand the neuro-immune system.

The project aims to develop new mathematical methods to study healthy immune cell regulation in the brain and movement across the blood brain barrier.

“Research on the central nervous system (CNS) has focused on disease evolution and has ignored a crucial gap in our understanding of what drives the healthy state of the brain,” Dr Jenner said.

“Immune cells are crucial for pathogenic protection and for regulating organ stability. This project will develop new mathematical methods to investigate the CNS’s complex network of immune cells that maintain a robust regulated state to form the basis for the new field of mathematical neuroimmunology.”

This project with involve two PhD student research projects.

 

Dr Qian Liu, from the School of Chemistry and Physics, has been awarded $411,837 for a project titled Quinoid Polymers for Organic Electrochemical Transistors and Bioelectronics.

Dr Liu aims to develop novel organic mixed ionic/electronic conductors for organic electrochemical transistors and bioelectronics.

“I will develop organic semiconductors with excellent mechanical flexibility and biocompatibility that will enable new applications in bioelectronics such as recording heart rhythm, eye movement and brain activity or for ultrathin wearables for monitoring heart signals,” Dr Liu said.

“The materials used in organic semiconductors will allow low-cost synthesis, multiple modifications, solution processability and biocompatibility.”

Dr Liu said the project would involve two PhD and one masters research places.

 

Dr Weidi Liu, from the School of Chemistry and Physics and Centre for Materials Science, has received $458,237 grant for a project to Design new-generation microscale thermoelectric devices.

This project aims to develop microscale devices with ultrahigh thermoelectric power-generation performance.

Dr Liu said he would develop new theoretical models for thermoelectric power-generation to guide the synergistic design of thermoelectric thin-film materials, devices, and their manufacture.

“The outcomes are expected to create revolutionary development of thermoelectric technology,” Dr Liu said.

This project will extend the applications for this technology which will be free of emissions, vibration, and noise and benefit Australia academically, educationally, socially, economically and environmentally.”

The project will involve one PhD researcher.

 

Dr Annah Piggot-McKellar from the School of Architecture & Built Environment has been awarded $460,000 for the project A Justice-based Approach to Climate-related Planned Relocation.

The project will examine how justice could be centred in planned relocation using innovative cross-cultural methods in six case studies across Australia and Fiji.

“Planned relocation of populations away from climate-related risk is a critical adaptation strategy but it is fraught with disruption of peoples’ livelihoods, social networks and place-attachment,” Dr Piggott-McKellar said.

“My aim is to develop innovation at the nexus of climate adaptation, relocation and justice and to generate new knowledge on effective governance, barriers to participation and the long-term impacts of relocation.”

This project will have one PhD research student place.

 

Dr Xiaolei Shi, from the School of Chemistry and Physics,  has been awarded $420,287 for the project, Solving key issues in wearable thermoelectrics for practical applications.

This project aims to design flexible, efficient and durable wearable thermoelectrics based on novel carbon/polymer/semiconductor (CPS) hybrid films.

“Wearable thermoelectrics can directly harvest electricity from body heat, offering a new technology to charge wearable electronics sustainably, but their lack of performance and durability limit their applications,” Dr Shi said.

“This project will design new-generation flexible thermoelectrics with high performance, wearability, and durability using carbon nanotubes as the frame, conducting polymers as the matrix of the film to boost flexibility and well-dispersed semiconductor nanocrystals to improve power.”

This project involves one PhD research student and two honours research students.

 

Dr Leah South, from QUT School of Mathematical Sciences has been awarded $451,000 for the project Innovating and Validating Scalable Monte Carlo Methods.

The research aims to develop scalable Monte Carlo methods for statistical analysis in the presence of big data or complex mathematical models.

Dr South said most existing approaches that scale to big data are only approximate and their inaccuracies are difficult to quantify, which can have a detrimental impact on data-based decision-making.

“This project’s outcomes will be fast and reliable scalable Monte Carlo methods that are capable of quantifying inaccuracies,” Dr South said.

“These outcomes will enable scientists and decision-makers to obtain timely, reliable insights for challenging applications.”

Dr South said the project would involve two PhD students and one honours student.

 

Associate Professor Danielle Watson, from the School of Justice has been awarded $438,000 for her project, Beyond imported understandings of domestic violence in the Pacific.

This project will take a localized approach to understanding domestic violence (DV) to develop an actionable strategy for improved responses to DV survivors and perpetrators by police and other local non-government stakeholders who work in partnership with the police.

“My research will discover local understanding of DV and investigate the perception of and responses to DV among police and NGO partner organisations in the Pacific Island states of Tuvalu and Solomon Islands,” Dr Watson said.

“The aim is to advance knowledge about non-Western understandings of the causes, manifestations, and best suited responses to the problem of DV in the South Pacific, with a goal of improving police responses to this social problem.”

The project will involve two masters research students.

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