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 182 matching student topics
Displaying 61–72 of 182 results
Recovery of metal halide perovskite precursors from Australia sources
Investigate, model and experiment on the extraction and recovery of cations and anions, used in the synthesis of perovskite solar cells, from Australian resources.Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying precursor materials for next-generation metal halide perovskite solar cells, leveraging its abundant critical minerals and strong mineral processing capabilities with an innovative 'mineral to precursor to final product' strategy.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Construction materials in extreme chemical and thermal processing environments
Investigate and identify materials that can be used to construct chemical plants using extreme chemicals and processing conditions.Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying critical minerals for current and emerging energy technologies, however the extraction and recovery of these minerals are requiring more aggressive chemicals and processing requirements that are not suitable for traditionally used construction materials, such as stainless steel.Thus, this project will perform experimental material testing on a range of construction materials under extreme chemically corrosive …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Multiscale technology assessment of emerging CCUS processes
CO2 capture and utilisation is a promising, emerging climate technology. However, there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding its viability and economic impact. This project will be conducted in collaboration with an industry partner.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
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
A sense of touch for robots
Touch, or awareness of contact, is one of the key challenges in robotics, particularly in the soft and highly deformable environment of the human body. This project will explore the development and use of interferometric filters to quantify contact pressures through spectral changes in reflected light. Thus a quantitative 'image' of force may be created to both characterise and guide robot-tissue interactions.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Dual mode ultrasonics
This project develops a new approach to ultrasonic sensing, sending and receiving high frequency acoustic pulses from a low frequency platform to modulate spectral content and microscale spatial offsets. In doing so, it will give surgical robotics platforms access to the rich array of physical information in acoustic pulses, which can be used to characterise tissues encountered during surgery and guide the robot in the intervention itself.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Active stroke rehabilitation orthotic
An active stroke rehabilitation orthotic is needed to assist the multitude of people affected by stroke each year. Several prototype hardware systems have been constructed, so we know the concept is feasible. Development for medical approval and manufacture is needed. Plus, artificial intelligence that adapts the rehabilitation strategies to help users
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Robotics
Tracking small bones for robotic surgery
Robotic knee surgery can perform femoral and tibial resection. Currently it is not possible to use robotic technology for patella preparation; to do so will require miniaturisation of tracking, effective clamping of the patella and controlled use of a saw. This project will aim to develop the technology for any small bone resection with a robot, taking the patella as a test case.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Achieving a sub-micrometer surgical robot end-effector via hybrid sensing
When operating with a tool within the human body in the context of a medical procedure, it is crucial to be able to keep track of the pose of the tool. This project will develop a hybrid approach to end effector pose estimation by combing optical tracking with other sensor inputs (e.g. force, sound, acoustic emissions) to compliment and improve tracking accuracy with applications towards orthopaedic surgical robots. This project is part of a broader collaboration with industry partner Stryker.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Physics-informed reinforcement learning for complex environments, using graph neural networks
Neglecting to incorporate physics information into world models for reinforcement learning leads to reduced adaptability to dynamic and complex environments and overall learning outcomes.In this project, we endeavour to develop and implement learnable models in reinforcement learning (RL) based on graph neural networks (GNNs). These models will integrate object and relation-centric representations to enable accurate predictions, strong generalization, and system identification in complex, dynamical systems. Additionally, we will focus on leveraging extensive world knowledge or physics information to refine representations …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
Quantum machine learning
Quantum machine learning is the integration of quantum algorithms within machine learning programs with great potential to solve complex problems. For instance, Google’s Sycamore processor (61) performs in 200 seconds a task that would require 10,000 years using a classical computer.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
Adaptive and efficient robot positioning
I am looking for highly motivated and talented PhD students to work with us on robot localisation and navigation. The students would join my DECRA Fellowship project "Adaptive and Efficient Robot Positioning Through Model and Task Fusion" funded by the Australian Research Council, which provides substantial top-up scholarships in addition to QUT's tax-free base stipend.Robot positioningWhere are you? This is a fundamental question to which most of us usually know the answer. And so do the birds singing in our …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Robotics
Contact us
If you have questions about the best options for you, the application process, your research topic, finding a supervisor or anything else, get in touch with us today.