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 479 matching student topics
Displaying 193–204 of 479 results
Interaction design for enhanced science communication and citizen science
Science communication is typically done by scientists, but interaction designers and artists have the capacity to create for people's engagement. Technology and design for active engagement, such as embodied interaction design, can leverage people's understanding and engage them in more effective and sustainable behaviours. For example, invasive mosquitoes are one area of citizen science that poses significant risk to our environment and health in SEQ yet is little understood by the general population. Mosquito borne disease is a major killer …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
Trauma-Aware Education
Potential projects in the area of Trauma-Aware Education include:The responses of schools and early childhood services to address the impacts of trauma on children and young peopleMitigating the impacts of trauma on children and young people
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Education
Where should we put our sensors? Designing smarter water quality monitoring networks
Water utilities and environmental agencies face a deceptively simple question: where should we put our sensors? In a piped stormwater network, the question matters because finding an illicit discharge quickly depends on having the right sensors at the right places. In an open creek or river, the question matters because spatial coverage, transport dynamics, and cost trade-offs all influence whether monitoring will actually answer the question being asked.Decisions about sensor placement are still often made on the basis of accessibility, …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
See it without touching it: low-cost non-contact sensing for our waterways
Many of our most important waterbodies, including reservoirs, lakes, lagoons, wetlands, sedimentation basins, and constructed wetlands, are still monitored using sparse in-water sensors and periodic grab sampling. These methods are costly to maintain, hard to scale across many sites, and often miss spatially variable changes in water quality.Non-contact sensing offers a different approach. Cameras, spectral sensors, radar, thermal imaging, and other sensing modalities can observe water from outside it, reducing fouling, simplifying servicing, improving worker safety, and enabling broader spatial …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rapid pathogen detection in water: from lab prototype to field-ready public health tool
Faecal contamination is one of the most consequential water hazards because it directly affects public health. Beach closures, do-not-drink advisories, and waterway warnings all depend on detecting microbial contamination quickly and reliably. Today, monitoring still depends largely on infrequent sampling and laboratory turnaround times that arrive long after the contamination has come and gone.Direct microbial sensing has advanced through biosensors and microfluidics, but most concepts remain at low technology readiness and are rarely demonstrated as field-usable systems. Reliability in the …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Monitoring Corneal Immune Cell Changes After Anti-Inflammatory and Immunosuppressant Eye Drops Using In Vivo Confocal Microscopy
This project investigates how corneal immune cells in the human eye respond to topical anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant eye drops. By using in vivo confocal microscopy, we aim to monitor real-time cellular changes to better understand treatment effects in common ocular surface conditions.
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Clinical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Vision and Eye Research
Centre for Vision and Eye Research
Real-time control of nature-based solutions for multi-benefit water management
Nature-based solutions (NBS) such as wetlands, green roofs, and bioswales, are critical for sustainable urban water management. However, their benefits (flood mitigation, water quality improvement, biodiversity support) are often siloed or under-optimised.This PhD project will pioneer adaptive, real-time control strategies for NBS to maximise their environmental, social, and economic co-benefits. The research integrates sensor data, predictive modeling, and smart control systems to dynamically adjust NBS operations in response to weather, pollution events, and community needs.This project merges cutting-edge technology with …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Enhancing sonographer work-integrated learning: balancing quality training with workforce demands and student well-being
Sonographers, highly skilled healthcare professionals responsible for essential diagnostic ultrasound services, are currently facing a severe nationwide shortage. The Australasian Sonographers Association reported a deficit of at least 3,000 sonographers in 2019. Training new sonographers involves comprehensive work-integrated learning (WIL), which blends academic knowledge with structured real-world experiences to develop vital clinical skills. However, due to escalating workforce demands, concerns have arisen about potential exploitation of students within workplaces. This exploitation could involve assigning tasks exceeding their capabilities or subjecting …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Clinical Sciences
Post-translational modification of proteins in cancer
The Protein Ablation Cancer Therapeutics (PACT) laboratory are interested in understanding how post-translational modifications contribute to the tumorigenic functions of proteins in cancer cells. We hypothesise that particular post-translational modifications are required for the cancer-associated function of a protein and that prevention of these would be a useful approach to treating cancer.The aim of this project is to select a candidate protein from our database of potential targets, confirm the protein is modified, identify the key modified lysine in the …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Developing composite products for use in light steel wall and floor systems
The project will investigate the potential use of a range of composite products made of gypsum plasterboard, steel sheeting and insulation foams to improve the fire resistance of light steel wall and floor systems. It will involve investigating the potential composite products’ suitability, conducting fire tests of small scale wall/floor assemblies (1.2mx.1.2m) made of such composite products to understand how they behave in fire and determine their fire resistance levels. Civil and Mechanical Engineering students with interest in structural and …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Coarse-grained molecular dynamics modelling in expansive soil
Expansive soil/active soil has wide applications in geotechnical engineering and other engineering disciplines due to its desirable special properties - for example, low permeability and swelling pressure under saturated condition. But these materials are highly susceptible to experiencing huge volume change and even damage due to moisture content reduction. However, the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon is still not clear for geotechnical engineers. Therefore, there is no optimum solution available to solve the problem.In this project, a special modelling approach …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Hierarchical visualisation of large social networks
Networks have been extensively used to capture social interactions, by representing individuals as nodes and their relationships as edges.Such networks have been used to model the spread of epidemics. A few nodes are 'infected', and over time they gradually infect their neighbours on the network, who in turn infect their neighbours, etc. This type of model can then be used to simulate different intervention strategies aimed at containing outbreaks.However, an important limitation is the difficulty to visualise these networks when …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
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