Student topics

Our built environment changes our brain function. There is considerable interest from many research fields upon the positive and negative health and wellbeing effects of our environments. This research area explores how architectural environments and spaces impact experience and mood using wearable brain-imaging technology.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

School

School of Architecture and Built Environment

Selecting a study topic and career path highly depends on perception of the profession among high school students and their parents. A lack of good understanding of career options and pathways often limits the choice. QUT has developed a VR based introduction to Construction and has performed surveys on high school students to investigate its impact. This project looks to analyse these surveys and to come up with future efforts to ensure that high school students can make a better …

Study level

Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

School

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

For a government to operate efficiently, the trust of its constituents, as well as the global community, is considered to be of substantial importance. A lack of trust could impair the government’s ability to effectively manage and fund its operations from collecting taxes and external investment. However, further research is required to understand the underlying trust mechanisms and their influence on governments’ performance. To address this research gap, the project will examine how trust in government is determined, evaluate how …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Accountancy

Research centre(s)

Centre for Future Enterprise

Crowdfunding provides a unique opportunity to acquire financial resources online and is often used by entrepreneurs aiming to finance a project or a venture by parties. These investors make their funding decision based on the crowdfunding campaign entailing a textual description and a video pitch. This research seeks to determine which financial information should be included in the campaign, how this information should be presented, and how it affects the judgment and decision making of the potential investors. Detailed insights …

Study level

Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Accountancy

There is increasing concern about the negative impact of social media use on well-being. To understand its impact, we need to move beyond simple conceptualisations of social media use and utilise strong research methods to understand the role that psychological processes play in producing positive and negative impacts. There is preliminary evidence that interpersonal goals play an important role in predicting how people use and experience social media. Self-image goals involve trying to convey a desirable image of oneself to …

Study level

PhD

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Psychology and Counselling

Factors in the milk, such as sugars, microbes and growth factors promote growth and immune development. This is partly achieved via the assembly of the gut microbiome. Infants who are breast-fed are at lower risk than those who are fed formula, although the underlying mechanisms are unclear.We have shown that osteopontin in milk confers protection against infection and that this is mediated by an increase in the number of dendritic cells and regulatory T cells, an effect that appears to …

Study level

Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty

Faculty of Health

School

School of Biomedical Sciences

The aim of this PhD project is to use lignocellulosic morphological features extracted from high resolution micro-CT images of biomass particles undergoing a dilute acid pretreatment process to perform computational homogenisation over representative unit cell configurations. Mesh-free finite volume solvers will be developed based on 3D point cloud data sets to estimate virtual biomass particle effective parameters, such as diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and permeability. The simulation results will be analysed to provide a fundamental understanding of the impact that changes …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Mathematical Sciences

Optical limiting uses a medium’s nonlinear response to allow light at low intensities to be transmitted, but restricts transmission at high intensities so as to safeguard sensitive detectors including the eye. A popular nonlinear process used in optical limiters is two photon absorption where two high intensity light photons are simultaneously absorbed thereby reducing the light transmission through the medium. Unfortunately, in gold nanoparticle optical limiters a second nonlinear process can arise – saturated absorption which leads to an increase …

Study level

Honours, Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Chemistry and Physics

Research centre(s)

Centre for Materials Science

To conserve species in disturbed natural environments, we need to use mathematical models to predict the consequences of different interventions. Unfortunately, these models are based on partial information of complex systems, and the systems themselves are subject to substantial observational and process noise.We often use ordinary differential equations to describe ecosystems, like the classic logistic growth model:dn/dt = r n (1 - n / k)However, these models are deterministic, and they assume we know the values of the key parameters …

Study level

Master of Philosophy, Honours, Vacation research experience scheme

Faculty

Faculty of Science

School

School of Mathematical Sciences

Research centre(s)

Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment

Most theories of motivation and behaviour consider pain and effort to be deterrents. In contrast to this widely held belief, researchers have identified that the prospect of enduring pain and exerting effort for a cause can promote contributions to the cause. Specifically, research has shown that willingness to contribute to a charitable or collective cause increases when the contribution process is expected to be painful and effortful rather than easy and enjoyable.This project extends this theory to a shopping context. …

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Dr Sam Boyle is looking for candidates wanting to explore the ethical and legal issues that the issue of capacity gives rise to. In particular, candidates may want to consider how the law can validly incorporate medical understanding of mental functioning into the legal sphere.

Study level

PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Law

Research centre(s)

Australian Centre for Health Law Research