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 86 matching student topics
Displaying 49–60 of 86 results
Leveraging Big Data and AI/ML for Smart Transport Solutions
This PhD position aims to harness the potential of big traffic and mobility data alongside cutting-edge AI/ML algorithms to pioneer innovative solutions for optimizing smart motorways and/or arterial traffic flow. By leveraging these technologies, the project endeavours to develop and test smart algorithms, with the goal of significantly enhancing the efficiency and safety of road networks.Send via email to Prof. Ashish Bhaskar (ashish.bhaskar@qut.edu.au):a brief statement detailing your suitability for the positiona detailed curriculum vitae, including a list of publications, if …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Experimental validation of a novel tricuspid valve design
The tricuspid valve is responsible for regulating the flow of blood between the right atrium and the right ventricle of the heart. During ventricular systole, it closes to prevent the backflow of blood from the right ventricle into the right atrium. This closure ensures that blood is pumped forward into the pulmonary circulation. In contrast, the tricuspid valve opens during ventricular diastole, allowing blood to flow from the right atrium into the right ventricle.When the tricuspid valve fails to close …
- 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
Designing smart cities for more-than-human futures
Cities are changing across the globe. Climate change, rapid urbanisation, pandemics, as well as innovations in technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT are all impacting urban space. One response to such changes has been to make cities ecologically sustainable and 'smart'. The 'eco smart city', for instance, uses networked sensing, cloud and mobile computing to optimise, control, and regulate urban processes and resources. From real-time bus information, autonomous electric vehicles, smart parking, and smart street lighting, such initiatives are …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
-
Design Lab
Smart triggered sampling: low-cost devices and intelligent retrofits for capturing the moments that matter
Many water quality issues are event-driven. The most informative signals often appear during short windows associated with storms, illicit discharges, first flush, or operational upsets. Capturing these windows is genuinely hard. Manual sampling is often too slow, especially overnight or during fast-changing events. Conventional autosamplers help, but they are large, power-hungry, and typically deployed only at major assets, leaving smaller drains, tributaries, pump stations, and pollution hotspots without coverage. Even when an event is captured, fixed-interval sampling fills bottles after …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Smart sensing for nutrients in our waterways: low-cost continuous monitoring for pollution tracking and real-time control
Nitrogen and phosphorus are central to the health of stormwater systems, rivers, wetlands, and lakes. They drive algal growth, oxygen stress, and downstream ecological impacts, and they are a key input to environmental reporting and catchment management. Yet most monitoring still relies on infrequent grab samples that miss the short pollution pulses that matter most.The challenge is delivering nutrient monitoring that is affordable, low-maintenance, and reliable enough for continuous deployment across many sites. Existing nutrient sensors are often too expensive …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Smart composite scaffolds for bone repair
Millions of people suffer bone loss each year through cancer excisions, traumatic accidents and congenital birth defectsThis project will develop advanced bioactive composite scaffolds to heal bone defects using a technology terms melt electrowriting. You will use a special kind of 3D printing to create scaffolds that stimulate bone cells (osteoblasts) to create new bone and will optimise the formulation, size, shape and culture conditions for the scaffolds.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Centre for Biomedical Technologies
International policy approaches to food sovereignty
This project will be a desktop document review of international policy preferences to food sovereignty.Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to health and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It incorporates the intergenerational transfer of cultural knowledge through food which is fundamental to maintaining identity, connectedness and traditional practices. The concept has traction in Canada, USA, and Aotearoa, but is only starting to gain …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Public Health and Social Work
The Martyrdom Effect: why we hurt to give
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
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
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
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