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 53 matching student topics
Displaying 25–36 of 53 results
Supporting boundary management in young people's AI companion interactions
We invite applications for Honours research within an interdisciplinary research team examining how young people engage with AI companion chatbots (e.g., Character.AI, Replika) and how they manage risks and boundaries in these interactions.AI companions have grown in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic and are increasingly used by young people seeking connection. This trend raises important concerns, including exposure to harassment, misinformation, and self-harm, as well as the potential impact on human relationships when reliance on AI companions becomes significant.This project …
- Study level
- Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Wearable futures: designing next-generation devices for Parkinson's disease
More than 10M people worldwide suffer from Parkinson’s disease (PD). As a neurodegenerative disease it is difficult to manage with adult-onset and slow progression with both both motor (walking problems, slowed movements, tremors, etc) and non-motor (anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, etc) symptoms. Current treatments focus on symptoms and clinical assessments based on intermittent, subjective evaluations with a 20 minute visit to a neurologist every six months. This cannot capture the daily fluctuation of symptoms effectively. Non-motor symptoms remain under-assessed and …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
- QUT Design Lab
Design Lab
Promoting incidental physical activity and social interactions in public space
The World Health Organisation recently raised the alarm on the critical importance of physical activity and social interactions for mental and physical health, highlighting the need for active environments that support people to engage in healthy activities. In order to address the high-rates of physical inactivity and social isolation, we need additional research evidence to design high-quality public spaces that promote health and wellbeing for all ages. This study lies at the intersection of built environment, human behaviour, and health …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
Co-designing ambient assistive technologies
Vision-based technologies offer new possibilities to assist individuals with cognitive disabilities to live independently. Ambient assistive technologies, such as smart mirrors and social robots, enable new ways to interact at home with AI technologies that can see.How can we engage people of all abilities in co-designing ambient assistive technologies?Participation in design is often defined on a spectrum where stakeholders can be categorised as simple informants (surveyed at the start of a project), evaluators (involved in trial iterations of a design), …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Computational methods for multi-scale structural optimisation
Structural optimisation is a powerful computational methodology for finding high-performing designs for structural components or material architectures. For example, what periodic scaffold would provide the highest possible stiffness for its weight?Solving such a problem computationally requires an understanding of the relevant equations required to model the physical properties of interest, as well as efficient implementation of a range of numerical methods including finite elements, finite differences and optimisation.With recent developments in 3D printing technologies it is now becoming possible to …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
Examining the impact of biophilic design elements within shopping centres (malls)
The shopping centre (mall) is the central hub of modern retailing and holds a significant role in developing a first overall impression. As a result, shopping centres (malls) have focussed on creating positive customer experiences in shared public spaces. Bringing natural elements such as green plants, flowerbeds, water features, aquariums, animals, birds, and butterfly gardens into the hotel service setting, is an innovative approach known as biophilic design.The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of biophilic elements …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
Reconciling competing perspectives of mathematics in teacher education
This project explores how pre-service teachers experience and reconcile competing conceptions of mathematics, such as mathematics as a formal discipline versus a pedagogical practice. These tensions can shape teaching approaches and classroom environments.The project will investigate how teacher education programs influence these perspectives and how pre-service teachers develop coherent professional identities.
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- 1043176
Bridging Real-World Modelling and Secondary Mathematics Education
This project explores how authentic modelling approaches (for example Bayesian reasoning and systems thinking) can be integrated into secondary mathematics classrooms to enhance engagement and conceptual understanding.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- 1043176
Empowering communities with DataCare: ethical data practices for smart cities
Smart cities hold immense potential for progress, but their success hinges on citizen empowerment and ethical data practices. Our research initiative, DataCare, aims at reshaping the landscape of smart cities by prioritising citizens, communities, and small businesses. This project, developed in collaboration with Brisbane Residents United (BRU), focuses on transforming smart cities from profit-driven entities to community-led developments.BRU is a community association serving as a vital grassroots advocacy and peer support network for suburban and local resident groups across Greater …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
- Digital Media Research Centre
Design Lab
Conversational agents that can see
The development of conversational agents, whether as smart home devices, or embedded in mobile devices or social robots, has started in the world of chatbots, with only text available, and then started to build audio features, and finally considering context through sensors and cloud knowledge, as well as offering images in response to a query.However, little attention has been paid to other conversational modalities, such as showing, pointing, or gesturing. The reliance on these is exacerbated in conversation with people …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
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
AI-driven process redesign
This research aims to transform how organisations improve business processes by integrating artificial intelligence with real-time data. Existing process redesign approaches are often static, retrospective, and reliant on manual analysis. While process mining is commonly used to extract insights from historical data, these methods rarely incorporate AI models to support continuous, real-time process adaptation. As a result, they fall short of enabling intelligent, self-adaptive process management.This research addresses these limitations by proposing an AI-assisted, self-adaptive framework that combines historical and …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Information Systems
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