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 105 matching student topics
Displaying 1–12 of 105 results
Novel therapeutic strategies to treat advanced colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer is a very common disease, with over 15,000 new cases diagnosed in Australia annually. Metastatic colorectal cancer describes advanced disease that has spread beyond the primary site. This is very aggressive and incurable in the vast majority of these patients. To improve outcomes for colorectal cancer, we are using cutting edge genomic and cell biology techniques to understand disease heterogeneity and optimise drug response. We are developing novel therapeutic interventions based on unique molecular signatures and are testing …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
Food literacy projects (see description for options)
Food Literacy is a collection of knowledge, skills and behaviours required to plan, manage, select, prepare and eat foods to meet needs and determine food intake. It is the scaffolding that empowers individuals, households, communities or nations to protect diet quality through change and strengthen dietary resilience over time. Areas for further research include, but are not limited to:identifying models to integrated food literacy into dietetic practice e.g. through the Nutrition Care Processdevelop population level indicators for food literacy that …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
Model predictive control of connected vehicle platoons
Control of connected vehicle platoons can ensure the swift movement of traffic through a city by sharing vehicles' states and desired actuation. This networked control design can alleviate traffic jams, reduce vehicle emissions, and reduce fuel usage through improved aerodynamics. Model Predictive Control algorithms are a natural solution to address constraints arising from both communications and system dynamics. A key challenge is to design distributed control algorithms that are robust to disturbances in the environment and to stochastic information from …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
Overcoming the challenges of sensitive data via synthetic data generation (case study)
In the 21st Century, there is an abundance of data, often containing insights that could benefit a number of stakeholders. However, despite this opportunity, it is often the case that the data is sensitive and can not be released by organisations or government agencies due to privacy concerns. One possible solution to the above dilemma is to instead carefully construct a 'twin' data set that contains similar information (and ideally, the same insights) as the original data set, but without …
- Study level
- Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
CFD modelling of the deformation of porous material during drying
Drying is one of the major processes in the food industry and is a dominant food preservation method. However, current food drying systems are highly energy-intensive lengthy processes and result in significant food quality deterioration. The application of intermittent microwave in conventicle drying (IMCD) can significantly increase the drying rate and drastically reduce the drying time However, significant research is still required to control the nonuniform heating of MW and reducing quality degradation during IMCD.To enhance the performance of IMCD, …
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Developing bacterial cell rupture model on a nanotextured surface using finite element computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique.
Nanoscale roughness on the materials as that of the cicada and dragonfly wings exhibited strongly antimicrobial properties that repel and/or kill bacteria. The nano-texture is usually produced by applying wet-chemical etching, electrochemical etching, and hydrothermal processes. Nano-textured Al 5005 and Al 6063 were tested against gram-negative Escherichia coli (E coli) bacterial cell, and observed bactericidal. In order to understand the killing mechanism and the optimum geometry of the nanotexture, computational study is often time saving and more viable than the …
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Optimising delivery of a novel nose-to-brain treatment for brain cancer
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive brain cancer with no curative treatment and poor prognosis. One of the biggest challenges with treating GBM is the inability of treatment to cross the blood-brain barrier resulting in poor drug distribution in the brain. Fortunately, scientists have recently developed a novel nose-to-brain delivery system that uses nanoparticles loaded with a chemotherapy drug called paclitaxel. Initial treatment investigations in vivo are showing significant promise in reducing and controlling the tumour burden. While exciting, before …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
Using mathematics to understand multiple sclerosis: what causes the immune system to attack the brain?
Every day, we use our bodies to move, think, talk and eat, but for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) these tasks can be virtually impossible. MS is a chronic disease which develops because the immune system has started to attack the nerve cells in the brain. This causes the degradation of parts of the brain and irreversible impairment in physical and mental activity. Unfortunately, this disease has no cure, and while considerable therapeutic advances against this disease have been achieved, …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours, Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
Calendering lithium-ion battery electrodes: just roll with it
Calendering is the process of compressing and smoothing out a material by passing it between two rollers. This is a critical step of manufacturing thin films for energy storage and other applications, but one that can often be overlooked at a research level.This project will investigate the effect of calandering on electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. The aim is to find the optimum amount calendaring for maximum film quality and performance.
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices
Monte-Carlo modelling in radiotherapy
Various research projects are available in the use of monte-carlo techniques in radiotherapy and medical imaging. These include modelling radiotherapy linear accelerators, radiobiology, patient dosimetric verification and in-vivo treatment verification using electronic portal imaging devices.span
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Optimal ecosystem management in rapidly changing systems
Delays in acting in collapsing ecosystems can be catastrophic. With every passing year, the chances that the ecosystem has progressed past some point of no return increases. Yet the research and development needed to develop a new technology can take a long time. Balance between these two dynamic processes is needed to determine the optimal length and effort for developing new technologies. This project will develop a method for finding the optimal schedule for developing technological readiness, social acceptability, a …
- Study level
- PhD, 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
Mathematically optimising value of information for biodiversity management
When planning environmental management, data are only valuable if they lead to improved outcomes. As new monitoring technologies and approaches are developed, it is critical that they are used optimally to focus on the most important information gaps.Monitoring technologies should only be adopted if they can deliver improved management utility, and new data should be rapidly gathered in locations where early information could offer warning signals of future ecosystem change. Mathematical and statistical approaches to assessing the value of new …
- Study level
- Vacation research experience scheme
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Data Science
Centre for the Environment
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.