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 639 matching student topics
Displaying 217–228 of 639 results
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
Managing Diversity for Positive Organizational Outcomes
This research aims to provide insights into how organisational gender and age diversity can be managed for positive employee and organisational outcomes. A lack of knowledge is creating issues including slow progress in being an inclusive society, diversity initiatives for short-term gains, and a lack of well-being of individuals. The expected outcomes include insights into what drives diversity practices, how diversity practices lead to positive outcomes, and organisational strategies to strengthen positive outcomes.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Management
Understanding and manipulating bacterial motility for infection control
The recent COVID 19 pandemic reminds us of how difficult it is to control infectious diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms are known to be extremely 'smart' and are able to quickly develop mechanisms against most of our strategies aimed at eradicating them. Our group is focused on bacterial infections to implants and medical devices. We are in the pursuit to outsmart the bacteria to develop the next generation medical device and implant materials.Bacterial motility/movement and group-coordination on surfaces and in 3-dimensional environment …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Hearing colour and seeing sound – switchable optoacoustic imaging agents
Optoacoustic imaging is a relatively new medical imaging technique. It utilises laser light to excite an imaging agent, which in turn converts this light energy into heat. This heat is dissipated as a sound wave, which can be detected with an ultrasound receiver. This technique aims to overcome the minimal penetration depth of fluorescence imaging, and the lack of molecular specificity of ultrasound.In this project we are aiming to develop and synthesize intelligent imaging agents for optoacoustics, which are able …
- Study level
- Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Forecasting disease spread risk based on human movement patterns
This project aims to forecast the risk of infectious disease spread, such as COVID-19 and dengue, based on human movement patterns. We'll use multiple data sources that describe people movement in order to understand individual and population level mobility patterns, and use empirical disease case data to model the effect of movement on the spread of disease.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Green solvents to recover metals – mining and battery recycling industry
With the ever-increasing demand for batteries, the accelerated production will soon translate into massive amounts of waste. Establishing effective LIB recycling strategies will balance the impact of end-of-life LIB waste and the demands on raw materials in the battery supply chain. Due to high prices of raw materials, the global LIB recycling market was valued at about $1.78 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $23.72 billion by 2030, suggesting a significant opportunity for the recovery of valuable metals …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
Trust in Internet-of-Things with blockchain
Blockchain is an unchangeable, distributed database that provides trust in data once it is stored on the database. However, in Internet-of-Things (IoT), the data is an observation of physical context and is susceptible to noise, drift, or malicious alterations. Sensors may even be decoupled from their intended context by an attacker, which may compromise the blockchain data and its value for guiding decisions.This project aims to develop an innovative approach for pervasive trust in IoT, underpinned by blockchain. The research …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Leadership and digital transformation
Digital transformation and digitalisation are on top of the CIOs' agenda. However, organisations embarking into these initiatives struggle to understand the nature of leadership capabilities required for effective DT. Furthermore, the complexities associated with pandemics such as Covid19 has forced organisations to change the traditional view of leadership. The uncertainties require well-rounded leaders who can create vision and execute tactically to influence change, develop digital capabilities and foster enterprise agility.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Information Systems
Developing models of failure for porous materials
Classical fracture mechanics accurately predicts the failure strength of samples with sharp flaws such as pre-existing cracks. However, to predict the failure of porous materials we need to develop an understanding of how stresses are concentrated around smooth flaws in the material such as rounded pores, and how these stress concentrations contribute to failure.Finite fracture mechanics combines the energy criterion for failure from classical fracture mechanics with a stress criterion from macroscopic failure theory. The coupled criterion has by now …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
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
Springbrook groundwater monitoring and modelling
In partnership with the City of Gold Coast, QUT has set up water monitoring networks in the Gold Coast Hinterland to improve assessment of water and ecological resources. You will have an opportunity to carry out research that leads to improved environmental management.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Biology and Environmental Science
Machine learning for understanding and predicting behaviour
Understanding behaviour and predicting events is a core machine learning task, and has many applications in areas including computer vision (to detect or prediction actions in video) and signal processing (to detect events in medical signals).While a large body of research exists exploring these tasks, a number of common challenges persist including:capturing variations in how behaviours or events appear across different subjects, such that predictions can be accurately made for previously unseen subjectsmodelling and incorporating long-term relationships, such as previously …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics
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