The Vacation Research Experience Scheme (VRES) provides eligible students with the opportunity to participate in a research project. If you're interested in research and thinking of pursuing a research degree the scheme is an opportunity to see if research is right for you. Further information about the scheme is available on HiQ.
QUT offers a diverse range of student topics for VRES. Search to find a topic that interests you.
Found 182 matching student topics
Displaying 13–24 of 182 results
Reimagining the Future of Olympic Mobility – Autonomous RoboBus System
This VRES project will challenge 1-2 high-performing Industrial Design student/s to envision a future mobility service for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, using the PIX Moving RoboBus as the foundation for a next-generation autonomous transport ecosystem. The PIX RoboBus is a modular, Level 4 autonomous shuttle designed for short-distance, last-mile mobility with highly configurable interiors and a strong focus on creating "moving spaces" rather than simply moving vehicles. It has been conceived for applications such as campus transport, …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre
- QUT Design Lab
Recommissioning and Performance Evaluation of a Hybrid Solar-Electric Drying System
MMPE has a hybrid solar drying rig comprising a solar collector, drying chamber, electric backup heater, thermal storage unit, blower, and an integrated control system. This project requires to diagnose, repair, and recommission the system, then use it to generate validated performance data.
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Advanced Control for Hybrid Microwave and Convective Food Drying
This project extends a recently completed thesis that developed a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) for regulating magnetron power in hybrid microwave-convective drying, validated through a MATLAB-COMSOL co-simulation framework. That work demonstrated successful single- and multi-sample (27-sample) temperature control with strong spatial uniformity, but was limited to a single-magnetron, lab-scale geometry.The project builds on an existing industry collaboration between the ADSER group and industry partner, whose multi-magnetron industrial hybrid dryer is the intended target application for the framework.
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Design and Construction of Advanced Hybrid Drying System
Project Description: Food processing is one of the largest manufacturing industries in Australia with an annual turnover of A$131 billion. Drying is one of the major processes in the food industry and an important food preservation technique. However, current food drying systems are highly energy-intensive and time consuming operations. As drying accounts for 15% of all industrial energy usage, it is one of the major contributors to carbon emissions and environmental pollution. In order to progress towards a zero-carbon target …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre
- Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy
Supporting Construction and Material Use in the Self-Storage Business: A Literature and Industry Review
The self-storage industry is expanding, driven by urbanisation, population mobility, and changing customer preferences. Operators face practical challenges around construction costs, zoning and geographic constraints, supply-demand dynamics, site layouts, unit mix, and performance benchmarking. This project, linked to a Building 4.0 CRC collaboration between QUT, CRC, and the Self Storage Association of Australasia, will guide students through an applied literature and industry review to investigate how construction approaches, material choices, modular design, and site planning can support efficient, sustainable, and …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Architecture and Built Environment
Understanding Digital Source Credibility in AI-Mediated Marketing: An Integrative Review
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way organisations communicate with consumers through AI-mediated digital sources, including virtual influencers, AI brand ambassadors, conversational AI, digital avatars, AI customer service agents, AI shopping assistants, and AI tutors. While these technologies are increasingly adopted across industries, research examining their credibility remains fragmented across multiple disciplines, with no integrated understanding of how digital source credibility is conceptualised, developed, and evaluated.This interdisciplinary project aims to conduct an integrative review of the emerging literature on digital …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
- Research centre
- Centre for Future Enterprise
Designing Credible virtual Influencers: The Role of Design Characteristics in Consumer Responses
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming influencer marketing through the emergence of AI-generated virtual influencers. As brands increasingly collaborate with these digital communicators, there is limited understanding of which design characteristics make AI influencers appear credible, trustworthy, and engaging to consumers. This project investigates how design characteristics—such as anthropomorphism, visual realism, emotional expression, communication style, storytelling, transparency, and AI disclosure—influence consumer perceptions and behavioural responses. This interdisciplinary project integrates marketing, consumer behaviour, artificial intelligence, psychology, digital communication, and human-computer interaction. The …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Business and Law
- School
- School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations
- Research centre
- Centre for Future Enterprise
Modelling Adverse Weather Impact on Transport Mode Choice: An Exposure-Distance Approach with Nonlinear Weather Response
Weather is an increasingly significant yet underrepresented determinant in travel demand modelling. Rainfall, temperature, wind, and humidity influence travel behavior by shaping comfort, reliability, perceived safety, waiting conditions, and the attractiveness of different mode alternatives. These effects are particularly relevant for walking, cycling, shared mobility, and multimodal travel, where travellers may be exposed to weather during all or part of the trip. As cities pursue sustainable mobility while facing increasing climate variability, transport models require a more behaviorally grounded representation …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Research centre
- Centre for Future Mobility
Evaluating locally-hosted AI models for software security applications
AI tools now help uncover thousands of software vulnerabilities every month, but most run on external, often overseas, servers. Even with data retention agreements, organisations may be reluctant to send sensitive code to a third party. Locally-hosted models avoid this by running on hardware the organisation owns or rents, keeping all data in-house, and have become more practical as smaller models grow more capable.This project evaluates how well these smaller, locally-hosted models detect vulnerabilities in real-world software, spanning the AI/ML …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
Mathematical and computational models for diffusion magnetic resonance imaging
In 1985, the first image of water diffusion in the living human brain came to life. Since then, significant developments have been made and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) has become a pillar of modern neuroimaging.Over the past decade, combining computational modelling and diffusion MRI has enabled researchers to link millimetre scale diffusion MRI measures with microscale tissue properties, to infer microstructure information, such as diffusion anisotropy in white matter, axon diameters, axon density, intra/extra-cellular volume fractions, and fibre orientation …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
AI and Data Science in Rugby
Sport is increasingly becoming a data-intensive field. For instance, the use of advanced analytics has transformed baseball (you may have read read or watched Moneyball) or basketball. While data is becoming more widely available in rugby, it has not yet been used to the same extent.In this project, you will collaborate with the QUT Centre for Data Science and the Queensland Reds on developing technical solutions that support their team.There are several possible directions for the work, due to the …
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Computer Science
- Research centre
- Centre for Data Science
Numerical solution of partial differential equations
Partial differential equations describe some of the most important physical phenomena in nature and hence finding their solution is of enormous importance in real world applications. Depending on the type of equation, numerical methods of different flavours are most suitable. In this project, depending on the student’s background and interest, particular approaches including physics informed neural networks, spectral methods and particle-based methods may be employed.
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre
- Centre for Data Science
Contact us
If you have questions about the Vacation Research Experience Scheme (VRES), the application process, finding a topic or anything else, get in touch with us today.