Five days, 160 students and 10 real-world, life-changing projects. Year 11 students who dream of changing the world through science, technology, engineering and maths will converge at QUT this September school holidays as a part of the prestigious QUT Vice-Chancellor’s STEM Camp.
Check out this year’s ten STEM camp research projects:
Breaking Bones
STEM Disciplines: Skeletal Biology, Biomechanics, Biochemistry
Project Leader: Associate Professor Laura Gregory, Faculty of Health
The 2020 Olympic Games are not far away with hundreds of Australian elite athletes placing high demands on their bodies to reach peak performance. Our skeleton protects, supports and allows body movement; it is essential that bones are strong enough to withstand the extreme stress levels experienced by our athletes to avoid fracture. Our bones are incredibly sensitive to their environment, adapting to mechanical, hormonal and dietary cues every minute and every second of the day! In this project students will learn the structural and chemical components of bone tissue that determine mechanical strength using a Universal Testing System that applies a mechanical load to bones until they reach their failure point and break. Students will treat bones with a range of relevant dietary factors and using a 3-point bending test be able to make evidence-based dietary recommendations to the Australian Institute of Sport to increase bone strength in our athletes.
Helping Hearts Live Healthier
STEM Disciplines: Exercise Science, Clinical Exercise Physiology, Biomechanics
Project Leader: Robert Mullins, Faculty of Health
One in five Australian adults (22%) in 2015 suffered from cardiovascular disease which resulted in 45,000 deaths and 1.1 million hospitalisations. Almost 1 in 3 deaths in Australia each year are caused by coronary heart disease, stroke and hypertensive disease. There is no one identifiable cause for this chronic disease but identifying the major risk factors and knowing those that are treatable is critical to saving millions of lives. In this project, students will look at risk factors for cardiovascular disease of real patients through physiological and movement assessments. Students will learn how to take blood pressure, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, blood glucose levels, body composition (body fat, muscle and water) and assess movement capacity with the assistance of imaging technology. Working within the real-world QUT Health Clinics, students will gain access to biomechanics and exercise physiology equipment to understand the effects of exercise and movement on the body’s system. The results will help inform people how to live healthier lives, overcome limitations to movement and reduce their risk of heart disease.
Enemy Release
STEM Disciplines: Ecology, Earth Science, Biology, Environmental Science, Software, Applied Statistics and Data Analysis
Project Leader: Associate Professor Dr Jennifer Firn, Science and Engineering Faculty
Australia is known globally for its unique flora and fauna. From the ‘boxing kangaroo’ to the spotted gum, Australia has a rich diversity of species and habitats found nowhere else on Earth. Over time the introduction of exotic plants and animals has caused significant problems for the longevity of these unique natives. Think of the cane toad which was introduced to protect sugar cane crops, yet is now a major pest. Or the flowering bush, Lantana, brought over for an ornamental garden but has since spread to become one of the top invasive plant species in Australia. Why do these exotic plants succeed over native plants that should be better adapted to local conditions? To explain this paradox, the Enemy Release hypothesis was proposed suggesting that one difference lay in a plant’s immunity or defence against natural native enemies, for instance insects or diseases. The aim of this project will be to test the general validity of the Enemy Release hypothesis. Students will work collaboratively to collect and examine data on the plant herbivory of both native and exotic plants, using free online ImageJ and Rstudio software. Students will explore invasive plant ecology concepts and determine if there is compelling evidence to support the Enemy Release hypothesis.
eSports Video Game Development
STEM Disciplines: Games and Interactive Environments, Computer Human Interaction, Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering
Project Leader: Dr David Conroy, Science and Engineering Faculty
eSports have become a major player in the global entertainment industry, worth over $1 Billion, combining teamwork, competition and strategy. This project will challenge students to develop a unique gaming solution to explore a distant exoplanet and compete against their friends. Working in teams they will host their own round-robin eSports competition for their game, with mentoring and advice from Brisbane eSport experts. Students will learn the fundamentals of video game design and develop their solution using Unity, an industry leading game development engine used for computers, consoles and mobile devices.
Highways in the Sky
STEM Disciplines: Robotics, Engineering, Aerospace, Unmanned Automated Vehicles, Software, Applied Statistics and Data Analysis, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics
Project Leaders: Dr Tim Molloy and Dr Aaron McFayden, Science and Engineering Faculty
Autonomous, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) are part of a fast growing area of research that is finding a variety of applications in some unexpected areas. From parcel and fast food delivery through to travelling to work Jetson style we need to have ‘air rules’ for future highways in the sky. Unmanned traffic management, especially through urban environments, utilises separation collision avoidance combining both strategic and tactical approaches. Students will learn the basics of programming the drones to reduce the probability of aircraft colliding and to automate them, turning these drones into Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs). They will be exposed to real research in the field which applies across the aviation industry; from drones scaled all the way up to commercial aircrafts. Over the week students will design, calibrate and test their solutions, before competing in a final challenge and showcasing their work.
I Know What You Streamed Next Summer
STEM Disciplines: Mathematics: Data Science, Technology: Computer Science, Information Science
Project Leader: Dr Gentry White, Science and Engineering Faculty
As we collect more and more data about the world around us, many important questions are raised. How should we gather and store it? Who should benefit? What ethical concerns should we have? What should we do with it? Data science is the technical art of using amazing algorithms, incredible intuition, deep data digging and some vigorous visualisation to make predictions that inform decisions in business, advertising, science, medicine and anything in between. If you have ever wondered how human behaviour can be predicted for targeted advertising, including recommendations on streaming services, data science is the explanation. This project will begin with understanding of how predictions are made from mathematical concepts like Bayesian probability and graph theory, before students make simple predictions to get a feel for the intuition aspect. From there, students will undertake an exciting exploration of the methods we use to data science today, from boosted decision trees to neural networks, before considering data issues including collection, data cleaning and investigating bias and ethical decisions. Students will also have hands-on experience with the Python programming language for creating, manipulating and using data from a variety of areas. Finally, this new data science knowledge will be applied to make accurate predictions of what an online streaming tool might suggest a user will like.
Biofabrication – Hospital of the Future
STEM Disciplines: Biomedical Engineering; Technology
Project Leader: Professor Mia Woodruff, Science and Engineering Faculty
3D printing technology is growing rapidly, as are its applications to the human way of life. The application of 3D printing to the medical industry will revolutionise the clinical treatment of serious injury, trauma and organ replacement – and change the world forever! Students will learn about advanced 3D patient scanning techniques and 3D modelling of injury sites including the morphology of the hypothetical replacement tissue constructs. They will design and optimise the internal micro-architectures of biodegradable polymer scaffold to support and guide tissue growth for a either a bone trauma case or they will design and optimise treatment for facial burns.
Pharmacy Zombie Busters
STEM Disciplines: Health Science, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Science, Pharmacology
Project Leaders: Dr Yasmin Antwertinger and Dr Esther Lau, Faculty of Health
The World Health Organisation has issued an announcement declaring the Brisbane outbreak of the Z0-M8-1E virus to have reached epidemic levels, leaving disaster in its path. You and your team of pharmacists have been asked to help prevent this outbreak from spreading. A newly discovered drug that is thought to be effective against the virus has been discovered. Using your expert pharmaceutical knowledge you are tasked with creating a formulation to administer this new drug, which has never been used in humans. You have also been asked to produce a zombie repellent to protect first responders and healthcare workers looking after people who have been infected. You are Brisbane’s last hope, will you answer the call?
To Infinity and Beyond
STEM Disciplines: Physics, Astrophysics, Mathematics, Aerospace
Project Leader: Dr Sean Powell, Science and Engineering Faculty
The year is 2050 and a rogue star has been detected on a direct path for our solar system. Over the next 5 years, our home will be bombarded with asteroids, flung into gravitational instability and rendered inhabitable to life as we know it. All hope is not lost. A group of highly ingenious young scientists has been selected and tasked with finding a new home and figuring out how to get there. In this project students will discover the intricacies of what it takes for life to survive on a planet, how we detect these exoplanets and how we can use physics, chemistry and materials science to embark on interstellar travel. Students will explore concepts in rocket science, space travel and exoplanet habitability to design a mission to relocate humanity to a nearby solar system and save the human race!
Water Solutions for a Safer Bhutan
STEM Disciplines: Physics, Technology; Engineering; Mathematics
Project Leader: Professor Les Dawes, Science and Engineering Faculty
Increased temperatures globally are causing glaciers to retreat, and the meltwater is filling and expanding the glacial lakes, potentially leading to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF’s). These outburst floods (called inland tsunamis) can be triggered by a breakdown of the natural lake wall or by an avalanche of rock or snow displacing large volumes of water from the lake. In 1994 an inland tsunami in the Punakha Valley, Bhutan killed 21 people and caused massive destruction while an earlier tsunami involving the Jichu Drake glacial lake in 1968 destroyed much of the city of Paro killing an unknown number of people. Using water engineering skills, the aim of this project is to find cheap and sustainable solutions to safely drain water from glacial lakes to reduce the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and improve the wellbeing of local people.
