PhD Projects
The Curtin Institute for Computation has a very active PhD program with over 50 students.
If you have an idea of a computation/visualisation project that you would like to do but need to find appropriate supervisors, please contact the CIC Director.
Below you will find a variety of PhD projects that CIC researchers are looking for students to undertake. These projects are grouped loosely into the following themes:
Big data analytics
Big data refers to data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data analysis techniques cannot cope with them. Thus, new kinds of databases to store the data and algorithms to find meaningful patterns within the data are required.
Current projects:
- A Machine Learning Framework for Social Business Intelligence Incorporating Big Data
- The scale and scope of non-profit scholarly publishing
- Tracking Knowledge Exchange Events from Social Media and Scholarly Usage Data
Simulation
Simulation explores the use of computers to solve complex numerical models, particularly those that have to be evaluated many times to generate dynamical information. Researchers in this theme are significant users of the fastest supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere which is housed at the Pawsey supercomputing centre, resulting in Curtin being the largest institutional user of this world-class resource.
Current projects:
- Collision data for fusion plasma modelling
- Folding and aggregation of proteins and ion transfer at electrified liquid-liquid interfaces
- Molecular design of biomaterials for the delivery of therapeutic proteins
- Role of macromolecular crowding on the structure and stability of proteins
- The amyloid beta-amylin interaction: a molecular link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease
- The folding and aggregation of the Tau protein in Alzheimer’s disease
- Verification of energy minimisation multiscale (EMMS) drag model by discrete element method (DEM) simulations
Modelling and optimisation
Modelling and optimisation develops mathematical models to describe the behaviour of a physical system and then optimises the parameters of the model to improve the performance of the system.
Current projects:
- Optimal vessel scheduling in offshore energy projects
- Water and energy optimisation through process integration in industrial processes
Visualisation
The visualisation theme seeks to gain insight into research questions through displaying and interacting with representations of data or virtually simulated objects and environments on large, immersive displays. These projects typically require expertise in computer science, interaction design, and usability. In many ways, it is both an art and a science. Researchers in the Institute are able to use the Curtin HIVE (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch), where they can access four large-scale immersive and interactive systems.
Current projects:
Education
Computation is an increasingly important activity in most disciplines, leading to new fields such as computational science and engineering, computational humanities, computational finance and many others.
Universities have found it difficult to bring these inherently cross-discipline subjects into the curriculum. By bringing together the leading computational researchers at Curtin, the institute is looking to build the computational skills across the entire university community
There are no current projects in this theme.
