Doctor of Philosophy

Course Description

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidates undertake in-depth research in order to make an original contribution to the body of knowledge in a chosen field of study. This qualification can lead to, or enhance, an academic career and is also highly regarded by public and private sector employers.

Entry Requirements

Academic requirements, English requirements and credit transfer information are available from the Course Finder.

Course Structure

This program is 100% by thesis. Candidates enrol in a 48 credit point thesis subject and repeat the same enrolment for each year of study, usually over three years of full-time study. Students may be required to attend lectures in relevant topics from time to time throughout the program.

Current Research Areas

• Mathematics and Applied Statistics
• Physics
• Information & Communication Technology
• Engineering 

Mathematics & Statistics

Please refer to the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics website for current research areas.

PHYSICS

• Astronomy and astrophysics
• Observational studies of star formation
• Comparative planetology: Mars and Venus
• Asteroid and cometary mining
• Laser spectroscopy
• Scattering of light by solids
• Solid state spectroscopy of impurities in semiconductors
• Studies of electronic wave functions in solids
• Theoretical astrophysics - galaxy formation, gas dynamics
• Terahertz optoelectronics
• Spintronics
• Thermionics
• Quantum transport in nanostructures
• Resonant tunnelling
• Far-infrared spectroscopy
• Thermal transport in layered structures
• Many body theory
• Zeeman spectroscopy
• Piezo spectroscopy

Medical Radiation Physics

• Semiconductor radiation detectors
• Radiation transport and dosimetry
• Radiation therapy
• Medical imaging and radiology
• PET and SPECT instrumentation
• High Energy Physics Detectors  

Information & Communication Technology

Computer Science

• Security
• Computer and Communication Security
• Cryptography Theory
• Network Security
• Multimedia Security

Software Engineering

• Software Testing
• Requirements Engineering
• Business Process Management
• Service-oriented Systems
• Agent-oriented Software Engineering

Multimedia Information Processing

• Image/Video Processing
• Human Activity Detection and Recognition
• Image/Video Annotation and Retrieval
• Multimodal Biometrics and Crypto-biometrics
• Multimedia Security and Forensics
• Virtual Reality

Intelligent Systems

• Robotics
• Machine Learning
• Distributed Systems
• Agent and Multi-agent Techniques
• Data Mining and Modelling
• Agent Programming
• Constraint Programming
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

Information Systems & Technology             

• e-Business and e-Commerce Applications
• Information Management, Retrieval and Visualisation
• Systems and Technology
• Collaborative Systems
• Supply Chain Management
• e-Learning
• Semantic Web and Cloud Computing
• Agent-based Systems and Service Oriented Computing
• IS Methodologies and Implementation
• Radio Frequency Identification
• Customer Relationship Management
• Health Informatics
• Human Computer Interaction
• Social Informatics and Social Network Analysis
• Social Media
• Electronic Health Records
• Database Systems
• IT Strategy
• Disaster Response Management
• Simulation and Scheduling
• Location-based Services
• Aged Care Training and Computer Support
• e-Government and e-Democracy
• e-Governance or IT Governance
• Privacy, Surveillance and Cybercrime
• Workflow Management

Engineering

Civil Engineering

• Steel and concrete structures
• Composite steel-concrete structures
• Deepwater oil and gas riser design
• Bridge engineering
• Ecologically sustainable structural design
• Solid and rock mechanics
• Foundation engineering, including railways
• Slope stability and reliability analysis
• Soft ground improvement technology
• Reinforced earth
• Dam and embankment engineering
• Finite element and other numerical methods
• Structural dynamics
• Cementitious and advanced materials for construction
• Flood studies, hydraulics and hydrology
• Water quality engineering
• Geo-environmental studies
• Flow and sediment transport in channel junctions

Environmental Engineering

• Advanced membrane treatment processes
• Agricultural waste treatment and management
• Ballast water treatment
• Bioenergy production and bioreactors
• Electrocoagulation
• Environmental geotechnology
• Environmental hydraulics and unit processes
• Environmental pollution control modelling
• Groundwater contaminant transport and modelling
• Integrated water recycling and reuse
• Recycling and solid waste management
• Remote area water treatment with renewable energy
• Removal of trace contaminants
• Risk assessment of wastewater reuse projects
• Soil erosion and sediment transport
• Supplementary water supply systems
• Treatment and drying of residuals for reuse
• Urban water quality process and modelling
• Water quality management and modelling of catchments, rivers and lakes.

Materials Engineering

• Steel Metallurgy
• Peritectic phase transformation: mechanism and kinetics
• Development of in-situ observation techniques
• Kinetics of phase transformations in zincalume alloy systems
• Property/microstructure relationships
• Process optimisation in direct reduction of iron
• Thermo-mechanical processing, including HSLA steels
• Corrosion of steelmaking refractories
• Slag properties and behaviour

Superconducting and Electronic Materials

• Theory and mechanism of superconductors
• Phase relation, phase evolution and chemistry of superconductors
• Single crystal growth and study of intrinsic properties
• Fabrication of bulk, wires and tapes superconductors
• Critical current density, transport mechanism and flux pinning
• Studies on structure, microstructure and stability
• Colossal magnetoresistance materials
• Spintronic materials
• High energy batteries for electric vehicles
• Solid-state rechargeable lithium batteries for telecommunication and portable electronic devices
• Developing new cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries using Australian mineral resources
• Investigation of nano-materials for use in lithium rechargeable batteries
• Composite cathode materials for lithium ion batteries using chemical coating technique
• Hydrogen storage materials
• Nickel-metal hydride batteries
• Processing of thin films
• Investigation of superconductor thin films
• Nanofabrication of novel multilayer materials
• Coated conductors
• Nanostructure of electronic materials
• Ceramic and Refractory Materials:
• Sintering kinetics
• High temperature degradation
• Extrusion of resin-bonded ceramics
• Processing of refractories
• Intelligent Polymers:
• Artificial muscles
• Chemical and physical sensors
• Electronic textiles

Polymer Materials

• Polymer coating adhesion
• Mechanical properties of polymer coatings
• Surface properties of polymers

Nano-materials

• Synthesis and characterisation of carbon nanotubes
• High energy ball milling
• Structure and properties of nanocrystalline materials
• Welding and Joining/Surface Engineering:
• Structure and properties of welded metals
• Weld metal cracking
• Post weld heat treatment
• Weldability of creep resistant steels
• Brazing and diffusion bonding
• Fusion welding of coated steels
• Surface engineering of materials
• Wear and surface property testing
• Physical vapour deposition processing of metals
• Ion implantation
• Microwave processing of materials
• Solidification
• Welding automation
• Welding process control
• Welding fume dispersion and control
• In process monitoring
• Laser hybrid welding
• Magnetically impelled arc butt welding

Special Materials Research and Technology

• Nanostructural and high surface area materials produced by mechano-chemical methods
• Plasma assisted mechano-synthesis and processing
• Solid/solid, solid/liquid and solid/gas reaction chemistry
• Super-hard materials, glassy metals and metal matrix composites
• Synthesis of MEMS materials by advanced processing techniques
• Electric discharge assisted, rapid reduction processes
• Plasma assisted synthesis of metal hydrides
• Iron-based shape memory alloys
• Copper based shape memory alloys
• Crystallography of martensitic transformations
• Microwave synthesis of non-oxide functional ceramics
• High temperature materials processing
• Rapid solidification processing

Mechanical Engineering (includes Mechatronics)

• Applied Mechanics
• Bio-mechanics
• Solid mechanics
• Computational fluid mechanics
• Jet cooling in industrial applications
• Finite element analysis
• Natural and hybrid ventilation of buildings
• Industrial ventilation systems
• Renewable energy systems
• Wave energy conversion
• Offshore structures
• Small wind energy systems
• Mechanical engineering design
• Heavy vehicle and rail dynamics
• Railway engineering
• Rolling mill technology
• Solar thermal system analysis and design
• Solid mechanics of elastic and magneto- elastic bodies
• System identification and control
• Tribology-bearing friction and wear
• Alternative fuels
• Novel IC engines

Manufacturing and Mechatronics

• Sensors and actuators
• Smart materials and structures
• MEMS and Nanotechnology
• Laser welding and surfacing
• Automated pipe welding
• Robotic repair technology
• Novel control of arc processes
• Virtual reality weld simulator
• Magnetic impelled arc butt-welding
• Automated QC and reliability engineering
• Chip control in automated manufacture
• Expert/knowledge system in automated machining
• Intelligent manufacturing systems
• Monitoring/diagnosis of manufacturing processes and machinery conditions
• Integrated CAD/CAM
• Maintenance management

Bulk Materials Handling

• Prediction of bin wall loads and flow rates
• Feeding and discharging systems including pressurised systems
• Dust and fume control
• Pneumatic conveying
• Computer simulation of discrete particles
• Biomass handling and feeding systems
• Fluidisation and deaeration

Mining Engineering

• Rock mechanics
• Mine simulation, planning and design
• Mine safety and mine ventilation
• Geostatistics
• Computer applications in mining engineering

Intelligent Mechatronics

• Advanced control systems
• Control networks
• Cyber physical systems
• Haptic rendering
• Precision position and speed control
• Robotics and sensors
• Telerobotics
• Virtual manipulation
• Precision instrumentation and measurement using semiconductor lasers

Signal Processing 

• Adaptive filtering
• Blind signal processing
• Computational auditory scene analysis
• Filter banks and wavelets
• Image and video segmentation, compression and retrieval
• Low-rate speech coding
• Multirate signal processing
• Wideband speech/audio coding
• 3D Audio objects and environments
• Interferometry
• Opto-electronic signal processing

Electrical
 

• Energy Systems
• Sustainable Energy
• Renewable Energy
• AC and DC Power Transmission System
• Power Distribution System
• Solar PV
• Wind Energy
• Fuel Cells
• Electric Vehicles
• Energy Storage
• Rural Electrification
• Remote Area Power Supply

Intelligent Network

• Smart Grid Technology
• Clean Energy Technologies
• Distributed Generation
• Micro Grid
• Renewable Energy Integration
• Demand Management
• Self Healing
• Emergency Control
• Multi-Agent System
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Mining

Power Electronics and Drives

• Power Electronics
• AC and DC Motor Drives
• Energy Efficiency
• Electric Machines
• Industrial Electronics
• Motion Control
• Flexible AC transmission System (FACTS)

Power Systems

• Power System Analysis
• Power Quality
• Harmonics
• Harmonic Management
• Power quality monitoring and data analysis
• Power quality indices and reporting
• Standardisation
• Voltage fluctuations and flicker
• Electromagnetic Compatibility
• Conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI)
• Power System Protection
• Reliability
• Power System Control
• Power System Planning
• Power System Operation
• Power System Transient Stability
• Power System Dynamic Stability
• Power System Voltage Stability 

Telecommunications 

• Multimedia coding and communications
• Immersive multimedia
• Delay/Disruption/Challenged Networks
• Optical chaotic communications
• Next generation Internet
• Peer-to-peer networks
• Coding theory
• Microwave propagation and channel modelling
• Wireless multi-hop/sensor/mesh/actor networks

                   * Smart antennas or MIMO systems

                   * Cognitive radio networks

• Software defined radios
• Radio Frequency ID (RFID) systems
• Green networking technologies
• Wireless networks
• Network optimization or resource allocation
• Mobile networks

Note: Not all areas are available for research at all levels, nor at all times. 

Other Information

It is possible to downgrade enrolment from a PhD to a Master of Philosophy, with the permission of the Head of School.

Further information is available at:
UOW Course Finder
Email: eis@uow.edu.au