Physics and astronomy research projects
Find information about Physics and Astronomy research project units and details of the projects available.
Summer scholarships
Summer scholarships are intended for Curtin’s outstanding recently completed first, second and third year students wishing to undertake research experience aligned with their Physics Stream of interest.
Streams of interest include:
- Astrophysics
- Applied Physics
- Materials Science
- Theoretical/Mathematical Physics
Examples of projects may be found below. Please contact the potential supervisor to discuss the details.
The scholarship is to be completed over a flexible six to eight week period, upon discussion with the supervisor, before the end of February with a A$500 per week stipend offered.
Application process
If you are taking a Curtin Physics Major, as a single or a double degree, and are interested in being considered for one of the Summer Scholarships, apply here.
Project information
- Physics Project 1 – Core for all streams, available in both semesters
- Physics Project 2 – Recommended elective for students with a CWA 65 or greater, available in both semesters
- The preferred option is to take PP1 in semester 1 and PP2 in semester 2 and combine them into a single year-long project.
- The choice of project may have a big influence on the direction of your career – so this is an important choice!
- End of semester report (40%)
- Supervisor’s and UC assessment of your performance (40%)
- Presentation (oral or poster) (20%)
- Decide what projects you are interested in and go and talk to potential supervisors.
- Negotiate the details of the project and get an undertaking from the supervisor that they are prepared to take you on.
- Email project coordinator with the title of your project, and the name of your supervisor.
Please note that students who delay choosing their project to the Orientation week or later cannot be guaranteed that a desired project or supervisor will be available.
Current projects
You are welcome to choose any project from the categories below. Please get in touch with the prospective supervisor, and once an agreement has been reached provide the details to the projects coordinator, Jacob Martin at jacob.w.martin@curtin.edu.au.
Astrophysics Projects
Students interested in observational, instrumental, or data-intensive astrophysics are encouraged to consider projects in Astronomy, supported jointly by the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.
This vibrant research community is internationally recognised for its contributions to next-generation radio telescopes, including the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Our expertise spans telescope design and instrumentation, high-performance data processing, and astrophysical analysis of the radio sky — from the Sun and our Galaxy to the most distant parts of the Universe.
Depending on the student’s background and interests, projects may involve:
- Observational astrophysics – using data from the MWA or SKA precursors to study pulsars, galaxies, and cosmic evolution.
- Instrumentation and systems engineering – contributing to the design, deployment, and calibration of antenna arrays and digital backends.
- Data science and high-performance computing – developing algorithms and pipelines for calibration, imaging, and transient detection in large radio datasets.
Students will gain experience with real observational data and state-of-the-art computing tools, working in collaboration with astronomers and engineers at CIRA. Research outcomes are often suitable for presentation at international conferences or publication in leading astronomy journals. Specific project details will be determined in consultation with the supervising staff at CIRA and the Physics and Astronomy discipline but some project examples are listed below.
Extragalactic radio astronomy
Supervisors: A Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker, Dr Kat Ross
Suitability: 3rd Year or Honours
Description:
At the center of most galaxies is a supermassive black hole; in some galaxies, hot material falling toward the black hole can be launched outward in twin jets, moving along the axis of rotation of the black hole at nearly the speed of light. These balloon into enormous radio-bright lobes which can be seen billions of light years away. Astronomers are trying to understand what kinds of galaxies do this, how often, and how long activity lasts: the life-cycle of radio galaxies. One challenge is that once the jets switch off, the lobes fade quickly, and without the right observations, we can miss periods of activity. This means that the dying, or remnant stage of radio galaxies is very poorly-studied, with only a few examples known, making calculations of the life cycle impossible.
We have selected 40 new candidate remnant radio galaxies and obtained sensitive radio observations using the Very Large Array, a radio telescope in the USA. The student will transform the data into detailed images of the galaxies, and combined with our existing measurements, use our software to model their ages and find out if they are examples of this rare class of objects. If so, this would more than double the number of remnant radio galaxies known, and in combination with the sample from which they were selected, put a new constraint on the activity of supermassive black holes.
Supervisors: Natasha Hurley-Walker, Kat Ross
Suitability: 3rd-year, Honours, Masters
Description:
Our nearest galactic neighbours are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, uniquely visible from the Southern hemisphere. These face-on dwarf galaxies offer astronomers a clear view of phenomena such as supernova remnants and regions ionised by massive stars, and inform studies of cosmic ray production and star formation. The MAGE-X project has taken tens of hours of data with the low-frequency radio telescope, the Murchison Widefield Array.
This project involves using existing well-developed pipelines to reduce the data on Pawsey supercomputers, producing new high-resolution images of these galaxies. Good progress will enable astrophysical studies in the latter stages of the project. This project would suit a student with strong computing abilities who is interested in working on high-performance supercomputers and/or developing their skills in radio interferometry.
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Suitability: Masters, Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Nearly all galaxies are thought to host black holes at their centre with masses of a million to a billion times that of the Sun. No longer esoteric objects of study, these black holes play a key role in the evolution of their host galaxies. Radio surveys can trace these black holes in both the local and distant Universe when other methods fail due to either low black hole accretion rates, or obscuration of the active black hole. Massive, spinning black holes can produce twin `jets’ of relativistic charged particles which manifest as large lobes strongly emitting radio waves.
There are several potential projects on this topic available, including:
- Studying a sample of the most massive black holes in the local Universe to understand why some are very radio luminous and some are not
- Conducting novel searches for black holes with very young radio jets using multi-frequency radio data combined with large area near-infrared surveys
- Conducting searches for new radio-loud QSO from wide-field surveys
- Modelling the radio and optical data of powerful radio AGN to measure their spin
- Estimating the population of high-z radio galaxies from the properties of rare, beamed blazars
- Assisting on-going studies of the most distant radio-loud black holes
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
The rate at which stars are forming is a key property of the galaxy and is strongly tied to the galaxy’s history. Star-forming galaxies emit across the entire electromagnetic spectrum from X-ray to radio due to a complex mix of stars, heated dust, cosmic rays in magnetic fields and compact objects. Hence, each waveband comes with caveats when using it to accurately determine a star-formation rate. This research area has two potential projects:
- Modelling the radio emission from extreme star-forming galaxies accurately accounting for the geometry of the synchrotron and thermal radio emission
- Using the WISE mid-infrared survey to select and study galaxies with extremely strong emission lines from star-formation
Solar System
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year
Description:
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) represent an obvious existential threat to life here on Earth as frequently dramatised in fiction. There are long standing programmes with optical and infrared telescopes around the world and in space to discover and monitor NEOs. The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has demonstrated the capability to detect both natural and artificial satellites of Earth such as the Moon and the International Space Station via reflected FM emission. This project will involve determining the feasibility using reflected FM as a ‘static radar’ to monitor and track NEOs with low frequency radio telescopes.
While the MWA will not be as sensitive for detecting NEOs as other programmes currently, future radio facilities, like the Square Kilometre Array, will have many orders of magnitude more sensitivity. In this project you will process MWA observations of the NEO 2012 TC4 which passed around 50,000 km of Earth on Oct 12 2017. As well as direct imaging you will employ other enhanced analysis methods to detect this faint object (which is only about 10m in size). You will also compare the MWA archives to close passes of NEOs over the lifetime of the MWA (and into the near future) to search for other potential observations.
Supervisors: Dr Hadrien Devillepoix, Dr Ellie Sansom
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description: The chance that one of the many Earth observation satellites capture the very instant of an asteroid impact on Earth are slim. But asteroid impacts leave dust trails that can be visible for hours. The project is about analysing evidence of superbolide dust trails left in the atmosphere by asteroid impacts, covering both visible (RGB) down to infrared wavelengths.
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Fully identifying the population of near-Earth objects (NEOs) is an existential issue for humankind. There are several large, on-going projects in the optical and infrared which are cataloguing the many, many NEOs. Observations with the Murchison Widefield Array have detected FM radio waves reflected from artificial satellites, meteors and the Moon, i.e. effectively acting as a bistatic radar. This project will test the feasibility of detecting NEO objects which pass within one lunar distance to Earth. This will involve using databases of NEO close approaches to select past and future close approaches. Archival data will be studied on past approaches and novel techniques will be applied to search for the reflected FM emission. Plans will be made for future close approaches.
Accretions, jets and slow transients
Supervisors: Adelle Goodwin
Suitability: Undergraduate, Summer, Honours
Description: Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the Universe. The bright flash of gamma-ray light is caused by the death of a massive star that forms a black hole, launching material at near the speed of light in the form of a jet. This outflow gathers up all the surrounding gas and dust, giving rise to shocks that produce an “afterglow” that is detectable from radio to very high energy gamma-rays.
While GRB afterglows have been well studied from optical to gamma-ray wavelengths, only a few have comprehensive and early-time radio coverage, which is crucial for understanding the physics of the jet and the lifecycle of the progenitor star. Additionally, the most interesting physics often occurs within minutes to hours of the explosion but few radio telescopes are capable of being on target fast enough to capture the earliest radio light that GRBs emit.
Luckily, our International team led by the primary supervisor has been awarded over 500 hours of observing time on the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to perform radio follow-up observations of all GRBs discovered in the Southern Hemisphere skies. ATCA is capable of responding to alerts reporting newly detected GRBs, which cause the telescope to automatically repoint and begin observing the astronomical event within minutes of its discovery. For this project, you will process and analyse ATCA data to explore the radio afterglow of GRBs, and have the opportunity to learn to observe with ATCA.
Supervisors: Dr Nick Seymour
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Most galaxies host a super-massive black hole at their centre which enters active phases from time to time. The two most significant but different phases of activity are periods of high accretion (which we observe in the X-ray/optical/infra-red) and periods with powerful jets (observed in the radio). These two measurable outputs trace different aspects of the SMBH’s evolution. This project will attempt to link these phenomena both observationally and theoretically to determine a greater understanding of SMBH evolution. It can be tailored for varying levels from summer project to honours.
On the observational side we now have large samples of galaxies from deep/wide surveys with the multi-wavelength data to start untangling accretion and jet processes on a population of galaxies. In particular we now have unique broad-band radio data which can provide more accurate jet powers than have previously been possible. On the theoretical side we will apply simple models of SMBH accretion and jet power to study how an individual SMBH observable properties change with time. This will aid us in interpreting the large observational parameter space.
Supervisors: Prof James Miller-Jones, Dr Arash Bahramian
Suitability: 3rd year or Honours
Description:
If a dense stellar remnant such as a black hole or neutron star is in a close orbit with a less-evolved companion star, gas from the normal star can fall into the gravitational potential well of the central compact object, conserving angular momentum as it does so. As the gas spirals inwards, it heats up to the point that it emits bright X-rays. From the inner regions of the inflow, close to the black hole or neutron star, a collimated, relativistic outflow known as a jet can be launched, carrying huge amounts of energy away from the system. The jets are powered by the inflowing material, or potentially by the spin of the black hole. However, the detailed physical properties of these jets, and the connection between the inflowing gas and the outflowing jets, are not well understood. We are offering a range of projects to use some of the world’s premier radio telescopes to study these energetic jets, and their connection to the underlying accretion flow.
Supervisors: A Prof Natasha Hurley-Walker, Dr Sammy McSweeney
Suitability:Summer, 3rd Year, Honours (three projects available)
Description:
The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a low frequency (80 — 300 MHz) radio telescope operating in Western Australia and the only SKA_Low precursor telescope. The MWA has collected more than 20PB of data spanning nearly a decade of operations. In an undergraduate project in 2020, using just 24h of data, we detected a new type of repeating radio source, which we have localised to our own Milky Way. The object may be an unusual type of neutron star, or possibly a highly magnetic white dwarf: either way, it was entirely unexpected, and has opened up a new challenge in astrophysics.
Now that we know such sources exist, we have three important goals, which translate to three potential student projects with different focuses:
- Computational: Improve search techniques for unusual transients — what other strange sources are we missing because existing techniques are too slow?
- Observational: find more of these sources in order to correctly understand the population — where are they in the Galaxy? Are they inside supernova remnants? Are they kicked hard by the explosions in which they are born? How often do they emit radio waves?
- Theoretical: study their nature and their astrophysics — what is causing their radio emission? Can existing emission models be applied or modified to suit?
Supervisors: Dr Adelle Goodwin, Prof James Miller-Jones
Suitability: 3rd year or Honours
Description:
When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy it can be destroyed, producing a bright flare of electromagnetic radiation. About half of the stellar debris is swallowed by the black hole, with the rest flung outwards, forming a shockwave as it collides with the surrounding gas. This shockwave accelerates particles to high enough energy that they emit radio synchrotron radiation. By observing the properties of this radiation, we can determine the properties of the underlying outflows. In this project, we seek to understand the radio emission properties of these tidal disruption events, using observations from world-class telescopes such as the GMRT, MeerKAT, VLA, and ATCA.
Supervisor: Dr Kristen Dage
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
When a neutron star or black hole accretes matter from a companion star, it forms an accretion disk. We generally assume this disk is flat. However, in some systems, we know that the geometry of the disk is warped, which can affect our understanding of the system’s overall behaviour. The enigmatic neutron star X-ray pulsar, SMC X-1, is the poster child of warped accretion disks.
This project makes use of a wealth of data from NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), an X-ray telescope the size of a mini fridge located on the International Space Station. This project is flexible, and can be shaped into a third year, Honours or summer project to delve into the key system features like understanding that the impact of a warped accretion disk has on our understanding of how neutron stars and black holes behave.
Supervisor: Dr Kristen Dage
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
How do black holes form? How is their formation influenced by their environment? We will perform the first large-scale survey of nearby open clusters to discover new black holes; their observed properties will refine the numerical simulations that are a crucial step in interpreting the origins of gravitational wave events. This project aims to discover the largest unbiased population of black holes hidden in the thousands of loosely bound star clusters in our Galaxy.
By combining X-ray, optical and radio observations of open star clusters, we will be able to search for unambiguous evidence of black holes in open clusters. This project will focus on developing data management skills, as well as understanding the details of X-ray, optical and radio observations.
Supervisor: Dr Kristen Dage
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Masters
Description:
Globular star clusters (densely packed clusters of millions of stars that are gigayears old) in other galaxies are important for a broad range of science cases, from understanding black hole formation and evolution, to understanding the dark matter content of galaxies. The upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory will discover over a million globular clusters in the many galaxies near us. It will be an avalanche of data, and the challenge will be to quickly and accurately identify them.
This project will develop tools to classify star clusters from photometric data bases using machine learning classification techniques. The test and training data sets will be drawn from existing surveys, and the overall goal will be to make a tool that can manage large datasets to separate out star clusters from foreground stars and background galaxies based on features in the datasets. This project will focus on developing transferable skills through data science techniques.
Supervisors: Dr Arash Bahramian
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year or Honours
Description:
Many known black holes and neutron stars in our Galaxy are found in a binary system as they pull material from their binary companion star. As the accreted material falls towards the black hole/neutron star, it emits a significant amount of light, making the system bright for days/weeks. These periods of bright activity are known as “outbursts”.
Understanding these outbursts enable us to peer into the nature of accretion physics and its many elusive aspects. I offer a range of projects under this topic on the topic of modelling the behaviour of accreting systems, to understand the underlying physics and potentially predict future behaviour of the system.
Epoch of reionisation
Supervisor: Dr Anshu Gupta
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool to probe the underlying matter (both dark and luminous), and even discover objects that would otherwise be unobservable due to magnification. We have discovered a unique structure with potentially four galaxy clusters along a single line of sight using data from the Australia-led MAGPI survey on the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Two of the foreground structures are at z=0.3 (3 billion years), and the background structures are at z=1.4 (9 billion years) and z=6.1 (12.5 billion years). The foreground structure has two merging galaxy clusters which could be gravitationally lensing the background galaxies.
This project will aim to map the mass distribution of the foreground structure at z=0.3 using the deep imaging from the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Suburu Telescope, Hawaii and from the GAMA survey. The student will be fitting the spectral energy distribution of the galaxies using existing software such as EAZY to estimate the photometric redshifts. Estimating the photometric redshifts is essential to identify galaxies belonging to the foreground structure and develop a lens model. The project has huge scope and can be tailored to a 3rd year to an honours project.
Supervisor: Dr Ridhima Nunhokee
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
The Epoch of Reionisation is the era, about 400 millions years after the Big Bang, when the birth of first stars and galaxies caused the surrounding intergalactic medium to change its state from neutral to reionised. We use the 21 cm hydrogen line, a spectral line created by the change in energy states of a neutral hydrogen atom. One of the main challenges in EoR experiments is the presence of foregrounds few orders of magnitude brighter than the 21 cm signal. Mitigating the foregrounds require accurate calibration and precise foreground removal techniques. The dominating factor in the observations is systematics. It is vital to understand the characteristics of these systematics to alleviate them in the data processing pipeline. We use observations from the Murchison WideField Array, a radio telescope located in the mid-west of Western Australia, considered ideal for its low-level radio frequency interference.
In this project, we aim to use machine and deep learning approaches to classify the features of the systematics and eventually attempt to mitigate them. This would make our 21 cm measurements cleaner and more robust. This project would suit a student who is computationally strong, with experience in Python and machine learning. Some statistical background would be useful.
Supervisor: Prof Cathryn Trott
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
The statistical study of the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) involves computing the power spectrum (variance) of the signal as a function of spatial wavenumber (k, measured in inverse Mpc). The angular scales are obtained by Fourier Transform of radio astronomy images, or equivalently, direct use of the visibilities measured by an interferometer. The line-of-sight scales are computed by obtaining data in individual frequency channels, mapping those channels to cosmological distances, and taking the Fourier Transform across frequency.
This procedure assumes that the information within the observation volume (FOV x depth) is statistically equivalent. However, the 21cm cosmological signal of the EoR evolves with redshift, and taking Fourier Transforms over large redshift ranges dilutes and biases the signal. In Trott (2016, MNRAS 1310, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/doi/10.1093/mnras/stw1310), we proposed using wavelets to perform wide bandwidth analysis, but with localised properties. This project takes those initial explorations and applies them to data from the Murchison Widefield Array, helping to understand how to best apply a wavelet analysis to real data.
Supervisor: Prof. Cathryn Trott, Mx Dev Null
Suitability: 3rd year / Honours
Description:
Detection and exploration of the weak neutral hydrogen gas from the first billion years of the Universe provides insights into the very first generations of stars and galaxies that existed. The SKA-Low telescope, under construction in the WA Outback has exploration of this era as a primary science case. However, radio frequency interference due to satellite constellations and ground-based emissions obscures the cosmological signal and prevents it detection.
The MWA is a sensitive instrument in a radio quiet environment, and a precursor telescope to the SKA-Low. It has accumulated more than 10 years of data for this experiment, on the path to the SKA-Low. RFI is a major problem for the current data. There are many sources of radio frequency interference that can impact science. Existing algorithms can detect bright and rapidly changing RFI, but other kinds of RFI are often missed. Flagging algorithms need tuning to avoid over- and under-flagging.
This project will tune a currently-available software pipeline that aims to detect low-level radio frequency interference. Improving its detection of RFI will help to provide the cleanest data with which to explore the early Universe.
Supervisors: Dr Arash Bahramian, Prof. Cathryn Trott, Dr. Sourav Das (EECMS)
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year or Honours
Description:
Upper atmosphere of our planet contains a large number of ionised particles within what is known as the ionosphere. The ionosphere is one of the main sources of disturbance in astronomical studies at low-frequency radio observatories. Characterising the impact of the ionosphere on astronomical observations is vital as we take deeper data to study the very early phase of the universe and as the largest radio observatory in the world, the Square Kilometre Array, comes online over the next decade.
In this project, we aim use data from astronomical observations taken by the Murchison Widefield Array to assess several strategies in modelling behaviour of the ionosphere over time and across the sky.
Pulsars and fast transients
Supervisors: Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, Dr Sammy McSweeney
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
We have discovered a new pulsar that lies surprisingly far out of our Galaxy, and produces very bright and sporadic bursts of radio waves, PSR J0031-57. It may be a new ‘missing link’ between normal pulsars, and pulsars that only produce sporadic bursts, also known as ‘Rotating RAdio Transients’ (RRATs). However, since it is in such a surprising place in the sky, very few observations have been taken towards this source, and so we currently know very little about it.
This project would involve developing an observing proposal with the Parkes “Murriyang” radio telescope, calculating how much time would be required to ‘time’ the pulsar properly, reducing the data, and then calculating interesting properties of the pulsar. We would compare the rates of the bright bursts to other known sources and see how this pulsar fits in to the evolutionary lineage of pulsars, as well as better understand how it came to lie so far away.
This would be a fantastic project for a 3rd-year student looking for a two-year project to span over 3rd year to Honours.
Supervisors: Dr Bradley Meyers, Dr Ramesh Bhat
Suitability: 3rd year, Honours
Description:
Over the past several years, the field of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) has emerged as an exciting new frontier of astronomy. These intense, energetic bursts are thought to originate from cosmological distances, and they are potential new probes for cosmology; e.g. to measure the baryonic content of the Universe and the magnetic field of the Intergalactic Medium. Yet, the physics governing the origin of these energetic bursts still remains a mystery, despite a continuing flurry of theoretical ideas, and even as interferometric localisations become a routine. There had been no detected burst emission below ~300 MHz until the recent Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) detection in 2021 which has reinvigorated efforts towards low-frequency searches, especially for FRBs that repeat. The co-location of the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) present exciting opportunities to hunt for low-frequency emission from these enigmatic bursts.
Over the past years, the high-time resolution capabilities of the MWA have been pushed to enable voltage trigger and buffer modes. Along with the rapid-response observing mode now possible with the MWA, this can now be exploited for receiving and responding to the trigger alerts from facilities like ASKAP. This project will exploit and further develop these new capabilities in the quest to detect low-frequency emission from these bursts. A positive detection would mean the prospects of exciting science relating to FRB emission physics and their propagation and progenitor models, which will contribute to advancing our understanding of these mysterious bursts.
Supervisors: Dr Apurba Bera, Dr Clancy James, Dr Andy (Ziteng) Wang
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely powerful radio transients lasting mere milliseconds, yet are so luminous they reach us from galaxies billions of light years away. Yet, to date the origin of FRBs is not yet known. To best address this, we need to localise the FRB radio signal, and analyse it at time resolutions down to 3 nanoseconds. As part of the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey (CRAFT) with the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope in Western Australia, we have recently commissioned a new detection system that will increase the rate of discovered FRBs to once every two days, providing an unprecedented amount of data with which to study these enigmatic phenomena.
In this project the student will work with new 3 ns resolution data of the FRB emission, uniquely available to CRAFT. They will learn how to process the data on the OzStar supercomputer at Swinburne, and analyse the resulting properties of the fast radio burst. Several projects will be available to work with this data, including: understanding the host environment of the FRB (suspected to be extreme magnetic fields in the vicinity of a neutron star); studying scattering of the radio emission by astrophysical plasmas from sources that can be billions of light years away; understanding the effects of multi-path propagation from plasma or gravitational lensing on the signal properties; and computationally optimising the pipeline and improving the data processing techniques.
Supervisor: Dr Adrian Sutinjo
Description:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are enigmatic extragalactic radio transients of unknown origin. Lasting for mere milliseconds, they reach us from galaxies billions of light years away. Theories as to their origin include giant flares from magnetars and merging neutron stars. Regardless of their origin, these bursts can be used as impulses with which to probe the structure of matter in the Universe, and they have recently been used to find the so-called ‘missing matter’ in the giant voids between galaxies.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is currently the best tool for studying FRBs. The phased array feed (PAF) technology in ASKAP enables localization of the burst which permits follow up with optical telescopes to pinpoint the host galaxy of the burst. Furthermore, ASKAP is in the process of commissioning a burst detection system to enhance the rate of FRB detection. Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) is engaged in FRB research using ASKAP with a team of researchers and HDR students actively collaborating with CSIRO, Swinburne Institute of Technology and leading international institutions. A key question in FRB research is the emission mechanism of the burst. The current view is that such a luminous burst must be the result of a coherent emission process, similar to a laser in optics or an oscillator in radio frequency. Thermal emission is deemed unlikely because of the extreme temperature required to produce such an intense burst. Coherent emission process is characterized by random arrival of photons which follows Poisson statistical distribution. One of the research topics in FRB pursued at CIRA is detection of this coherent emission statistics.
Detection of random bursts and determination of the statistics thereof is constrained by the time resolution of the instrument. Currently, ASKAP is capable of receiving 400 MHz to 600 MHz of radio frequency (RF) bandwidth centered around 1 GHz to 1.6 GHz. Of that RF bandwidth, 336 MHz band is selected for processing such that the instrumental time resolution is approximately 3 ns. Hence, the statistics of bursts with time separation consistently larger than 3 ns can be inferred but the statistics of random pulses within the 3 ns is obfuscated by the impulse response of the 336 MHz signal bandwidth. The severity of the obfuscation depends on the receiver architecture and can vary from apparent incoherence of a coherent pulse train to an averaging effect which makes signal statistics more difficult to distinguish.
The objective of the project is to study receiver system architectures and signal processing techniques for coherent pulse detection that is less limited by the instrument’s time resolution. There are several ideas to explore. For example, a zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) receiver, similar to a homodyne receiver employed in coherent optical detection and correlation, is affected by the averaging effect of random pulses but does not render them incoherent. We will also explore pulse detection and estimation techniques to maximize the potential of the receiver system architecture.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski
Suitability: Honours
Description:
High-time resolution imaging of interferometric data from radio telescopes is computationally challenging. We have recently developed high-time resolution pipeline for the data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and prototype stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low). This pipeline can be used for various transient related activity, such as searches for Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), pulsars or other transient processes.
The goal of this project is to apply the pipeline to a small data-set up to 1 hour of data from the MWA or SKA-Low prototype stations, and demonstrate that it can be used for FRB or pulsar searches. For example, data from pulsar PSR J0026-1955 discovered by the MWA could be imaged in 100ms time resolution to verify if the pulsar can be detected in these images. However, there are other possibilities to apply the pipeline to some short data-set from the SKA-Low stations to search for low-frequency FRBs. An alternative path for the student with software programming interests would be to work on further optimisation of the imaging or FRB search code on GPU.
Supervisors: Dr Bradley Meyers ,Dr Ramesh Bhat
The clock-like stability of fast-rotating millisecond pulsars (i.e. radio-emitting neutron stars with rotation periods on the order of a few to several milliseconds) makes them highly sought after for several high-profile science applications such as searching for ultra-low frequency (nanoHertz) gravitational waves and probing the state of matter at supra-nuclear densities. Some of these applications require a systematic and thorough characterisation of individual systems that are routinely timed as part of pulsar timing array projects that aim to detect such low-frequency gravitational waves, originating from supermassive black-hole mergers in the early Universe.
In this project you will explore the use of long-term timing data sets on some of these millisecond pulsars to measure parameters to detect secular changes in the (projected) semi-major axis, or parallaxes and proper motions to infer aspects of their geometry and kinematics, and similar other parameters that are crucial to resolving the detection of the gravitational wave background.
Supervisor(s): Dr Clancy James
Description:
Fast radio bursts are millisecond flashes of radio waves coming from the distant Universe. Discovered in 2007, the ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia is a world-leader in detecting them and identifying the galaxies – some billions of light years away – from which they originate. The hunt is on to discover what could possibly be producing such bursts – the progenitor must be about 10km in size, and emit as much radio energy as our Sun produces in a year. However, these bursts also experience a frequency-dependent delay according to the amount of matter they traverse during propagation, allowing them to be used as probes of the structure of the Universe. Importantly, we aim to determine the value of the Hubble Constant, which is currently the subject of intense debate, since measurements from Supernova 1a disagrees with those from the cosmic microwave background. This project – suitable for all levels – would involve using FRB data from ASKAP to answer these questions and more.
Supervisors: Dr Ramesh Bhat, Dr Bradley Meyers
Pulsars in compact binary orbits with another neutron star or white dwarf make very unique and powerful laboratories for conducting some of the exquisite tests of general relativity, especially in the strong-field regime. The observable phenomena include the shrinkage of the orbital size (i.e. orbital decay) due to gravitational-wave damping, the delay near the superior conjunction due to the gravitational potential of the companion (i.e. the Shapiro delay) and an advance of periastron that can be detected as a shift in time of periastron passage.
In this project you will work on the use of timing data from relativistic binaries to create public outreach materials where school students can be engaged by providing some hands-on experience of measuring the deviation in space time due to the effects like the Shapiro Delay, advance of periastron and orbital decay. For instance, timing data on the double pulsar system can be used to demonstrate how the orbit of a relativistic pulsar decay over a few years and measure it to an accuracy of better than 1 mm/orbit.
Supervisors: Dr Marcin Sokolowski,
Suitability: Honours
Description:
The low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) is the next-generation radio telescope to be built at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. The telescope will consist of 512 stations composed of 256 dual-polarised antennas each and will observe at frequencies between 50 and 350 MHz. In 2019, two prototype stations of the SKA-Low were deployed at the MRO and have been regularly collecting data.
Many energetic transient events are detected at higher radio frequencies (e.g. Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)) or higher electromagnetic energies (e.g. Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs)). Due to intrinsic emission mechanisms and propagation effects the low-frequency radio photons can arrive many seconds after the higher energy photons. Therefore, there is usually sufficient amount of time to send alerts about such events to low-frequency telescopes in order trigger low-frequency observations.
The goal of the project is to help with implementation and testing of triggering system for SKA-Low prototype stations, analyse a few events from a pilot observing campaign, and either detect low-frequency counterparts of GRBs or high-frequency FRBs or place constraints on their flux density at frequencies below 300 MHz.
Supervisors: Dr Ramesh Bhat, Dr Bradley Meyers
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year
Description:
PSRs J0437-4715 and J2145-0750 are the nearest and brightest among the millisecond pulsars currently known, located within only a few hundred parsecs from us. Both are top-priority targets for high-profile pulsar timing array experiments that aim to advance nanohertz-frequency gravitational wave astronomy in the coming decade. They are also highly-sought-after for developing precision timing methodologies and high-fidelity polarimetric calibration. Both have been monitored with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) at a monthly cadence over the past several years. These observations were made in the 100-200 MHz frequency band, an uncommon observing band for millisecond pulsars, which are generally studied at frequencies above 1 GHz.
However, such low-frequency observations are especially well suited to study plasma turbulence in the intervening interstellar material and map out its small-scale structure, and to pinpoint the locations of compact dense structures that are sprinkled in the interstellar space. They can also be used to explore high-precision timing prospects with the MWA and measure subtle variations in dispersion measures at unprecedented accuracies of the order of a few parts in a million. This project will involve a systematic analysis of high-time resolution data recorded with the MWA on these pulsars, to study variability and the time-frequency structure in pulse intensity, and characterise interstellar turbulence and locations of discrete structures along the lines of sight to the pulsar. This will help inform how low frequency measurements can be used to advance pulsar timing array projects.
Supervisors: Dr Ramesh Bhat & Dr Bradley Meyers
Suitability: Honours
Description:
Even after several decades of observational and theoretical advances, uncovering the physics that govern the emission of electromagnetic radiation from fast-spinning neutron stars (pulsars) remains an outstanding problem in astronomy. As well known, radio emission from pulsars displays a diverse, rich, and at times exceedingly complex, phenomenology; the most notable ones include the phenomenon of sub-pulse drifting, whereby the emission components (i.e. sub-pulses) steadily march in phase with pulsar rotation, and nulling, which refers to an apparent cessation of (detectable) emission, often lasting over durations ranging from a few to many pulsar rotations. Recently, yet another, quite an intriguing, phenomenon has been revealed in observations. This is called “swooshing,” which refers to episodic instances of radio emission arriving at earlier phases for tens of pulses before returning to nominal phase. Our recent investigation has revealed that PSR B0031-07, a pulsar well known for its remarkable sub-pulse drifting and large nulling fraction (cf. McSweeney et al. 2017, 2018, 2019; Ilie et al. 2020), possibly also shows some signatures of swooshing, with an emission shift clearly evident in one of its sub-pulse drift modes, when observations are made at frequencies above ~300 MHz.
In this project, you will undertake an in-depth analysis of new observational data collected using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT; spanning 300 to 750 MHz) and the ultra-wide band low-frequency (UWL) receiver capability at the Parkes (Murriyang) telescope (spanning 704 to 4032 MHz). Together, these provide an unprecedented coverage in frequency from 300 MHz to 4 GHz. The main focus of the project will be a systematic and detailed characterisation of the observed “swoosh-like” phenomenon in this pulsar, including the frequency dependence of the observed emission shift and polarisation characteristics. If the observed phase shift of the drift mode is confirmed to be associated with “swooshing”, PSR B0031-07 will be the first pulsar to show swooshing, alongside the drifting and nulling phenomena, making it an excellent test-bed for the investigation of pulsar emission physics in the broader context of spark carousel models typically invoked to explain the sub-pulse drifting phenomenon.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Dr Danny Price
Suitability: Honours project.
Description:
Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) are one of the most intriguing transient phenomena discovered less than 15 years ago. They are very short (millisecond durations), extremely energetic (~1039 ergs) radio pulses arriving from outside of our Milky Way galaxy. Initially discovered at GHz frequencies, they were later observed at sub-GHz radio frequencies, and recently detected down to about 100 MHz. CIRA operates several low-frequency telescopes: the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and prototype stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low). These instruments can be used to search for FRBs at frequencies below 300 MHz. There are a few modes that these telescopes can be used to search for FRBs. For example, SKA-Low stations open promising and potentially very successful opportunity to perform FRB searches in images of the entire visible hemisphere.
The goal of the project is to help with testing and verification of FRB search pipelines using SKA-Low prototype stations or the MWA. The all-sky imaging mode on SKA-Low stations is better to look for new FRBs (due to large area of the sky), whilst the station beam mode is better good for observations of FRBs known to repeat, so called repeaters. Both paths can lead to interesting physical results on low-frequency FRB rate or repetition rate of a particular repeating FRB. The ultimate aims of the project will be decided together with a student.
Supervisors: Dr Kristen Dage, Dr Clancy James
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
This project is aimed at characterising the high energy nature of pulsars using NASA’s Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. Gamma rays are some of the most energetic particles detectable by telescopes, where astrophysical objects produce highly energetic gamma ray emission. However, the nature of gamma ray emission is poorly understood. This project will search for, and characterise, gamma ray counterparts to new pulsars being discovered in radio frequencies, as well as prepare for conducting these searches on a larger scale.
Supervisors: Andy (Ziteng) Wang, Apurba Bera, Clancy James
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
A new detection system we have implemented on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, located in Western Australia, has recently begun making intriguing discoveries. We have detected mysterious, extremely bright sources that have long periods – ultra-long-period transients. Our first such source turns on every 44 minutes and exhibits unusual behaviour for 3 minutes. To understand this phenomenon better, we conduct follow-up observations using state-of-the-art telescopes worldwide. As part of this research, a student will work with data from the ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia and the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, and potentially others. They will learn how to create radio images using data from radio interferometers. Additionally, the student will generate light curves and dynamic spectra of the source to investigate the evolution of the pulse properties of this and other like sources, including millisecond sub-pulse structures.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Adjunct Associate Professor Randall Wayth (SKAO)
Suitability: Summer, 3rd year project, 4th year or Honours project.
Description:
The Universe is very dynamic and buzzing with activity, and interestingly, many extremely energetic events, such as supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts or fast radio bursts, occur on timescales of seconds or less and can only be seen for a very short time! Therefore, in order to detect this kind of events it is important to continuously monitor large areas of the sky, and look for new objects appearing in the sky images. The stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) open an opportunity to form images of the entire visible hemisphere (all-sky images) on even sub-second timescales.
The goal of this project is to analyse existing data from the SKA prototype stations to find and classify transients and any types of variable radio sources. Although the primary goal is to analyse the archival data, the project can also evolve towards implementing real-time transient searches and preliminary classification on all-sky images from the SKA-Low stations. The main goal can be development of automatic transient classification, but depending on interests it can also steer in the direction of physical interpretation of the identified transients.
Particle astrophysics
(3 projects available)
Co-supervisors: Dr Clancy James
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year, Summer
Description:
Cosmic rays are the highest energy particles in nature – yet we don’t know what produces them. Mostly protons and atomic nuclei, they impact the Earth’s atmosphere, and generate cascades of secondary particles that emit a nanosecond-scale radio pulse. Detecting these short pulses can provide the most detailed estimates of the nature of these particles, and the physical processes of these interactions.
This project will investigate either the theoretical or experimental aspects of detecting these cosmic ray radio pulses with the Murchison Widefield Array. Depending on a student’s preferences/abilities, it could involve:
- Calibrating a prototype particle detector to identify muons at ground level and trigger radio data:
- Testing models of particle interactions at energies unreachable by the Large Hadron Collider, and their effects on the radio emission; or:
- Implementing a computationally efficient synthesis algorithm for turning MWA frequency data back to nanosecond resolution.
All projects are adaptable to students of all levels (3rd year, honours, summer project).
Supervisors: Dr Clancy James
Suitability: Honours
Description:
The Lunar Askaryan technique is a method to detect the very rare ultra-high-energy, which impact the Earth at the rate of only once per square kilometre per hundred years. By observing the lunar surface with a powerful radio telescope, the entire visible surface of the Moon (20 million km) can be turned into a cosmic ray detector, allowing these extremely rare particles to be studied.
The only current telescope with the power to detect these cosmic rays is FAST, the Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope, which is now being commissioned in Guizhou Province, China. Curtin University is collaborating with the Chinese National Academies of Science and Shanghai University to use FAST to detect these cosmic ray signals.
The pulses are expected to be short and sharp, lasting only a few nanoseconds – or they would be, if the surface of the Moon was smooth. However, it is not, and the effects of lunar surface roughness on these pulses is unknown. This project would involve using simulations of high-energy particle cascades, together with measurements of the Moon’s surface from lunar orbiting satellites, to determine the effects of lunar roughness on the pulse shape. This would allow an optimum detection algorithm to be developed in preparation for future observations with FAST.
Engineering
Supervisor(s): Dr Marcin Sokolowski
Description: The low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) radio telescope will be the largest radio-telescope in the world. Its unprecedented sensitivity will be result from a huge number of 131072 antennas grouped in 512 stations (each composed of 256 dual polarised antennas). The expected high sensitivity of the telescope will require good performance of at least 99.5% antennas. Therefore, the antennas will have to be regularly monitored and malfunctioning antennas or other components promptly identified and repaired or replaced.
Given the enormous scale of the project and unprecedented number of individual antennas this process has to be fully automatised. The already existing software can identify broken antennas by comparing their power spectra with a template power spectrum and perform basic classification of faults as no power, low power or bad bandpass.
The goal of this project is to further explore and implement a possibility of using the power spectrum information to pinpoint the exact nature and location of a fault, for instance being able to specifically identify that the connector at the antenna output on polarisation X is loose. Such a system will significantly speed-up the fault identification and maintenance processes and will be unavoidable in the future when the full scale SKA-Low telescope becomes operational. The scope of the project can be extended to implementation of a fault database and/or inclusion more components of the system.
Supervisors: Prof David Davidson, Dr Maria Kovaleva
Suitability: Honours, Summer
Description:
Strong mutual coupling between antennas in aperture arrays frequently degrades their performance. Even though the phenomenon of mutual coupling has been known for a long time, some effects have only been discovered recently in a scrupulous analysis of an SKA-Low prototype array. The aim of this project is to design a few microstrip patch antenna arrays for ISM Band (2.45 GHz), build their prototypes and measure radiation patterns with the purpose of using these measurements to accurately extract mutual coupling using an optimization procedure.
The project will include antenna design and simulation, assembling and soldering of manufactured prototypes and measuring the prototypes in the electronics laboratory. This project will provide a valuable contribution towards a new mutual coupling extraction technique that will be important for low-frequency radio astronomy with SKA-Low.
The summer version of this project will only concern numerical simulations of SKA-Low.
Supervisor: Dr Marcin Sokolowski, Dr Danny Price
Suitability: Honours project.
Description:
High-time resolution imaging of interferometric data from radio telescopes is computationally challenging. We have recently developed high-time resolution pipeline for the data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and prototype stations of low-frequency Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low). The pipeline will be applied to searches for Fast Radio Bursts (FRB), which are extremely interesting astrophysical events discovered only 15 years ago. The short duration (milli-seconds) of FRB radio pulses requires searches to be performed on high-time resolution data (in this case sky images). The current imaging pipeline is mostly executed on CPU, and it can be further optimised by porting most time consuming parts of the code to GPU. Alternatively, the main goal of the project can be to optimise FRB search algorithm on GPU, for example implement Fast Dispersion Measure Transform (FDTM) to be applicable to imaging data. Finally, the optimised pipeline will be tested and benchmark on a small (up to 1 hour) portion of data from the MWA or SKA-Low stations.
Planetary Science
Supervisors: Prof. Katarina Miljkovic
Suitability: Honours, 3rd year
Description: Water ice on the Moon is primarily found in permanently shadowed craters located near the lunar poles. These regions are of high scientific and strategic interest due to their potential as a sustainable resource for future lunar missions. Water ice is not only vital for supporting human life in a lunar base but also serves as a key component for producing fuel for interplanetary travel.
This research will use the iSALE shock physics hydrocode to investigate the effects of micrometeoroid bombardment as a mechanism for volatile delivery to the lunar surface, particularly in relation to the formation and evolution of permanently shadowed craters.
This work has direct relevance to NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. It aligns with current scientific missions targeting the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions, like NASA’s VIPER and others.
Supervisor: Prof Katarina Miljkovic
Suitability: Honours, 3rd Year
Project Description: This project explores how large impacts influenced the early crust and atmospheric evolution of Mars and Earth. Using the iSALE shock physics code, you will simulate impacts into varying crustal conditions—hot, cold, and volatile-rich—building on recent findings that show the thermal state of the crust significantly affects crater formation and gas release. You will simulate and analyse geological features of Martian craters to understand how subsurface environments such as cryospheres, groundwater, or saturated regolith influenced impact outcomes.
Key Goals:
- Mars Focus: Investigate how different subsurface conditions affected the formation and preservation of impact craters and how craters on Mars could be used as evidence of subsurface water/ice and past climate.
- Earth Analogy: Apply insights from Mars to Earth, where the largest impact structures are poorly preserved, but they had a profound effect on the formation of Earth’s crust.
- Climate Implications: Assess how impacts contributed to atmospheric evolution, gas production, and surface temperature changes on both planets—key factors in understanding early planetary environments.
This interdisciplinary project combines planetary geology, numerical modelling, and early Solar System evolution, offering students a chance to contribute to our understanding of how impacts shaped planetary surfaces and climates.
Supervisor: Prof Katarina Miljkovic
Suitability: Honours, 3rd Year
Project Description: This project explores the impact physics of a spacecraft smashing into asteroids and/or comets. We simulate collisions using the iSALE shock physics code. You will develop numerical models to simulate crash landing scenarios, analysing crater formation, energy transfer, and material ejection. Through this, they will gain hands-on experience in computational impact modelling.
In parallel, you will study the context of space exploration missions—past, present, and future—including NASA’s DART and ESA’s Hera missions to Didymos, historical missions like Deep Impact, LCROSS, and SMART-1, and upcoming ventures such as the Emirati Mission to Asteroids (EMA), set to launch in 2028 to visit seven asteroids.
This interdisciplinary project combines planetary science, computational physics, and mission design, offering a unique opportunity to contribute to our understanding of small body dynamics and planetary defence.
Theoretical/Mathematical Physics Projects
Theorectical Physics Group
Students interested in computational or theoretical physics are encouraged to consider projects in the Theoretical Physics Group. This is a research intensive group, which was (2007-2013) a node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Antimatter Matter Studies. We specialises in the field of Quantum Collision Physics. Such processes occur all around us, and include all chemical reactions. More specifically, our area of expertise is for projectiles, which include electrons, positrons, photons, protons and antiprotons, colliding with atoms, ions and molecules. Applications include astrophysics, fusion energy, lighting, material and medical diagnostics.
Presently, there is considerable demand from astrophysicists and fusion physicists for the generation of electron/positron-atom/molecule collision data. Depending on the student’s background knowledge and scope of the project, individual research projects will range from data generation and evaluation, utilising super computer facilities, through to extending the computational capacity to be able to tackle new collision problems. The expectation is that the research outcomes would be published in the best physics journals. The specific details of the project will be determined by discussion with the particular staff of the Theoretical Physics Group. Some examples are listed below.
Supervisors: Prof Igor Bray and Prof Dmitry Fursa
The Theoretical Physics Group has been engaged in the biggest scientific research project on the planet, which is the building of the next generation fusion reactor known as ITER, see http://iter.org. The goal is to produce fusion energy as it happens deep in the core of our Sun. Our contribution has been to provide collision data of interest to the plasma modellers who are trying to understand all of the physics that will follow the fusion process.
Recent example is beryllium: it has been determined that beryllium will be a substantial component of the first wall, and hence reliable electronimpact cross sections for this atom and all of its ions are required by the modellers. Collision data for many more atoms and molecules are required for modelling the ITER plasma. Our aim is to develop a computer code that is capable to model collisions with a much wider number of atoms and molecules than the present version of the CCC code allows for.
An even more difficult task is to extend the CCC code to study collisions with molecules. We are especially interested in the molecules that are present in ITER plasma: BeH, BeH2, Li2, Li_H, etc. We have already developed a computer code that produced the best in the world result for H2+ and H2 molecules and now aim to extend it to more complex systems.
This project will contribute to the International Atomic Energy Agency fusion research and will be our contribution to the Coordinated Research project (CRP): Atomic data for Vapour Shielding in Fusion Devices.
Here are theoretical and code development projects that you can participate:
Electron collisions with atoms
The project aims to provide a comprehensive set of collision data for electron collision with tin and gallium atoms. We will use the relativistic formulation of the CCC method (RCCC) as Ga and Tn are relatively heavy atoms. Both atoms have p-electron in the open shell, one for Ga and two for Tn, and show substantial fine-structure splitting that indicates that relativistic effects will play important role in modelling of atomic structure and collision processes.
Electron collisions with molecules
The present version of the CCC code will be extended to more complex molecules, such as Li2, LiH, etc. The aim is to provide a comprehensive set of collisions data relevant for fusion research. This includes a set of elastic and momentum transfer, ionization, excitation and dissociation cross sections. The study of nuclear motion will allow us to provide a set of fully vibrationally resolved cross sections.
Objectives:
- Understand what ITER is all about
- Understand the physics and the mathematical model behind the computer code
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed computational codes to determine the required data to a required accuracy
- Disseminate the data to existing databases for ready access to fusion researchers worldwide
Supervisors: Prof Dmitry Fursa, Prof Igor Bray, Dr Nicolas Mori and Dr Liam Scarlett
Modelling positron transport in various media is of immense importance for applications as diverse as atmospheric and astrophysical research and studies of radiation damage in tissue. Accurate modelling requires accurate collision data: cross sections for all relevant collision processes. We have developed the best in the world computer code (CCC) to model positron collision processes for a wide range of atoms. The code is being extended to model positron collisions with small molecules. We will have a special emphasis on the study of collisions with biologically important atoms and molecules.
Objectives:
- Review various applications of positron collisions with atoms and molecules
- Understand the physics and the mathematical model behind the computer code
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed computational codes to determine the required data
Supervisors: Mr Aks Kotian and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Modelling collisions of argon ions with hydrogen is important for understanding X-ray emission from comets and planets in the solar system. In addition, diagnostics of fusion plasma in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the Joint European Torus (JET) is performed using charge-exchange spectroscopy (CXS), where a beam of H atoms collides with impurity ions, including highly-charged Ar18+ ions, leading to electron capture (EC). The CXS is based on emission of the excited Ar17+ ions. The application of the CXS requires the knowledge of state-selective EC cross sections, which are difficult to measure. This project aims to perform accurate calculations of state-selective cross sections for EC in Ar18+ collisions with hydrogen using a wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) method recently developed in our group [Faulkner et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 61 (2019) 095005]. The method solves the three-body Schrödinger equation for a fully-stripped ion-hydrogen atom system by expanding the total scattering wavefunction in a two-centre basis of pseudostates. This leads to a set of coupled differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes. The latter are used to calculate the cross sections for elastic scattering, target excitation, and EC by the projectile and ionisation.
Supervisors: Prof Alisher Kadyrov and Prof Igor Bray
Modelling collisions of ions with atomic and molecular targets is important for a variety of applications ranging from astrophysical processes and nuclear fusion to modern cancer treatment techniques like proton therapy.
Proton therapy is used to destroy deep-seated cancer cells. It can precisely target the location, size and shape of the tumour, limiting damage to surrounding healthy tissue. When fired into living tissue, a beam of protons deposits most of its energy at a very specific depth that depends on its initial energy. This makes minimal damage to surrounding organs in front of the tumour while delivering almost zero radiation after the tumour. Such precision is not possible with other radiation treatments such as X-ray therapy. Proton therapy requires careful treatment planning based on theoretical depth-dose simulations with a mm accuracy. This requires precision data on relevant ion-atom and ion-molecule collisions.
In fusion plasmas injection of proton beams is used for diagnostics. Certain materials like Be will be used as the shield for the first wall of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and an ITER-like wall is already under operation in the Joint European Torus (JET). Erosion of the first wall releases atoms (and several molecular species), which eventually lead to the presence of fully-stripped ions in the plasma core. The diagnostics of impurity density and temperature in the plasma core is carried out by applying a charge exchange spectroscopy (CXS) technique, where a fast beam of H atoms collides with the impurity ions, leading to the electron capture (EC) reactions. The diagnostics is based on emission, usually in the visible spectrum, of the resulting excited ions. The application of the CXS diagnostics requires the knowledge of state-resolved EC cross sections, which are in general difficult to measure.
A number of theoretical approaches have been developed to model ion collisions with atoms and molecules. At moderate collision energies all open reaction channels including elastic scattering, electron capture and ionisation are interdependent and have significant contributions. However, most of the theories are based on different Born approximations: first- and second-order plane wave, distorted wave, etc. Furthermore, only a few of them takes more than one populated electronic state into account: these theories usually focus on the ground state (initial and final states), while experiments integrate over all final populated electronic states. As a result, there is no satisfactory theoretical description of available experimental data. Furthermore, significant discrepancies remain between the results due to the lack of convergence in terms of included states.
The aim of the project is to provide accurate data on heavy ion collisions with atoms and molecules required in radiation dose calculations for hadron therapy and plasma diagnostics. Calculations will be performed using a semiclassical wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) method recently developed in our group. The method solves the Schrodinger equation for the ion-atom or ion-molecule system by expanding the total scattering wave function in a two-centre basis. The wave functions representing the target and hydrogen-like ion formed after electron capture, are the true eigenfunctions for the negative-energy states and orthonormal stationary wave packets for positive-energy states resulting from the discretization of the continuum. This leads to a set of coupled differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes, which are used to calculate the cross sections for elastic scattering, target excitation, and electron capture by the projectile and ionisation.
Supervisors: Prof Alisher Kadyrov and Prof Igor Bray
Cross sections for antihydrogen formation are of particular interest to the ALPHA collaboration, which requires the production of near zero energy antihydrogen. Production of slow antihydrogen atoms is one of the prerequisites for experimental verification of the materantimater equivalence principle. There are two experiments with antihydrogen planned for the near future at CERN, AEGIS (Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) and GBAR (Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest). The aim of these experiments is to measure the freefall of antihydrogen in order to make direct measurements of the freefall acceleration constant of antimatter in the gravitational field of Earth. To observe the free fall the antihydrogen has to be created at rest or cooled to extremely low energies (a few MeV). With new developments in antiproton cooling techniques cryogenic temperatures became achievable.
Therefore, formation of antihydrogen in ultra-low energy positronium-antiproton collisions with its very large cross section emerges as a primary source of antihydrogen. Antihydrogen can be created with the use of antiprotonpositronium collisions. Large cross sections are achieved when positronium is in a Rydberg state. The aim of the project is to use the two-center convergent close coupling (CCC) method to model antiproton collisions with Rydberg positronium and calculate the antihydrogen formation crosssections at ultra low energies.
Objectives:
-
- Review the literature.
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed codes.
- Calculate total cross sections for antihydrogen formation at low energies.
Supervisors: Mr Nick Antonio and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Modelling collisions between partially stripped nitrogen ions and atomic hydrogen is important for a number of reasons. Given the multielectron nature of these systems, they allow us to explore the role electron-electron interactions play in the overall collision dynamics. Furthermore, there are many practical applications that would benefit from a complete understanding of these collisions. Modelling X-ray spectra from comets and performing impurity diagnostics in fusion plasmas are just a few examples. In particular, major fusion projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the Joint European Torus (JET) are expected to contain dressed nitrogen ions within the reactors. How these ions affect properties of the plasma such as its temperature and density can be investigated using the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) technique, where a beam of H atoms collide with the nitrogen ions leading to electron capture. The CXRS approach to performing diagnostics on fusion plasmas is to analyse the spectra of these excited ions. This requires accurate cross section data for all possible collision processes including electron capture, ionisation and target excitation.
This project aims to calculate accurate cross sections for each nitrogen ion colliding with atomic hydrogen using the wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) method developed in our group [Antonio et al., J Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 54 (2021) 175201]. The method expands the total scattering wavefunction using a two-centre basis of pseudostates. Substituting the expansion into the Schrodinger equation leads to a set of coupled first-order differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes which are used to calculate the aforementioned cross sections. Solving the close-coupling equations is computationally intensive and needs to be done on large-scale supercomputers.
Supervisors: Mx Kade Spicer, Mr Nick Antonio and Prof Alisher Kadyrov
Hadron therapy is a state-of-the-art cancer treatment able to target tumours with a high level of accuracy. This is because heavy particles, eg. carbon ions, deposit almost all of their energy at a single point, destroying cancerous cells while leaving surrounding healthy tissue relatively unharmed. For this reason, the method may be employed in cases where conventional radiation therapy is prohibitive such as in paediatric patients or when a tumour is located close to vital organs. The precision required in the treatment necessitates that all depth-dose calculations are performed with the most accurate cross section data available.
The wave-packet convergent close-coupling (WP-CCC) approach has been developed to model all processes occurring in ion-atom and ion-molecule collisions accurately and in great depth. This project aims to apply this theory to collisions between C6+ and helium. The method solves the four-body Schrödinger equation by expanding the total scattering wave function in a two-centre basis of atomic wave functions. This leads to a set of coupled differential equations for the transition probability amplitudes, which are used to calculate integrated cross sections for elastic scattering, target excitation, electron capture by the projectile, and ionisation. Such calculations are performed using a purpose-built code and run on supercomputer facilities.
Objectives:
- Learn how to use supercomputers and run locally developed codes
- Understand the physics and mathematics upon which the computations are built
- Publish interesting results in distinguished physics
Supervisors: Prof Dmitry Fursa, Prof Igor Bray, Dr Corey Plowman, Dr Liam Scarlett
Collision processes involving protons and antiprotons with molecular hydrogen and various small molecules play an important role in astrophysics, fusion research, and health sciences.
In Astrophysics, energetic protons and antiprotons originate outside the Solar system and arrive on the Earth as cosmic rays. Their propagation through intergalactic space is defined by the interaction with atoms and molecules present in the intergalactic medium of which atomic (H) and molecular hydrogen (H2) are the most abundant. Our sun is also a significant source of extra-terrestrial protons which collide with atoms and molecules in planetary atmospheres. On Jupiter, this effect is responsible for the production of electrons and ions that drive atmospheric dynamics.
In fusion research, the interaction of protons and their isotopes (deuterons and tritons) with molecules happens in the regions of cold plasmas at the edge of magnetically confined fusion experiments or in the divertor. Molecular hydrogen is the most abundant in those regions, but other molecules, such as lithium hydride (LiH), beryllium hydride (BeH) and boron hydride (BH) are present. Collisions with these molecules play an important role in the understanding of the physics of the fusion plasma and in the interpretation of various diagnostic techniques.
Objectives:
- Review various applications of proton collisions with atoms and molecules
- Understand the physics and the mathematical model behind the computer code
- Learn how to use supercomputers to run locally developed computational codes to determine the required data to a required accuracy
- Disseminate the data to existing databases for ready access to researchers worldwide
Supervisors: Dr Liam Scarlett, Prof Dmitry Fursa, Prof Igor Bray
Dissociative attachment is the collision process where an electron is captured by a molecule, forming a temporary compound state that then breaks apart. This process is of considerable interest in plasma modelling applications as it is an important pathway to molecular dissociation at low energies, as well as a source of negative ions. Previous theoretical studies of dissociative attachment have utilised substantial approximations, and with very limited experimental data available they are difficult to validate. A long-term goal is to incorporate the dissociative attachment process into the molecular convergent close-coupling (MCCC) method developed at Curtin and perform calculations that do not rely on the usual approximations. The first step in this direction, which will be the focus of this project, is to conduct a proof-of-principle investigation where we apply the close-coupling method to several model problems of dissociative attachment which have exact solutions.
Objectives:
- Review the literature on dissociative electron attachment and gain an understanding of its applications and previous approaches to studying it
- Learn the basics of quantum scattering theory and high-performance computing
- Develop a theoretical framework and computer code for performing close-coupling calculations of a model dissociative attachment problem.
- Run calculations on the supercomputer and prepare the results for publication.
Applied Maths
Supervisors: Prof Victor Calo
Numerous phenomena from different areas of science and engineering are modelled by time-dependent partial differential equations. In general, it is impossible to find their analytical solutions. Thus, one seeks numerical approximations. In order to obtain accurate approximations, one requires to solve a large linear algebra matrix problem, which is time-consuming.
This project aims to develop fast solvers for the resulting linear algebra systems. The main idea is to perform directional splittings. We split a multiple dimensional problem into a series of one-dimensional problems. This significantly reduces the overall cost for solving the matrix problem to be of linear cost.
Objectives:
- Write numerical simulators to study the performance of the splitting schemes;
- Analyse the stability and approximability of the splitting;
- Generalise the splitting schemes to solve other time-dependent problems.
Supervisors: Prof Victor Calo
At the interface between two chemically active metamorphic minerals, a new phase grows and nucleates. In general, the reaction product is a rim, and its morphology depends on the large volumetric stresses associated with the chemical processes, i.e., mass transport and chemical reaction, as well as the curvature of the mineral interface.
By using a chemo-mechanical framework for the interactions of multicomponent solids, this project aims to identify the conditions under which the morphology of the rim varies from a uniform to a non-uniform layer.
Objectives: The primary goals of this project are to:
- Understand the impact of the diffusion coefficients, reaction rates and mechanical properties in the chemo-mechanical framework to perform relevant numerical simulations; and
- Postprocess simulation results to verify the rim growth-controlling mechanism.
Centre for Optimisation and Decision Science
Supervisors: Dr Shakib Daryanoosh, Prof Ryan Loxton
Overview:
Quantum information processing brings ideas from quantum physics and information theory to prove concepts and demonstrate capabilities beyond the reach of classical world. Quantum computing discipline is currently the most active research and development area within quantum science and technology, supported by governments, industries and startups worldwide. In particular, quantum optimisation has shown it can be applied to many problems that arise in industries such as mining, transport, supply chain logistics, finance, pharmaceutical, defence and so on.
Current quantum computing devices suffer from experimental imperfections. This makes computations error prone, and as a result quantum algorithms should account for these non-ideal circumstances. This project investigates fault-tolerant quantum optimisation protocols through quantum error correction, quantum circuit optimisation and developing robust techniques. This includes analysis of variational quantum algorithms on early fault-tolerant quantum computers. The findings of this research work can pave the way for practical quantum computing suitable for both fundamental science and real-world applications.
The selected Ph. D candidate will have the opportunity to get involved in research activities with both domestic and international collaborators, attending and presenting research outcomes in conferences and participating in seminars, group meetings and discussing ideas and results with a multidisciplinary audience.
Aims:
Quantum information is well known to be delicate in that it is subject to decoherence. Therefore, protecting quantum information from noise is essential for implementing realistic quantum algorithms. The aim of this project is to develop algorithms that are robust to errors by design. The algorithms can be built upon, for instance, existing variational quantum algorithms. These novel practical schemes are eventually integrated into more complex algorithms relevant for tackling problems in academia and industry.
Objectives:
Through this research work, it is expected to compile an estimate of resource counts in terms of single- and two-qubit operations for implementing quantum optimisation protocols on quantum hardware. The project outcomes will include publications in peer-reviewed journals such as those in the suite of the American Physical Society.
Significance:
Quantum information science has gone through at least three decades of intensive scientific research. Quantum technologies are now one of the critical technological areas and quantum computing is by far the largest subdiscipline in terms of research and development across the entire quantum technology ecosystem. Quantum optimisation, in particular, has attracted a lot of attention due to its sheer potential to solve critical applications in industry. On one hand, variational quantum algorithms are the best candidates for noisy quantum processors, however, it is hard to see any real quantum advantage at this intermediate scale devices.
On the other hand, these algorithms can be employed on early fault tolerant quantum computers and promise outperforming classical computers. There is currently a gap in understanding how to implement the variational quantum algorithms in a fault tolerant way on future generations of quantum computers. Benchmarking these schemes can be beneficial for conducting practical quantum simulations and optimisation tasks.
Curtin Centre for Optimisation and Decision Science has already accomplished a quantum optimisation research project in cooperation with an industry partner. We are in the process of continuing that line of effort to foster fruitful collaboration to achieve our goals in tackling industry-scale applications.
An internship may be available for this project. The PhD candidate will work with high-performing researchers in the centre. The centre has extensive ongoing industry collaborations with major companies and government organisations. Some of the entities that the team has worked with include Alcoa, Roy Hill, Woodside Energy, Global Grain Handling Solutions, and Water Corporation. With the existing connections in the centre, the student will have various internship opportunities, to apply their research in industry projects.
Supervisor: Dr. Shakib Daryanoosh
Overview:
Quantum computing since its conception in the mid-1980s by Physics Nobel Laurette RicharD P. Feynman has gained significant attention in areas such as simulating physical systems, optimisation, and machine learning. Quantum processing units operate according to laws of quantum mechanics. In particular, two intrinsic properties of the quantum realm, namely, quantum superposition and entanglement play the central role in offering computational advantage.
Simulating phenomena governed by the laws of quantum physics is one area that quantum computers will ultimately shine. Quantum computing devices were originally envisaged solely for this purpose, and just recently people started performing preliminary quantum simulations in fields such as chemistry, material science, many-body physics, biology, and pharmaceuticals.
For near-term quantum computers the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) proposes a way to calculate an approximate solution to optimisation problems such as finding the ground state of a physical system. The first realisation of a VQE was demonstrated on a photonic quantum processor for calculating the ground-state energy of helium hydride ion. IBM also implemented quantum simulations for a similar-sized molecule beryllium hydride on their superconducting device. Google in 2020 conducted an experiment studying the binding energy of hydrogen chains on their Sycamore superconducting processor.
This project investigates variational quantum algorithms to simulate physical systems on quantum processors. Some phenomena are naturally realised on certain types of quantum hardware. Therefore, classifying problems and available quantum architectures can be considered by carefully studying the underlying mechanisms.
Aims:
This research work will develop algorithms for encoding, manipulating and extracting useful information for simulating physical systems (e. g. electronic structure of molecules). Each of these three steps will require optimisation to be capable of implementing on real quantum hardware. The new proposed solution should deal with issues such as high gate counts, noise and runtime.
Objectives:
It is expected the outcomes tackle issues such as 1) Barren plateau (where the candidate solution gets stuck in a local minima), 2) choosing an appropriate ansatz, and 3) optimising the quantum circuit, for example, by reducing the number of gates. The project results will include publications in peer-reviewed journals such as those in the suite of the American Physical Society.
Significance:
Quantum information science has gone through at least three decades of intensive scientific research. Quantum technologies are now one of the critical technological areas and quantum computing is by far the largest subdiscipline in terms of research and development across the entire quantum technology ecosystem. Simulation of physical systems comprised of many bodies (electrons, atoms etc) has been proven to be computationally hard for conventional computers. However, it is natural to study such systems on quantum computers that are made up of simple quantum mechanical subsystems (for example quantum bits).
Fault-tolerant quantum algorithms will be able to perform accurate electronic structure calculations without resorting to approximations. However, there is a long road to achieve universal quantum computation. As a result, the effort of this project is timely for investigating new heuristic quantum algorithms for practical use cases on near to mid-future quantum computers.
Variational quantum algorithms can be used for simulating physical systems with applications in chemistry, material science and drug discoveries. Giant tech companies such as Google and IBM have been first to implement quantum simulations on their hardware composed of tens of qubits. As these devices advance in terms of scalability and connectivity, algorithms need to account for complexities that arise due to design and underlying working principles of specific platforms.
Supervisors: Dr Shakib Daryanoosh
Description: This project will investigate the working principles and underlying mechanisms of a particular type of quantum computing processor called D-wave. Operating based on the adiabatic quantum theorem, D-Wave is the most advanced quantum computing architecture suitable for studying certain types of optimisation problems.
Quantum science and technology has gained significant interest among researchers in academia, industries and governments. In particular, quantum computing is currently the central focus of many research and development activities. This is due to the potential of future generations of quantum processors that can tackle problems intractable for standard computers. These problems arise in various sectors of our society such as agriculture, mining, finance, transport among others.
Adiabatic Quantum Computing has been shown to be suitable for certain optimisation problems [1]. One of the approaches for realising this method is through quantum annealing [2]. This project aims at understanding the processes involved in a quantum annealer machine such as the one from D-ave Systems to accomplish computational tasks [3]. Currently, this is the most powerful quantum hardware available, and therefore, learning its underlying computational mechanisms is important for testing real-world problems. The internship will involve an initial theoretical analysis phase where background theory is studied. This can comprise the first four to five weeks. In the next phase, depending on progress in the previous step, simulations of quantum annealing applied to an example will be considered.
This project fit squarely in the “Digital transformation and emerging technology” theme, with spin-off applications in the different applied areas (defence, resources and energy). It also aligns with the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure.
References:
[1] E. Farhi, et al., A quantum adiabatic evolution algorithm applied to random instances of an NP-complete problem. Science, 292(5516):472 476, (2001)
[2] A. B. Finnila, et al., Quantum annealing: a new method for minimizing multidimensional functions. Chem. Phys. Lett. 219, 343–348 (1994)
[3] M. W. Johnson et al., Quantum annealing with manufactured spins. Nature, 473(7346):194 198, 05 (2011)
Materials Physics Projects
Hydrogen Storage Research Group
The Hydrogen Storage Research Group (HSRG) at Curtin University conducts cutting-edge research on materials and systems for storing and transporting hydrogen — a key enabler of the clean-energy transition. The group sits within the Physics and Astronomy discipline and is part of the Curtin Institute for Energy Transition.
Research spans solid-state hydrogen storage materials, thermal battery systems, and solid-state electrochemical batteries, supported by advanced gas-sorption, thermal analysis, and synthesis facilities. Projects are often industry-linked and address real-world challenges in renewable-energy export, pipeline safety, and next-generation storage technologies.
Depending on background and interests, students may:
- Develop and test new hydrogen-rich materials or hydrides
- Design thermochemical energy-storage systems
- Investigate hydrogen containment and corrosion
- Explore solid-state battery materials linked to hydrogen technologies
Students gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art experimental tools and work within an internationally recognised research group. The specific details of each project will be determined in discussion with the group supervisors. Some example projects are listed below.
Supervisors: Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius, Dr Terry Humphries, Dr Yu Liu
Many countries, including Australia, have announced their strategy to include Hydrogen as a major part of their energy portfolio. Japan is one country that has announced they are making hydrogen their primary fuel of the future but are currently unable to produce enough hydrogen to meet demand, and as such must rely on importation. Australia is positioned to be able to produce renewable hydrogen and be a key global exporter, although an efficient (high density) means of carriage is required.
This project aims to develop a new method of producing, storing, and exporting green hydrogen. Metal hydrides produce pure H2 upon addition of water forming a metal oxide. This process is irreversible under moderate conditions, therefore this procedure is not currently economically or environmentally viable for commercial application. This project entails the development of a method for making the hydrolysis of metal hydrides into a reversible reaction. A variety of synthesis techniques will be explored, while a number of analytical techniques will also be required to determine the products. Additional scope is directed towards theoretical calculations to identify possible synthesis routes.
Supervisors: A/Prof. Mark Paskevicius, Prof Craig Buckley
New battery technologies offer the possibility for greatly enhanced energy storage capacities. High energy density is critical for most technological applications, such as for portable electronics and vehicles, i.e. more energy in a form that weighs less and takes up less space. Further breakthroughs are required to bring new batteries to reality, especially with regard to the electrolytes. Here, solid-state electrolytes could allow electrochemical reactions to proceed where liquid electrolytes fail, also providing higher electrochemical stabilities and enhanced safety.
Our group has synthesised new types of solid-state electrolytes that have interesting dynamics within the crystal structure. The anions within the structure rapidly reorientate up to 1E10 times per second, promoting the migration of cations, such as Li+, within the structure. These types of solid-state ion conductors have ion conductivities on par with liquids! The challenge is improving the ion conductivity at room temperature for battery applications.
This project will focus on the measurement, characterisation and analysis of electrochemical measurements on new solid-state batteries. The materials are air-sensitive and will be handled within an argon-filled glovebox. Measurements will be undertaken using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Further analysis will be undertaken to test the voltage-stability and chemical compatibility of the solid-state electrolytes with typical anion and cation materials. It is expected that high-impact peer reviewed publications will result from this project.
Supervisors: Dr Mauricio Di Lorenzo, Prof Craig Buckley
The concept of using the existent natural gas infrastructure to transport and store hydrogen produced from surplus renewable electricity is getting increasing attention. Several pilot projects are currently being conducted in Australia and abroad to test the feasibility of this approach, where only minor modifications to the existent infrastructure are required as the hydrogen content in the gas blend in limited to less than 15-20 vol%. In this project an assessment of the impact of blending hydrogen in typical gas production, transportation and storage systems at various hydrogen concentrations will be conducted, including challenges in long range pipeline transport (wave speed in hydrogen is three times faster than in methane), compression and decompression in small and large scale reservoirs (iso-entropic work of compressing hydrogen is ten times larger than in methane), compatibility of materials (hydrogen embrittlement in steel, permeability rates through polymeric materials is 4-5 times larger for hydrogen compared to natural gas). In this assessment relevant data from the literature will be gathered and simple analysis tools will be applied to estimate the increasing demands on the available systems at different scales (plant through city network, up to natural hydrogen production systems) when hydrogen concentration increases by comparing transport and operational efficiencies and safety risk profiles in different scenarios.
Supervisors: Dr Mauricio Di Lorenzo, Prof. Craig Buckley
Hydrogen Storage Research Group
Replacing diesel with green hydrogen in trucks will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% in road transport in WA. The following two projects are perfect for anyone interested in the practical side of physics and exploring pathways into entering business and industry.
By joining these projects, you will be part of a national team (including UWA, Griffith university, and industry partners ATCO, BGC and Main Roads WA) to conduct a techno-economic-environmental analysis of green hydrogen for heavy road transport vehicles in WA.
The projects can be done as Physics Project 1 and Physics Project 2 in semester one or two. They can also be expanded into honours projects.
Project A: Green Hydrogen for Fuelling Heavy Haul Vehicles in WA: Literature Review
You will conduct a literature review of available technologies for hydrogen-fuelled trucks, heavy vehicles, refuelling stations, and mobile plants and compare them against competing technologies such as fossil fuels and electrical batteries.
Project B: Green Hydrogen for Fuelling Heavy Haul Vehicles in WA: Tools
You will explore software and excel spreadsheets to assess available technologies for hydrogen-fuelled trucks and refuelling stations and compare them against competing technologies such as fossil fuels and electrical batteries.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Prof. Charlie Ironside, Prof Merv Lynch, Prof Craig Buckley A. Prof Mark Paskevicius,
Hydrogen is recognised as a major energy carrier for the near and long-term future. Australia, especially Western Australia, has recently been considered to be one of the most promising areas for natural hydrogen exploration, providing what has been deemed as gold hydrogen. The development of hydrogen sensors is crucially important for the detection and exploration of natural hydrogen. Considering the flammable and reactive nature of hydrogen, Raman-based laser sensors have great potential for remote hydrogen detection. This project aims to develop a compact Raman sensor for quantitative measurement of hydrogen concentration, as well as the para and ortho hydrogen ratio in the gas. The sensor can also be used for hydrogen gas leak detection, which is important for the safe storage and transportation of hydrogen.
This project would involve experimental research using lasers and different types of sensors capable of detecting signals from hydrogen, including single-photon detectors. The newly designed optics laboratory will be utilised for these studies under various hydrogen atmospheres and conditions.
Curtin Carbon Group
The Curtin Carbon Group is a multidisciplinary research team within the Physics and Astronomy discipline focused on carbon materials for the energy transition. The group combines experimental and computational approaches to understand and engineer carbon in all its forms — from graphite and graphene to disordered and porous carbons.
Research areas include graphite for lithium-ion batteries, porous carbons for hydrogen storage and filtration, and high-temperature carbon processing for decarbonised manufacturing. Projects range from atomic-scale simulations to furnace-based synthesis and advanced characterisation, often in collaboration with industry partners. More information: Curtin Carbon Group
Students gain experience in both computational modelling and materials fabrication, with opportunities to contribute to Australia’s shift toward renewable energy and sustainable manufacturing. Some example projects are listed below.
Supervisors:Dr Jacob Martin,Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Graphite is where the lithium goes when you charge your lithium-ion battery. The layered structure of graphite enables the lithium to be safely stored between the layers, however, graphite is expensive to synthesise primarily due to the few chemical precursors that will convert into graphite and also due to the extreme temperatures required (3000°C half the temperature of the sun!). Recently the Carbon Group at Curtin University have made a breakthrough in the atomistic understanding of the graphitization process. We were able to resolve the critical defect inhibiting graphitization as a screw dislocation. This helical defect winds through the layers like a spiral staircase stopping the layers from separating to form graphite. The aim of this project is to use a custom graphite furnace we have designed to explore the speed of different precursors transforming into graphite. Advanced characterisation equipment will be used such as X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials science for green energy. There is also scope for an entirely computational project using molecular dynamics to study the movement of defects within the nanostructure of graphite.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms such as Machine Learning and Deep Learning are transforming areas previously considered to be innately human activities. One area where AI methods have potential to make huge inroads is materials science, where complex interatomic potentials have historically been developed using a mixture of chemical and mathematical intuition. The aim of this project is to apply AI algorithms to the simulation of solids and liquids containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The ultimate goal is an AI-based interatomic potential which can be used to perform cutting edge molecular dynamics simulations of high-technology materials such as graphene, diamond-like carbon and carbon fibre. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials modelling. Training in computational modelling will be provided, and prior experience is quantum-mechanical methods is not required. Commercial partners are currently involved in this project.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
This project aims to address one of the major fundamental puzzles in carbon science; how to experimentally synthesize new phases of carbon predicted by theory. This could be approached via a combination of high pressure and high-energy ion irradiation to transform novel nano-carbon precursors. The expected outcomes include new phases of carbon with unexplored properties, an understanding of the pathways for synthesis of carbon materials, and new computational tools to understand nano-carbon materials under extreme conditions. This should provide benefits for industries seeking advanced materials for modern manufacturing. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials modelling. Training in computational modelling will be provided, and prior experience is quantum-mechanical methods is not required.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Assoc. Prof. Andrew Woods, Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Computational modelling of materials is providing insight into how to make better batteries, store hydrogen and produce entirely new materials. However, many computational models involve thousands of atoms that transform during the simulation. This poses a problem for interpreting the models and understanding what they tell us. The Carbon Group has been working with the Curtin HIVE (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch) in humanities to visualise atomistic materials using 3D immersive display technology. We have also worked with the Additive Manufacturing Microfactory in the John de Laeter centre who specialize in 3D printing to develop tactile models of disordered 3D graphenes. Most recently we have developed a VR game for the Oculus headset within the Unity game engine. This allows for periodic disordered carbons to be visualised from an atom’s eye view. In this project, new visualisation approaches will be developed to provide insights into disordered carbon nanostructures. A student with an interest in game development or 3D printing would enjoy this project. There is also scope for interdisciplinary work on the perception of time and space at the nanoscale with the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry. We have a commercial partnership with an activated carbon company who is interested in developing our visualisations for educational purposes.
Supervisor: Dr Jacob Martin, Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Materials under extreme conditions can become superconductors at room temperature, transform into new phases and can provide fundamental insights. The Curtin Carbon Group has ongoing collaborations with researchers that use diamond anvils to put carbon and silicon under extraordinary pressures. In this project a student would use computational approaches to explore how materials transform under extreme pressures. These results will directly inform experimental work undertaken by collaborators. For those students with a more commercial outlook, we have an ongoing partnership with a company interested in improving hard coating for cutting machines.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin
The Curtin Carbon Group has found molecular magnets inside of candle flames as aromatic molecules with unpaired spins. These molecules provide long coherence spin systems that are needed for quantum computing with molecular magnets. In this project, a simple model based on tight-binding with the Hubbard model will be developed to be able to predict the spin configuration of aromatic species. This will enable many possible molecules to be screened for their spin stability. A student with some experience of python would be helpful.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin,Assoc Prof Nigel Marks
Graphite plays a pivotal role in many nuclear reactors by serving as a moderator, slowing down fast neutrons to sustain nuclear chain reactions. Its exceptional thermal conductivity and stability make it a reliable material for dissipating heat and ensuring structural integrity. However, the build up of defects within the structure can lead to thermal runaway. This project explores how defects form in graphite during neutron bombardment and how thermal annealing can be used to safely remove them. By employing advanced computational tools, we aim to uncover insights that could improve reactor safety and efficiency, contributing significantly to low carbon sources of energy. This project is suitable for a student with an interest in materials modelling and nuclear science. Training in computational modelling will be provided, and prior experience in molecular dynamics methods is not required.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Prof Craig Buckley, A/Prof. Nigel Marks
WA is becoming the world leader in green hydrogen production. However, storage of hydrogen is a significant problem. Storage in carbon nanomaterials is attractive as hydrogen can be stored at liquid N2 temperatures and at safe pressures. Recently, neutron diffraction has revealed ultradense pockets of hydrogen in activated carbon that remain unexplained. In this project, the hypothesis that these pockets are due to increased attraction between hydrogen and flexed graphene will be tested using small angle X-ray scattering, electron microscopy and computer simulations.
Martin, Jacob W., et al. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 121.48 (2017): 27154-27163.
Martin, Jacob W., et al. Physical Review Letters 123.11 (2019): 116105.
Supervisors: Dr Jacob Martin, Dr Mauricio Di Lorenzo, Prof Craig Buckley
Biomethane can be produced in anaerobic digestion of biomass and waste streams. Much of the carbon in these streams come from plants that captured it from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Methane pyrolysis is a process that thermally transforms the hydrocarbon into hydrogen and solid carbon. If biomethane is used, then the carbon produced is captured from the atmosphere making the process carbon negative. In this project, the reaction pathway for methane pyrolysis will be explored using computer simulations guided by experimental work to optimize the yield of methane. This project is a collaboration with the Hydrogen Storage Research Group.
Sanchez-Bastardo, Nuria et al. Chemie Ingenieur Technik 92.10 (2020): 1596-1609.
John de Laeter Centre
The John de Laeter Centre at Curtin University is a world-class research infrastructure hub specialising in advanced characterisation and isotope science. Established to honour Professor John Robert de Laeter (1933-2010), the Centre houses more than $50M of instrumentation across 14 key facilities—including atom-probe tomography, focused-ion-beam microscopy, laser-ablation ICP-MS, and X-ray diffraction systems.
Research at the JdLC supports geoscience, materials science, environmental studies and industrial applications—from tracing Earth and planetary evolution to characterising next-generation materials and supporting Western Australia’s minerals sector. More information: John de Laeter Centre
Students and researchers gain access to state-of-the-art tools and technical expertise, enabling high-impact projects that span elemental/isotope analysis, microstructure, and geochronology. Some example projects are listed below.
Supervisors: Associate Professor William Rickard and Professor Axel Schmitt
As part of an international effort to detect and monitor the use of uranium in nuclear facilities the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) collects environmental samples in countries under safeguard agreements and analyses them for the presence of uranium that has anomalous isotopic composition, which can be indicative of undeclared nuclear material or activities. Typical environmental sample analyses involve use of mass-spectrometry to scan a planchet with 10’s of 1000’s of particles for the presence of uranium and then performing precision analyses to determine the isotopic composition. This analytical procedure is highly effective though complimentary information about particle morphology and associated elements is often missing. To improve the information generated from environmental sampling analyses, the IAEA have prioritised R&D efforts in the use of electron microscopy.
This project will use microscopy and mass spectrometry facilities in the John de Laeter Centre to development and validate novel methods for nuclear material analysis.
Supervisor: Dr William Rickard
A FIB-SEM combines nanometre resolution imaging with precision patterning of a focussed ion beam enabling the instrument to manipulate a sample at very fine length scales. The Tescan Lyra FIB-SEM, located within the John de Later Centre at Curtin University, is a state-of-the-art instrument that is used for advanced microanalysis in 2D and 3D as well as high precision site-selective sample preparation.
Surface analyses (electron and ion imaging, chemical mapping (EDS), crystallographic mapping (EBSD)), sub-surface analyses (3D imaging, 3D EDS, 3D EBSD) and unique in-situ ToF-SIMS analyses are able to be correlated with site specific atom probe tomography or TEM results which enables a thorough characterisation of highly complex materials on a wide range of length scales.
In this project the student will get trained to operate the FIB-SEM and will run a series of experiments in order to optimise the data collection and data analysis methods for 3D imaging and 3D microanalysis. Other projects involving the ToF-SIMS will also be available.
Supervisor: Dr David Saxey
Atom Probe Tomography works by dis-assembling materials one atom at a time, and using software to reconstruct their original 3D locations and chemical identities. It is a powerful tool for the characterisation of materials – unique in its ability to provide three-dimensional chemical information on the atomic scale. Although the technique has existed for some time, the past ten years have seen a rapid uptake, with over 100 machines now installed in laboratories around the world. The range of materials studied has also grown; from metal alloys, to semiconductor device structures, ceramics, and more recently geological materials.
The Geoscience Atom Probe facility, housed within the John de Laeter Centre, operates the first atom probe microscope to be dedicated to geo materials. As such, there are many new and interesting applications within this field, and many opportunities for original research into outstanding scientific problems. In addition to these applications, the physics of the technique itself is also an active area of research, with open questions surrounding the evaporation and ionisation of atoms from the sample under extremely high electric fields. There are also interesting problems in the analysis of the 3D chemical datasets, which can range in size beyond 10^8 atoms.
We are providing a number of opportunities for interested students to contribute to projects within the Geoscience Atom Probe facility, which would include the acquisition of atom probe data, as well as analysis and interpretation of the datasets. There are also opportunities to develop techniques and analysis tools to provide new methods of extracting information from the 3D data.
Supervisors: Dr Zakaria Quadir, Dr David Saxey and Dr William Rickard
Uranium is a key mineral for our national economy. This project involves developing methods for 3D tomography at the nanoscale to determine the location of uranium-rich sites in within a uranium-bearing rock, and thus facilitate to develop a uranium liberation processes for the WA minerals industry. This project involves TEM data acquisition with the FEI Talos TEM in the Microscopy & Microanalysis Facility (MMF) within Curtin’s centralised research infrastructure hub JdLC, and then, exploit the advanced capabilities of the 3D reconstruction software to develop a data visualization techniques.
Computational Materials and Minerals Group
Supervisor: Prof Paolo Raiteri
Computer simulations are now playing a fundamental role in almost every aspect of science, from studying electronic transitions in molecules to simulating the collision of galaxies, including all aspects of chemistry, physics, biology and material science. Analogously to instrumentations, a large variety of computational techniques have evolved to tackle different scientific problems, examples are data mining, machine learning, finite elements calculations and atomistic simulations.
In my group we focus on developing accurate computational models and applying them to answer pressing questions in the fields of chemistry, geochemistry and material science. Our too main tools of research and Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Dynamics. The former is the prime tool to model chemical reactivity and photophysical properties of molecules, while the latter is used to study the structural and thermodynamical properties of materials.
Several different projects that cover a wide range of topics in bio-chemistry, geochemistry and materials science are available.
- Formation and stability of (bio-)minerals
Living organisms have an extraordinary ability to produce functional materials to sustain their lives. Teeth, bone and shells are just few examples of materials that cells can produce by extracting ions from solutions and crystallising them using organic molecules as templates for the precipitates. Molecular dynamics simulations will be used to study how organic molecules affect the stability and growth of ionic aggregates that are found in the path towards the production of (bio-)minerals.
- Unravelling the binder magic of cobalt in hardmetals
Tungsten-Carbide-Cobalt is one of the most widely used composite material in mining cutting tools. Due to the toxicity and cost of cobalt, there is a growing pressure to find an alternative binder to replace it. Molecular dynamics simulations will be used to unravel why the use of cobalt as a binder phase has proven to be the most successful and look for alternatives.
- Growing crystals one ion at a time
The biggest challenges in computational chemistry relate to the small system sizes that can be afforded in atomistic simulations, which often hinder a direct comparison with experiments. In this project you will develop a new technique to perform molecular dynamics simulations at constant chemical potential and/or with an external electric field. You will then use these techniques to study the growth kinetics of salts from an electrolyte solution.
- Interfacial free energy
The morphology of crystals grown from solution is determined by the cost of cleaving the perfect crystals along different planes and the interfacial free energy with the growth solution. In this project you will use Molecular Dynamics and enhanced sampling techniques to develop a methodology to compute the interfacial free energies of crystals and amorphous materials in contact with water.
- Grand-canonical molecular dynamics simulation of ice growth
Ice formation is ubiquitous in our everyday life and controlling/preventing the freezing of water in undercooled conditions is critical in many applications in food preservation and environmental restoration through the use of cryogenically preserved seeds. Despite the significant interest, there is still a lack of general and efficient implementation for modelling crystal growth from undercooled electrolyte solution. This project will explore the use of a constant osmotic pressure algorithm to determine the ice growth rate from different solutions.
Supervisor: Dr Peter Spackman
Carbon dioxide capture and storage is a critical area of research in the fight against climate change. Understanding the theoretical limits of CO2 adsorption in porous materials could provide valuable insights for developing more efficient carbon capture technologies and potentially guide policy decisions on direct air capture (DAC) initiatives.
This project aims to explore these limits using computational modelling techniques, with potential far-reaching implications for both technology development and climate policy.
The study will focus on:
- Investigating the theoretical upper bounds of CO2 adsorption in porous materials
- Simulating adsorption behaviour under environmentally relevant conditions
- Assessing the implications of these theoretical limits for direct air capture feasibility
Using coarse-grained modelling and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations, the project will probe a wide range of possible interatomic potentials to establish theoretical limits for CO2 adsorption. This approach allows for a broad exploration of material properties that may not be easily accessible through experimental methods.
The findings from this study could have significant policy implications. If the research demonstrates fundamental physical limitations on CO2 adsorption efficiency, it could influence policy decisions regarding the viability and resource allocation for direct air capture technologies. Conversely, if the results suggest higher theoretical limits than currently achieved, it might encourage increased investment in DAC research and development.
The project offers students an opportunity to develop skills in:
- Computational materials science
- Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics
- Machine learning and data science
- Scientific programming and data analysis
- Modelling of complex systems
- Understanding the interplay between scientific research and policy-making
This interdisciplinary project bridges chemistry, materials science, computer science, and environmental policy. The computational skills gained are highly transferable and increasingly valued in both academia and industry. Furthermore, the research contributes to the broader field of carbon capture and storage, addressing one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time while potentially informing critical climate policy decisions.
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Raffaella Demichelis
Minerals are materials that play a vital role in our life. From being what keeps us standing up (our bones) to making up our environment (e.g. coral reefs) and providing potential solutions to environmental problems (e.g. carbon dioxide geosequestration).
I develop virtual models that help understanding how these minerals form, react, and transform. These models provide the atomic details underpinning chemicaland physical processes, allowing predictions to be made and to interpret experimental observations.
Projects are focused either on the crystal structure and growth of biologically relevant materials, or on the more general topic of mineral structure and reactivity. They are aimed at broadening the students’ knowledge in these areas while enabling them acquiring skills in computing and in data science, skills that are becoming more and more relevant in the job market. The projects have the flexibility to be adjusted according to the student’s interest and skills.
Aside from the chemical/physical content, you will have the opportunity to learn digital skills related to data analysis and supercomputing – which are becoming increasingly valuable in the job market.
Possible research project available:
- Computer Modelling of carbon dioxide geosequestration
Chemical reactions occurring at the surface of minerals in deep Earth and in space can naturally store carbon dioxide either as a dissolution and reprecipitation process of a mineral phase, or through acting as catalysts to produce organic matter. Therefore, there is a great potential for application in both harvesting CO2 and catalysing its reduction.
However, the reaction mechanism and the catalytic role of the mineral surface are mostly unexplored due to the complexity of the natural environments in which these reactions take place. For example, there is a lack of knowledge in the kinetics of the dissolution of such phases and reprecipitation as carbonate mineral, and the link of these processes with temperature, pressure, pH and composition of the solution. Another big question is related to the link between mineral phase composition and reactivity towards CO2 reduction.
Computational modelling can here be used to investigate:
- crystal and surface structure and composition of the mineral;
- solution composition;
- the dynamics and adsorption at the mineral-water-CO2 interface;
- H2O and CO2 reduction at the mineral surface.
Within this framework, I can offer a range of projects based on student’s interest and progress of my group.
- Computer simulations of biomineralisation
Living organisms can synthesize crystalline materials (biominerals, like calcium and magnesium carbonates, calcium phosphates and oxalates) with a level of accuracy that is far beyond what is achievable with our current knowledge in materials synthesis. Learning how to mimic this chemistry would therefore introduce a new perspective into the designing of new materials, other than offering insights on how to prevent or promote crystallization for industrial (e.g. scale formation in desalination membrane) and conservation (e.g. coral reef) purposes.[1]
With computer modelling we can explore:
- structural, spectroscopic and thermodynamic features of biominerals – including rare and unstable phases;
- surface science;
- ion pairing and cluster formation in solution;
- interaction with biologically active molecules that act as growth modifiers.
- Metal-organic complexes for extractive metallurgy
Metals can be extracted from ores using organic ligands that form stable complexes in aqueous environments. Their structure, stoichiometry, and equilibrium constants (stability) are often difficult to obtain experimentally due to the complexity of the reaction environment.
Computational methods based on quantum mechanics can support research in this field through providing such information. Ligands that are sustainable and non-toxic will be studies, which would provide an improvement to what is currently used in this field. These data can then be used to build pH-potential diagrams (Pourbaix diagrams) that can guide the design and optimization of such processes at an industrial scale.
Applied Physics Projects
Centre for Marine Science and Technology
The Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST) is a multidisciplinary research group formerly housed within the Physics umbrella at Curtin and now operating within a dedicated marine-science/engineering faculty. Founded in 1985, CMST brings together scientists and engineers to tackle ocean-related challenges through advanced acoustics, imaging and ecosystem modelling. More information: CMST at Curtin University
CMST’s core expertise spans:
- Underwater acoustics and marine-soundscapes — modelling, measurement and impact on fauna.
- Marine habitat mapping and stereoscopic imaging technologies.
- Hydrodynamics and ocean-environment monitoring for industry and government needs.
Students may be involved in field-work, hardware/algorithm development, data analysis, or ecological-acoustic studies — gaining direct exposure to cutting-edge marine research technologies and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The specific project details will be determined in discussion with CMST staff. Some example projects are listed below.
Supervisor: Prof. Christine Erbe
The marine soundscape can be split into its biophony (the sounds of whales, dolphins, fish, crustaceans etc.), geophony (the sounds of wind, rain, waves, ice etc.) and anthrophony (the sounds of human/industrial operations). Ship traffic is the most persistent source of man-made noise in the marine environment with potentially significant bioacoustic impacts on marine fauna, most of which rely heavily on acoustics for their critical life functions. CMST has recorded the marine soundscape around Australia for 15 years at various sites. Using publicly available position logs of large vessels, we can 1) compute received levels of individual ships, 2) calculate source levels of individual ships by sound propagation modelling, and 3) determine the contribution of shipping to the local noise budgets. This project will suit a mathematically skilled student with some experience in scientific software development, data analysis and numerical modelling. An acoustic background is NOT necessary.
Supervisor: Prof. Christine Erbe
We are looking for two Honours students interested in studying cockatoo acoustics for a year. Black cockatoos, Calyptorhynchus sp., are endangered and specially protected in Western Australia. There is a regular citizen science survey, called the Great Cocky Count, which has provided crucial information on black cockatoo populations.
Cockatoos are noisy. They produce sounds that differ by species, age, gender and behaviour. We want to explore whether passive acoustic listening can provide additional data on population size, distribution and demographics. We have preliminary recordings of Carnaby’s cockatoos near the Curtin University Bentley campus, and of red-tailed black cockatoos in John Forrest National Park. The Honours students will be involved in additional field work, including recordings and visual observations, establish a call repertoire of these two species, correlate calls with behaviour and demographic parameters, and potentially look at changes in calling behaviour as a function of human disturbance.
Supervisor: Prof. Christine Erbe
Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) are an offshore, pelagic species of dolphin, which are most commonly seen along the edge of the continental shelf or over deep-water canyons. We have little information about the Australian population. Threats are direct catches, fisheries bycatch and pollution. Curtin University’s Centre for Marine Science & Technology has photographic and passive acoustic data for this species, and we are looking for a 1-year Honour’s student to study the bioacoustics of Australian striped dolphins, with the overall aim of characterising their sound repertoire to aid long-term passive acoustic monitoring. We are hoping to fill this position as soon as possible, January 2017 the latest. Depending on timing, there might be opportunities for additional field work.
Supervisor: Prof. Christine Erbe
Acoustic tags are increasingly used to track behavioural patterns of numerous marine species, but the long-term performance of the pinging tags and stationary receivers is rarely tested. Biofouling of the receivers, for example, holds potential to significantly reduce performance, affecting the results of marine studies. This project aims to assess directionality, source levels and detection ranges of some acoustic tags in a practical environment and the propagation of their signals. A number of acoustic tag receivers are located at the Mullaloo Beach Lab site. Working in collaboration with Mullaloo Beach Surf LifeSavers tags are to be periodically located in and around the array while tag source levels are also tested. Matlab programming skills will be developed. Kayaking experience preferred.
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Andrew Woods
Stereoscopic 3D Displays are increasingly being used in a wide range of application areas including scientific visualisation, industrial automation, medical imaging as well as gaming and home entertainment. The Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST) has been conducting research into stereoscopic imaging topics for the past 20+ years. Over the past few years several third-year physics students have worked on projects related to 3D displays and have revealed some very interesting results. Projects in this area would interest students with an interest in optics, displays, visualisation, and/or data analysis.
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Andrew Woods
A recent journal paper has identified that spectrally impure inks are a major source of crosstalk in printed anaglyph 3D images. The purpose of this project would be to perform optical measurements on a range of new ink types to find inks which offer better spectral performance for 3D purposes. The project will also involve some sleuthing to investigate whether some new technologies, such as quantum dots, might offer some opportunities for better ink spectral quality. A Matlab program is available which can be used to simulate the 3D performance of different inks types. The project may also offer the opportunity for the student to learn about colour management in printers as another way of improving 3D print quality. The mentioned journal paper found that there is considerable opportunity to improve 3D print quality we just need to test the proposed methods. There is prospect for a conference or journal paper to come out of this work.
Supervisor: Dr Chong Wei, Prof. Christine Erbe, Dr Andrea Rassell, Dr Jacob Martin
Climate change is caused by rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in the parts per million are routinely measured in the parts per million level using the photoacoustic effect. This little-known effect uses a pulsing source of light to general an audible tone. This tone comes from the CO2 absorbing heat and allows you to hear climate change. In this educational project funded by the Acoustical Society of Australia we aim to aid in the public communication of science by making climate change audible with simple demonstrations of the photoacoustic effect. A project student would help develop a low-cost demonstration and associated teaching materials for the photoacoustic effect using LED torches. This will be made available online and will be taken to schools as part of Curtin outreach. There is also funding for a student to attend the Acoustics Australia Conference in November 2025 in Busselton.
Supervisor: Dr Chong Wei, Prof. Christine Erbe, Dr Andrea Rassell, Dr Jacob Martin
Large whales make very low frequency calls that are below human hearing range of 20 Hz. CMST has been collecting these songs from off the coast of Rottnest Island for many years and has a library of calls in the infrasound. In this project, we will make use of tactile bass shakers that couple low frequencies directly into the body through bone conduction to feel infrasound recorded in the Perth Canyon. The project student would be taught how to analyse the low-frequency recordings using computational tools and then develop audio to be played on the wearable tactile bass to experience the whale songs. The outcomes of this project are focused on outreach and are also being undertaken with Noongar elders who have been supporting the project. There is also funding for a student to attend the Acoustics Australia Conference in November 2025 in Busselton to demonstrate the tactile bass system.
Industry projects
Petritek is looking for students (contact Jacob Martin in the first instance).
Project 1:
Petritek have designed a new type of sensor for performing much more accurate measurements in industry. At the moment it outputs arbitrary units. We would like a student to come and work with us to fully characterize how those arbitrary units can be translated into useful data under different scenarios. We can manufacture all of the test rigs etc. as necessary.
Project 2:
This project aims correct for scatter and other blur artefacts by measuring a dynamic point spread function across the scan volume and then deconvolving that function from real images.
- Local contact: Brendan McGann
- External contact: John Sutton
Aeolius Wind Systems (AWS) is a small WA based business which utilises advanced laser radar technology for measuring wind fields at prospective wind farm sites, and for forecasting power output from wind turbines.
AWS and Curtin University are sponsoring a PhD scholarship to further improve the accuracy of wind forecasting and is seeking a motivated and talented student to work with the team. The proposed research themes are listed below.
An honours project to improve the pointing accuracy of an existing laser stabilisation system is also on offer.
The research will also provide a potential pathway for the successful student to gain employment in the renewables industry sector.
Interested students should contact John Sutton in the first instance on 0417 919 415 or aeoliuswindsystems@gmail.com.
PhD – Project Themes
- Hybrid Wind Forecaster
Research aim:
- Evaluate novel approaches for improving the accuracy of 10-minutes-ahead wind energy forecasts through the use of a hybrid lidar/machine learning strategy. In this context, the large spatial data sets of 3-D wind field behaviour upstream of the windfarms generated by lidar will be used to train machine leaning tools. This varies significantly from current practices where the forecast is based on measured windspeed at the windfarm itself;
- Develop and evaluate prototype (s) neural network models for application at targeted windfarms. These windfarms operate in different environments (terrestrial, shoreline and offshore) and involve a range of atmospheric conditions affecting forecast skill;
- Undertake a benefit cost analysis and economic assessment of the financial and operational impacts arising from the use of the forecaster at the selected windfarm under operational settings. Project the impacts across the broader Australian Power network.
- Real time wind lidar processing and low signal-to-noise ration reconstruction based on convolutional neural network.
Research Aim:
- Investigate strategies for enhancing the measurement range/sensitivity of newly developed Coherent Doppler lidar technology using convolutional neural network or similar machine learning technologies. The research will develop novel approaches for extracting Doppler shift values from the raw data at very low signal to noise ratios with the objective of improving instrument measurement range.
- Evaluate the skill of various strategies using data from long range solid state and fibre lidars in different environments/atmospheric conditions. The researcher will have access to large data sets from marine and terrestrial environments, and the opportunity to design and run experiments using measurement infrastructure at various wind farms.
Honours Project
- Precision Laser Pointing System
Long range scanning lidar retrieves three spatial dimensions windspeed data by rotating an infra-red laser beam through azimuth and elevation angles. Measurement range of new technology now exceeds 25km. The quality of the data is dependent on the correct calibration of the beam angle. Instruments are deployed for long periods during which the device may move due to mechanical vibration. The movement results in significant drift in the inclination from the initial calibrated angle.
Research Aim:
- Evaluate the skill of an existing electro-mechanical angle adjustment system to identify opportunities for improvement. The adjustment system is currently configured for use on a Lockheed Martin WindTracer lidar which is available for the research;
- Develop strategies for improving the pointing accuracy of the lidar using more advanced, commercially available components (e.g. Precision servo-inclinometer, step motors). The objective is to improve measurement accuracy fourfold.
- Construct a prototype system and undertake tests to confirm performance on operating lidar platforms. Resources to purchase required components will be made available for the exercise.
Medical Research Sciences
Supervisors: Dr Peter Fearns
Description:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) uses differences in magnetisation relaxation times T1 and T2 to differentiate tissues and structures in patients. The Bloch equations describe the nuclear magnetisation as a function of time. Spatial data is formed through a series of electromagnetic excitation and read-out pulses. We would like to use a Bloch Simulator, Sycamore, to demonstrate basic pulse sequences then test the applicability of Sycamore for modelling Fast Low Angle Shot (FLASH) gradient echo sequences. Sycamore is python based with a C++ backend.
Computational Biophysics
Supervisor: Prof Ricardo Mancera
Type-2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with an increased risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The molecular mechanisms behind this association are, however, not well understood. Both of these age-related, chronic diseases feature the accumulation of amyloid protein aggregates (beta amyloid or Aβ in the brain in AD and amylin in the pancreas in T2D). Recent studies at Curtin suggest that Aβ and amylin can co-exist in AD brain and synergistically interact to potentiate cell death and amyloid deposition. These findings suggest that amylin may cross-aggregate with Aβ, forming stable molecular complexes with increased toxicity. The direct interaction of these amyloid proteins is poorly understood, but could play a major role in the genesis and progression of pathological conditions in the brain and pancreas.
This project will offer the opportunity to use either biophysical or molecular dynamics simulation methods to study the interactions of Aβ and amylin and the structure of Aβ-amylin complexes. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) determinations will be used to obtain direct measurements of the kinetics and affinity of binding between Aβ and amylin, as well as of their interactions as pre-formed oligomers with model cell membranes. Molecular dynamics simulations will be used to investigate the structure of the oligomers formed between Aβ and amylin in phospholipid bilayers as well as the changes induced in the structure and stability of these membranes. The outcomes of the project will shed much needed light into the cross-seeding mechanisms that underlie the pathological roles of these proteins in AD and T2D, which could be targeted with anti-aggregation drug molecules.
Supervisor: Prof Ricardo Mancera
Primordial cells (protocells) are presumed to have combined primitive nucleic acids (most likely RNAs) that acted as catalysts and carriers of genetic information, within a protective membrane made up of amphiphilic molecules. The aggregation of simple amphiphiles such as fatty acids, which have been found in meteorites, would have led to the spontaneous formation of simple vesicles. Recent experimental evidence suggests that certain nucleic acid bases, amino acids and sugars can stabilize these vesicles against the deleterious effects of high salt concentrations that likely existed on Earth nearly 4 billion years ago. However, the molecular mechanism of formation and stabilization of these vesicles under harsh prebiotic conditions remains unknown, as is the reason of why specific nucleic acid bases and sugars were selected through biophysical evolution.
This project will use molecular dynamics simulations to characterize the stability of model membranes made of simple fatty acids and representative of lipid vesicles with and without a high concentration of salt and with and without simple sugar molecules, amino acids and nucleic acid bases. The predicted structure and stability of these lipid membranes will provide insights into how certain simple organic molecules were selected by biophysical evolution to stabilize these precursors to proto-cells in early Earth.
Supervisor: Prof Ricardo Mancera
Cryopreservation (the storage of cell and tissues at liquid nitrogen temperatures: -196°C) requires the use of so-called cryosolvents to promote the vitrification of water to minimize ice formation. Cryosolvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide, glycerol and ethylene glycol can cross cell membranes, inducing vitrification inside cells. These agents, however, are toxic to cells and can indeed damage cell membranes themselves by changing their structure and functionality.
This project will use molecular dynamics simulations to predict the changes to the structure and stability of model cell membranes in the presence of aqueous solutions of different polyalcohols and sugar alcohols commonly used in cryosolvent mixtures, such as ribitol, xylitol, inositol, erythritol, mannitol and sorbitol. Elucidation of the mechanism of interaction of such poly-hydroxylated molecules with cell membranes will allow the future rational design of optimal multi-component aqueous mixtures of cryosolvents with improved cryopreservation properties. This will have applications in areas as diverse as the freezing of eggs and embryos and the preservation of germplasm from endangered plants.