Honours and Masters project

Access to cultural institutions, such as galleries and museums, is often compromised for people with disability. This includes people who are blind or have low vision (BLV). This project seeks to improve experiences within cultural institutions such as galleries and museums for BLV people, by applying AI and human-centred design principles to the creation of mediating artefacts and experiences.

This project is a multidisciplinary project between human-centred computing and data visualisation experts and water engineer experts in engineering and chemistry exploring new and immersive visual communication of complex ecosystems.

Smart glasses that combine mixed reality head-mounted displays with computer vision and natural language understanding, such as the Apple VisionPro or Google XR Glass, have the potential to revolutionise the lives of people with low vision by providing access to information about their environment through augmented vision and audio.

Modern clinical decision-making is constrained by associative models that conflate correlation with causation and overlook interactions among patient factors. This project introduces a unified framework that fuses causal inference with graph neural networks to deliver interpretable, high-precision diagnosis. Using electronic health records, Double Machine Learning isolates causal drivers (e.g., treatment effects, biomarkers) from spurious associations while adjusting for confounders such as socioeconomic status.

We will design a multi-agent web agent system (powered by LLMs) capable of understanding natural language user preferences, decomposing complex queries into sub-tasks, and dynamically interacting with heterogeneous online tools and databases (e.g., real estate listings, school ranking data, maps). The goal is to generate recommendations that meet users’ multi-objective constraints. Inspired by recent agentic approaches, this project will explore how autonomous web agents can coordinate and perform sequential web-based operations to solve real-world decision-making problems.

Specialised project:

This project applies machine learning and predictive analytics to detect early signs of heart disease using publicly available cardiovascular datasets. Students will clean and analyse health data, apply algorithms such as Decision Trees and Random Forest, and identify key risk factors for heart disease. The project aims to show how data-driven methods can support early intervention and improve patient outcomes.

Title: Early Detection of Heart Disease Using Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics

This research aims to bridge a critical accessibility gap in digital navigation tools by developing an inclusive, intelligent system that combines map services, street-level imagery, and large language models (LLMs). Current systems often fail to support marginalised users—such as older adults, people with vision impairments, or those with limited mobility—by overlooking nuanced environmental cues such as footpath obstructions, ramp availability, or visibility of building entrances. By democratising navigation, the project addresses both a technological and equity gap in urban mobility.

Urbanisation and climate change are accelerating environmental degradation, making cities critical battlegrounds for sustainability.

In human-AI collaboration, it is essential for AI systems to understand and anticipate human behavior in order to coordinate effectively. Conversely, humans also form inferences about the agent’s beliefs and goals to facilitate smoother collaboration. As a result, AI agents should adapt their behavior to align with human reasoning patterns, making their actions more interpretable and predictable. This principle forms the foundation of transparent planning (MacNally et al, 2018).

Access to education is an important issue. A major factor preventing access can be the cost of textbooks, which is a significant barrier for some students. Open Education Resources (OERs) are a popular option for reducing this financial burden, as they are free to any person with an internet connection.