Honours and Minor Thesis projects

Sodium ions play a central role in membrane transport and cell homeostasis. Increased sodium concentration has been observed in brain tumors as well as neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Huntington’s disease. While 23Na MRI of the human brain was first performed over 20 years ago, the low concentration of 23Na compared to 1H and rapid T2 decay resulted in low signal to noise (SNR) and long acquisition times, limiting its diagnostic feasibility.

The glymphatic pathway has been proposed as a key contributor to the clearance of fluid and metabolic waste products, such as amyloid beta and tau, from the brain. Recently, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI has been used to visualize the glymphatic system and monitor CSF-interstitial fluid exchange in normal and Type 2 diabetes mellitus rats, with the latter showing impaired clearance of interstitial fluid.

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm outside the female body, in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating a person's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from their ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a culture medium in a laboratory. After the fertilised egg undergoes embryo culture for 2–6 days, it is implanted in the same or another person's uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy [1].

Blockchain technology and its popular cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum have most revolutionary technological advances in recent history, capable of transforming businesses, government, and social interactions. However, there is a darker side to this technology which is the immense energy consumption and potential climate impact of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Cloud Data centres are designed to support the business requirements of cloud clients. However, due to the complexities of data centre infrastructure and their software systems, cloud service providers often do not have access to quality data regarding their IT equipment. This hinders their ability to better optimise the quality of their services and system performance. A clear message from across the industry is that better data allows for better decision making and resource management.

Pathfinding is fundamental operation in video game AI: virtual characters need to move from location A to location B in order to explore their environment, gather resources or otherwise coordinate themselves in the course of play. Though simple in principle such problems are surprisingly challenging for game developers: paths should be short and appear realistic but they must be computed very quickly, usually with limited CPU resources and using only small amounts of memory.

This project is part of a larger project on Hand Hygiene, which aims to address hand hygiene in hospitals by combining a suite of digital monitoring products with advanced data analytics. We expect to create a system that monitors the full user journey and performs constant data analysis through a cloud-based system.

This project is part of a larger project on Hand Hygiene, which aims to address hand hygiene in hospitals by combining a suite of digital monitoring products with advanced data analytics. We expect to create a system that monitors the full user journey and performs constant data analysis through a cloud-based system.

As a pregnancy approaches term (the point at which the foetus is considered fully developed), decisions are made about the timing of birth and the way babies are born. These decisions are incredibly challenging for clinicians and pregnant women. Digital health records, advances in big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence methodologies, and novel data visualisation capabilities have opened up opportunities for a dynamic, ‘Learning Health System’ – where data can be harnessed to inform real-time and personalised decision-making.…

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain caused by an external force from incidents such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, assault or sports collisions. Almost seventy million individuals globally are estimated to suffer from TBI per annum [1], deeming it a major public health concern which is estimated to cost the global economy approximately $US400 billion annually [2]. Early identification of severe TBI with proper assessment and treatment lowers the risk of secondary injury and subsequent long-term disability and subsequent costs.…