QUT Research Boosted With Eight Accelerator Grants

The eight QUT-led projects are:

Professor Leonie Barner, from QUT's School of Chemistry and Physics, will lead the project Bioadhesives for underwater applications funded by a $498,000 grant with QUT researchers Professor Scott Bryan and Dr Brett Lewis from the School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, and Dr Lalehvash Moghaddam and Mr Adrian Baker from the School of Chemistry and Physics.

The project's aim is to optimise the QUT-developed underwater bioadhesives for different methods of coral reef restoration as well as for use in marine industries.

Professor Barner said the team began developing underwater bioadhesives, using biobased and biodegradable raw materials to make their bioadhesive ecofriendly and economical to produce.

"The challenges for active restoration of the Great Barrier Reef and other large marine ecosystems include restoring at scale, economic viability, and sustainable restoration strategies while minimising the carbon footprint of manufacture and introduction and of permanent foreign materials in such pristine marine environments," Professor Barner said.

"The Great Barrier Reef is an economic, social, and iconic asset valued at $56 billion that generates $6.4 billion annually to the Australian economy.

"Underwater adhesives are a novel technology and have important applications in marine ecosystem protection and repair and more broadly for the global ocean economy as an increasing amount of technology is deployed underwater.

"These technologies will need repair or modification and underwater adhesives have the potential to meet this need in place while avoiding the cost of bringing them to the surface."

Dr Mahesh Chougale, has received a grant of $354,162 for research with Professor Deepak Dubal, both from QUT's School of Chemistry and Physics, on the project, High Energy, Safe and Recyclable Single Electrode Supercapacitors.

Professor Dubal said the project focused on developing a new type of energy storage device known as a single-electrode supercapacitor with high energy density and long-term cycling stability.

"Supercapacitors are commonly used in various electronic devices and vehicles to store and quickly release energy, but existing technologies face limitations, such as lower energy density.

"Optimising key components in traditional supercapacitors. This groundbreaking cell design reduces the risk of common issues such as short circuits and thermal runaway, thereby improving the safety of energy storage," Professor Dubal said.

Dr Chougale said optimisation would also decrease the chance of material degradation and failure over time, enhancing the overall safety and reliability of the cell.

"Such reliability is crucial in critical applications, including aerospace, medical devices, and the automotive industry, where long-term performance and safety are essential," he said.

This project aligns with Australia's National Reconstruction Fund priorities, Net Zero 2050 commitments and Future Made in Australia goals,

The industry partner is Out The Back Ventures.

Professor Deepak Dubal, from School of Chemistry and Physics, has received $347,966 for the project, Advanced Manufacturing of Hard Carbon from Agricultural Waste for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Professor Dubal said the project's aim to scale up a rapid heating process to produce high-quality hard carbon anode materials for sodium-ion batteries using for agricultural waste feedstock.

"This project seeks to enhance the production of materials for sodium-ion batteries, which are a promising alternative to commonly used lithium-ion batteries," Professor Dubal said.

"Traditional battery production methods rely on non-renewable feedstocks and high temperatures, energy intensive processes leading to high costs, low carbon yield, and significant carbon footprints in manufacturing sectors.

"Our objective is to develop and test new battery cells made from these carbon materials to see if they match or exceed the performance of current commercial batteries.

"By improving our process and implementing a continuous production system, we will increase the efficiency and practicality of this technology.

"Ultimately, this project will contribute to introducing a sustainable method for producing battery materials that offer more environmentally friendly batteries for various uses."

The project aligns with Australia's National Reconstruction Fund priorities, Net Zero 2050 commitments and Future Made in Australia goals.

The project's industry partner is Xcel Sodium.

Dr Anthony James, from QUT's Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy and School of Biology and Environmental Science, will lead the project, Securing the future of the iconic Australian banana industry, with a $499,989 grant.

The project's research team also comprises Dr Jean-Yves Paul, Adjunct Professor Rob Harding, Distinguished Professor James Dale with partner Australian Banana Growers' Council.

Dr James said the researchers aimed to future-proof the $1.3 billion Australian banana industry by investigating if QCAV-4, a genetically modified Cavendish Grand Nain banana resistant to Panama disease tropical race 4, is also resistant to other fungal diseases affecting banana production in Australia.

The team will also develop Cavendish Williams bananas, Australia's preferred cultivar, with the same disease resistance as QCAV-4.

"The industry faces significant challenges from diseases, with control measures driving up production costs and threatening long-term viability" Dr James said.

"Disease-resistant banana varieties are essential to safeguarding the industry. This project will evaluate our novel technology to develop a world-first, multi-disease resistant Cavendish - aiming to reduce production costs, cut reliance on fungicides, and sustain banana productivity despite serious disease threats."

Dr Xiaomeng Li, from QUT's Centre for Future Mobility and the ARC Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions and QUT's School of Psychology and Counselling will lead the $472, 597 project, VisionSync: AI-Driven Sensor Fusion for Enhanced Driver Awareness and Safety.

Co researchers are Professor Sebastien Glaser, Professor Ronald Schroeter, Dr Jorge Luis Pardo Gaytan, all from QUT.

Dr Li said the project aimed to revolutionise road safety by developing an advanced system leveraging the existing sensors equipped on modern vehicles.

"By combining cutting-edge technologies such as camera-based object detection, LiDAR/radar positioning, and eye-tracking, this project will develop a unified platform that tracks a driver's focus in the external environment and identifies potential hazards in real time.

"With these integrated technologies, the system will proactively manage drivers' situation awareness and alert them to risks helping prevent crashes caused by distraction or inattention.

"We will develop and test a system prototype in actual vehicles to ensure it performs reliably in everyday driving conditions and then conduct extensive on-road testing to validate the system's accuracy and effectiveness with the ultimate goal of bringing it closer to commercial use."

The project is another outcome and extension of the successful QUT & Seeing Machines collaboration led by Professor Ronald Schroeter, chair in Empathic Machines.

Dr Li said the outcome would be presented to automotive manufacturers and regulatory bodies for feedback and future implementation, paving the way for safer driving experiences on a global scale.

Mr Mileh Guenes Minareci is the lead researcher on the $483,934 project, Local Positioning Service (LPS), with co-researchers, Professor Michael Milford, and Dr Somayeh Hussaini, all from QUT's School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics.

Mr Guenes Minareci said the funding would enable the research team, which had already developed a superior positioning solution, to enhance Australia's capabilities in critical sectors like robotics, transport, defence, and agriculture.

"While GPS is the standard, it has limitations in urban areas, underground, and is vulnerable to jamming, spoofing, and solar events," Mr Guenes Minareci said.

"The technology we have developed has the potential to improve transport safety, mitigate GPS-related risks in defence, and boost precision farming.

"It will also align with government initiatives by fostering innovation and addressing challenges across multiple sectors.

"This funding will accelerate commercialisation by supporting talent, speed up development cycles and enable scale hardware fabrication for extensive testing and we are confident we will deliver prototypes for large-scale trials and broader deployments."

Professor Mia Woodruff, from QUT's School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, has received $485,380 for the project, AI-based 3D scanning and analysis technologies for healthcare and industry.

Professor Woodruff said the QUT research team, comprising Dr Sean Powell, Dr Laith Alzubaidi, from the School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, and Professor Nicholas Brown, from the School of Clinical Sciences, with industry partners Aptium.ai and IntelliDesign would build upon the QUT team's 'intelligent' 3D scanning technology which instantaneously captures still and moving 3D scans for use in visualisation.

"The first commercial version of this technology is in pre-production and targeted at the podiatry market to assist healthcare professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of foot and lower limb disease, including early diagnosis of diabetic foot ulcers. This aims to reduce the healthcare cost burden, currently at $1.6B AUD," Professor Woodruff said.

"We will advance the core 3D scan processing technology by developing and integrating an AI-driven 3D processing and analysis system resulting in an adaptive scanning technology with AI deep learning capabilities with much higher scan-fidelity and more accurate 3D analyses.

"The 3D model data file with accompanying software will be able to design a custom foot orthosis for a patient which can be 3D printed."

Professor Woodruff said the team would trial advanced prototypes for screening of diabetes-related foot ulceration, and later in quality control applications in high-volume, complex manufacturing environments.

"The small, lightweight, portable, 3D scanner will be easy to use in local and regional settings and it will be the first of its kind to use AI."

Professor Zhanying Zhang, from the School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, has received a grant of $483,784, for the project Scale-up of production of functional feed ingredients from cane molasses towards commercialisation.

Professor Zhang will work with QUT researcher Professor Phillip Pope to scale up production of the prebiotic compounds that enhance livestock health called fructooligosaccharides (FOS).

"FOS improve productivity and potentially reduces methane emissions when used as a feed additive," Professor Zhang said.

"By transforming surplus molasses – an underutilised by-product – into high-value FOS, this project will create a new revenue stream for the sugar producers while addressing key challenges in the Australian livestock industry.

"This project will progress our laboratory proof of concept to a pilot-scale operation, to position the process for commercial scale manufacturing and enable a robust, cost-effective production system."

Professor Zhang said the project aligned with both the Red Meat Industry 2030 strategy and the 'Sugar Plus' strategy for product diversification within the sugar industry.