Two UQ ITEE students undertook research internships over the summer break — one at Cambridge University, the other at the University of California, San Diego — as part of RCC’s Queensland Undergraduate Research Projects Abroad program.
Zane van Iperen worked with Dr Timoleon Kipouros of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, and Daya Kern worked with Prof. Andrew McCulloch in the Department of Bio-Engineering at UCSD.
QURPA is a RCC sponsored scheme that supports students doing a summer research internship abroad on a collaborative project between UQ and the foreign university. To date, QURPA students have only travelled to the US, but Zane’s honours thesis project extended to the UK this year.
Zane's project concerns multi-objective optimisation using scientific workflows, which allows researchers to design new products that are in some way optimal. At Cambridge, which works with a number of aerospace companies, this could mean redesigning jet engines.
Daya’s project also concerns scientific workflows, but as applied to electro-physiological cardiac models. These models allow researchers to simulate the functions of the heart, and to explore the effects of disease and drugs on the organ.
Both projects were performed under the supervision of RCC Director Prof. David Abramson and with the help of Dr Hoang Nguyen, an RCC expert on scientific workflows.
“What’s interesting about both projects is that they use common computing technology in two completely different fields — from biomedical engineering to aerospace,” said Prof. Abramson.
UQ ITEE students interested in a research internship in 2018, please contact Prof. Abramson (david.abramson@uq.edu.au) or RCC’s Administration (rcc-admin@uq.edu.au) for further details.
