Academic staff

The Faculty of Engineering and Surveying has Postgraduate Research Supervisors covering a wide range of research interests. Other Research Supervisors are also listed below.  

Postgraduate Research Supervisors

Faculty discipline Research Interests

Dr Tony Ahfock

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Axial flux machines
  • Brushless DC machines
  • Low frequency electromagnetics
  • DC magnetisation of transformers
  • Inverter output DC offset elimination
Dr Armando Apan Surveying and Land Information

Surveying and Land Information:

  • Remote sensing of agricultural crops and forest vegetation
  • GIS
  • Spatial analysis and modelling for resource and environmental management
Assoc Prof Thiru Aravinthan Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Structural Engineering and Materials:

  • Fibre composites
  • Structural rehabilitation
  • External post-tensioning
  • Bridge engineering
  • Concrete
Dr Vasanthadevi Aravinthan Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Environmental Engineering:

  • Advanced wastewater treatment processes
  • Wastewater reclamation and reuse
  • Emerging new contaminants, their occurrence and fate in the treatment processes
  • Source control for sustainable potable reuse
  • Drinking water quality
  • Pressure management as a strategy of water conservation
  • GIS as a tool for environmental modelling
Dr Badri Basnet Surveying and Land Information

Surveying and Land Information:

  • Precision agriculture
  • Site-specific management of land resources
Prof John Billingsley Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechatronic Engineering

  • Robotics
  • Machine vision
  • Automation
  • Control theory
  • Simulation
Assoc Prof David Buttsworth Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Fluid mechanics
  • Rheology
  • Thermofluids
Dr Guangnan Chen Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Agricultural Engineering:

  • Agricultural climate risk management, reduction of grain harvest weather loss, post-harvesting technology
  • Agricultural environment and resources management, management of greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle assessment
  • Drying technology
  • Agricultural machinery 
Dr Ian Craig NCEA

Agricultural  and Environmental Engineering:

  • Water use efficiency and evaporation control technology
  • Micrometeorology and air quality
Dr Jayantha Epaarachchi Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic

  • Fibre Composites
  • Fatigue, Fracture, Damage Mechanics
  • Static & Dynamics of Structures, Solid Modelling and Finite Element Analysis
  • Experimental Stress Analysis
  • Structural Health Monitoring
  • Use of FBG sensors (Fibre Optics) for Structural Health Monitoring
  • Full Scale Model Testing and Fatigue Spectrum Development
Dr Aliakbar Golshani Civil

Geotechnical Engineering

  • Numerical methods in Geotechnical Engineering
  • Fracture mechanics
  • Soil - structure interaction
  • Bridge engineering
Hon Prof John Grant-Thompson Hononary Professor

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Director, Mansell Neonatal Transport Equipment
  • Biomedical Engineering
Assoc Prof Nigel Hancock

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering and Agricultural and Environmental Engineering:

  • Measurement science and engineering
  • Acidity measurement in dairy processes
  • Evaporation science and measurement
Dr Fouad Kamal Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Power Engineering

  • Renewable energy technologies
  • Photovoltaic power systems
  • Solar water heating
  • Wind energy systems
  • Sea-waves electric energy generation
  • Interconnection of renewable energy generation systems to utility grids
  • Sustainability
  • Distributed energy generation
  • Micro-hydro systems
  • Heat pumps
  • Fuel cells and hydrogen technologies
  • Advanced energy storage technologies
Assoc Prof Karu Karunasena Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Structural Engineering and Materials:

  • Fibre Composites
  • Modelling and analysis of structures
  • Rehabilitation of concrete, steel and timber structures
  • Structural Health Monitoring
  • Wave propagation in composite materials
Dr Alexander Kist Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Networking, routing
  • Teletraffic engineering, network optimisation
  • Network planning and design
  • Quality of service provisioning, wireless networks
Dr Harry Ku Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Manufacturing engineering
  • Microwave processing of materials
  • Materials
  • Engineering education
Assoc Prof John Leis Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Speech/video signal processing
  • Cross-layer networking
  • Signal processing algorithms for tomography
  • Internet protocol engineering
Dr Nam Mai-Duy Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Computational Rheology and Mechanics
  • Meshless Methods
  • Meshless, numerical modelling for polymer processing
Dr Andrew Maxwell Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Measurement science and engineering
  • Acidity measurement in dairy processes
  • Remote sensing and distributed sensor networks
  • Radio frequency and microwave systems
  • GNSS applications
Dr Kevin McDougall Surveying and Land Information

Surveying and Land Information:

  • Geographical information systems
  • Spatial data infrastructures
  • Land administration
Dr Rabi Misra Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Agricultural and Environmental Engineering:

  • Impact on reuse of wastewater (with focus on grey water)
  • Precision irrigation strategies to accommodate spatial variability in soils and crops
  • Nuclear magnetic resonance approaches to measurement of water
  • Soil structure affecting compaction and erosion of soils
  • Modelling of plant and soil processes
  • Plant roots and the processes at the soil-root interface
Dr Ruth Mossad Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Computational Fluid and Heat Transfer:

  • Ventilation
  • Renewable energy
  • Erosion
  • Environmental applications
Dr Selvan Pather Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Application of mechatronic technology in health care
  • Medical robotics
  • Industrial robotics
  • Mechanical engineering design
Assoc Prof Mark Porter Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments:

  • Water resources engineering
  • River and floodplain modelling
  • Catchment modelling
  • Surface water runoff quality
  • Groundwater sustainability
Prof Steve Raine Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Agricultural and Environmental Engineering:

  • Design and management practices to improve the efficiency and productivity of both surface and pressurised irrigation systems
  • Decision support systems for irrigation management
  • Factors influencing soil slaking and dispersion and their subsequent effect on infiltration processes
  • Mechanisms affecting soil aggregate hierarchy and structural stability
  • Salinity, sodicity, soil-water and solute movement under commercial practices
  • Natural resource management
Prof David Ross Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
Dr Ahmad Sharifian Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Rheology
  • Thermofluids
Dr Jim Shiau Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Geotechnical Engineering:

  • Limit and shakedown analyses
  • Numerical and experimental geomechanics
  • Deep braced excavation
  • Soft ground tunnelling
Prof Rod Smith Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Irrigation and Environmental Hydraulics:

  • Evaluation, simulation, optimisation and real time control of surface irrigation
  • Infiltration from surface irrigation advance data
  • Precision or prescription irrigation
  • Development of diagnostic tools for mobile sprinkler irrigation systems
  • Irrigation pipeline hydraulics
  • Salinity and leaching
Dr David Thorpe

Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Innovation and technology development/management, Infrastructure development/management, Project/contract delivery/management, Engineering education:

  • Technology transfer from CRC for Construction Innovation to construction SME sector
  • Life cycle evaluation of materials and components of engineered fibre composite structures
  • Performance evaluation and improvement of ENG2002 Technology and Society course
Prof Thanh Tran-Cong Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Computational fluid and solid mechanics
  • Numerical methods
  • Computational engineering
Dr Hao Wang Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Manufacturing and Materials Engineering:

  • Solidification and semisolid metal processing
  • Amorphous and nano structured materials
  • Metallic bio-materials
Dr Peng (Paul) Wen Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Control and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering:

  • Networked real-time control system
  • Wireless sensor network
  • Human head modelling and EEG
Assoc Prof John Worden

Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering:

  • Isotope and trace element geochemistry
  • Geochronology
  • Mineral deposit genesis modelling
  • Uranium exploration techniques 
  • Radiometrics
  • Environmental management decision-making and compliance by petroleum companies
  • Problem-based learning as applied to engineering education
  • Assessment and Intractivity in learning
Dr Wei Xiang Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Wireless multimedia communications
  • Joint source-channel coding and decoding
  • Information theory
  • Cross-layer design
Dr Talal Yusaf Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering:

  • Renewable Energy and alternative fuels
  • Micro-organism treatment using unconventional techniques
  • Combustion Technology
Dr Hong Zhou Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Computer networking
  • Wireless Internet
  • Mobile communications

Other Research Supervisors  

Assoc Prof Ron Ayers Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Civil Engineering:

  • Rural transport
  • Pavement engineering
  • Engineering education
Mrs Lyn Brodie Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Biomedical engineering
  • Engineering and Surveying education
Mr Glenn Campbell Surveying and Land Information

Surveying and Land Information:

  • Remote sensing of water quality
  • Land administration
Prof David Dowling Surveying and Land Information

Surveying and Land Information:

  • Engineering and Surveying education
  • Management and development
Mr Joseph Foley Agricultural, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Agricultural and Environmental Engineering:

  • Hydraulic simulation of pressurised irrigation systems
  • Agricultural water use efficiency
  • Sprinkler fluid dynamics
Mr Robert Fulcher Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

  •  Engineering Management
  • Engineering Education
  • Technology Management
  • Energy management especially with respect to electricity production
Mr Peter Gibbings Surveying and Land Information

Surveying and Land Management:

  • GPS
  • GNSS
  • VRS
  • Engineering and Surveying education
Mr Steven Goh Mechanical & Mechatronic

Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering

  • Engineering Leadership
  • Technology/Knowledge Transfer
  • Manuacturing & Materials
Mr Gordon Hampson Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering  
Mr Glenn Harris Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering  
Mr Mark Norman Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering  
Mr David Parsons Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Life cycle assessment of electronic products
Mr Peter Penfold Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering  
Mr Mark Phythian Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering

Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering:

  • Mechatronics
  • Agricultural robotics
Dr Ron Sharma Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering  
Mr Shane Simmons Surveying and Land Information

Engineering and Surveying Education:

  • Professional issues
  • Surveying education
  • Land development
Mr Chris Snook Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Mechanical Engineering:

  • Biomechanics
  • Solid mechanics
  • computational mechanics
Mr Bruce Varnes Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering