Our research
Expertly advancing Australia’s engineering future.
The School of Engineering & Information Technology at UNSW Canberra is at the forefront of engineering and technology research and further advances our understanding of the world. As a forward-thinking school with a respected voice, our research helps shape our society and our region’s defence and security future. In a wide range of fields, our dedicated researchers are engaged in cutting-edge exploration across areas important to creating a sustainable future.
Join our collaborative community to have a real-world impact and contribute to Australia’s technological edge.
Whether you’re interested in cybersecurity, space engineering, robotics, civil engineering, computer science, electromagnetics or hypersonics, see how we are creating solutions to the biggest issues facing our planet.
Our research areas
Hypersonics
Our researchers investigate the gas dynamics of chemically reacting and real-gas flows. These inform the design of the hypersonic propulsion systems and planetary entry systems required to achieve practical hypersonic flight for high-speed aircraft. systems engineering areas.
Exploring the human-machine relationship
Our research group has expertise in traditional machine learning, the navigation and control of autonomous vehicles, developmental robotics, computational motivation, computational red teaming, cyber security and bio-inspired artificial intelligence.
Impact dynamics
The impact dynamics group develops innovative solutions to protect humans and expensive assets from the damage caused through impact. We have worked on a range of structures on behalf of several research organisations, private industry and defence organisations to understand how structures can be developed and improved upon to provide protection.
Sustainable infrastructure
Sustainable infrastructure is about creating infrastructure that’s not only functional and efficient but also environmentally responsible, economically viable and socially equitable. It involves planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and end-of-life disposal or recycling of infrastructure.
Advanced electromagnetics
Advanced electromagnetc research combines nanophotonics, metamaterials and quantum optics. We examine acoustic and electromagnetic wave propagation, manipulation and application to drive future innovations across energy and the environment, health and medicine, communications, computing and security.
Developing better designs
We design cutting-edge algorithms for multidisciplinary problems, leading to improved design performance and robustness, reduced costs and faster development time for optimisation problems. This includes design of energy management schemes, spacecraft, underwater vehicles, hybrid vehicle controllers, robotic shepherding and portfolio optimisation.
Designing the future of bushfire modelling
Providing accurate predictions of the spread of wildland fires has long been a goal of the fire research community. Our research supports the need to better understand the interactions between fire, fuel, weather and topography. Factors include rate of spread, flame height, intensity and spotting for wildfire.
Decision support and analytics
Decision support and analytics are necessary to assist enterprises in making better decisions. Data visualisation, statistical analysis, predictive modelling, and prescriptive analytics are some examples of this. We’re working to close the research gap in developing acceptable XAI approaches for intelligent risk management systems.
Ethics, society and technology
Our projects include engineering ethics education, as well as developing ethical frameworks that encourage ethically and socially sound systems design. We scrape online digital content to better understand societal preferences and values regarding innovations, and how these may change over time, and the moral aspects of AI systems.
Deep learning - achieving effective results
The huge success of deep learning artificial intelligence models has inspired many researchers to apply them to an increasingly wide range of application domains. Yet, the deep learning field is developing rapidly, and models are increasingly complex. Our expert group works to maximise research results through the application of deep learning.
Distributed intelligence
Our team adopts multidisciplinary approaches that take inspiration from biological systems while utilising AI & machine learning. We focus on designing solutions for the following swarm and multi-agent problems: guidance and control, teaming with humans, collective decision making, multi-agent learning, transparency and knowledge representation.
Systems & control
Our research group delivers world-class research in the areas of control theory, quantum control engineering, applied mathematics, quantum optics, machine learning and control systems engineering. We develop fundamental theories and novel principles and methodologies to create new opportunities in a range of control.
Network-controlled physical-layer security
Physical-layer security (PLS), has been widely recognised as a complementary approach to encryption. PLS limits the amount of information that can be intercepted by assuring the signal contains so much noise at the electromagnetic level, that it’s impossible for eavesdroppers to decode any data.
Resillient infrastructure
With exposure to an ever-increasing range of hazards, risks, and threats — from cyber and physical attacks to the impacts of climate change — the ability of infrastructure systems to absorb disturbance and retain basic function and structural capacity is vital.
Serious games
Beyond entertainment, serious games seeks to harness humankind’s propensity to play to yield outcomes ranging from education and training to better health and even organisational decisions. At the intersection of simulation, AI, and HCI the serious game group works in areas ranging from G4H (Games 4 Health) through to G4D (Games 4 Defence) as well as applying gamification and playification for educational purposes.
IoT Cyber Security Laboratory
IoT Cyber Security Laborartory researches the development of novel defensive cyber security measures for future networks. We work at the intersection of IoT security, smart devices, and machine learning.
Tradespace exploration
Tradespace exploration is a research approach that utilises intelligent algorithms rooted in computer science to systematically analyse the trade-offs among different design alternatives, options, and parameters. Its goal is to optimise the performance, cost, and other relevant factors of a system or product, empowering informed decision-making and efficient allocation of resources.
Canberra Evolutionary Optimisation (EvOpt)
The key objective of this group is to design and development optimisation techniques for solving complex decision and optimisation problems. It covers computational intelligence, population based search algorithms (such as evolutionary algorithms) as well as conventional search algorithms.
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Postgraduate coursework
Have your ideas, innovations and passions come to life with one of our postgraduate coursework degrees.
Taught by leading academic staff and industry experts in a supportive and close-knit environment, these courses are designed to equip you with the research skills, knowledge and experience to really make an impact in your research area.
Postgraduate research
Our research degrees place you alongside leading researchers who are dedicated to solving real-world problems.
With our world-class facilities, high-quality partnerships and research-focused community, you can make your innovative ideas a reality.