Postgraduate course information

Postgraduate coursework

UTS: Information Technology offers postgraduate degrees in information technology, IT management, internetworking and interactive multimedia.

The courses are designed to challenge the IT professional, help professionals develop specialised IT skills or equip people to enter the IT industry from other fields. The innovative programs cover growth areas such as computer graphics and gaming, data mining, e-business technology, human-centred design, interactive multimedia, internetworking, and strategic IT management.

Progression rules

Postgraduate information technology students may be excluded from further study at the University if they fail more than 50 per cent of the total number of enrolled credit points from the commencement of the course.

Postgraduate information technology students may also be excluded from a course if they exceed the maximum time allowed for completion of that course (see rule 10.5).

Postgraduate research

UTS: Information Technology has a lively and cutting-edge research culture driving advances in engineering and IT technology, practice and education. UTS: Information Technology's research is needs-driven and collaborative, and works with many enterprises in business partnerships. Researchers are world-class and recognised leaders in their fields.

Research is varied and utilises modern laboratories and research facilities at City campus, Broadway. These are supported by extensive computing facilities and library services. The laboratories have excellent back-up workshops and expert support staff. Many opportunities exist for professional development through challenging, well-resourced research programs.

UTS: Information Technology practices excellence in research and research training, and is committed to the production of high quality research output in collaboration with other faculties, other universities and industries in Australia and overseas. UTS: Information Technology's increasing research activities are driven by a substantial number of excellent research leaders among academic staff which has resulted in a significant increase in high quality research publications, PhD completions and competitive research grants awarded, in particular, research grants from the Australian Research Council.

Contacts and inquiries

The management and administration of all research matters of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology is managed through the Research and Development Office, headed by the Associate Dean (Research and Development). The office is responsible for a broad range of matters including, but not limited to, research-strategic priorities, policy and planning, and advice and support to staff in preparing grant applications, research publications, research conferences and research degree student supervision. The Associate Dean is supported by the Director of Research Programs, the Research Manager and the research administration officers, who are responsible for the academic management and support of research degree students and general research matters respectively.

Research matters are governed via the Research Management Committee and Research Degrees Committee that report to the Faculty Board in Engineering and Information Technology. The Research Management Committee has overarching responsibility for determining research strategies and policies, and for making recommendations in relation to building a research culture and profile, and for budgetary and resourcing matters relating to research. The Research Degrees Committee makes recommendations and sets policies relating to candidature management of higher degree research degree students, from admission through to graduation.

Specific inquiries should be directed to the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Research and Development Office. Key staff are:

General inquiries from domestic students should be directed to:

General inquiries from international students should be directed to:

Research profile and strengths

The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology has a number of key research strengths, housed within the research centres and institutes of the faculty. These centres are hives of research activity that have international standing within their respective discipline areas. The centres include:

• Advanced Analytics Institute
• Centre for Built Infrastructure Research
• Centre for Electrical Machines and Power Electronics
• Centre for Energy Policy Research (Faculty)
• Centre for Health Technologies
• Centre for Human-Centred Technology Design
• Centre for Innovation in IT Services and Applications
• Centre for Intelligent Mechatronic Systems
• Centre for Quantum Computation and Intelligent Systems
• Centre for Real-Time Information Networks
• Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater.

Collaborative research

The research strengths in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology were recognised as a consequence of a thorough analysis of networks of expertise and communities of interest, and based on the review of ICT research at UTS.

Each UTS: Information Technology research strength includes a number of specialised research laboratories that bring together staff, experts, research students and external organisations to develop new and innovative ideas, and apply them in practice. The quality and relevance of research in the research laboratories is enhanced by well-established links, both with industry and with overseas research institutions. Graduate research students, academics, visiting researchers and research assistants undertake collaborative research within these laboratories.

Further information is available from:

Research opportunities and major research areas

Research opportunities are available in the following areas of specialisation.

• School of Civil and Environmental Engineering: built infrastructure; structural engineering; geotechnical engineering; construction materials; local government; road engineering; water and environmental resource management; water modelling; membrane technology in water and wastewater treatment; soil contamination and remedial techniques; and solid waste management.
• School of Computing and Communications: wireless relay/mesh and cooperative networking; body area networking; micro- and nano-scale networks; 4G (WiMAX, LTE); short-range RF and inductive near field communication systems and sensing; antennas and propagation; microwave engineering; national broadband network; multi-antenna systems; wireless sensor networks; bio-mimetic paradigms for network management and configuration; autonomic communications; anticipatory systems; radio resource management (RRM) mechanisms; Satellite communications and broadcasting; LAN/WAN enterprise networking; network embedded applications; m-health monitoring; mobile networks; personal area networks; multilayer switching; mobile and distributed multimedia applications and services; network security; internet service architecture; programmable networks; internet quality of service; web technologies; web architecture framework; mobile commerce and internet business; location-based services; network grid services; peer to peer networks; digital signal processing; pattern recognition; computer vision; multimedia; image processing; image and video analysis; machine learning; cognitive and affective multimedia content analysis; and multimedia systems.
• School of Electrical, Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems: advanced control; artificial intelligence; autonomous robotics; automotive engineering; biomedical engineering; energy; embedded systems; health technologies; mechatronics; power systems; and renewable energy.
• School of Software: art and technology; artificial intelligence; computer animation; computer games; computer graphics; computer usability; data mining; e-finance; e-government; e-health; e-marketing; e-safeguard; e-security and e-service; emergency management; expert systems; human-computer interaction; information systems; innovation and creativity; innovation and technology; intelligent agents; intelligent problem solving and smart business decision-making in engineering; interaction design; interactive entertainment; interactive story telling; learning environments; multi-agent systems; multimedia; next-generation automated enterprise cooperative infrastructure; object-oriented computing; object-oriented processes and methodologies; ontologies; optimisation activities; quantum computing; ray tracing; rendering techniques; requirements engineering; resource planning; robotics; semantic web; smart trading systems; software development; and technology design and use.
• School of Systems, Management and Leadership: energy policy and planning; engineering practice; environmental risk; information systems; IT education; IT governance; IT strategy and management; knowledge management; operations and risk management; strategic IT leadership; systems analysis and design; systems development; and systems theory and socio-technical systems.

Research centres and institutes

The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology supports several centres and institutes, each capturing established research strengths in Engineering and Information Technology related fields. These include the following:

Advanced Analytics Institute (AAI)

AAI provides interdisciplinary expertise and leadership in areas including data mining, machine learning, applied statistics, behaviour analytics, data science and engineering, marketing, finance, economics, decision-making, optimisation and risk management. AAI offers cross-disciplinary and cross-domain research capabilities and hands-on experience in advanced analytics across historical data, real-time information and future trends. Analytics is a fast-growing global industry with an ever-increasing demand for qualified graduates. At UTS, a cross-disciplinary approach to analytics research brings together experts from across UTS's faculties and research centres to form a specialist analytics group. AAI brings together leading researchers from the Faculty of Engineering and IT, the Faculty of Business, the Centre for Quantum Computation and Intelligent Systems (QCIS) and the Centre for the Study of Choice (CenSoC). The Institute also fosters dedicated research and development resources for advanced analytics and receives resource support from the UTS External Engagement department and the UTS Research Innovation Office.

AAI offers unique training programs in broad-based analytics. AAI is working towards fostering world-class specialists and analytical project managers for specific domains through a supervisor-driven and practice/project-oriented approach, interdisciplinary workshops, short courses (including executive training), and day-to-day engagement in tier-one organisations.

Centre for Built Infrastructure Research

The Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) is a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the faculties of Engineering and Information Technology; Science; and Design, Architecture and Building. CBIR's nationally and internationally renowned work focuses on finding solutions to important global problems in control, rehabilitation and health monitoring of building structures and bridges, green and smart materials, sustainable design, management, improvement, safety and conservation.

Centre for Electrical Machines and Power Electronics

The Centre for Electrical Machines and Power Electronics (CEMPE) is principally concerned with electrical variable speed drives and generation of electricity using rotating electrical machines and renewable sources (such as wind and hydro). The technical research disciplines necessary for these two areas are very similar, covering electrical machines design, power electronics and mechanical design. The interest in renewable energy generation is primarily for remote areas and developing countries, so the incorporation of expertise in design for such areas is valuable, with the inclusion of energy requirements analysis, energy economics, technology transfer and human management issues.

Centre for Energy Policy

The Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) addresses contemporary energy and environmental policy issues in national and international contexts. Energy market reforms, environmental policy options, and energy-economy interactions are key areas of focus. Research undertaken in the centre is policy-oriented, applied, and cross-disciplinary, emphasising the weaving together of technical, business, economic, legal, social, political and philosophical dimensions of energy, environmental and economic policies.

Centre for Health Technologies

The interdisciplinary research skill base brought together in the Centre for Health Technologies (CHT) is unique in Australia in the development of medical devices and systems. The CHT has four research programs: non-invasive instrumentation, bio-therapeutics, bio-electromagnetics and nano-biotechnology. Its focus is on health and disease processes, the development of new devices and advanced methods for the early detection, diagnosis and rehabilitation of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological disorders and cancer. Its research has already produced several new device technologies which are at the cutting edge of biomedical engineering and science.

Centre for Human Centred Technology Design

The Centre for Human Centred Technology Design (HCTD) is committed to information and communications technology (ICT) design research, methods and approaches, as defined by its commitment to the human, that is, to those who will use the technology.

HCTD's approach furthers the development of a much needed socio-technical perspective on technology design that can both balance and extend the more common technology driven or management driven perspectives. HCTD's focus is on understanding the complex interplay between the drivers of social, organisational and technical change and how these shape, and are shaped by, the design, implementation and use of information and communication systems. The centre's research outcomes contribute to the design and development of ICT that fit easily and appropriately into the social, cultural and organisational contexts within which they will be used.

Laboratories and contacts

Centre for Innovation in IT Services and Applications

The Centre for Innovation in IT Services and Applications (iNEXT) is a world-class research environment for developing and nurturing innovation for the next generation IT services and applications, including internet-enabled business applications, mobile health services, high-end visualisation technologies, novel image processing architectures and advanced video surveillance systems.

• Future internet: iNEXT aims to develop those enabling mechanisms that will allow the transformation of the current connectivity infrastructure into the service infrastructure of tomorrow's internet.
• Applications and services: iNEXT aims to develop innovative applications with special focus on assistive mobile health and internet-enabled business applications.
• Visual information processing: iNEXT aims to define novel visualisation techniques and intelligent recognition algorithms for extracting important information from video streams and wireless sensor networks for surveillance and environmental monitoring purposes.

Commercialisation of such applications and services is particularly emphasised. iNEXT includes a significant research training component, graduating many research students in the past years.

Laboratories and contacts

Centre for Intelligent Mechatronic Systems

Building on 15 years of strong cross-disciplinary research in electrical machines and power electronics at UTS, the Centre for Intelligent Mechatronic Systems (CIMS) integrates the disciplines of mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering and computer systems. Its four main research directions are: autonomous robots (operating in unstructured environments and for infrastructure maintenance, search and rescue, health care and road vehicles); electrical machines (new materials and topologies, system optimisation, variable speed control and compact, low temperature fuel cells); automotive systems (performance, comfort, fuel efficiency, road safety and emission control); and human factors (physiological and psychological aspects of human–machine and human–environment interaction).

Centre for Quantum Computation and Intelligent Systems

The Centre for Quantum Computation and Intelligent Systems (QCIS) is a new research centre within the University's Priority Investment Research Program. The centre's mission is to be acknowledged by research centres throughout the world as a pre-eminent research centre in quantum computation and intelligent systems, and to be acknowledged by Australian industry and government as a leading source of knowledge and expertise in quantum computation and intelligent systems.

The centre was established in April 2008 with a vision to develop:

• theoretical foundations for quantum computation
• theoretical foundations for intelligent systems, and
• innovative technologies for intelligent systems.

This technology will result in next-generation enterprise intelligent information systems.

The centre's five major research programs cover quantum computation, knowledge discovery, decision support, innovation and infrastructure enhancement. Together, these programs develop a set of innovative and practical methodologies and techniques for intelligent information processing and system building for a broad range of businesses in the finance, marketing, security, health, government and engineering sectors.

Laboratories and contacts

Centre for Real-Time Information Networks

The Centre for Real-Time Information Networks (CRIN) aims to support research and development activities related to the efficient creation, collection, transmission, analysis and use of information in real-time, engineering-embedded applications. The centre supports the improvement of Australian society through a focus on applied research achieved through close links with both industry and research bodies working in appropriate application domains.

Examples of priority areas of interest for the centre are national security for safeguarding Australia, healthcare diagnosis and monitoring for the cost effective improvement of the health of Australians, environmental and resource monitoring for a sustainable Australia, and the smart use of the web in supporting Australian industry.

The centre aims to design, fabricate and test proof of concept systems, in which the performance and operational suitability of the developed systems is demonstrated. The proof of concept systems may be electronic hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, and will include the latest prototyping technologies, such as embedded processors, high-performance networks and sophisticated distributed software applications.

Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater

The Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW) undertakes research to ensure the sustainable management of water resources in both urban and rural environments, in Australia and internationally. This collaborative research centre links researchers, government, industry and community partners through its research programs, which include solid liquid separation and filtration technologies in water treatment; innovative biological treatment systems for wastewater treatment; membrane hybrid and nanotechnology systems in water, wastewater and stormwater treatment; water reuse; desalination; in situ barrier and other systems for treatment of groundwater, surface and groundwater hydrology; bio-solid and waste management; urban water cycles and soil/aquifer management and modification; and flood management and catchment modelling for flood prediction.

Formal external research links

UTS: Information Technology research groups have a number of formal links to external organisations such as Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) and ARC Research networks. These include:

• Capital Markets CRC: aims to be the technology provider of choice to global securities businesses/markets. It supports research programs in corporate governance, data mining, interoperability, language technology, market design and visualisation.
  
  Professor Chengqi Zhang
  email Chengqi.Zhang@uts.edu.au
• ARC Research Network in Enterprise Information Infrastructure: a network of 12 universities focusing on research in emerging advanced technologies and practices for large-scale enterprises, government agencies and community groups.
  
  Professor Igor Hawryszkiewycz
  email Igor.Hawryszkiewycz@uts.edu.au