Engineering


Judy Yang

Judy Yang

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Applied AI for Forestry Weed Detection and Mapping
  • judy.yang@jcu.edu.au
Alzayat Saleh

Alzayat Saleh

Nico Adams

Nico Adams

Elsa Antunes

Elsa Antunes

Eric Wang

Eric Wang

Jaragun Wetland Restoration (Old ID 27070)
Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi
30 Nov 2020 - 30 Nov 2021
A small wetland will be targeted for weed removal and replanting along Babinda Creek in this project. These restoration works will be monitored using a high-tech surveillance camera to live stream images from Jaragun’s website that track wetland restoration over time and its value to our birdlife. Overall, this project kick starts a struggling local community nestled in the heart of the wet tropics. This project is about creating green jobs and building a pathway for long term strategic investment into restoration and rehabilitation of the Russell River catchment.
The Impact of Daily Physical Activity and Sleep on Resting Heart Rate and Resting Heart Rate Variability in Individuals with High and Low Stress Load
Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi
30 Jun 2024 - 29 Jun 2025
It is known that regular physical activity decreases resting heart rate (RHR) and increases resting heart rate variability (HRV), while chronic stress increases RHR and decreases resting HRV. Although it is recommended that stressed individuals exercise to reduce their stress burden, it is unclear if they benefit from exercise to the same extent as those who do not experience stress overload. A current gap in the literature is the lack of studies investigating cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning in individuals with different chronic stress loads. The current project aims to investigate the differences in long-term ANS responses to daily physical activity in people experiencing high versus low chronic stress. We hypothesize that individuals who experience chronic stress exhibit a blunted autonomic response (less decrease in RHR and less increase in resting HRV) to daily exercise due to an inability to regulate parasympathetic activation effectively. Therefore, in this regard they won’t benefit from regular exercise as much as those who don’t experience chronic stress, owing to their decreased autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity. In order to test this hypothesis, we would like to benefit from the Tesserae dataset.
Effectiveness and reliability of a synthetic data generation
Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi
01 Mar 2024 - 01 Mar 2025
Using YALE supplied data in order to reproduce a prior publication using a bootstrapping method for synthetic data generation.
Is groundwater discharge an overlooked source of methane in restored coastal wetlands?
Mahmood Sadat Noori
01 Jul 2022 - 30 Jun 2025
Coastal wetlands including saltmarsh and mangroves (known as blue carbon ecosystems) can accumulate carbon and act as a natural sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). They, therefore, have the potential to mitigate climate change. However, the CO2 captured by wetlands may be counteracted by emissions of methane (CH4) from the wetland, which is a stronger greenhouse gas (GHG). The Australian Government has recently created a blue carbon accounting system that encourages low-lying land to be converted to blue carbon ecosystems by removing tidal floodgates. However, effective restoration for carbon storage requires a better quantitative understanding of the fate of carbon following restoration. For example, it is currently unknown how much CH4 export will occur and whether the GHG impact of this flux is larger (or smaller) than the benefit of the overall carbon sequestration following wetland restoration. Dissolved gasses including CH4 are often orders of magnitude higher in groundwaters than surface waters, suggesting groundwater seepage may be a significant, but unaccounted source of CH4 export from coastal wetlands. Determining how groundwater influences the carbon budget in coastal wetlands is complicated and costly if conventional methods of hydrogeological investigation (installation of observation bores) are used. In this study, we propose to use a novel and efficient method to estimate the contribution of groundwater to CH4 emissions from restored coastal wetlands based on natural geochemical tracers. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the fate of carbon post-wetland restoration. By knowing the dominant sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, the role that restored wetlands play in mitigating climate change will be better understood. This will provide insights into how restoration can be designed to maximize carbon storage. Hence, the results from this work will be critical and timely in developing adequate strategies to manage coastal wetlands to minimize carbon losses.
Improving the efficiency of genomic selection for meat yield, product quality and environmental resilience through digital phenotyping in the Akoya oyster
Mostafa Rahimi Azghadi
30 Sep 2024 - 30 Jun 2026
The Akoya pearl oyster has historically been farmed for production of pearls. However, in recent times due to its rapid growth rate there is interest in farming this species as a new edible oyster commodity. Broken Bay Pearls is a company situated in Broken Bay, NSW that is currently farming Akoya pearl oysters to sell oyster meat into the Sydney market. They are interested in increasing their production and quality of products through a genomics-informed selective breeding program. For a selective breeding program to be feasible two core components of large-scale data streams need to be acquired (precise measurements on phenotypes of interest to select, and genomic-based SNP genotypes of oysters). Due to the cost and difficulty in measuring growth, meat quality (ie glycogen content) and meat yield at the industrial-scales required, computervision of growth traits trained through machine learning, near-infrared spectroscopy to measure flesh quality, and SNP genomic genotyping platform have enormous potential to revolutionise the conduct of a breeding program and maximise efficiency and quality output of production. Tools also will allow rapid grading of product and possible creation of new niche product lines for sale. The proposed product will develop AI/ML based non-invasive phenotype methods along with a genomic platform to allow a selective breeding program for the Akoya pearl oyster to be implemented.
The Queensland Decarbonisation Knowledge Translation Hub Collaborative Research Agreement
Nico Adams
02 Feb 2024 - 31 Dec 2026
Under a Grant agreement between UQ and the Queensland Government, the Queensland Government is establishing a 3 year approach to developing stronger relationships with Queensland Universities to progress decarbonisation of the State’s economy. This sub-agreement underpins JCU contribution in demonstrating that the parties wish to work together in The Queensland Decarbonisation Knowledge Translation Hub (Hub) and engage with each other on various research Projects from time to time relating.
Closing the circular food economy: Advanced technologies to optimise black soldier fly (BSF) larvae nutritional composition for inclusion in aquafeed
Bronson Philippa
10 Oct 2024 - 30 Jun 2026
Black soldier fly (BSF) biomass is a highly valuable source of nutrients for terrestrial and aquatic animals and has shown to include health promoting compounds that enhances animal production. However, the quality and composition of BSF biomass depends on numerous factors including the BSF stocks, rearing conditions including waste stream diets, post-harvest processing methods and storage conditions. To-date, there is currently little information available on the optimum post-harvest processing technologies and real-time on farm monitoring systems to maximise black soldier fly protein profiles for inclusion in aquafeeds. The objective of this study is to generate on-farm data to improve the nutritional profile of BSF larvae for their application as a substitute component in aquafeed. To achieve this aim, three main studies will be conducted, the first one will focus on generating optimum BSF larvae nutritional data through post-harvest technologies to enhancing BSF larvae composition for aquafeed, the second will focus on the development of a rapid digital diagnostic NIR tool for the real-time evaluation of organic waste streams and BSF larvae composition, and the final study will generate critical data on the effects of feeding BSF larvae on growth performance, gut health and product quality of black tiger marine shrimp.
JCU-NEEPU joint PhD program-MOU
Jiajia Yang
08 Oct 2024 - 08 Oct 2027
James Cook University and Northeast Electric Power University intend to work towards the establishment of an exchange and training program for postdoctoral and Ph.D. candidates in electrical power systems, renewable energy and electronic information.
JCU-NEEPU joint PhD program-MOU
Jiajia Yang
08 Oct 2024 - 08 Oct 2027
James Cook University and Northeast Electric Power University intend to work towards the establishment of an exchange and training program for postdoctoral and Ph.D. candidates in electrical power systems, renewable energy and electronic information.
Emerging technologies for advanced geochemical exploration undercover
Mahmood Sadat Noori
01 Jan 2025 - 01 Jan 2029
Isotope geochemistry can provide powerful insights to the sources or process involved in the formation of an ore deposit. Weathering ore bodies produce unique isotopic fingerprints which can be tracked by using groundwater to undertake exploration undercover. There has been increasing commercial interest in searching for Cu a critical element for the green energy transition through this sustainable technique. However, current approaches suffer from several limitations due to the saline nature of groundwater which limits the sample size that can be routinely processed. This project will use automated separation techniques to achieve greater enrichment factors to enable high precision isotope measurements.
Start Date: 01 Jan 2010
End Date: 01 Jan 2015
Start Date: 01 Jan 2004
End Date: 01 Jan 2006
Start Date: 01 Jan 2010
Reseracher: Mohan Jacob (Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2012
Reseracher: Mohan Jacob (Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2015
Reseracher: Mohan Jacob (Professor)
Start Date: 01 Jan 2015
Start Date: 01 Jan 2013
Start Date: 01 Jan 2010
Start Date: 01 Jan 2006
Start Date: 01 Jan 2006