Undergraduate Scholarships

Taste of Research Scholarship 2020/2021

The Taste of Research program was set-up by UNSW Engineering to allow undergraduate students to work with a research group to understand what real research is about at university and in industry.

Participating second and third year students work on a 60-day project with an academic research team in the Faculty of Engineering. Successful applicants will receive a scholarship of AUD$6000 (tax-exempt).

There are various projects on offer each year. To visit the full lists go to Faculty's webpage: Taste of Research Scholarships page

Eligibility
The program is open to local and international students who meet the following criteria:

• Be a high achieving second or third year full-time undergraduate program in Australia or New Zealand.
• Submit an online application form

Benefits
Students receive a scholarship of AUD$6000 for a 60-day project (tax exempt). In addition, if the project involves industry engagement, candidates may be eligible to apply to have time spent on the project to count towards their industrial training requirements (up to 30 days).

Selection
Each applicant will be assessed based on academic merit, interest in undertaking research activities and intended career plans. Applicants should discuss their plans and their intended project with their potential supervisor prior to applying.

How to Apply

1. Visit the Taste of Research Listings page for information on all available research topics and supervisory teams
2. Contact and discuss their Taste of Research project and interests with potential supervisor(s).
3. In conjunction with potential supervisor(s), formulate a project plan that includes the following:

• Project Title
• Project Description (what research will you undertake?)
• Suitability of Applicant for this project (what skills and previous experience do you bring to the project)
• Project timeline that clearly identifies the 60 days (full-time equivalent) that the candidate will commit to the project and the tasks that are expected to be undertaken over this period
• Deliverables (Note that all candidates must submit a 5-minute video explaining their project at the end of 60 days).
• Please download the Research Project Plan template here.

To find out more about doing TOR research in Particle and Catalyst Research Group contact: Mandalena Hermawan (Partcat's contact) or to find out more about TOR program contact  Alman Yeung (TOR Engineering's contact)

PartCat Taste of Research Project for 2020

• Carbon-based catalysts for electrochemical H2O2 generation (supervised by Dr Zhaojun Han and Dr Xunyu Lu)
• Industry scale-up and process optimisation of antimicrobial nanosurface for medical devices (supervised by Dr Sarah Grundy, A/Prof Jason Scott and Dr Toby Brown (Corin Australia))
• Sunlight-driven CO2 conversion to Fuels (supervised by Dr Emma Lovell and A/Prof Jason Scott)
• Validation of the reliability of photocatalysis machine learning model based on the understanding from experiments (supervised by Prof Rose Amal, Dr Cuiying Toe and Dr Hassan Masood)

Previous PartCat Taste of Research Project (2019)

The following projects are offered for this round of TOR: 

• Gas absorption testing of MgO based absorbents for air purification (supervised by Prof Rose Amal and Dr Tri Van Luong (Ecomag))
• 3D printing of liquid crystal materials (supervised by Dr Ali Jalili and Prof Rose Amal)
• Converting Carbondixode to fuels using plasma (supervised by Dr Emma Lovell and A/Prof Jason Scott)
• Gas Diffusion Electrodes for continuous electrochemical CO2 reduction to chemical feedstock (supervised by Dr Xunyu Lu and Dr Rahman Daiyan)
• Aqueous rechargeable Zinc-based batteries (supervised by Dr Carol Cao and A/Prof Dawei Wang)
• Control of selecticity in photoreforming process for converting organic wastes products into useful chemicals (supervised by Prof Rose Amal and Dr Cuiying Toe)
• Materials innovation for next generation batteries (supervised by A/Prof Dawei Wang and Dr Ruopian Fang)
• Real time charge storage in energy storage devices (supervised by Dr Zhaojun Han and Dr Xunyu Lu)
• When molecules meeet at surface - a renovated model at redox interface (supervised by Dr Tim Wu and A/Prof Dawei Wang)
• Well dispersed dual cocatalyst (metal-MoOx) on TiO2 for photocatalytic water splitting (supervised by A/Prof Jason Scott and Dr Judy Hart)

Please contact supervisor directly if you would like more information and to find out best way to apply.

Note most of these projects can be continued as Honour Thesis project. A great way to start ahead of your peers while gaining Industrial Training!