Degree type
PhD
Closing date
1 June 2025
Campus
Hobart
Citizenship requirement
Domestic
About the research project
Sophisticated signal processing and interpretation has potential to support and improve clinical decision-making and care outcomes in applications including neonatal intensive care. While in intensive care, a neonate's vital signs are conventionally utilised in "raw immediate" form for monitoring and clinical decision-making. Temporal changes are generally assessed utilising representative values periodically recorded by clinical staff. Interpretation is performed by clinical staff utilising training, experience, current clinical status, vital signs records and history. There is only limited machine-based synthesis and sophisticated interpretation in support of clinical decision-making.
There is the opportunity to investigate this using an extensive dataset of clinical data and vital signs signals from neonates in intensive care, with potential for exploring vital sign signals, relationships and corresponding clinical actions. Questions arise regarding whether clinical vital signs monitoring can be enhanced through novel methods that better utilise these signals in terms of temporal information (present and past state), distributions (e.g. state histograms), signal synthesis and sophisticated interpretation to provide indications that better support clinical decision-making.
This project aims to investigate and develop novel methods to process, synthesise and interpret vital signs signals and explore their application and effectiveness in a neonatal intensive care setting. This may include
- utilising a large clinical dataset to explore how and to what the extent vital signs are typically used for clinical decision-making
- developing methods to assess current and temporal state of vital signs
- processing, synthesising and interpreting vital signs to deduce clinically-relevant measures
- enhancing presentation of vital signs and clinically-relevant measures
- determining effect on clinical decision-making and outcomes.
Primary Supervisor
Funding
Applicants will be considered for a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship or Tasmania Graduate Research Scholarship (TGRS) which, if successful, provides:
- a living allowance stipend of $33,511 per annum (2025 rate, indexed annually) for 3.5 years
- a relocation allowance of up to $2,000
- a tuition fees offset covering the cost of tuition fees for up to four years (domestic applicants only)
If successful, international applicants will receive a University of Tasmania Fees Offset for up to four years.
As part of the application process you may indicate if you do not wish to be considered for scholarship funding.
Other funding opportunities and fees
For further information regarding other scholarships on offer, and the various fees of undertaking a research degree, please visit Scholarships and fees.
Eligibility
Applicants should review the Higher Degree by Research minimum entry requirements.
Ensure your eligibility for the scholarship round by referring to our Key Dates.
Additional eligibility criteria specific to this project/scholarship:
- The applicant must be able to undertake the project on-campus
Selection Criteria
The project is competitively assessed and awarded. Selection is based on academic merit and suitability to the project as determined by the College.
Additional essential selection criteria specific to this project:
- An honours or Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering or related field
- Outstanding analytical and mathematical skills
- Ability to develop novel computation-based data processing, synthesis and interpretation algorithms
Additional desirable selection criteria specific to this project:
- Experience in software development and algorithm implementation in Matlab and/or Python
- Experience in development of biomedical engineering technology related to intensive care environments
- Authorship of high-quality journal articles
Application process
- Select your project, and check that you meet the eligibility and selection criteria, including citizenship;
- Contact Dr Timothy Gale to discuss your suitability and the project's requirements; and
- In your application:
- Copy and paste the title of the project from this advertisement into your application. If you don’t correctly do this your application may be rejected.
- Submit a signed supervisory support form, a CV including contact details of 2 referees and your project research proposal.
- Apply prior to 1 June 2025.
Full details of the application process can be found under the 'How to apply' section at Research degrees.
Following the closing date applications will be assessed within the College. Applicants should expect to receive notification of the outcome by email by the advertised outcome date.
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