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Primary Supervisor: Dr Suki Jaiswal

Eye irritation is one of the most reported symptoms from air pollution from bushfire smoke. However, the underlying effects of bushfire smoke on the eye are not fully understood. This project aims to better understand how smoke exposure affects the surface of the eye using a specialised system developed by our research team to measure changes in corneal sensitivity following controlled air pollution exposure

Primary Supervisor: Dr Suki Jaiswal

Firefighters are routinely exposed to smoke, heat, and airborne particles that can affect their eye health. Yet there is currently no accepted questionnaire to measure these symptoms. This project will contribute to the development of a tool to support firefighter health research by evaluating and validating a questionnaire and ensure it reliably measures eye symptoms across firefighter populations.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Jerome Ozkan

Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is the leading cause of evaporative dry eye disease, yet the underlying mechanisms of the disease remain unclear. Emerging evidence suggests that environmental exposures may play an important role in ocular surface health, highlighting the need to better understand their potential contribution to MGD. This project will use lab-based analytical techniques and clinical samples to explore if a novel environmental factor is associated with MGD and examine its potential relevance to disease processes.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Pauline Kang

Myopia is becoming one of the most significant causes of blindness worldwide. Time spent outdoors has been shown to have a protective against myopia in children as well as other physical and mental health benefits and positive effects on academic and learning. This project will investigate if a behavioural psychological intervention incorporating nature prescribing can increase outdoor time in children.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Nicole Carnt

Acanthamoeba keratitis is responsible for only 5% of contact lens related eye infections, but results in 50% of the vision loss. More than 50% of the population attributable risk of infection is due to patients swimming and showering in contact lenses and we have found Acanthamoeba in up to 38% samples from northern NSW lakes, Sydney bathroom sinks and Warragamba Dam. This project will use geospatial models to identify links between these environmental and population risks to inform earlier detection and targeted prevention.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Nicole Carnt

Optometrists see millions of Australians every year making them ideally placed to screen for major diseases such as diabetes. Wide-field retinal photography could be used to identify individuals at risk of diabetes by capturing peripheral microaneurysms, an early visible manifestation of microvascular injury in the prediabetic state before symptoms develop. No published studies however have used wide-field photography to characterise peripheral microaneurysm prevalence in prediabetes or insulin resistance. This project will assist in recruiting participants and conducting screening visits including performing Optos ultra-wide-field retinal photography in PREDATOR

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Nicole Carnt

A popular contact lens modality for slowing myopia is orthokeratology, where large reverse curve rigid contact lenses are worn overnight to reshape the corneal epithelium. However, there have been cases of a rare but severe form of corneal infection (microbial keratitis) in children wearing orthokeratology lenses, with 50% of cases resulting in vision loss. We hypothesise that this is due to microbial biofilms and communities in orthokeratology contact lens cases. In this project you will collect and analyse storage cases of orthokeratology and other contact lens wearers with microbial keratitis and asymptomatic contact lens wearers to determine if storage case microbial communities are involved.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Nicole Carnt

Angiotensin receptor II blockers (ARBs) are widely used as oral drugs to treat hypertension. In the cornea, the ARB Losartan has also been used off label as a compounded eye drop to reduce corneal scarring. Irbesartan is the most effective ARB for lowering blood pressure and has more bioavailability, metabolic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidative pathways than Losartan. Thus, this project will investigate the potential of this repurposing Irbesartan across a range of eye diseases, including glaucoma.

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Ushasree Pattamatta

Glaucoma causes blindness through progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Current treatments only lower intraocular pressure and do not directly protect RGCs, highlighting a need for neuroprotective therapies. Irbesartan, a widely used blood pressure drug, is a promising neuroprotective strategy potentially through blockage of AT1R. This project investigates if irbesartan protects RGCs specifically through AT1R blockade, and which cell types mediate the ROS response.

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Lisa Nivison-Smith

Breakdown of neurovascular coupling is thought to occur in major retinal diseases such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy however further exploration of this hypothesis is limited due to few methods that can measure neurovascular coupling. We recently developed a custom lens attachment that delivers flickering light stimulus and can measure neurovascular coupling. This project will validate this novel technique so it can be used to assess those with retinal degeneration.��

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Lisa Nivison-Smith

Geographic atrophy is a major reason for vision loss in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). While several studies have characterized outer retinal changes in geographic atrophy, the health of the inner retina remains unclear. This is problematic as interventions such as bionic eye implants restore vision by assuming the inner retina is still healthy in AMD. in this project you will applying our novel, high-density OCT image analysis pipeline to a large image dataset of eyes with geographic atrophy to determine if inner retinal health is compromised in this disease

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Juno Kim

The development of immersive technologies relies on better understanding of how we perceive real-world and virtual environments. However, it is still not clear  what specific patterns in sensory information explain optimal perception and action in real-world scenarios. In this project, understanding the physiological constraints in normal humans when engaging in physical activities like walking will be investigated with broad applications in the development of future head-mounted display virtual reality for interactive entertainment and gamification in health.

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Sheela Kumaran

The Mental Wellbeing Resources published by Vision 2020 Australia compiles over 50 mental heath services and supports on available to people with vision loss. While comprehensive, the large number of services make it challenging for practitioners to identify the most appropriate support during routine clinical care. This project will implement and evaluate AEye Navigator, an AI-enabled clinical decision support tool that assists eyecare professionals in identifying who may benefit from mental health support, provide information on available resources, and connect those at risk with appropriate support services.

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Sheela Kumaran

A number of AI-powered applications are being developed to support people with visual impairment and blindness (VI&B). These include conversational AI platforms (e.g. ChatGPT), AI-enhanced magnification tools (e.g. Magnifying Glass + AI), identification apps (e.g. Google Lens), navigation aids (e.g. BlindSquare), and real-time assistance tools (e.g. Seeing AI). Whie these technologies could enhance social inclusion, access to education and employment, autonomy and independence for people with VI&B, evaluation of AI use among people with VI&B is yet to be explored. In this project you will use mixed-methods research design combining surveys with qualitative methods to explore awareness, patterns of use, perceived benefits and barriers and ethicality of AI technologies for people with VI&B

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Lisa Nivison-Smith

Automated tools are increasingly being used in clinical practice to support decision making and improve efficiency. However, concerns remain around safety, transparency, bias, accountability and patient trust. To know which of these concerns to address and how urgently, it is essential to understand what clinicians and patients consider most important for responsible implementation of AI in eye care. In this project you will develop, distribute and analyse surveys for clinicians and patients that demonstrate real-world examples of automated tools that they evaluate for priorities such as safety, bias and accountability. These findings can form recommendations on best-practice for implementing new automated tools in eyecare

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Vinod Maseedupally

The Work Integrated Learning (WIL) program supports Vision Science and Optometry students to develop skills and prepare for their careers. Evaluation of student experiences and outcomes from this program however has yet to be performed. This project will analyse the WIL program to determine its effectiveness as well as areas for improvement.