PHSS2000 Group Industry Projects

Applications are now OPEN for Summer Semester 2021/2022.

You have the option of finding your own practical experience, or you can undertake a group industry project with one of our leading HASS industry partners. You will be working directly with the industry partner on unique projects that respond to a current and pressing need. Most projects require a small group of HASS students from a variety of disciplines with a range of skills to maximise project outcomes.

In this video, a PHSS2000 student studying Archaeology and an industry partner from the Queensland Museum, share their experiences working together on a Group Industry Project in Summer Semester 2020:

Further examples of past projects can be seen in our Industry Projects Archive. Note industry partners and projects will change every semester. Partners and projects are not confirmed until the course starts.

Once you have submitted your Expression of Interest and your application has been accepted, the Course Coordinator will be in contact asking you to identify the skills you have and wish to develop, your study areas and your interests. You will also be asked to identify your top three projects. The course team endeaver to allocate all students to one of their top three projects. An aim of this course is to help you identify how your skills can be applied in ways you may not have anticipated.

Once you have an idea of which practical experience you wish to undertake, whether it be an industry project, or another eligible experience as listed on the PHSS2000 webpage, then you can apply for the course by completing the Expression of Interest below.

Complete the PHSS2000 Expression Of Interest

Please see below the projects available in Summer 2021/2022.

More projects are coming soon. We recommend you check the webpage regularly. All students who indicate they wish to take part in a group industry project in the EOI will be contacted once all projects are finalised. Students will be asked to list their top three projects.

Note: The projects are subject to change.

Developing educational materials for a university (Tallinn University)

Tallinn University, one of three leading universities in Estonia, seeks a group of students to prepare practical study materials for the master’s programme in Communication Management. As a team, you will conduct fieldwork from an ethnographic perspective, placing emphasis on language and culture as key components in order to better understand Intercultural Communication, one of the key professional skills of the 21st Century. By immersing yourself in aspects of the daily cultural lives of people, you will collect and analyse data as well as produce educational material in the form of a portfolio or a video.

Writing funding applications (Modern Language Teachers’ Association of QLD Inc.)

As a part of this project, you will have a great opportunity to be involved in writing funding applications to cover the expenses of the website redevelopment with the aim to provide greater support for languages teachers in schools. With much learning occurring online as a result of COVID-related lockdowns, there is a need to provide more support, resources and opportunities for networking. A more efficient website with greater capacity would enable the storage of professional development recordings teachers could access, and early career teachers mentoring materials.

Conference planning (Modern Language Teachers’ Association of QLD Inc.)

The Modern Language Teachers’ Association of QLD Inc. (MLTAQ) will be holding its biennial conference in 2022. Normally held face-to-face, it may need to occur online or in a blended format, given the COVID epidemic. The conference will attract hundreds of teachers of languages in QLD schools and interstate. It is an opportunity for professional learning and networking, and discussion of critical and current issues related to the teaching of languages. Being involved in this project, you will have the chance to influence the direction of the conference programs and organise key aspects of the events such as the venue, speakers, online presentations, promotion, etc.

Parliamentary committees - stakeholder survey (Queensland Parliamentary Service)

Parliamentary committees offer a channel for engagement between the Parliament and the people it represents, on all legislative proposals and on particular issues. To enhance community engagement with Parliamentary committees, the Committee Office intends to survey community, industry, academic and other stakeholders to inform recommendations as to how engagement can be improved. Working with the Committee Office team you will be involved in researching and developing recommendations as to survey design and approach, including a survey for identified populations.

Digital curation and stakeholder survey (Healthy Land and Water)

Healthy Land and Water (HLW), an independent organisation dedicated to improving and protecting South-East Queensland’s environment, holds a wealth of knowledge and information for the management of natural resources. The ability to quickly integrate and provide information that could assist stakeholders is one of the key aspects for HLW. This project enables you to contribute to the improvement of knowledge management for HLW. Your team will be involved with stakeholder engagement and the development of a searchable platform that allows quick inventory of resources, links to related works and presents the information easily.

Video content creation and process systemisation (Plenitude Wealth)

In collaboration with Plenitude Wealth, a wealth management firm located in Brisbane, your project team will be working on the development of a Content Creation System. Working on this project, you will be involved in the creation of video footage to be published on YouTube and other social media platforms including subtitles and an intro/outro sequence. You will also be involved in process systemisation using Asana project management tool.

Australian-Chinese interactions within legal practices (Holding Redlich)

Holding Redlich is a leading national commercial law firm. The company’s China Practice, headed by Dr Carl Hinze, specialises in cross-border corporate and commercial transactions, foreign investment and international arbitration. This project will allow you to experience what it is like working with Holding Redlich’s China Practice. You will witness and participate in conveying western legal concepts and processes to Chinese clients, who often speak their own language/dialect and have a different mindset when it comes to doing business. If you are passionate about cross-border transactions and would like to have a cross-cultural experience, this project may be for you. The project will require strong Chinese language skills and a willingness to learn and understand cross-cultural and comparative cultural business.

Understanding loneliness and social isolation in our community (UnitingCare)

UnitingCare is a not for profit organisation that delivers a wide variety of health, aged care and community programs across Queensland and the Northern Territory. The Family & Disability Services stream of UnitingCare is currently running a pilot program designed to address the needs of people experiencing loneliness and social isolation. Loneliness has received increasing attention since the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic but it predates the pandemic. Current debates feature overlapping concepts and different disciplinary perspectives, and relatively few interventions to address loneliness have been evaluated. To support the pilot already underway at UnitingCare, and to identify future research and evaluation opportunities on this topic, UnitingCare wishes to increase its understanding of current concepts, approaches and interventions for addressing loneliness and social isolation. This project will involve identification of current/relevant research and evidence on the topic of loneliness and the production of an Annotated Bibliography to inform UnitingCare’s next steps.

Learning and Development internship (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) is the nations’ largest national broadcaster and the independent source of Australian conversations, culture and stories. In collaboration with the Learning and Development Team at the ABC, this project provides you with a great opportunity to contribute to diversity and inclusion within the organisation. Working on this project, you will be responsible for an environmental scan to explore and identify the best practices used by other organisations. You will also be involved in data analysis and report writing identifying the most suitable practices to attract people who will bring a diverse perspective to the organisation.

Improving safety and recovery for women and children impacted by domestic and family violence (DFV) (UnitingCare)

UnitingCare is a not for profit organisation that delivers a wide variety of health, aged care and community programs across Queensland and the Northern Territory. The Family & Disability Services stream of UnitingCare has identified a need to better support the safety and recovery of women and their children impacted by DFV, whilst their partners or ex-partners are participating in a Men’s Behaviour Change program (MBCPs). UnitingCare is a leading provider of MBCPs, which are regarded as an important violence prevention activity but which have a relatively underdeveloped evidence base. UnitingCare recently completed a longitudinal evaluation of its Men Choosing Change (MCC) program, which found that there was insufficient scope within the current model to support women and children when their partner/ex-partner/father was participating in the MCC program. This project would involve a maximum of three students working collaboratively on an Annotative Bibliography to identify relevant research on this topic. The Annotative Bibliography would help support UnitingCare’s further research in this area and will potentially assist with obtaining funding.

An experimental test of cyber threats (UQ, School of Social Science)

This project seeks to advance our understanding of cyber threats and improve methods of cybercrime prevention. In this project, you will gain real world crime prevention experience by assisting in conducting a randomised control experiment, of approximately 150 participants, which seeks to test which online cues nudge cyber threat recognition and reporting. You will assist in recruitment and lab work that uses eye tracking, skin conductance, and emotional response software to examine whether people are able to recognise cyber threats (such as phishing emails), the emotional and stress response exhibited when people recognise a cyber threat, and how people action perceived threats.

Teaching adolescents writing in today’s classrooms (Brisbane School of Distance Education)

This project seeks students with an educational and research background to review educational research into teaching writing to adolescents, examine the affordances and constraints of new technologies in this space, review research on the impact of these new technologies on writing, and offer implications for practice – how high school teachers can move beyond theorising adolescent online literacies to reimagine their adolescent learner and situate the teaching of writing within their multiliteracies world.

Blogging for global technology company (Voyage Control)

Voyage Control is a technology company that supports clients globally with optimising their logistics activities in several key industries – construction, events, facilities management and ports. This project provides you with a great opportunity to apply your skills and knowledge to real business tasks and develop work experience. As a part of a team, you will assist with research and social media content creation to help to deliver against key marketing and research tasks for the business.

Communicating and connecting – behind the scenes of a community broadcaster (4MBS Classic FM)

4MBS Classic FM is “more than a radio station”, which produces professional events, including ‘The 4MBS Brisbane Shakespeare Festival’, the ‘4MBS Festival of Classics’, ‘an announcer Summer School’, and regular concerts in their studio and across Brisbane. On air 24/7 with fine music, this award-winning station could not operate without the assistance of their 300+ volunteers. Working on this project, you will assist in the development and production of a marketing and communications suite of content to promote the activities of 4MBS Classic FM and associated stations – MBS Light and Silver Memories. You will become familiar with the current branding and strategy of the stations, and will research potential opportunities for strengthening and broadening their audience, together with opportunities for cross collaboration with external stakeholders.

Promotion campaign for innovative treadmill facility for studies in movement control (UQ, School of Biomedical Sciences)

In 2021, we (Dick and Tucker et al.) established a state-of-the-art treadmill facility at UQ that enables us to collect synchronous human motion, muscle activation, muscle mechanics and force data in children and adults, in health and disease. We seek a group of students to help us with our communication and collaboration strategy. Students will be asked to: design logos and power point slides; develop a series of pamphlets and/or short videos that provide information about the facility; and work with us to organise a one-day integrated workshop where we can demonstrate the use of our facility and invite innovative ideas for future uses.