The Scholarship

Full-time, 2 years.

$45,000/year, tax exempt

Students must be in Australia. The candidate will need to be located in Rockhampton or Brisbane.

The scholarship does not cover international student tuition fees

The Topic

Optimizing Battery Usage in Multi-Locomotive Consist Operations to Extend Battery Life in Battery-Electric Rail Systems

The aim of the project is to investigate how battery life can be extended through intelligent distribution of load and energy use in a consist of multiple battery-electric locomotives.

The Project

The projects is supported by Downer EDI Rail Pty Ltd and Central Queensland University (CQU) through their strategic alliance formed as part of the Queensland Train Manufacturing Program and offers a unique opportunity to gain expertise in both rail and renewable energy technologies in an applied industrial context. The study program of two years will be supervised by both researchers from CQU’s Centre for Railway Engineering and industry professionals from Downer.

The Centre for Railway Engineering

The Centre for Railway Engineering (CRE) is an industry-focused research centre hosted by the School of Engineering and Technology (SET) at CQUniversity located in Rockhampton.

The CRE is well known for its research expertise in train dynamics, wagon and bogie dynamics, vehicle/track system dynamics, locomotive traction, simulation, energy studies, instrumentation, product development and experimental testing. Physical resources include a unique laboratory that was purpose designed for full-scale testing of coupler systems, bogies, wagons, locomotives, wheel-rail materials, and civil infrastructure components. These capabilities allow CRE to offer commercial research, theoretical fundamental and applied research, and consulting expertise.

Downer EDI Rail Pty Ltd

Downer EDI Rail Pty Ltd (Downer) is a leading provider of rail and transit systems in Australia, with expertise in delivering whole of life asset management support to our customers. Downer offers the design, engineering, and construction services for both the public and private sectors. Our capability allows us to offer turnkey solutions for complex projects and spans every project phase, from design and manufacture to through-life-support, condition monitoring and data analytics, fleet maintenance, operations and comprehensive overhaul of assets. Downer EDI Rail also has a long history of designing and manufacturing rollingstock across Australia for every major operator and in every state, and has an exciting future as it shifts focus to supporting the rollingstock industry decarbonisation.

Information

For more information contact Prof. Colin Cole, [email protected] or look at our website https://www.cqu.edu.au/research/research-higher-degrees.

Apply

Please send applications with your CV to Prof. Colin Cole, [email protected], by the due date of 17th October 2025. Applicants should be able to start the study program before 28th February 2026.

Finalisation

The successful applicant will be required to enrol in Master of Reseach (CL80) full time.