Hi, you do not mention if you're in Australia or somewhere else. If you have Australian PR or citizenship you can apply to do a PhD and get an APA. Then if you work as well you will get funds to get through. If you're an international student then you need funds for the fees, and most students work the full 20 hours permitted per week to get funds for living costs.

Remember, that scholarship applications should be lodged in september each year.

As far as what to research that is just such a big question. You can do whatever you like as long as it is current and is of value. Normally a good way to find a topic is to research using the IEEE jourmals for the last year and find a paper that talks about possible future work. This should provide a direction that your research can take.

Does this help? Let me know.

regards, mark