New ARC training centre targets data as the future of asset maintenance
by Water Source
The Australian Research Council (ARC) has announced the start of a new Industrial Transformation Training Centre to help the resource sector better harness data for asset management.
ARC Training Centre for Transforming Maintenance through Data Science Director and Curtin University Professor Andrew Rohl said the goal of the centre is to improve productivity and asset reliability for the nation’s resource sector.
“Maintenance management practice have changed little in the last 20 years and are ripe for a digital overhaul that will bring developments in computational methods, statistics, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence to determine how, when and why maintenance is constructed,” Rohl said.
“The new centre will enable the development and adoption of new practices to improve productivity and asset reliability for industry and to foster a new maintenance technology service for national and international markets.”
The new centre will be run in partnership with several other Australian institutions, including Curtin University, University of Western Australia (UWA), CSIRO and University of Adelaide. Other industry partners include Alcoa, BHP, Roy Hill, CORE Innovation Hub and the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia.
UWA Professor Michael Small, CSIRO-UWA Chair of Complex Engineering Systems, said effectively using data to improve systems, develop new technologies and transform the way asset maintenance is carried out across the resource sector is critical.
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham officially launched planning for the centre last week. He said this is an opportunity to explore and equip asset managers with the tools and information they need.
“The ARC Training Centre for Transforming Maintenance through Data Science will support vital research training to equip the next generation of engineers with skills necessary to meet the future demands of the maintenance sector,” Birmingham said.
“That has incredible practical application, but then enormous productivity and financial benefits for those end users.”
Curtin University has been awarded $3.9 million in ARC funding to establish the new training centre.
