Automated mine safety tool developed by students

The creation of an automated tool to improve mine safety has won a team of students a trip to Silicon Valley.

The group from University of Melbourne created the tool as part of the university’s extended-form hackathon, AutoHack18.

Designed using Ciena’s Blue Planet software, four teams presented their solutions at the grand final event, each aiming to leverage the potential of automation and make a positive difference in people’s lives.

Judged by experts from the University of Melbourne’s Networked Society Institute, Ciena and nbn co in terms of innovation, benefit to society, and commercial and practical viability, examples of entries included a smart car parking solution, a wearable baby health monitor and an application to support homeless people.

The winning team, Openworks, including Felicity Chun, Kyaw Min Htin, Simone James and Anton Tarasenko, developed Canary Reporting, a tool that automates reporting of near-miss mining incidents between vehicles. As first prize, the team will visit Silicon Valley for five days courtesy of Ciena in April.

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Jacek_Sopotnicki