Bringing innovators together to solve industry challenges

Hackathon delivers a clever idea for safety

Unearthed's fourth Perth based mining hackathon in May 2017 brought together over 90 participants for a weekend of innovation and ingenuity. Teams of entrepreneurs, software developers, engineers and designers worked together to solve industry challenges.

Along with the other sponsors, we had the opportunity to challenge the teams to create innovative solutions to real-world resource sectors problems. After an intense weekend of hard work and little sleep, 18 teams pitched their solutions in front of the esteemed judging panel and fellow participants.

Our Chief Technology Officer, Ricus Grimbeek said Unearthed provides a great opportunity to tap into creative minds and explore new ideas that can help optimise our business.

"Technology will drive the next wave of safety and productivity improvements," he said.

First prize was taken out by a group of engineers from Murdoch University who worked on a challenge we posed about safety locks at Worsley Alumina's refinery in Collie, Western Australia. Team Murdoch developed a new safety isolation smart lock that uses RFID (radio –frequency identification) to enhance the safety of all people involved.

Brice Gower, who led the Murdoch University team, said the Hackathon allows students to work closely and receive mentorship from industry insiders and to potentially, deliver long-term value to the resources industry.  

"We are aiming to use the Hackathon prize money on making this solution for South32 a reality. We will set up an innovation incubator to begin to prototype the solution and eventually would like to use the idea to launch a Lean Startup", Brice said.    

We are pleased to be a partner of this event, collaborating with great innovators to transform the way we work.