Speakers:
Professor Emeritus Doreen Thomas (AM) (The University of Melbourne)
Associate Professor Marcus Brazil (The University of Melbourne)
Summary:
Efficient methods to model and optimise the design of open-cut mines have been developed and used since the 1970s. Designing the infrastructure of an underground mine is a much more difficult problem, but one that has a similar potential for optimisation and strategic planning. In this seminar we give an overview of the work of our team at the University of Melbourne in addressing this problem over a period of more than twenty years. We trace the progression of this work from mathematical foundations based on the properties of Steiner trees, through to the design and implementation of optimisation algorithms for industry supported by consultancies and Linkage grants, to the establishment of a spin-off company MineOptima through which we developed commercial software products which continue to be used in the mining industry to this day.
The aim of this seminar is to give some insight into the process of moving from basic research to the establishment of software tools that meet the needs of industry.
Biographies:
Professor Emeritus Doreen Thomas (AM) was Head of the School of Electrical, Mechanical and Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne. She holds a DPhil (Mathematics), University of Oxford. She was a founding director of a spin-off company MineOptima, through which her mining software has been commercialised. She has been recognised with a national teaching award for her contribution to engineering education and mentorship. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia.
Marcus Brazil is an Associate Professor and Reader in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Melbourne. He was an undergraduate at The University of Melbourne, and received a Ph.D. in Mathematics (in the field of Computational and Geometric Group Theory) from La Trobe University in 1995. Currently, his main research interest is in Optimal Network Design with applications to Telecommunications, Wireless Sensor Networks, VLSI Physical Design, Underground Mining, and Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles. He also combines this with more theoretical work, particularly in the area of Steiner Trees. His research and consultancy work in optimisation for underground mine design has been particularly successful, having received strong support from a number of industry bodies such as BHP Billiton, Newmont Australia and Rand Mining. He was also a founder and director of the company MineOptima.