Current projects

Expected results:

This project has expected outcomes at both an organisational and individual level. By evaluating the standard care model as well as alternative treatment pathways, optimisation of treatment allocation can be achieved. This will lead to greater health outcomes for the individual with subsequent individual health and workplace benefits.

1. Expected individual outcomes include reduced weight; improved physical and mental wellbeing; and increased knowledge and skills in health and wellbeing. By facilitating weight loss, this research also has potential to reduce CVD risk factors which have recently become a focus of Order 43 medical assessments. Hence, this research goes beyond a simple obesity intervention and aims to improve health outcomes widely. Improved wellbeing and investment in employee wellness can have expected returns for the organisation. By evaluating and refining how employees have access to health care, remedies to obstacles

Expected results:

At the end of the project, an expected benefit is to prove the viability of current NIR sensors as a viable option for use within Australian coal mines for rapid stone dust compliance testing.

1. The outcome of this trial will enable the future development of a handheld sensor for Australian coal mines. The next stage of research and development beyond this project will be to design the unit into an intrinsically safe prototype.
2. Additionally, it will provide the resource industry with further research results into portable and micro spectrometers and their increasing viability for specified applications, such as active coal quality monitoring, gas analysis and other specific spectral sensing applications within the mining industry.

Expected results:

By the end of the project, we aim to have achieved the following:

1. Developed and refined a novel video-based interactive hazard recognition training program for major shutdown workers, which can potentially be delivered online.
2. Evaluated the effectiveness of the program, as well as usability and other aspects of user experience.

Based on the success of our prior work developing and evaluating comparable training programs for drivers’ hazard perception skill using similar evidence-based methods, our expectation is that the novel training program will be found to be effective. Assuming that this is the case, then the videos that comprise the training package could be made available to all coal mining companies and shutdown service providers in Australia to incorporate into their corporate training regimes with no licensing or royalty fees.

Expected results:

1. Establishment/Know-how. By the end of this project the aim is to fully establish this technology in accordance with the Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) laid by the Australian Government: Science & Technology. As a result, a validated pre-commercial prototype design is anticipated with alerts to signal breaches of VDVs.
2. Milestone Assessments/Communications. In addition to updates to Coal Services, development milestones will be verified by the relevant communities through journal articles and conference proceedings, e.g. the Mining Industry Health & Safety Conferences.
3. Tangible Outcomes. The delivery of 5 functional units equipped with inertial sensors for the effective delivery of descriptive vibration measurements is anticipated. The information will be as specified by the relevant standards, i.e. in accordance with the Wk and Wd weightings (ISO2631.1) and the vibration dose value (AS 2670.1). Moreover, the system will be designed to adhere to intrinsically safe standards as specified by AS/NZS 60079.

Expected results:

1. Define the necessary features of a low-cost sensor (LCS) monitoring system to be implemented on an open-cut mine site in the Upper Hunter;
2. Increase the coverage of dust emissions measurement to a greater number of locations and activities in real-time, significantly enhancing and improving the existing practice of relying on human observation and measurements from a few boundary monitors e.g. a sensor could be placed on a haul truck to monitor the dust and inform the operator; and
3. Demonstrate that a real-time measurement system that is much cheaper compared to standard reference methods, complements existing regulatory dust measurement, improves effectiveness of mitigation and promotes extension of tenure.

Overall, the pathway from building a prototype LCS unit and array, advancing to a pilot scale trial and implementing in practice in an industrial full-scale field-testing environment is relatively clear. The expected outcomes are three-fold and include:

• Reducing exposure to protect coal mining personnel,
• Reducing downtime due to enforced ceasing of operations and
• Decreasing impact on the surrounding mining communities and the environment.

Expected results:

This study will provide evidence on the current practices and policies that facilitate (or undermine) resilience and positive mental health in the coal mining industry. It will provide information on the factors that support resilience at work as well as initiatives that been trialled, how these have been perceived by employees and what outcomes have been achieved. By the end of the project, we expect to:

1. Have comprehensive evidence on individual resilience in the NSW coal mining industry and the organisational factors that contribute to resilience and positive mental health in coal mining as well as those that contribute to psychological distress.
2. Understand the impact of organisational, workplace and personal support factors on resilience and positive mental health in coal mining. This valuable information will allow industry to identify which organisational and workplace programs will promote mental health.
3. Have developed a mental health promotion model which identifies policies and practices that support resilience in mining. This will inform the implementation of appropriate programs with a shift from an ad-hoc approach to the engagement of key stakeholders in the development of a well-evidenced, industry-wide approach to the promotion of resilience and positive mental health.

Expected results:

1. Collected at least 500 chest x-rays with different categories of positive ILOs.
2. Evaluated our automated pneumoconiosis detection tool’s sensitivity and specificity using these additional data. Made necessary modification to the design of the tool, if needed.
3. Developed, trained, and evaluated an automated pneumoconiosis classification tool using the additionally collected data and synthetic images learnt from the real X-ray image data. Such a tool is able to predict an ILO Classification System based category of severity of pneumoconiosis, and, possibly, the correct shape and size of parenchymal opacities that are main signs of pneumoconiosis in chest x-rays.
4. Developed a user-friendly front end to the detection and classification tools and delivered the software to CSH. This pilot software is used retrospectively on 5% of images routinely collected by CSH and evaluated against expert radiologists’ examination results. The feedback from the pilot study will be used to further improve functionality and performance of our automated tools

Expected results:

1. Realisation of diesel-free vehicles for mining occupations. This will be a low speed battery powered vehicle that is explosion protected and designed for the important task of transporting both personnel and materials in underground coal mines.
2. A reference of pioneer vehicle that can be referred to establish other mining vehicles or mobile machines that range from low to high power requirements. Likewise, a standard evaluation procedures for all high energy density battery chemistries for applications in underground coal mining will be available.
3. A wireless charging technology that will be highly versatile in mining occupations since the evolution of electric-powered machinery in underground mines has become ever-increasing to meet the growing emissions, health and energy efficiency concerns.