WOBO thanks Create Digital for their updates in terms of developments within Australia.

The country’s mining industry is beset by workforce shortages. How can we reverse the trend?

Mining engineers are crucial to a renewable energy future. But the industry is plagued by negative perceptions, such as fossil fuel dependency, physically demanding and hazardous working conditions, lack of workforce diversity, and having to live in remote towns that lack sophisticated infrastructure.

This has led to a 63 per cent drop in enrolments in Australian mining engineering courses from 2014 to 2018, according to a report by management consulting firm McKinsey.

AI gives rise to spore-trapping technology

An Australian company has developed an award-winning device to help farmers keep their crops healthier while using pesticides less often.

This engineer has developed an award-winning device to help farmers keep their crops healthier while using pesticides less often.

Five years ago, Lewis Collins was wondering how, living on a PhD scholarship, he could fund an idea to automate spore trapping. This year, his company BioScout will install its 130th unit and make nearly $2 million in revenue as it continues to expand across Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

BioScout units are autonomous stations that track airborne diseases, currently mainly in agricultural settings.

Why zinc-air batteries will power our EV future

Groundbreaking Australian research has shown why zinc-air batteries could replace lithium-ion batteries in a range of applications, including electric vehicles (EVs).

Until now, concerns about their relatively slow charging capabilities and short lifespans have limited the appeal of zinc-air batteries to EV manufacturers, but that is set to change.

After six years of pioneering studies at Edith Cowan University (ECU), chemical engineer and lecturer Dr Muhammad Rizwan Azhar and senior research engineer Dr Yasir Arafat have unlocked ways to improve cathode stability using a carbon-based composite, and metal oxide with oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction properties.

Key learnings on sheltered steel

The last six months have been the driest on record for Perth, leading to a rise in the number of bushfires and putting vast areas of vegetation under high levels of stress.

Meteorologists predict the drying trend will continue throughout South East Queensland for years to come, likely due to climate change.

Dam levels are well below seasonal averages, but, for the thousands of businesses and residents with properties in coastal areas, there’s another serious consequence of the lack of rainfall: damaging salt corrosion.

Green concrete formula stands the test of time

After substituting a record-breaking amount of cement with coal ash in low-carbon concrete, this research team endeavoured to understand its performance over time.

Coal ash accounts for almost one fifth of Australia’s waste stream.

Although considered a by-product – and used in soil stabilisation and fertiliser – around half of the 12–15 million t of coal ash generated from the nation’s coal-fired power stations each year ends up in ash ponds.

How wastewater underpins growth

The population of Ipswich in South East Queensland has grown significantly since the turn of the century and is set to double again over the next 20 years.

The city was the cradle of the state’s coal mining industry but has recently become a manufacturing and technology hub. With a vibrant local economy worth more than $12 billion, it is attracting more new inhabitants than anywhere else in the region.

Underpinning the rapid expansion has been an unprecedented annual investment to improve and expand its drinking water supply and wastewater treatment.

“Most people aren’t aware of the increased activity because nearly all of it is underground,” said David Merrett, Program Delivery Manager at water and wastewater services provider Urban Utilities.

The problem of ocean plastic waste in five graphs

Plastic pollution is not a problem easily solved, but realising the true scope of the issue is a good start.

Around 0.5 per cent of all plastic waste enters the ocean. This may not seem like much, but when the total amount of plastic generated each year totals approximately 350 million t, that means anywhere between one and two million t of plastic ends up polluting the world’s oceans, according to the OECD.

These five graphs explore: the share of total waste emitted by different countries; why smaller rivers play a larger role than initially thought; and why most plastic waste exports are sent to countries in the same region rather than further afield.

Locally made heart failure monitoring device

Detecting forces within the body is not new, but doing so quickly in a non-invasive way could be a gamechanger for the half a million Australians living with heart failure – and those yet to be impacted.

Human bodies are like complex symphonies, with each organ and function orchestrating in harmony to maintain balance. The beat of one’s heart, rhythmic breath and the pulsating flow of blood through arteries and veins keep people alive – and are vital indicators of internal health.

Scientists and medical professionals can interpret these signals to diagnose conditions, monitor health and even predict potential ailments before they arise.

Cutting the carbon costs of construction

As engineering and construction leaders grapple with reducing emissions, a recent research and major transport project shows timely, accurate and verifiable data is key.

Among the sustainability innovations being trialled on Victoria’s M80 Ring Road Completion are an onsite hydrogen generator and a system for calculating embodied carbon in design.

Ross Brookshaw is ACCIONA’s Sustainability Manager on the M80 Ring Road Completion, a major road project connecting Melbourne’s western and northern suburbs.

Inside Sydney Fish Market’s ambitious engineering

Exploring the impact of hydrostatic pressure on the building’s basement level, how the roof’s modular design achieves sustainability outcomes, and why design for manufacture and assembly proved so useful for the engineering team.