How the region’s brightest minds will transform the MIW region

They say great minds think alike but what about the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region’s brightest minds?

For the Resources Centre of Excellence (RCoE) it is the brightest minds in resources, research, technology, education and industry that will help shape the future of the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region.

RCoE is about connecting the brightest, evolving, and transformative minds not just within our region but across the globe, with the help of both physical and virtual spaces.

These spaces are providing innovative solutions to the resources sector and leading our Transformation Region.

RCoE General Manager Steven Boxall said many people think the RCoE is just about the mining industry and while the mining and METS sector is important, it is just one area of natural resources they are hoping to collaborate with into the future.

“What I want to talk about is that we are here for all resources, whether that be human resources, renewable and natural resources and our brief is very wide across all industries.

“We are trying to bring the smartest minds from across all industries to solve problems and to innovate and to really showcase the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region as a global leader,” Mr Boxall said.

The state-of-the-art facility is open to anyone and is a collaborative and innovative space, where change makers can start to make their ideas into a future reality.

“In our very early days, we have seen a number of collaborative works happen already and that is going to continue to happen.

“We are going to be known as the place to go if you have products to be tested, if you have a group of people who want to come together and collaborate, to develop and solve industry problems- we are that neutral space.”

Steven said the RCoE has several strategic pillars and where they want to take the MIW region to the world; to create jobs of the future and lead problem solving across multiple industries.  

As the centre continues to grow it will adapt to automation, control rooms and autonomous work and robotics, which is already playing a big role in the resource industry now.

“During the COVID period there is a lot more focus on onshoring manufacturing, I would like to think MIW region have a lot of interesting things being done in the manufacturing space, that can be made and developed and taken to the world.

“We are also keen to look at new and emerging industries and technologies around hydrogen and gas and renewable energy.”

Steven said one of the most significant pieces of work they have rolled out is the Virtual Reality Training System, which has been built from the ground up by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) at the Future Environment Institute.

“It is really going to be able to solve a whole range of industry problems and provide cutting edge training in a safe environment at very low costs.

“Think about people who may work in a port environment, in a sugar mill or in manufacturing, they can come and role play what they might be doing or safety exercises in a control and safe environment.

“I lot of people are talking about Virtual Reality and we are looking at implementing a system that industries across our region can come and use right now,” he said.

The Underground Mine Gallery is another important space for the facility with the potential for the space to continue to evolve to suit a number of industries, outside of the METS sector.

“I think that what we have got to realise, that the facility we have here, there is nothing else like this in size and quality in Australia. It is now about activating, using this facility to the best of our advantage. It is also about helping people get products to market, testing products, training employees.

“I think everyone understands our goal is to lift everything we are doing to a higher level, whether that is training, safety and innovation.

 “Our goal is to use it as our competitive advantage, to really lift things across industry to a new level,” Steven said.

Next month we will dive into how the Resources Centre of Excellence and their upcoming LeadIN event across the MIW region in November 15-18.  You can register for early bird tickets here: https://www.rcoe.com.au/leadin-2021

Resources Centre of Excellence General Manager Steven Boxall believes the RcOE will bring the MIW region to the world.